1 files changed, 30271 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/14517.txt b/14517.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..767c65c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14517.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,30271 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Montcalm and Wolfe, by Francis Parkman #7
+in the series France and England in North America.
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
+no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
+under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
+eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+Title: Montcalm and Wolfe
+Part 7 of the France and England in North America series
+Author: Francis Parkman
+Release Date: December 29, 2004 [EBook #14517]
+Updated: May 24, 2017.
+Character set encoding: utf-8
+
+Produced by Curtis Weyant, Graeme Mackreth, the PG Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team, and Robert Homa.
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MONTCALM AND WOLFE ***
+
+
+Montcalm and Wolfe
+
+by Francis Parkman
+
+France and England
+in North America
+
+A Series
+of Historical Narratives
+
+Part Seventh.
+
+BOSTON:
+LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
+1885.
+
+
+Copyright, 1884,
+by Francis Parkman.
+
+
+University Press:
+John Wilson and Son, Cambridge.
+
+
+
+Montcalm and Wolfe
+Vol. 1.
+
+by Francis Parkman
+
+sixth edition.
+
+BOSTON:
+LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
+1885.
+
+
+Copyright, 1884,
+by Francis Parkman.
+
+
+
+To
+
+Harvard College,
+
+the alma mater under whose influence the
+purpose of writing it was conceived,
+
+this book
+
+is affectionately inscribed.
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+The names on the titlepage stand as representative of the two nations
+whose final contest for the control of North America is the subject of
+the book.
+
+A very large amount of unpublished material has been used in its
+preparation, consisting for the most part of documents copied from the
+archives and libraries of France and England, especially from the
+Archives de la Marine et des Colonies, the Archives de la Guerre, and
+the Archives Nationales at Paris, and the Public Record Office and the
+British Museum at London. The papers copied for the present work in
+France alone exceed six thousand folio pages of manuscript, additional
+and supplementary to the "Paris Documents" procured for the State of New
+York under the agency of Mr. Brodhead. The copies made in England form
+ten volumes, besides many English documents consulted in the original
+manuscript. Great numbers of autograph letters, diaries, and other
+writings of persons engaged in the war have also been examined on this
+side of the Atlantic.
+
+I owe to the kindness of the present Marquis de Montcalm the permission
+to copy all the letters written by his ancestor, General Montcalm, when
+in America, to members of his family in France. General Montcalm, from
+his first arrival in Canada to a few days before his death, also carried
+on an active correspondence with one of his chief officers, Bourlamaque,
+with whom he was on terms of intimacy. These autograph letters are now
+preserved in a private collection. I have examined them, and obtained
+copies of the whole. They form an interesting complement to the official
+correspondence of the writer, and throw the most curious side-lights on
+the persons and events of the time.
+
+Besides manuscripts, the printed matter in the form of books, pamphlets,
+contemporary newspapers, and other publications relating to the American
+part of the Seven Years' War, is varied and abundant; and I believe I
+may safely say that nothing in it of much consequence has escaped me.
+The liberality of some of the older States of the Union, especially New
+York and Pennsylvania, in printing the voluminous records of their
+colonial history, has saved me a deal of tedious labor.
+
+The whole of this published and unpublished mass of evidence has been
+read and collated with extreme care, and more than common pains have
+been taken to secure accuracy of statement. The study of books and
+papers, however, could not alone answer the purpose. The plan of the
+work was formed in early youth; and though various causes have long
+delayed its execution, it has always been kept in view. Meanwhile, I
+have visited and examined every spot where events of any importance in
+connection with the contest took place, and have observed with attention
+such scenes and persons as might help to illustrate those I meant to
+describe. In short, the subject has been studied as much from life and
+in the open air as at the library table.
+
+These two volumes are a departure from chronological sequence. The
+period between 1700 and 1748 has been passed over for a time. When this
+gap is filled, the series of "France and England in North America" will
+form a continuous history of the French occupation of the continent.
+
+The portrait in the first volume is from a photograph of the original
+picture in possession of the Marquis de Montcalm; that in the second,
+from a photograph of the original picture in possession of Admiral
+Warde.
+
+Boston, Sept. 16, 1884.
+
+Contents
+
+Montcalm and Wolfe: Volume 1
+
+PREFACE.
+
+AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION.
+
+CHAPTER I. 1745-1755.
+
+THE COMBATANTS.
+
+England in the Eighteenth Century • Her Political and Social Aspects •
+Her Military Condition • France • Her Power and Importance • Signs of
+Decay • The Court, the Nobles, the Clergy, the People • The King and
+Pompadour • The Philosophers • Germany • Prussia • Frederic II • Russia
+• State of Europe • War of the Austrian Succession • American Colonies
+of France and England • Contrasted Systems and their Results • Canada •
+Its Strong Military Position • French Claims to the Continent • British
+Colonies • New England • Virginia • Pennsylvania • New York •
+Jealousies, Divisions, Internal Disputes, Military Weakness.
+
+CHAPTER II. 1749-1752
+
+CÉLORON DE BIENVILLE.
+
+La Galissonière • English Encroachment • Mission of Céloron • The Great
+West • Its European Claimants • Its Indian Population • English
+Fur-Traders • Céloron on the Alleghany • His Reception • His
+Difficulties • Descent of the Ohio • Covert Hostility • Ascent of the
+Miami • La Demoiselle • Dark Prospects for France • Christopher Gist •
+George Croghan • Their Western Mission • Pickawillany • English
+Ascendency • English Dissension and Rivalry • The Key of the Great West.
+
+
+CHAPTER III. 1749-1753.
+
+CONFLICT FOR THE WEST.
+
+The Five Nations • Caughnawaga • Abbé Piquet • His Schemes • His Journey
+• Fort Frontenac • Toronto • Niagara • Oswego • Success of Piquet •
+Detroit • La Jonquière • His Intrigues • His Trials • His Death •
+English Intrigues • Critical State of the West • Pickawillany Destroyed
+• Duquesne • His Grand Enterprise.
+
+CHAPTER IV. 1710-1754.
+
+CONFLICT FOR ACADIA.
+
+Acadia ceded to England • Acadians swear Fidelity • Halifax founded •
+French Intrigue • Acadian Priests • Mildness of English Rule • Covert
+Hostility of Acadians • The New Oath • Treachery of Versailles • Indians
+incited to War • Clerical Agents of Revolt • Abbé Le Loutre • Acadians
+impelled to emigrate • Misery of the Emigrants • Humanity of Cornwallis
+and Hopson • Fanaticism and Violence of Le Loutre • Capture of the "St.
+François" • The English at Beaubassin • Le Loutre drives out the
+Inhabitants • Murder of Howe • Beauséjour • Insolence of Le Loutre • His
+Harshness to the Acadians • The Boundary Commission • Its Failure •
+Approaching War
+
+CHAPTER V. 1753, 1754.
+
+WASHINGTON.
+
+The French occupy the Sources of the Ohio • Their Sufferings • Fort Le
+Bœuf • Legardeur de Saint-Pierre • Mission of Washington • Robert
+Dinwiddie • He opposes the French • His Dispute with the Burgesses • His
+Energy • His Appeals for Help • Fort Duquesne • Death of Jumonville •
+Washington at the Great Meadows • Coulon de Villiers • Fort Necessity.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. 1754, 1755.
+
+THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE.
+
+Troubles of Dinwiddie • Gathering of the Burgesses • Virginian Society •
+Refractory Legislators • The Quaker Assembly • It refuses to resist the
+French • Apathy of New York • Shirley and the General Court of
+Massachusetts • Short-sighted Policy • Attitude of Royal Governors •
+Indian Allies waver • Convention at Albany • Scheme of Union • It fails
+• Dinwiddie and Glen • Dinwiddie calls on England for Help • The Duke of
+Newcastle • Weakness of the British Cabinet • Attitude of France •
+Mutual Dissimulation • Both Powers send Troops to America • Collision •
+Capture of the "Alcide" and the "Lis."
+
+CHAPTER VII. 1755.
+
+BRADDOCK.
+
+Arrival of Braddock • His Character • Council at Alexandria • Plan of
+the Campaign • Apathy of the Colonists • Rage of Braddock • Franklin •
+Fort Cumberland • Composition of the Army • Offended Friends • The March
+• The French Fort • Savage Allies • The Captive • Beaujeu • He goes to
+meet the English • Passage of the Monongahela • The Surprise • The
+Battle • Rout of Braddock • His Death • Indian Ferocity • Reception of
+the Ill News • Weakness of Dunbar • The Frontier abandoned.
+
+CHAPTER VIII. 1755-1763.
+
+REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS.
+
+State of Acadia • Threatened Invasion • Peril of the English • Their
+Plans • French Forts to be attacked • Beauséjour and its Occupants •
+French Treatment of the Acadians • John Winslow • Siege and Capture of
+Beauséjour • Attitude of Acadians • Influence of their Priests • They
+Refuse the Oath of Allegiance • Their Condition and Character •
+Pretended Neutrals • Moderation of English Authorities • The Acadians
+persist in their Refusal • Enemies or Subjects? • Choice of the Acadians
+• The Consequence • Their Removal determined • Winslow at Grand Pré •
+Conference with Murray • Summons to the Inhabitants • Their Seizure •
+Their Embarkation • Their Fate • Their Treatment in Canada •
+Misapprehension concerning them.
+
+CHAPTER IX. 1755.
+
+DIESKAU.
+
+Expedition against Crown Point • William Johnson • Vaudreuil • Dieskau •
+Johnson and the Indians • The Provincial Army • Doubts and Delays •
+March to Lake George • Sunday in Camp • Advance of Dieskau • He changes
+Plan • Marches against Johnson • Ambush • Rout of Provincials • Battle
+of Lake George • Rout of the French • Rage of the Mohawks • Peril of
+Dieskau • Inaction of Johnson • The Homeward March • Laurels of Victory.
+
+CHAPTER X. 1755, 1756.
+
+SHIRLEY. BORDER WAR.
+
+The Niagara Campaign • Albany • March to Oswego • Difficulties • The
+Expedition abandoned • Shirley and Johnson • Results of the Campaign •
+The Scourge of the Border • Trials of Washington • Misery of the
+Settlers • Horror of their Situation • Philadelphia and the Quakers •
+Disputes with the Penns • Democracy and Feudalism • Pennsylvanian
+Population • Appeals from the Frontier • Quarrel of Governor and
+Assembly • Help refused • Desperation of the Borderers • Fire and
+Slaughter • The Assembly alarmed • They pass a mock Militia Law • They
+are forced to yield.
+
+CHAPTER XI. 1712-1756.
+
+MONTCALM.
+
+War declared • State of Europe • Pompadour and Maria Theresa •
+Infatuation of the French Court • The European War • Montcalm to command
+in America • His early Life • An intractable Pupil • His Marriage • His
+Family • His Campaigns • Preparation for America • His Associates •
+Lévis, Bourlamaque, Bougainville • Embarkation • The Voyage • Arrival •
+Vaudreuil • Forces of Canada • Troops of the Line, Colony Troops,
+Militia, Indians • The Military Situation • Capture of Fort Bull •
+Montcalm at Ticonderoga.
+
+CHAPTER XII. 1756.
+
+OSWEGO.
+
+The new Campaign • Untimely Change of Commanders • Eclipse of Shirley •
+Earl of Loudon • Muster of Provincials • New England Levies • Winslow at
+Lake George • Johnson and the Five Nations • Bradstreet and his Boatmen
+• Fight on the Onondaga • Pestilence at Oswego • Loudon and the
+Provincials • New England Camps • Army Chaplains • A sudden Blow •
+Montcalm attacks Oswego • Its Fall.
+
+CHAPTER XIII. 1756, 1757.
+
+PARTISAN WAR.
+
+Failure of Shirley's Plan • Causes • Loudon and Shirley • Close of the
+Campaign • The Western Border • Armstrong destroys Kittanning • The
+Scouts of Lake George • War Parties from Ticonderoga • Robert Rogers •
+The Rangers • Their Hardihood and Daring • Disputes as to Quarters of
+Troops • Expedition of Rogers • A Desperate Bush-fight • Enterprise of
+Vaudreuil • Rigaud attacks Fort William Henry.
+
+CHAPTER XIV. 1757.
+
+MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL.
+
+The Seat of War • Social Life at Montreal • Familiar Correspondence of
+Montcalm • His Employments • His Impressions of Canada • His
+Hospitalities • Misunderstandings with the Governor • Character of
+Vaudreuil • His Accusations • Frenchmen and Canadians • Foibles of
+Montcalm • The opening Campaign • Doubts and Suspense • London's Plan •
+His Character • Fatal Delays • Abortive Attempt against Louisbourg •
+Disaster to the British Fleet.
+
+
+CHAPTER XV. 1757.
+
+FORT WILLIAM HENRY.
+
+Another Blow • The War-song • The Army at Ticonderoga • Indian Allies •
+The War-feast • Treatment of Prisoners • Cannibalism • Surprise and
+Slaughter • The War Council • March of Lévis • The Army embarks • Fort
+William Henry • Nocturnal Scene • Indian Funeral • Advance upon the Fort
+• General Webb • His Difficulties • His Weakness • The Siege begun •
+Conduct of the Indians • The Intercepted Letter • Desperate Position of
+the Besieged • Capitulation • Ferocity of the Indians • Mission of
+Bougainville • Murder of Wounded Men • A Scene of Terror • The Massacre
+• Efforts of Montcalm • The Fort burned.
+
+Contents of Volume II
+
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+It is the nature of great events to obscure the great events that came
+before them. The Seven Years War in Europe is seen but dimly through
+revolutionary convulsions and Napoleonic tempests; and the same contest
+in America is half lost to sight behind the storm-cloud of the War of
+Independence. Few at this day see the momentous issues involved in it,
+or the greatness of the danger that it averted. The strife that armed
+all the civilized world began here. "Such was the complication of
+political interests," says Voltaire, "that a cannon-shot fired in
+America could give the signal that set Europe in a blaze." Not quite. It
+was not a cannon-shot, but a volley from the hunting-pieces of a few
+backwoodsmen, commanded by a Virginian youth, George Washington.
+
+To us of this day, the result of the American part of the war seems a
+foregone conclusion. It was far from being so; and very far from being
+so regarded by our forefathers. The numerical superiority of the British
+colonies was offset by organic weaknesses fatal to vigorous and united
+action. Nor at the outset did they, or the mother-country, aim at
+conquering Canada, but only at pushing back her boundaries. 
+Canada--using the name in its restricted sense--was a position of great
+strength; and even when her dependencies were overcome, she could hold
+her own against forces far superior. Armies could reach her only by
+three routes,--the Lower St. Lawrence on the east, the Upper St.
+Lawrence on the west, and Lake Champlain on the south. The first access
+was guarded by a fortress almost impregnable by nature, and the second
+by a long chain of dangerous rapids; while the third offered a series of
+points easy to defend. During this same war, Frederic of Prussia held
+his ground triumphantly against greater odds, though his kingdom was
+open on all sides to attack.
+
+It was the fatuity of Louis XV. and his Pompadour that made the conquest
+of Canada possible. Had they not broken the traditionary policy of
+France, allied themselves to Austria, her ancient enemy, and plunged
+needlessly into the European war, the whole force of the kingdom would
+have been turned, from the first, to the humbling of England and the
+defence of the French colonies. The French soldiers left dead on
+inglorious Continental battle-fields could have saved Canada, and
+perhaps made good her claim to the vast territories of the West.
+
+But there were other contingencies. The possession of Canada was a
+question of diplomacy as well as of war. If England conquered her, she
+might restore her, as she had lately restored Cape Breton. She had an
+interest in keeping France alive on the American continent. More than
+one clear eye saw, at the middle of the last century, that the
+subjection of Canada would lead to a revolt of the British colonies. So
+long as an active and enterprising enemy threatened their borders, they
+could not break with the mother-country, because they needed her help.
+And if the arms of France had prospered in the other hemisphere; if she
+had gained in Europe or Asia territories with which to buy back what she
+had lost in America, then, in all likelihood, Canada would have passed
+again into her hands.
+
+The most momentous and far-reaching question ever brought to issue on
+this continent was: Shall France remain here, or shall she not? If, by
+diplomacy or war, she had preserved but the half, or less than the half,
+of her American possessions, then a barrier would have been set to the
+spread of the English-speaking races; there would have been no
+Revolutionary War; and for a long time, at least, no independence. It
+was not a question of scanty populations strung along the banks of the
+St. Lawrence; it was--or under a government of any worth it would have
+been--a question of the armies and generals of France. America owes much
+to the imbecility of Louis XV. and the ambitious vanity and personal
+dislikes of his mistress.
+
+The Seven Years War made England what she is. It crippled the commerce
+of her rival, ruined France in two continents, and blighted her as a
+colonial power. It gave England the control of the seas and the mastery
+of North America and India, made her the first of commercial nations,
+and prepared that vast colonial system that has planted new Englands in
+every quarter of the globe. And while it made England what she is, it
+supplied to the United States the indispensable condition of their
+greatness, if not of their national existence.
+
+Before entering on the story of the great contest, we will look at the
+parties to it on both sides of the Atlantic.
+
+
+
+
+Montcalm and Wolfe.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+1745-1755.
+
+THE COMBATANTS.
+
+England in the Eighteenth Century • Her Political and Social Aspects •
+Her Military Condition • France • Her Power and Importance • Signs of
+Decay • The Court, the Nobles, the Clergy, the People • The King and
+Pompadour • The Philosophers • Germany • Prussia • Frederic II • Russia
+• State of Europe • War of the Austrian Succession • American Colonies
+of France and England • Contrasted Systems and their Results • Canada •
+Its Strong Military Position • French Claims to the Continent • British
+Colonies • New England • Virginia • Pennsylvania • New York •
+Jealousies, Divisions, Internal Disputes, Military Weakness.
+
+The latter half of the reign of George II. was one of the most prosaic
+periods in English history. The civil wars and the Restoration had had
+their enthusiasms, religion and liberty on one side, and loyalty on the
+other; but the old fires declined when William III. came to the throne,
+and died to ashes under the House of Hanover. Loyalty lost half its
+inspiration when it lost the tenet of the divine right of kings; and
+nobody could now hold that tenet with any consistency except the
+defeated and despairing Jacobites. Nor had anybody as yet proclaimed the
+rival dogma of the divine right of the people. The reigning monarch held
+his crown neither of God nor of the nation, but of a parliament
+controlled by a ruling class. The Whig aristocracy had done a priceless
+service to English liberty. It was full of political capacity, and by no
+means void of patriotism; but it was only a part of the national life.
+Nor was it at present moved by political emotions in any high sense. It
+had done its great work when it expelled the Stuarts and placed William
+of Orange on the throne; its ascendency was now complete. The Stuarts
+had received their death-blow at Culloden; and nothing was left to the
+dominant party but to dispute on subordinate questions, and contend for
+office among themselves. The Troy squires sulked in their
+country-houses, hunted foxes, and grumbled against the reigning dynasty;
+yet hardly wished to see the nation convulsed by a counter-revolution
+and another return of the Stuarts.
+
+If politics had run to commonplace, so had morals; and so too had
+religion. Despondent writers of the day even complained that British
+courage had died out. There was little sign to the common eye that under
+a dull and languid surface, forces were at work preparing a new life,
+material, moral, and intellectual. As yet, Whitefield and Wesley had not
+wakened the drowsy conscience of the nation, nor the voice of William
+Pitt roused it like a trumpet-peal.
+
+It was the unwashed and unsavory England of Hogarth, Fielding, Smollett,
+and Sterne; of Tom Jones, Squire Western, Lady Bellaston, and Parson
+Adams; of the "Rake's Progress" and "Marriage à la Mode;" of the lords
+and ladies who yet live in the undying gossip of Horace Walpole,
+be-powdered, be-patched, and be-rouged, flirting at masked balls,
+playing cards till daylight, retailing scandal, and exchanging double
+meanings. Beau Nash reigned king over the gaming-tables of Bath; the
+ostrich-plumes of great ladies mingled with the peacock-feathers of
+courtesans in the rotunda at Ranelagh Gardens; and young lords in velvet
+suits and embroidered ruffles played away their patrimony at White's
+Chocolate-House or Arthur's Club. Vice was bolder than to-day, and
+manners more courtly, perhaps, but far more coarse.
+
+The humbler clergy were thought--sometimes with reason--to be no fit
+company for gentlemen, and country parsons drank their ale in the
+squire's kitchen. The passenger-wagon spent the better part of a
+fortnight in creeping from London to York. Travellers carried pistols
+against footpads and mounted highwaymen. Dick Turpin and Jack Sheppard
+were popular heroes. Tyburn counted its victims by scores; and as yet no
+Howard had appeared to reform the inhuman abominations of the prisons.
+
+The middle class, though fast rising in importance, was feebly and
+imperfectly represented in parliament. The boroughs were controlled by
+the nobility and gentry, or by corporations open to influence or
+bribery. Parliamentary corruption had been reduced to a system; and
+offices, sinecures, pensions, and gifts of money were freely used to
+keep ministers in power. The great offices of state were held by men
+sometimes of high ability, but of whom not a few divided their lives
+among politics, cards, wine, horse-racing, and women, till time and the
+gout sent them to the waters of Bath. The dull, pompous, and irascible
+old King had two ruling passions,--money, and his Continental dominions
+of Hanover. His elder son, the Prince of Wales, was a centre of
+opposition to him. His younger son, the Duke of Cumberland, a character
+far more pronounced and vigorous, had won the day at Culloden, and lost
+it at Fontenoy; but whether victor or vanquished, had shown the same
+vehement bull-headed courage, of late a little subdued by fast growing
+corpulency. The Duke of Newcastle, the head of the government, had
+gained power and kept it by his rank and connections, his wealth, his
+county influence, his control of boroughs, and the extraordinary
+assiduity and devotion with which he practised the arts of corruption.
+Henry Fox, grasping, unscrupulous, with powerful talents, a warm friend
+after his fashion, and a most indulgent father; Carteret, with his
+strong, versatile intellect and jovial intrepidity; the two Townshends,
+Mansfield, Halifax, and Chesterfield,--were conspicuous figures in the
+politics of the time. One man towered above them all. Pitt had many
+enemies and many critics. They called him ambitious, audacious,
+arrogant, theatrical, pompous, domineering; but what he has left for
+posterity is a loftiness of soul, undaunted courage, fiery and
+passionate eloquence, proud incorruptibility, domestic virtues rare in
+his day, unbounded faith in the cause for which he stood, and abilities
+which without wealth or strong connections were destined to place him on
+the height of power. The middle class, as yet almost voiceless, looked
+to him as its champion; but he was not the champion of a class. His
+patriotism was as comprehensive as it was haughty and unbending. He
+lived for England, loved her with intense devotion, knew her, believed
+in her, and made her greatness his own; or rather, he was himself
+England incarnate.
+
+The nation was not then in fighting equipment. After the peace of
+Aix-la-Chapelle, the army within the three kingdoms had been reduced to
+about eighteen thousand men. Added to these were the garrisons of
+Minorca and Gibraltar, and six or seven independent companies in the
+American colonies. Of sailors, less than seventeen thousand were left in
+the Royal Navy. Such was the condition of England on the eve of one of
+the most formidable wars in which she was ever engaged.
+
+Her rival across the Channel was drifting slowly and unconsciously
+towards the cataclysm of the Revolution; yet the old monarchy, full of
+the germs of decay, was still imposing and formidable. The House of
+Bourbon held the three thrones of France, Spain, and Naples; and their
+threatened union in a family compact was the terror of European
+diplomacy. At home France was the foremost of the Continental nations;
+and she boasted herself second only to Spain as a colonial power. She
+disputed with England the mastery of India, owned the islands of Bourbon
+and Mauritius, held important possessions in the West Indies, and
+claimed all North America except Mexico and a strip of sea-coast. Her
+navy was powerful, her army numerous, and well appointed; but she lacked
+the great commanders of the last reign. Soubise, Maillebois, Contades,
+Broglie, and Clermont were but weak successors of Condé, Turenne,
+Vendôme, and Villars. Marshal Richelieu was supreme in the arts of
+gallantry, and more famous for conquests of love than of war. The best
+generals of Louis XV. were foreigners. Lowendal sprang from the royal
+house of Denmark; and Saxe, the best of all, was one of the three
+hundred and fifty-four bastards of Augustus the Strong, Elector of
+Saxony and King of Poland. He was now, 1750, dying at Chambord, his iron
+constitution ruined by debaucheries.
+
+The triumph of the Bourbon monarchy was complete. The government had
+become one great machine of centralized administration, with a king for
+its head; though a king who neither could nor would direct it. All
+strife was over between the Crown and the nobles; feudalism was robbed
+of its vitality, and left the mere image of its former self, with
+nothing alive but its abuses, its caste privileges, its exactions, its
+pride and vanity, its power to vex and oppress. In England, the nobility
+were a living part of the nation, and if they had privileges, they paid
+for them by constant service to the state; in France, they had no
+political life, and were separated from the people by sharp lines of
+demarcation. From warrior chiefs, they had changed to courtiers. Those
+of them who could afford it, and many who could not, left their estates
+to the mercy of stewards, and gathered at Versailles to revolve about
+the throne as glittering satellites, paid in pomp, empty distinctions,
+or rich sinecures, for the power they had lost. They ruined their
+vassals to support the extravagance by which they ruined themselves.
+Such as stayed at home were objects of pity and scorn. "Out of your
+Majesty's presence," said one of them, "we are not only wretched, but
+ridiculous."
+
+Versailles was like a vast and gorgeous theatre, where all were actors
+and spectators at once; and all played their parts to perfection. Here
+swarmed by thousands this silken nobility, whose ancestors rode cased in
+iron. Pageant followed pageant. A picture of the time preserves for us
+an evening in the great hall of the Château, where the King, with piles
+of louis d'or before him, sits at a large oval green table, throwing the
+dice, among princes and princesses, dukes and duchesses, ambassadors,
+marshals of France, and a vast throng of courtiers, like an animated bed
+of tulips; for men and women alike wear bright and varied colors. Above
+are the frescos of Le Brun; around are walls of sculptured and inlaid
+marbles, with mirrors that reflect the restless splendors of the scene
+and the blaze of chandeliers, sparkling with crystal pendants. Pomp,
+magnificence, profusion, were a business and a duty at the Court.
+Versailles was a gulf into which the labor of France poured its
+earnings; and it was never full.
+
+Here the graces and charms were a political power. Women had prodigious
+influence, and the two sexes were never more alike. Men not only dressed
+in colors, but they wore patches and carried muffs. The robust qualities
+of the old nobility still lingered among the exiles of the provinces,
+while at Court they had melted into refinements tainted with corruption.
+Yet if the butterflies of Versailles had lost virility, they had not
+lost courage. They fought as gayly as they danced. In the halls which
+they haunted of yore, turned now into a historical picture-gallery, one
+sees them still, on the canvas of Lenfant, Lepaon, or Vernet, facing
+death with careless gallantry, in their small three-cornered hats,
+powdered perukes, embroidered coats, and lace ruffles. Their valets
+served them with ices in the trenches, under the cannon of besieged
+towns. A troop of actors formed part of the army-train of Marshal Saxe.
+At night there was a comedy, a ballet, or a ball, and in the morning a
+battle. Saxe, however, himself a sturdy German, while he recognized
+their fighting value, and knew well how to make the best of it,
+sometimes complained that they were volatile, excitable, and difficult
+to manage.
+
+The weight of the Court, with its pomps, luxuries, and wars, bore on the
+classes least able to support it. The poorest were taxed most; the
+richest not at all. The nobles, in the main, were free from imposts. The
+clergy, who had vast possessions, were wholly free, though they
+consented to make voluntary gifts to the Crown; and when, in a time of
+emergency, the minister Machault required them, in common with all
+others hitherto exempt, to contribute a twentieth of their revenues to
+the charges of government, they passionately refused, declaring that
+they would obey God rather than the King. The cultivators of the soil
+were ground to the earth by a threefold extortion,--the seigniorial
+dues, the tithes of the Church, and the multiplied exactions of the
+Crown, enforced with merciless rigor by the farmers of the revenue, who
+enriched themselves by wringing the peasant on the one hand, and
+cheating the King on the other. A few great cities shone with all that
+is most brilliant in society, intellect, and concentrated wealth; while
+the country that paid the costs lay in ignorance and penury, crushed and
+despairing. Of the inhabitants of towns, too, the demands of the
+tax-gatherer were extreme; but here the immense vitality of the French
+people bore up the burden. While agriculture languished, and intolerable
+oppression turned peasants into beggars or desperadoes; while the clergy
+were sapped by corruption, and the nobles enervated by luxury and ruined
+by extravagance, the middle class was growing in thrift and strength.
+Arts and commerce prospered, and the seaports were alive with foreign
+trade. Wealth tended from all sides towards the centre. The King did not
+love his capital; but he and his favorites amused themselves with
+adorning it. Some of the chief embellishments that make Paris what it is
+to-day--the Place de la Concorde, the Champs Élysées, and many of the
+palaces of the Faubourg St. Germain--date from this reign.
+
+One of the vicious conditions of the time was the separation in
+sympathies and interests of the four great classes of the
+nation,--clergy, nobles, burghers, and peasants; and each of these,
+again, divided itself into incoherent fragments. France was an aggregate
+of disjointed parts, held together by a meshwork of arbitrary power,
+itself touched with decay. A disastrous blow was struck at the national
+welfare when the Government of Louis XV. revived the odious persecution
+of the Huguenots. The attempt to scour heresy out of France cost her the
+most industrious and virtuous part of her population, and robbed her of
+those most fit to resist the mocking scepticism and turbid passions that
+burst out like a deluge with the Revolution.
+
+Her manifold ills were summed up in the King. Since the Valois, she had
+had no monarch so worthless. He did not want understanding, still less
+the graces of person. In his youth the people called him the
+"Well-beloved;" but by the middle of the century they so detested him
+that he dared not pass through Paris, lest the mob should execrate him.
+He had not the vigor of the true tyrant; but his langour, his hatred of
+all effort, his profound selfishness, his listless disregard of public
+duty, and his effeminate libertinism, mixed with superstitious devotion,
+made him no less a national curse. Louis XIII. was equally unfit to
+govern; but he gave the reins to the Great Cardinal. Louis XV. abandoned
+them to a frivolous mistress, content that she should rule on condition
+of amusing him. It was a hard task; yet Madame de Pompadour accomplished
+it by methods infamous to him and to her. She gained and long kept the
+power that she coveted: filled the Bastille with her enemies; made and
+unmade ministers; appointed and removed generals. Great questions of
+policy were at the mercy of her caprices. Through her frivolous vanity,
+her personal likes and dislikes, all the great departments of
+government--army, navy, war, foreign affairs, justice, finance--changed
+from hand to hand incessantly, and this at a time of crisis when the
+kingdom needed the steadiest and surest guidance. Few of the officers of
+state, except, perhaps, D'Argenson, could venture to disregard her. She
+turned out Orry, the comptroller-general, put her favorite, Machault,
+into his place, then made him keeper of the seals, and at last minister
+of marine. The Marquis de Puysieux, in the ministry of foreign affairs,
+and the Comte de St.-Florentin, charged with the affairs of the clergy,
+took their cue from her. The King stinted her in nothing. First and
+last, she is reckoned to have cost him thirty-six million
+francs,--answering now to more than as many dollars.
+
+The prestige of the monarchy was declining with the ideas that had given
+it life and strength. A growing disrespect for king, ministry, and
+clergy was beginning to prepare the catastrophe that was still some
+forty years in the future. While the valleys and low places of the
+kingdom were dark with misery and squalor, its heights were bright with
+a gay society,--elegant, fastidious, witty,--craving the pleasures of
+the mind as well as of the senses, criticising everything, analyzing
+everything, believing nothing. Voltaire was in the midst of it, hating,
+with all his vehement soul, the abuses that swarmed about him, and
+assailing them with the inexhaustible shafts of his restless and
+piercing intellect. Montesquieu was showing to a despot-ridden age the
+principles of political freedom. Diderot and D'Alembert were beginning
+their revolutionary Encyclopædia. Rousseau was sounding the first notes
+of his mad eloquence,--the wild revolt of a passionate and diseased
+genius against a world of falsities and wrongs. The salons of Paris,
+cloyed with other pleasures, alive to all that was racy and new,
+welcomed the pungent doctrines, and played with them as children play
+with fire, thinking no danger; as time went on, even embraced them in a
+genuine spirit of hope and good-will for humanity. The Revolution began
+at the top,--in the world of fashion, birth, and intellect,--and
+propagated itself downwards. "We walked on a carpet of flowers," Count
+Ségur afterwards said, "unconscious that it covered an abyss;" till the
+gulf yawned at last, and swallowed them.
+
+Eastward, beyond the Rhine, lay the heterogeneous patchwork of the Holy
+Roman, or Germanic, Empire. The sacred bonds that throughout the Middle
+Ages had held together its innumerable fragments, had lost their
+strength. The Empire decayed as a whole; but not so the parts that
+composed it. In the south the House of Austria reigned over a formidable
+assemblage of states; and in the north the House of Brandenburg,
+promoted to royalty half a century before, had raised Prussia into an
+importance far beyond her extent and population. In her dissevered rags
+of territory lay the destinies of Germany. It was the late King, that
+honest, thrifty, dogged, headstrong despot, Frederic William, who had
+made his kingdom what it was, trained it to the perfection of drill, and
+left it to his son, Frederic II. the best engine of war in Europe.
+Frederic himself had passed between the upper and nether millstones of
+paternal discipline. Never did prince undergo such an apprenticeship.
+His father set him to the work of an overseer, or steward, flung plates
+at his head in the family circle, thrashed him with his rattan in
+public, bullied him for submitting to such treatment, and imprisoned him
+for trying to run away from it. He came at last out of purgatory; and
+Europe felt him to her farthest bounds. This bookish, philosophizing,
+verse-making cynic and profligate was soon to approve himself the first
+warrior of his time, and one of the first of all time.
+
+Another power had lately risen on the European world. Peter the Great,
+half hero, half savage, had roused the inert barbarism of Russia into a
+titanic life. His daughter Elizabeth had succeeded to his
+throne,--heiress of his sensuality, if not of his talents.
+
+Over all the Continent the aspect of the times was the same. Power had
+everywhere left the plains and the lower slopes, and gathered at the
+summits. Popular life was at a stand. No great idea stirred the nations
+to their depths. The religious convulsions of the sixteenth and
+seventeenth centuries were over, and the earthquake of the French
+Revolution had not begun. At the middle of the eighteenth century the
+history of Europe turned on the balance of power; the observance of
+treaties; inheritance and succession; rivalries of sovereign houses
+struggling to win power or keep it, encroach on neighbors, or prevent
+neighbors from encroaching; bargains, intrigue, force, diplomacy, and
+the musket, in the interest not of peoples but of rulers. Princes, great
+and small, brooded over some real or fancied wrong, nursed some dubious
+claim born of a marriage, a will, or an ancient covenant fished out of
+the abyss of time, and watched their moment to make it good. The general
+opportunity came when, in 1740, the Emperor Charles VI. died and
+bequeathed his personal dominions of the House of Austria to his
+daughter, Maria Theresa. The chief Powers of Europe had been pledged in
+advance to sustain the will; and pending the event, the veteran Prince
+Eugene had said that two hundred thousand soldiers would be worth all
+their guaranties together. The two hundred thousand were not there, and
+not a sovereign kept his word. They flocked to share the spoil, and
+parcel out the motley heritage of the young Queen. Frederic of Prussia
+led the way, invaded her province of Silesia, seized it, and kept it.
+The Elector of Bavaria and the King of Spain claimed their share, and
+the Elector of Saxony and the King of Sardinia prepared to follow the
+example. France took part with Bavaria, and intrigued to set the
+imperial crown on the head of the Elector, thinking to ruin her old
+enemy, the House of Austria, and rule Germany through an emperor too
+weak to dispense with her support. England, jealous of her designs,
+trembling for the balance of power, and anxious for the Hanoverian
+possessions of her king, threw herself into the strife on the side of
+Austria. It was now that, in the Diet at Presburg, the beautiful and
+distressed Queen, her infant in her arms, made her memorable appeal to
+the wild chivalry of her Hungarian nobles; and, clashing their swords,
+they shouted with one voice: "Let us die for our king, Maria Theresa;"
+Moriamur pro rege nostro, Mariâ Theresiâ,--one of the most dramatic
+scenes in history; not quite true, perhaps, but near the truth. Then
+came that confusion worse confounded called the war of the Austrian
+Succession, with its Mollwitz, its Dettingen, its Fontenoy, and its
+Scotch episode of Culloden. The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle closed the
+strife in 1748. Europe had time to breathe; but the germs of discord
+remained alive.
+
+
+The American Combatants
+
+The French claimed all America, from the Alleghanies to the Rocky
+Mountains, and from Mexico and Florida to the North Pole, except only
+the ill-defined possessions of the English on the borders of Hudson Bay;
+and to these vast regions, with adjacent islands, they gave the general
+name of New France. They controlled the highways of the continent, for
+they held its two great rivers. First, they had seized the St. Lawrence,
+and then planted themselves at the mouth of the Mississippi. Canada at
+the north, and Louisiana at the south, were the keys of a boundless
+interior, rich with incalculable possibilities. The English colonies,
+ranged along the Atlantic coast, had no royal road to the great inland,
+and were, in a manner, shut between the mountains and the sea. At the
+middle of the century they numbered in all, from Georgia to Maine, about
+eleven hundred and sixty thousand white inhabitants. By the census of
+1754 Canada had but fifty-five thousand.[1] Add those of Louisiana and
+Acadia, and the whole white population under the French flag might be
+something more than eighty thousand. Here is an enormous disparity; and
+hence it has been argued that the success of the English colonies and
+the failure of the French was not due to difference of religious and
+political systems, but simply to numerical preponderance. But this
+preponderance itself grew out of a difference of systems. We have said
+before, and it cannot be said too often, that in making Canada a citadel
+of the state religion,--a holy of holies of exclusive Roman Catholic
+orthodoxy,--the clerical monitors of the Crown robbed their country of a
+trans-Atlantic empire. New France could not grow with a priest on guard
+at the gate to let in none but such as pleased him. One of the ablest of
+Canadian governors, La Galissonière, seeing the feebleness of the colony
+compared with the vastness of its claims, advised the King to send ten
+thousand peasants to occupy the valley of the Ohio, and hold back the
+British swarm that was just then pushing its advance-guard over the
+Alleghanies. It needed no effort of the King to people his waste domain,
+not with ten thousand peasants, but with twenty times ten thousand
+Frenchmen of every station,--the most industrious, most instructed, most
+disciplined by adversity and capable of self-rule, that the country
+could boast. While La Galissonière was asking for colonists, the agents
+of the Crown, set on by priestly fanaticism, or designing selfishness
+masked with fanaticism, were pouring volleys of musketry into Huguenot
+congregations, imprisoning for life those innocent of all but their
+faith,--the men in the galleys, the women in the pestiferous dungeons of
+Aigues Mortes,--hanging their ministers, kidnapping their children, and
+reviving, in short, the dragonnades. Now, as in the past century, many
+of the victims escaped to the British colonies, and became a part of
+them. The Huguenots would have hailed as a boon the permission to
+emigrate under the fleur-de-lis, and build up a Protestant France in the
+valleys of the West. It would have been a bane of absolutism, but a
+national glory; would have set bounds to English colonization, and
+changed the face of the continent. The opportunity was spurned. The
+dominant Church clung to its policy of rule and ruin. France built its
+best colony on a principle of exclusion, and failed; England reversed
+the system, and succeeded.
+
+[1] Censuses of Canada, iv. 61. Rameau (La France aux Colonies, II. 81)
+estimates the Canadian population, in 1755, at sixty-six thousand,
+besides voyageurs, Indian traders, etc. Vaudreuil, in 1760, places it at
+seventy thousand.
+
+I have shown elsewhere the aspects of Canada, where a rigid scion of the
+old European tree was set to grow in the wilderness. The military
+Governor, holding his miniature Court on the rock of Quebec; the feudal
+proprietors, whose domains lined the shores of the St. Lawrence; the
+peasant; the roving bushranger; the half-tamed savage, with crucifix and
+scalping-knife; priests; friars; nuns; and soldiers,--mingled to form a
+society the most picturesque on the continent. What distinguished it
+from the France that produced it was a total absence of revolt against
+the laws of its being,--an absolute conservatism, an unquestioning
+acceptance of Church and King. The Canadian, ignorant of everything but
+what the priest saw fit to teach him, had never heard of Voltaire; and
+if he had known him, would have thought him a devil. He had, it is true,
+a spirit of insubordination born of the freedom of the forest; but if
+his instincts rebelled, his mind and soul were passively submissive. The
+unchecked control of a hierarchy robbed him of the independence of
+intellect and character, without which, under the conditions of modern
+life, a people must resign itself to a position of inferiority. Yet
+Canada had a vigor of her own. It was not in spiritual deference only
+that she differed from the country of her birth. Whatever she had caught
+of its corruptions, she had caught nothing of its effeminacy. The mass
+of her people lived in a rude poverty,--not abject, like the peasant of
+old France, nor ground down by the tax-gatherer; while those of the
+higher ranks--all more or less engaged in pursuits of war or adventure,
+and inured to rough journeyings and forest exposures--were rugged as
+their climate. Even the French regular troops, sent out to defend the
+colony, caught its hardy spirit, and set an example of stubborn fighting
+which their comrades at home did not always emulate.
+
+Canada lay ensconced behind rocks and forests. All along her southern
+boundaries, between her and her English foes, lay a broad tract of
+wilderness, shaggy with primeval woods. Innumerable streams gurgled
+beneath their shadows; innumerable lakes gleamed in the fiery sunsets;
+innumerable mountains bared their rocky foreheads to the wind. These
+wastes were ranged by her savage allies, Micmacs, Etechémins, Abenakis,
+Caughnawagas; and no enemy could steal upon her unawares. Through the
+midst of them stretched Lake Champlain, pointing straight to the heart
+of the British settlements,--a watery thoroughfare of mutual attack, and
+the only approach by which, without a long détour by wilderness or sea,
+a hostile army could come within striking distance of the colony. The
+French advanced post of Fort Frederic, called Crown Point by the
+English, barred the narrows of the lake, which thence spread northward
+to the portals of Canada guarded by Fort St. Jean. Southwestward, some
+fourteen hundred miles as a bird flies, and twice as far by the
+practicable routes of travel, was Louisiana, the second of the two heads
+of New France; while between lay the realms of solitude where the
+Mississippi rolled its sullen tide, and the Ohio wound its belt of
+silver through the verdant woodlands.
+
+To whom belonged this world of prairies and forests? France claimed it
+by right of discovery and occupation. It was her explorers who, after De
+Soto, first set foot on it. The question of right, it is true, mattered
+little; for, right or wrong, neither claimant would yield her
+pretensions so long as she had strength to uphold them; yet one point is
+worth a moment's notice. The French had established an excellent system
+in the distribution of their American lands. Whoever received a grant
+from the Crown was required to improve it, and this within reasonable
+time. If he did not, the land ceased to be his, and was given to another
+more able or industrious. An international extension of her own
+principle would have destroyed the pretensions of France to all the
+countries of the West. She had called them hers for three fourths of a
+century, and they were still a howling waste, yielding nothing to
+civilization but beaver-skins, with here and there a fort, trading-post,
+or mission, and three or four puny hamlets by the Mississippi and the
+Detroit. We have seen how she might have made for herself an
+indisputable title, and peopled the solitudes with a host to maintain
+it. She would not; others were at hand who both would and could; and the
+late claimant, disinherited and forlorn, would soon be left to count the
+cost of her bigotry.
+
+The thirteen British colonies were alike, insomuch as they all had
+representative governments, and a basis of English law. But the
+differences among them were great. Some were purely English; others were
+made up of various races, though the Anglo-Saxon was always predominant.
+Some had one prevailing religious creed; others had many creeds. Some
+had charters, and some had not. In most cases the governor was appointed
+by the Crown; in Pennsylvania and Maryland he was appointed by a feudal
+proprietor, and in Connecticut and Rhode Island he was chosen by the
+people. The differences of disposition and character were still greater
+than those of form.
+
+The four northern colonies, known collectively as New England, were an
+exception to the general rule of diversity. The smallest, Rhode Island,
+had features all its own; but the rest were substantially one in nature
+and origin. The principal among them, Massachusetts, may serve as the
+type of all. It was a mosaic of little village republics, firmly
+cemented together, and formed into a single body politic through
+representatives sent to the "General Court" at Boston. Its government,
+originally theocratic, now tended to democracy, ballasted as yet by
+strong traditions of respect for established worth and ability, as well
+as by the influence of certain families prominent in affairs for
+generations. Yet there were no distinct class-lines, and popular power,
+like popular education, was widely diffused. Practically Massachusetts
+was almost independent of the mother-country. Its people were purely
+English, of sound yeoman stock, with an abundant leaven drawn from the
+best of the Puritan gentry; but their original character had been
+somewhat modified by changed conditions of life. A harsh and exacting
+creed, with its stiff formalism and its prohibition of wholesome
+recreation; excess in the pursuit of gain,--the only resource left to
+energies robbed of their natural play; the struggle for existence on a
+hard and barren soil; and the isolation of a narrow village
+life,--joined to produce, in the meaner sort, qualities which were
+unpleasant, and sometimes repulsive. Puritanism was not an unmixed
+blessing. Its view of human nature was dark, and its attitude towards it
+one of repression. It strove to crush out not only what is evil, but
+much that is innocent and salutary. Human nature so treated will take
+its revenge, and for every vice that it loses find another instead.
+Nevertheless, while New England Puritanism bore its peculiar crop of
+faults, it produced also many good and sound fruits. An uncommon vigor,
+joined to the hardy virtues of a masculine race, marked the New England
+type. The sinews, it is true, were hardened at the expense of blood and
+flesh,--and this literally as well as figuratively; but the staple of
+character was a sturdy conscientiousness, an undespairing courage,
+patriotism, public spirit, sagacity, and a strong good sense. A great
+change, both for better and for worse, has since come over it, due
+largely to reaction against the unnatural rigors of the past. That
+mixture, which is now too common, of cool emotions with excitable
+brains, was then rarely seen. The New England colonies abounded in high
+examples of public and private virtue, though not always under the most
+prepossessing forms. They were conspicuous, moreover, for intellectual
+activity, and were by no means without intellectual eminence.
+Massachusetts had produced at least two men whose fame had crossed the
+sea,--Edwards, who out of the grim theology of Calvin mounted to sublime
+heights of mystical speculation; and Franklin, famous already by his
+discoveries in electricity. On the other hand, there were few genuine
+New Englanders who, however personally modest, could divest themselves
+of the notion that they belonged to a people in an especial manner the
+object of divine approval; and this self-righteousness, along with
+certain other traits, failed to commend the Puritan colonies to the
+favor of their fellows. Then, as now, New England was best known to her
+neighbors by her worst side.
+
+
+In one point, however, she found general applause. She was regarded as
+the most military among the British colonies. This reputation was well
+founded, and is easily explained. More than all the rest, she lay open
+to attack. The long waving line of the New England border, with its
+lonely hamlets and scattered farms, extended from the Kennebec to beyond
+the Connecticut, and was everywhere vulnerable to the guns and tomahawks
+of the neighboring French and their savage allies. The colonies towards
+the south had thus far been safe from danger. New York alone was within
+striking distance of the Canadian war-parties. That province then
+consisted of a line of settlements up the Hudson and the Mohawk, and was
+little exposed to attack except at its northern end, which was guarded
+by the fortified town of Albany, with its outlying posts, and by the
+friendly and warlike Mohawks, whose "castles" were close at hand. Thus
+New England had borne the heaviest brunt of the preceding wars, not only
+by the forest, but also by the sea; for the French of Acadia and Cape
+Breton confronted her coast, and she was often at blows with them.
+Fighting had been a necessity with her, and she had met the emergency
+after a method extremely defective, but the best that circumstances
+would permit. Having no trained officers and no disciplined soldiers,
+and being too poor to maintain either, she borrowed her warriors from
+the workshop and the plough, and officered them with lawyers, merchants,
+mechanics, or farmers. To compare them with good regular troops would be
+folly; but they did, on the whole, better than could have been expected,
+and in the last war achieved the brilliant success of the capture of
+Louisburg. This exploit, due partly to native hardihood and partly to
+good luck, greatly enhanced the military repute of New England, or
+rather was one of the chief sources of it.
+
+The great colony of Virginia stood in strong contrast to New England. In
+both the population was English; but the one was Puritan with Roundhead
+traditions, and the other, so far as concerned its governing class,
+Anglican with Cavalier traditions. In the one, every man, woman, and
+child could read and write; in the other, Sir William Berkeley once
+thanked God that there were no free schools, and no prospect of any for
+a century. The hope had found fruition. The lower classes of Virginia
+were as untaught as the warmest friend of popular ignorance could wish.
+New England had a native literature more than respectable under the
+circumstances, while Virginia had none; numerous industries, while
+Virginia was all agriculture, with but a single crop; a homogeneous
+society and a democratic spirit, while her rival was an aristocracy.
+Virginian society was distinctively stratified. On the lowest level were
+the negro slaves, nearly as numerous as all the rest together; next, the
+indented servants and the poor whites, of low origin, good-humored, but
+boisterous, and sometimes vicious; next, the small and despised class of
+tradesmen and mechanics; next, the farmers and lesser planters, who were
+mainly of good English stock, and who merged insensibly into the ruling
+class of the great landowners. It was these last who represented the
+colony and made the laws. They may be described as English country
+squires transplanted to a warm climate and turned slave-masters. They
+sustained their position by entails, and constantly undermined it by the
+reckless profusion which ruined them at last. Many of them were well
+born, with an immense pride of descent, increased by the habit of
+domination. Indolent and energetic by turns; rich in natural gifts and
+often poor in book-learning, though some, in the lack of good teaching
+at home, had been bred in the English universities; high-spirited,
+generous to a fault; keeping open house in their capacious mansions,
+among vast tobacco-fields and toiling negroes, and living in a rude pomp
+where the fashions of St. James were somewhat oddly grafted on the
+roughness of the plantation,--what they wanted in schooling was supplied
+by an education which books alone would have been impotent to give, the
+education which came with the possession and exercise of political
+power, and the sense of a position to maintain, joined to a bold spirit
+of independence and a patriotic attachment to the Old Dominion. They
+were few in number; they raced, gambled, drank, and swore; they did
+everything that in Puritan eyes was most reprehensible; and in the day
+of need they gave the United Colonies a body of statesmen and orators
+which had no equal on the continent. A vigorous aristocracy favors the
+growth of personal eminence, even in those who are not of it, but only
+near it.
+
+
+The essential antagonism of Virginia and New England was afterwards to
+become, and to remain for a century, an element of the first influence
+in American history. Each might have learned much from the other; but
+neither did so till, at last, the strife of their contending principles
+shook the continent. Pennsylvania differed widely from both. She was a
+conglomerate of creeds and races,--English, Irish, Germans, Dutch, and
+Swedes; Quakers, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Romanists, Moravians, and a
+variety of nondescript sects. The Quakers prevailed in the eastern
+districts; quiet, industrious, virtuous, and serenely obstinate. The
+Germans were strongest towards the centre of the colony, and were
+chiefly peasants; successful farmers, but dull, ignorant, and
+superstitious. Towards the west were the Irish, of whom some were Celts,
+always quarrelling with their German neighbors, who detested them; but
+the greater part were Protestants of Scotch descent, from Ulster; a
+vigorous border population. Virginia and New England had each a strong
+distinctive character. Pennsylvania, with her heterogeneous population,
+had none but that which she owed to the sober neutral tints of Quaker
+existence. A more thriving colony there was not on the continent. Life,
+if monotonous, was smooth and contented. Trade and the arts grew.
+Philadelphia, next to Boston, was the largest town in British America;
+and was, moreover, the intellectual centre of the middle and southern
+colonies. Unfortunately, for her credit in the approaching war, the
+Quaker influence made Pennsylvania non-combatant. Politically, too, she
+was an anomaly; for, though utterly unfeudal in disposition and
+character, she was under feudal superiors in the persons of the
+representatives of William Penn, the original grantee.
+
+New York had not as yet reached the relative prominence which her
+geographical position and inherent strength afterwards gave her. The
+English, joined to the Dutch, the original settlers, were the dominant
+population; but a half-score of other languages were spoken in the
+province, the chief among them being that of the Huguenot French in the
+southern parts, and that of the Germans on the Mohawk. In religion, the
+province was divided between the Anglican Church, with government
+support and popular dislike, and numerous dissenting sects, chiefly
+Lutherans, Independents, Presbyterians, and members of the Dutch
+Reformed Church. The little city of New York, like its great successor,
+was the most cosmopolitan place on the continent, and probably the
+gayest. It had, in abundance, balls, concerts, theatricals, and evening
+clubs, with plentiful dances and other amusements for the poorer
+classes. Thither in the winter months came the great hereditary
+proprietors on the Hudson; for the old Dutch feudality still held its
+own, and the manors of Van Renselaer, Cortland, and Livingston, with
+their seigniorial privileges, and the great estates and numerous
+tenantry of the Schuylers and other leading families, formed the basis
+of an aristocracy, some of whose members had done good service to the
+province, and were destined to do more. Pennsylvania was feudal in form,
+and not in spirit; Virginia in spirit, and not in form; New England in
+neither; and New York largely in both. This social crystallization had,
+it is true, many opponents. In politics, as in religion, there were
+sharp antagonisms and frequent quarrels. They centred in the city; for
+in the well-stocked dwellings of the Dutch farmers along the Hudson
+there reigned a tranquil and prosperous routine; and the Dutch border
+town of Albany had not its like in America for unruffled conservatism
+and quaint picturesqueness.
+
+Of the other colonies, the briefest mention will suffice: New Jersey,
+with its wholesome population of farmers; tobacco-growing Maryland,
+which, but for its proprietary government and numerous Roman Catholics,
+might pass for another Virginia, inferior in growth, and less decisive
+in features; Delaware, a modest appendage of Pennsylvania; wild and rude
+North Carolina; and, farther on, South Carolina and Georgia, too remote
+from the seat of war to take a noteworthy part in it. The attitude of
+these various colonies towards each other is hardly conceivable to an
+American of the present time. They had no political tie except a common
+allegiance to the British Crown. Communication between them was
+difficult and slow, by rough roads traced often through primeval
+forests. Between some of them there was less of sympathy than of
+jealousy kindled by conflicting interests or perpetual disputes
+concerning boundaries. The patriotism of the colonist was bounded by the
+lines of his government, except in the compact and kindred colonies of
+New England, which were socially united, though politically distinct.
+The country of the New Yorker was New York, and the country of the
+Virginian was Virginia. The New England colonies had once confederated;
+but, kindred as they were, they had long ago dropped apart. William Penn
+proposed a plan of colonial union wholly fruitless. James II. tried to
+unite all the northern colonies under one government; but the attempt
+came to naught. Each stood aloof, jealously independent. At rare
+intervals, under the pressure of an emergency, some of them would try to
+act in concert; and, except in New England, the results had been most
+discouraging. Nor was it this segregation only that unfitted them for
+war. They were all subject to popular legislatures, through whom alone
+money and men could be raised; and these elective bodies were sometimes
+factious and selfish, and not always either far-sighted or reasonable.
+Moreover, they were in a state of ceaseless friction with their
+governors, who represented the king, or, what was worse, the feudal
+proprietary. These disputes, though varying in intensity, were found
+everywhere except in the two small colonies which chose their own
+governors; and they were premonitions of the movement towards
+independence which ended in the war of Revolution. The occasion of
+difference mattered little. Active or latent, the quarrel was always
+present. In New York it turned on a question of the governor's salary;
+in Pennsylvania on the taxation of the proprietary estates; in Virginia
+on a fee exacted for the issue of land patents. It was sure to arise
+whenever some public crisis gave the representatives of the people an
+opportunity of extorting concessions from the representative of the
+Crown, or gave the representative of the Crown an opportunity to gain a
+point for prerogative. That is to say, the time when action was most
+needed was the time chosen for obstructing it.
+
+In Canada there was no popular legislature to embarrass the central
+power. The people, like an army, obeyed the word of command,--a military
+advantage beyond all price.
+
+Divided in government; divided in origin, feelings, and principles;
+jealous of each other, jealous of the Crown; the people at war with the
+executive, and, by the fermentation of internal politics, blinded to an
+outward danger that seemed remote and vague,--such were the conditions
+under which the British colonies drifted into a war that was to decide
+the fate of the continent.
+
+This war was the strife of a united and concentred few against a divided
+and discordant many. It was the strife, too, of the past against the
+future; of the old against the new; of moral and intellectual torpor
+against moral and intellectual life; of barren absolutism against a
+liberty, crude, incoherent, and chaotic, yet full of prolific vitality.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+1749-1752.
+
+CÉLORON DE BIENVILLE.
+
+La Galissonière • English Encroachment • Mission of Céloron • The Great
+West • Its European Claimants • Its Indian Population • English
+Fur-Traders • Céloron on the Alleghany • His Reception • His
+Difficulties • Descent of the Ohio • Covert Hostility • Ascent of the
+Miami • La Demoiselle • Dark Prospects for France • Christopher Gist •
+George Croghan • Their Western Mission • Pickawillany • English
+Ascendency • English Dissension and Rivalry • The Key of the Great West.
+
+When the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed, the Marquis de la
+Galissonière ruled over Canada. Like all the later Canadian governors,
+he was a naval officer; and, a few years after, he made himself famous
+by a victory, near Minorca, over the English admiral Byng,--an
+achievement now remembered chiefly by the fate of the defeated
+commander, judicially murdered as the scapegoat of an imbecile ministry.
+Galissonière was a humpback; but his deformed person was animated by a
+bold spirit and a strong and penetrating intellect. He was the chief
+representative of the American policy of France. He felt that, cost what
+it might, she must hold fast to Canada, and link her to Louisiana by
+chains of forts strong enough to hold back the British colonies, and
+cramp their growth by confinement within narrow limits; while French
+settlers, sent from the mother-country, should spread and multiply in
+the broad valleys of the interior. It is true, he said, that Canada and
+her dependencies have always been a burden; but they are necessary as a
+barrier against English ambition; and to abandon them is to abandon
+ourselves; for if we suffer our enemies to become masters in America,
+their trade and naval power will grow to vast proportions, and they will
+draw from their colonies a wealth that will make them preponderant in
+Europe.[2]
+
+[2] La Galissonière, Mémoire sur les Colonies de la France dans
+l'Amérique septentrionale.
+
+The treaty had done nothing to settle the vexed question of boundaries
+between France and her rival. It had but staved off the inevitable
+conflict. Meanwhile, the English traders were crossing the mountains
+from Pennsylvania and Virginia, poaching on the domain which France
+claimed as hers, ruining the French fur-trade, seducing the Indian
+allies of Canada, and stirring them up against her. Worse still, English
+land speculators were beginning to follow. Something must be done, and
+that promptly, to drive back the intruders, and vindicate French rights
+in the valley of the Ohio. To this end the Governor sent Céloron de
+Bienville thither in the summer of 1749.
+
+He was a chevalier de St. Louis and a captain in the colony troops.
+Under him went fourteen officers and cadets, twenty soldiers, a hundred
+and eighty Canadians, and a band of Indians, all in twenty-three
+birch-bark canoes. They left La Chine on the fifteenth of June, and
+pushed up the rapids of the St. Lawrence, losing a man and damaging
+several canoes on the way. Ten days brought them to the mouth of the
+Oswegatchie, where Ogdensburg now stands. Here they found a Sulpitian
+priest, Abbé Piquet, busy at building a fort, and lodging for the
+present under a shed of bark like an Indian. This enterprising father,
+ostensibly a missionary, was in reality a zealous political agent, bent
+on winning over the red allies of the English, retrieving French
+prestige, and restoring French trade. Thus far he had attracted but two
+Iroquois to his new establishment; and these he lent to Céloron.
+
+Reaching Lake Ontario, the party stopped for a time at the French fort
+of Frontenac, but avoided the rival English post of Oswego, on the
+southern shore, where a trade in beaver skins, disastrous to French
+interests, was carried on, and whither many tribes, once faithful to
+Canada, now made resort. On the sixth of July Céloron reached Niagara.
+This, the most important pass of all the western wilderness, was guarded
+by a small fort of palisades on the point where the river joins the
+lake. Thence, the party carried their canoes over the portage road by
+the cataract, and launched them upon Lake Erie. On the fifteenth they
+landed on the lonely shore where the town of Portland now stands; and
+for the next seven days were busied in shouldering canoes and baggage up
+and down the steep hills, through the dense forest of beech, oak, ash,
+and elm, to the waters of Chautauqua Lake, eight or nine miles distant.
+Here they embarked again, steering southward over the sunny waters, in
+the stillness and solitude of the leafy hills, till they came to the
+outlet, and glided down the peaceful current in the shade of the tall
+forests that overarched it. This prosperity was short. The stream was
+low, in spite of heavy rains that had drenched them on the carrying
+place. Father Bonnecamp, chaplain of the expedition, wrote, in his
+Journal: "In some places--and they were but too frequent--the water was
+only two or three inches deep; and we were reduced to the sad necessity
+of dragging our canoes over the sharp pebbles, which, with all our care
+and precaution, stripped off large slivers of the bark. At last, tired
+and worn, and almost in despair of ever seeing La Belle Rivière, we
+entered it at noon of the 29th." The part of the Ohio, or "La Belle
+Rivière," which they had thus happily reached, is now called the
+Alleghany. The Great West lay outspread before them, a realm of wild and
+waste fertility.
+
+French America had two heads,--one among the snows of Canada, and one
+among the canebrakes of Louisiana; one communicating with the world
+through the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the other through the Gulf of
+Mexico. These vital points were feebly connected by a chain of military
+posts,--slender, and often interrupted,--circling through the wilderness
+nearly three thousand miles. Midway between Canada and Louisiana lay the
+valley of the Ohio. If the English should seize it, they would sever the
+chain of posts, and cut French America asunder. If the French held it,
+and entrenched themselves well along its eastern limits, they would shut
+their rivals between the Alleghanies and the sea, control all the tribes
+of the West, and turn them, in case of war, against the English
+borders,--a frightful and insupportable scourge.
+
+The Indian population of the Ohio and its northern tributaries was
+relatively considerable. The upper or eastern half of the valley was
+occupied by mingled hordes of Delawares, Shawanoes, Wyandots, and
+Iroquois, or Indians of the Five Nations, who had migrated thither from
+their ancestral abodes within the present limits of the State of New
+York, and who were called Mingoes by the English traders. Along with
+them were a few wandering Abenakis, Nipissings, and Ottawas. Farther
+west, on the waters of the Miami, the Wabash, and other neighboring
+streams, was the seat of a confederacy formed of the various bands of
+the Miamis and their kindred or affiliated tribes. Still farther west,
+towards the Mississippi, were the remnants of the Illinois.
+
+France had done but little to make good her claims to this grand domain.
+East of the Miami she had no military post whatever. Westward, on the
+Maumee, there was a small wooden fort, another on the St. Joseph, and
+two on the Wabash. On the meadows of the Mississippi, in the Illinois
+country, stood Fort Chartres,--a much stronger work, and one of the
+chief links of the chain that connected Quebec with New Orleans. Its
+four stone bastions were impregnable to musketry; and, here in the
+depths of the wilderness, there was no fear that cannon would be brought
+against it. It was the centre and citadel of a curious little forest
+settlement, the only vestige of civilization through all this region. At
+Kaskaskia, extended along the borders of the stream, were seventy or
+eighty French houses; thirty or forty at Cahokia, opposite the site of
+St. Louis; and a few more at the intervening hamlets of St. Philippe and
+Prairie à la Roche,--a picturesque but thriftless population, mixed with
+Indians, totally ignorant, busied partly with the fur-trade, and partly
+with the raising of corn for the market of New Orleans. They
+communicated with it by means of a sort of row galley, of eighteen or
+twenty oars, which made the voyage twice a year, and usually spent ten
+weeks on the return up the river.[3]
+
+[3] Gordon, Journal, 1766, appended to Pownall, Topographical
+Description. In the Dépôt des Cartes de la Marine at Paris, C. 4,040,
+are two curious maps of the Illinois colony, made a little after the
+middle of the century. In 1753 the Marquis Duquesne denounced the
+colonists as debauched and lazy.
+
+The Pope and the Bourbons had claimed this wilderness for seventy years,
+and had done scarcely more for it than the Indians, its natural owners.
+Of the western tribes, even of those living at the French posts, the
+Hurons or Wyandots alone were Christian.[4] The devoted zeal of the
+early missionaries and the politic efforts of their successors had
+failed alike. The savages of the Ohio and the Mississippi, instead of
+being tied to France by the mild bonds of the faith, were now in a state
+which the French called defection or revolt; that is, they received and
+welcomed the English traders.
+
+[4] "De toutes les nations domiciliées dans les postes des pays d'en
+haut, il n'y a que les hurons du détroit qui aient embrassé la Réligion
+chretienne." Mémoirs du Roy pour servir d'instruction au Sr. Marquis de
+Lajonquière.
+
+These traders came in part from Virginia, but chiefly from Pennsylvania.
+Dinwiddie, governor of Virginia, says of them: "They appear to me to be
+in general a set of abandoned wretches;" and Hamilton, governor of
+Pennsylvania, replies: "I concur with you in opinion that they are a
+very licentious people." [5] Indian traders, of whatever nation, are
+rarely models of virtue; and these, without doubt, were rough and
+lawless men, with abundant blackguardism and few scruples. Not all of
+them, however, are to be thus qualified. Some were of a better stamp;
+among whom were Christopher Gist, William Trent, and George Croghan.
+These and other chief traders hired men on the frontiers, crossed the
+Alleghanies with goods packed on the backs of horses, descended into the
+valley of the Ohio, and journeyed from stream to stream and village to
+village along the Indian trails, with which all this wilderness was
+seamed, and which the traders widened to make them practicable. More
+rarely, they carried their goods on horses to the upper waters of the
+Ohio, and embarked them in large wooden canoes, in which they descended
+the main river, and ascended such of its numerous tributaries as were
+navigable. They were bold and enterprising; and French writers, with
+alarm and indignation, declare that some of them had crossed the
+Mississippi and traded with the distant Osages. It is said that about
+three hundred of them came over the mountains every year.
+
+[5] Dinwiddie to Hamilton, 21 May, 1753. Hamilton to Dinwiddie,--May,
+1753.
+
+On reaching the Alleghany, Céloron de Bienville entered upon the work
+assigned him, and began by taking possession of the country. The men
+were drawn up in order; Louis XV. was proclaimed lord of all that
+region, the arms of France, stamped on a sheet of tin, were nailed to a
+tree, a plate of lead was buried at its foot, and the notary of the
+expedition drew up a formal act of the whole proceeding. The leaden
+plate was inscribed as follows: "Year 1749, in the reign of Louis
+Fifteenth, King of France. We, Céloron, commanding the detachment sent
+by the Marquis de la Galissonière, commander-general of New France, to
+restore tranquillity in certain villages of these cantons, have buried
+this plate at the confluence of the Ohio and the Kanaouagon [Conewango],
+this 29th July, as a token of renewal of possession heretofore taken of
+the aforesaid River Ohio, of all streams that fall into it, and all
+lands on both sides to the source of the aforesaid streams, as the
+preceding Kings of France have enjoyed or ought to have enjoyed it, and
+which they have upheld by force of arms and by treaties, notably by
+those of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix-la-Chapelle."
+
+
+This done, the party proceeded on its way, moving downward with the
+current, and passing from time to time rough openings in the forest,
+with clusters of Indian wigwams, the inmates of which showed a strong
+inclination to run off at their approach. To prevent this, Chabert de
+Joncaire was sent in advance, as a messenger of peace. He was himself
+half Indian, being the son of a French officer and a Seneca squaw,
+speaking fluently his maternal tongue, and, like his father, holding an
+important place in all dealings between the French and the tribes who
+spoke dialects of the Iroquois. On this occasion his success was not
+complete. It needed all his art to prevent the alarmed savages from
+taking to the woods. Sometimes, however, Céloron succeeded in gaining an
+audience; and at a village of Senecas called La Paille Coupée he read
+them a message from La Galissonière couched in terms sufficiently
+imperative: "My children, since I was at war with the English, I have
+learned that they have seduced you; and not content with corrupting your
+hearts, have taken advantage of my absence to invade lands which are not
+theirs, but mine; and therefore I have resolved to send you Monsieur de
+Céloron to tell you my intentions, which are that I will not endure the
+English on my land. Listen to me, children; mark well the word that I
+send you; follow my advice, and the sky will always be calm and clear
+over your villages. I expect from you an answer worthy of true
+children." And he urged them to stop all trade with the intruders, and
+send them back to whence they came. They promised compliance; "and,"
+says the chaplain, Bonnecamp, "we should all have been satisfied if we
+had thought them sincere; but nobody doubted that fear had extorted
+their answer."
+
+Four leagues below French Creek, by a rock scratched with Indian
+hieroglyphics, they buried another leaden plate. Three days after, they
+reached the Delaware village of Attiqué, at the site of Kittanning,
+whose twenty-two wigwams were all empty, the owners having fled. A
+little farther on, at an old abandoned village of Shawanoes, they found
+six English traders, whom they warned to begone, and return no more at
+their peril. Being helpless to resist, the traders pretended obedience;
+and Céloron charged them with a letter to the Governor of Pennsylvania,
+in which he declared that he was "greatly surprised" to find Englishmen
+trespassing on the domain of France. "I know," concluded the letter,
+"that our Commandant-General would be very sorry to be forced to use
+violence; but his orders are precise, to leave no foreign traders within
+the limits of his government." [6]
+
+[6] Céloron, Journal. Compare the letter as translated in N. Y. Col.
+Docs., VI. 532; also Colonial Records of Pa., V. 425.
+
+On the next day they reached a village of Iroquois under a female chief,
+called Queen Alequippa by the English, to whom she was devoted. Both
+Queen and subjects had fled; but among the deserted wigwams were six
+more Englishmen, whom Céloron warned off like the others, and who, like
+them, pretended to obey. At a neighboring town they found only two
+withered ancients, male and female, whose united ages, in the judgment
+of the chaplain, were full two centuries. They passed the site of the
+future Pittsburg; and some seventeen miles below approached Chiningué,
+called Logstown by the English, one of the chief places on the river.
+[7] Both English and French flags were flying over the town, and the
+inhabitants, lining the shore, greeted their visitors with a salute of
+musketry,--not wholly welcome, as the guns were charged with ball.
+Céloron threatened to fire on them if they did not cease. The French
+climbed the steep bank, and encamped on the plateau above, betwixt the
+forest and the village, which consisted of some fifty cabins and
+wigwams, grouped in picturesque squalor, and tenanted by a mixed
+population, chiefly of Delawares, Shawanoes, and Mingoes. Here, too,
+were gathered many fugitives from the deserted towns above. Céloron
+feared a night attack. The camp was encircled by a ring of sentries; the
+officers walked the rounds till morning; a part of the men were kept
+under arms, and the rest ordered to sleep in their clothes. Joncaire
+discovered through some women of his acquaintance that an attack was
+intended. Whatever the danger may have been, the precautions of the
+French averted it; and instead of a battle, there was a council. Céloron
+delivered to the assembled chiefs a message from the Governor more
+conciliatory than the former, "Through the love I bear you, my children,
+I send you Monsieur de Céloron to open your eyes to the designs of the
+English against your lands. The establishments they mean to make, and of
+which you are certainly ignorant, tend to your complete ruin. They hide
+from you their plans, which are to settle here and drive you away, if I
+let them. As a good father who tenderly loves his children, and though
+far away from them bears them always in his heart, I must warn you of
+the danger that threatens you. The English intend to rob you of your
+country; and that they may succeed, they begin by corrupting your minds.
+As they mean to seize the Ohio, which belongs to me, I send to warn them
+to retire."
+
+[7] There was another Chiningué, the Shenango of the English, on the
+Alleghany.
+
+The reply of the chiefs, though sufficiently humble, was not all that
+could be wished. They begged that the intruders might stay a little
+longer, since the goods they brought were necessary to them. It was in
+fact, these goods, cheap, excellent, and abundant as they were, which
+formed the only true bond between the English and the Western tribes.
+Logstown was one of the chief resorts of the English traders; and at
+this moment there were ten of them in the place. Céloron warned them
+off. "They agreed," says the chaplain, "to all that was demanded, well
+resolved, no doubt, to do the contrary as soon as our backs were
+turned."
+
+Having distributed gifts among the Indians, the French proceeded on
+their way, and at or near the mouth of Wheeling Creek buried another
+plate of lead. They repeated the same ceremony at the mouth of the
+Muskingum. Here, half a century later, when this region belonged to the
+United States, a party of boys, bathing in the river, saw the plate
+protruding from the bank where the freshets had laid it bare, knocked it
+down with a long stick, melted half of it into bullets, and gave what
+remained to a neighbor from Marietta, who, hearing of this mysterious
+relic, inscribed in an unknown tongue, came to rescue it from their
+hands.[8] It is now in the cabinet of the American Antiquarian
+Society.[9] On the eighteenth of August, Céloron buried yet another
+plate, at the mouth of the Great Kenawha. This, too, in the course of a
+century, was unearthed by the floods, and was found in 1846 by a boy at
+play, by the edge of the water.[10] The inscriptions on all these plates
+were much alike, with variations of date and place.
+
+[8] O. H. Marshall, in Magazine of American History, March, 1878.
+
+[9] For papers relating to it, see Trans. Amer. Antiq. Soc., II.
+
+[10] For a fac-simile of the inscription on this plate, see Olden Time,
+I. 288. Céloron calls the Kenawha, Chinodahichetha. The inscriptions as
+given in his Journal correspond with those on the plates discovered.
+
+The weather was by turns rainy and hot; and the men, tired and famished,
+were fast falling ill. On the twenty-second they approached Scioto,
+called by the French St. Yotoc, or Sinioto, a large Shawanoe town at the
+mouth of the river which bears the same name. Greatly doubting what
+welcome awaited them, they filled their powder-horns and prepared for
+the worst. Joncaire was sent forward to propitiate the inhabitants; but
+they shot bullets through the flag that he carried, and surrounded him,
+yelling and brandishing their knives. Some were for killing him at once;
+others for burning him alive. The interposition of a friendly Iroquois
+saved him; and at length they let him go. Céloron was very uneasy at the
+reception of his messenger. "I knew," he writes, "the weakness of my
+party, two thirds of which were young men who had never left home
+before, and would all have run at the sight of ten Indians. Still, there
+was nothing for me but to keep on; for I was short of provisions, my
+canoes were badly damaged, and I had no pitch or bark to mend them. So I
+embarked again, ready for whatever might happen. I had good officers,
+and about fifty men who could be trusted."
+
+As they neared the town, the Indians swarmed to the shore, and began the
+usual salute of musketry. "They fired," says Céloron, "full a thousand
+shots; for the English give them powder for nothing." He prudently
+pitched his camp on the farther side of the river, posted guards, and
+kept close watch. Each party distrusted and feared the other. At length,
+after much ado, many debates, and some threatening movements on the part
+of the alarmed and excited Indians, a council took place at the tent of
+the French commander; the chiefs apologized for the rough treatment of
+Joncaire, and Céloron replied with a rebuke, which would doubtless have
+been less mild, had he felt himself stronger. He gave them also a
+message from the Governor, modified, apparently, to suit the
+circumstances; for while warning them of the wiles of the English, it
+gave no hint that the King of France claimed mastery of their lands.
+Their answer was vague and unsatisfactory. It was plain that they were
+bound to the enemy by interest, if not by sympathy. A party of English
+traders were living in the place; and Céloron summoned them to withdraw,
+on pain of what might ensue. "My instructions," he says, "enjoined me to
+do this, and even to pillage the English; but I was not strong enough;
+and as these traders were established in the village and well supported
+by the Indians, the attempt would have failed, and put the French to
+shame." The assembled chiefs having been regaled with a cup of brandy
+each,--the only part of the proceeding which seemed to please
+them,--Céloron reimbarked, and continued his voyage.
+
+On the thirtieth they reached the Great Miami, called by the French,
+Rivière à la Roche; and here Céloron buried the last of his leaden
+plates. They now bade farewell to the Ohio, or, in the words of the
+chaplain, to "La Belle Rivière,--that river so little known to the
+French, and unfortunately too well known to the English." He speaks of
+the multitude of Indian villages on its shores, and still more on its
+northern branches. "Each, great or small, has one or more English
+traders, and each of these has hired men to carry his furs. Behold,
+then, the English well advanced upon our lands, and, what is worse,
+under the protection of a crowd of savages whom they have drawn over to
+them, and whose number increases daily."
+
+The course of the party lay up the Miami; and they toiled thirteen days
+against the shallow current before they reached a village of the Miami
+Indians, lately built at the mouth of the rivulet now called Loramie
+Creek. Over it ruled a chief to whom the French had given the singular
+name of La Demoiselle, but whom the English, whose fast friend he was,
+called Old Britain. The English traders who lived here had prudently
+withdrawn, leaving only two hired men in the place. The object of
+Cèloron was to induce the Demoiselle and his band to leave this new
+abode and return to their old villages near the French fort on the
+Maumee, where they would be safe from English seduction. To this end, he
+called them to a council, gave them ample gifts, and made them an
+harangue in the name of the Governor. The Demoiselle took the gifts,
+thanked his French father for his good advice, and promised to follow it
+at a more convenient time.[11] In vain Céloron insisted that he and his
+tribesmen should remove at once. Neither blandishments nor threats would
+prevail, and the French commander felt that his negotiation had failed.
+
+[11] Céloron, Journal. Compare A Message from the Twightwees (Miamis) in
+Colonial Records of Pa., V. 437, where they say that they refused the
+gifts.
+
+He was not deceived. Far from leaving his village, the Demoiselle, who
+was Great Chief of the Miami Confederacy, gathered his followers to the
+spot, till, less than two years after the visit of Céloron, its
+population had increased eightfold. Pique Town, or Pickawillany, as the
+English called it, became one of the greatest Indian towns of the West,
+the centre of English trade and influence, and a capital object of
+French jealousy.
+
+Céloron burned his shattered canoes, and led his party across the long
+and difficult portage to the French post on the Maumee, where he found
+Raymond, the commander, and all his men, shivering with fever and ague.
+They supplied him with wooden canoes for his voyage down the river; and,
+early in October, he reached Lake Erie, where he was detained for a time
+by a drunken debauch of his Indians, who are called by the chaplain "a
+species of men made to exercise the patience of those who have the
+misfortune to travel with them." In a month more he was at Fort
+Frontenac; and as he descended thence to Montreal, he stopped at the
+Oswegatchie, in obedience to the Governor, who had directed him to
+report the progress made by the Sulpitian, Abbé Piquet, at his new
+mission. Piquet's new fort had been burned by Indians, prompted, as he
+thought, by the English of Oswego; but the priest, buoyant and
+undaunted, was still resolute for the glory of God and the confusion of
+the heretics.
+
+At length Céloron reached Montreal; and, closing his Journal, wrote
+thus: "Father Bonnecamp, who is a Jesuit and a great mathematician,
+reckons that we have travelled twelve hundred leagues; I and my officers
+think we have travelled more. All I can say is, that the nations of
+these countries are very ill-disposed towards the French, and devoted
+entirely to the English." [12] If his expedition had done no more, it
+had at least revealed clearly the deplorable condition of French
+interests in the West.
+
+[12] Journal de la Campagne que moy Céloron, Chevalier de l'Ordre Royal
+et Militaire de St. Louis, Capitaine Commandant un détachement envoyé
+dans la Belle Rivière par les ordres de M. le Marquis de La
+Galissonière, etc.
+
+Relation d'un voyage dans la Belle Rivière sous les ordres de M. de
+Céloron, par le Père Bonnecamp, en 1749.
+
+While Céloron was warning English traders from the Ohio, a plan was on
+foot in Virginia for a new invasion of the French domain. An association
+was formed to settle the Ohio country; and a grant of five hundred
+thousand acres was procured from the King, on condition that a hundred
+families should be established upon it within seven years, a fort built,
+and a garrison maintained. The Ohio Company numbered among its members
+some of the chief men of Virginia, including two brothers of Washington;
+and it had also a London partner, one Hanbury, a person of influence,
+who acted as its agent in England. In the year after the expedition of
+Céloron, its governing committee sent the trader Christopher Gist to
+explore the country and select land. It must be "good level land," wrote
+the Committee; "we had rather go quite down to the Mississippi than take
+mean, broken land." [13] In November Gist reached Logstown, the
+Chiningué of Céloron, where he found what he calls a "parcel of
+reprobate Indian traders." Those whom he so stigmatizes were
+Pennsylvanians, chiefly Scotch-Irish, between whom and the traders from
+Virginia there was great jealousy. Gist was told that he "should never
+go home safe." He declared himself the bearer of a message from the
+King. This imposed respect, and he was allowed to proceed. At the
+Wyandot village of Muskingum he found the trader George Croghan, sent to
+the Indians by the Governor of Pennsylvania, to renew the chain of
+friendship. [14] "Croghan," he says, "is a mere idol among his
+countrymen, the Irish traders;" yet they met amicably, and the
+Pennsylvanian had with him a companion, Andrew Montour, the interpreter,
+who proved of great service to Gist. As Montour was a conspicuous person
+in his time, and a type of his class, he merits a passing notice. He was
+the reputed grandson of a French governor and an Indian squaw. His
+half-breed mother, Catharine Montour, was a native of Canada, whence she
+was carried off by the Iroquois, and adopted by them. She lived in a
+village at the head of Seneca Lake, and still held the belief,
+inculcated by the guides of her youth, that Christ was a Frenchman
+crucified by the English. [15] Her son Andrew is thus described by the
+Moravian Zinzendorf, who knew him: "His face is like that of a European,
+but marked with a broad Indian ring of bear's-grease and paint drawn
+completely round it. He wears a coat of fine cloth of cinnamon color, a
+black necktie with silver spangles, a red satin waistcoat, trousers over
+which hangs his shirt, shoes and stockings, a hat, and brass ornaments,
+something like the handle of a basket, suspended from his ears." [16] He
+was an excellent interpreter, and held in high account by his Indian
+kinsmen.
+
+[13] Instructions to Gist, in appendix to Pownall, Topographical
+Description of North America.
+
+[14] Mr. Croghan's Transactions with the Indians, in N. Y. Col. Docs.,
+VII. 267; Croghan to Hamilton, 16 Dec. 1750.
+
+[15] This is stated by Count Zinzendorf, who visited her among the
+Senecas. Compare Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV., p. 376. In a
+plan of the "Route of the Western Army," made in 1779, and of which a
+tracing is before me, the village where she lived is still called
+"French Catharine's Town."
+
+[16] Journal of Zinzendorf, quoted in Schweinitz, Life of David
+Zeisberger, 112, note.
+
+After leaving Muskingum, Gist, Croghan, and Montour went together to a
+village on White Woman's Creek,--so called from one Mary Harris, who
+lived here. She was born in New England, was made prisoner when a child
+forty years before, and had since dwelt among her captors, finding such
+comfort as she might in an Indian husband and a family of young
+half-breeds. "She still remembers," says Gist, "that they used to be
+very religious in New England, and wonders how white men can be so
+wicked as she has seen them in these woods." He and his companions now
+journeyed southwestward to the Shawanoe town at the mouth of the Scioto,
+where they found a reception very different from that which had awaited
+Céloron. Thence they rode northwestward along the forest path that led
+to Pickawillany, the Indian town on the upper waters of the Great Miami.
+Gist was delighted with the country; and reported to his employers that
+"it is fine, rich, level land, well timbered with large walnut, ash,
+sugar trees and cherry trees; well watered with a great number of little
+streams and rivulets; full of beautiful natural meadows, with wild rye,
+blue-grass, and clover, and abounding with turkeys, deer, elks, and most
+sorts of game, particularly buffaloes, thirty or forty of which are
+frequently seen in one meadow." A little farther west, on the plains of
+the Wabash and the Illinois, he would have found them by thousands.
+
+They crossed the Miami on a raft, their horses swimming after them; and
+were met on landing by a crowd of warriors, who, after smoking with
+them, escorted them to the neighboring town, where they were greeted by
+a fusillade of welcome. "We entered with English colors before us, and
+were kindly received by their king, who invited us into his own house
+and set our colors upon the top of it; then all the white men and
+traders that were there came and welcomed us." This "king" was Old
+Britain, or La Demoiselle. Great were the changes here since Céloron, a
+year and a half before, had vainly enticed him to change his abode, and
+dwell in the shadow of the fleur-de-lis. The town had grown to four
+hundred families, or about two thousand souls; and the English traders
+had built for themselves and their hosts a fort of pickets, strengthened
+with logs.
+
+There was a series of councils in the long house, or town-hall. Croghan
+made the Indians a present from the Governor of Pennsylvania; and he and
+Gist delivered speeches of friendship and good advice, which the
+auditors received with the usual monosyllabic plaudits, ejected from the
+depths of their throats. A treaty of peace was solemnly made between the
+English and the confederate tribes, and all was serenity and joy; till
+four Ottawas, probably from Detroit, arrived with a French flag, a gift
+of brandy and tobacco, and a message from the French commandant inviting
+the Miamis to visit him. Whereupon the great war-chief rose, and, with
+"a fierce tone and very warlike air," said to the envoys: "Brothers the
+Ottawas, we let you know, by these four strings of wampum, that we will
+not hear anything the French say, nor do anything they bid us." Then
+addressing the French as if actually present: "Fathers, we have made a
+road to the sun-rising, and have been taken by the hand by our brothers
+the English, the Six Nations, the Delawares, Shawanoes, and Wyandots.
+[17] We assure you, in that road we will go; and as you threaten us with
+war in the spring, we tell you that we are ready to receive you." Then,
+turning again to the four envoys: "Brothers the Ottawas, you hear what I
+say. Tell that to your fathers the French, for we speak it from our
+hearts." The chiefs then took down the French flag which the Ottawas had
+planted in the town, and dismissed the envoys with their answer of
+defiance.
+
+[17] Compare Message of Miamis and Hurons to the Governor of
+Pennsylvania in N. Y. Col. Docs., VI. 594; and Report of Croghan in
+Colonial Records of Pa., V. 522, 523.
+
+On the next day the town-crier came with a message from the Demoiselle,
+inviting his English guests to a "feather dance," which Gist thus
+describes: "It was performed by three dancing-masters, who were painted
+all over of various colors, with long sticks in their hands, upon the
+ends of which were fastened long feathers of swans and other birds,
+neatly woven in the shape of a fowl's wing; in this disguise they
+performed many antic tricks, waving their sticks and feathers about with
+great skill, to imitate the flying and fluttering of birds, keeping
+exact time with their music." This music was the measured thumping of an
+Indian drum. From time to time a warrior would leap up, and the drum and
+the dancers would cease as he struck a post with his tomahawk, and in a
+loud voice recounted his exploits. Then the music and the dance began
+anew, till another warrior caught the martial fire, and bounded into the
+circle to brandish his tomahawk and vaunt his prowess.
+
+On the first of March Gist took leave of Pickawillany, and returned
+towards the Ohio. He would have gone to the Falls, where Louisville now
+stands, but for a band of French Indians reported to be there, who would
+probably have killed him. After visiting a deposit of mammoth bones on
+the south shore, long the wonder of the traders, he turned eastward,
+crossed with toil and difficulty the mountains about the sources of the
+Kenawha, and after an absence of seven months reached his frontier home
+on the Yadkin, whence he proceeded to Roanoke with the report of his
+journey. [18]
+
+[18] Journal of Christopher Gist, in appendix to Pownall, Topographical
+Description. Mr. Croghan's Transactions with the Indians in N. Y. Col.
+Docs., VII. 267.
+
+All looked well for the English in the West; but under this fair outside
+lurked hidden danger. The Miamis were hearty in the English cause, and
+so perhaps were the Shawanoes; but the Delawares had not forgotten the
+wrongs that drove them from their old abodes east of the Alleghanies,
+while the Mingoes, or emigrant Iroquois, like their brethren of New
+York, felt the influence of Joncaire and other French agents, who spared
+no efforts to seduce them. [19] Still more baneful to British interests
+were the apathy and dissensions of the British colonies themselves. The
+Ohio Company had built a trading-house at Will's Creek, a branch of the
+Potomac, to which the Indians resorted in great numbers; whereupon the
+jealous traders of Pennsylvania told them that the Virginians meant to
+steal away their lands. This confirmed what they had been taught by the
+French emissaries, whose intrigues it powerfully aided. The governors of
+New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia saw the importance of Indian
+alliances, and felt their own responsibility in regard to them; but they
+could do nothing without their assemblies. Those of New York and
+Pennsylvania were largely composed of tradesmen and farmers, absorbed in
+local interests, and possessed by two motives,--the saving of the
+people's money, and opposition to the governor, who stood for the royal
+prerogative. It was Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, who had sent Croghan to
+the Miamis to "renew the chain of friendship;" and when the envoy
+returned, the Assembly rejected his report. "I was condemned," he says,
+"for bringing expense on the Government, and the Indians were
+neglected." [20] In the same year Hamilton again sent him over the
+mountains, with a present for the Mingoes and Delawares. Croghan
+succeeded in persuading them that it would be for their good if the
+English should build a fortified trading-house at the fork of the Ohio,
+where Pittsburg now stands; and they made a formal request to the
+Governor that it should be built accordingly. But, in the words of
+Croghan, the Assembly "rejected the proposal, and condemned me for
+making such a report." Yet this post on the Ohio was vital to English
+interests. Even the Penns, proprietaries of the province, never lavish
+of their money, offered four hundred pounds towards the cost of it,
+besides a hundred a year towards its maintenance; but the Assembly would
+not listen. [21] The Indians were so well convinced that a strong
+English trading-station in their country would add to their safety and
+comfort, that when Pennsylvania refused it, they repeated the proposal
+to Virginia; but here, too, it found for the present little favor.
+
+[19] Joncaire made anti-English speeches to the Ohio Indians under the
+eyes of the English themselves, who did not molest him. Journal of
+George Croghan, 1751, in Olden Time, I. 136.
+
+[20] Mr. Croghan's Transactions with the Indians, N. Y. Col. Docs., VII.
+267.
+
+[21] Colonial Records of Pa., V. 515, 529, 547. At a council at Logstown
+(1751), the Indians said to Croghan: "The French want to cheat us out of
+our country; but we will stop them, and, Brothers the English, you must
+help us. We expect that you will build a strong house on the River Ohio,
+that in case of war we may have a place to secure our wives and
+children, likewise our brothers that come to trade with us." Report of
+Treaty at Logstown, Ibid., V. 538.
+
+
+The question of disputed boundaries had much to do with this most
+impolitic inaction. A large part of the valley of the Ohio, including
+the site of the proposed establishment, was claimed by both Pennsylvania
+and Virginia; and each feared that whatever money it might spend there
+would turn to the profit of the other. This was not the only evil that
+sprang from uncertain ownership. "Till the line is run between the two
+provinces," says Dinwiddie, governor of Virginia, "I cannot appoint
+magistrates to keep the traders in good order." [22] Hence they did what
+they pleased, and often gave umbrage to the Indians. Clinton, of New
+York, appealed to his Assembly for means to assist Pennsylvania in
+"securing the fidelity of the Indians on the Ohio," and the Assembly
+refused. [23] "We will take care of our Indians, and they may take care
+of theirs:" such was the spirit of their answer. He wrote to the various
+provinces, inviting them to send commissioners to meet the tribes at
+Albany, "in order to defeat the designs and intrigues of the French."
+All turned a deaf ear except Massachusetts, Connecticut, and South
+Carolina, who sent the commissioners, but supplied them very meagrely
+with the indispensable presents. [24] Clinton says further: "The
+Assembly of this province have not given one farthing for Indian
+affairs, nor for a year past have they provided for the subsistence of
+the garrison at Oswego, which is the key for the commerce between the
+colonies and the inland nations of Indians." [25]
+
+[22] Dinwiddie to the Lords of Trade, 6 Oct. 1752.
+
+[23] Journals of New York Assembly, II. 283, 284. Colonial Records of
+Pa., V. 466.
+
+[24] Clinton to Hamilton, 18 Dec. 1750. Clinton to Lords of Trade, 13
+June, 1751; Ibid., 17 July, 1751.
+
+[25] Clinton to Bedford, 30 July, 1750.
+
+In the heterogeneous structure of the British colonies, their clashing
+interests, their internal disputes, and the misplaced economy of
+penny-wise and short-sighted assembly-men, lay the hope of France. The
+rulers of Canada knew the vast numerical preponderance of their rivals;
+but with their centralized organization they felt themselves more than a
+match for any one English colony alone. They hoped to wage war under the
+guise of peace, and to deal with the enemy in detail; and they at length
+perceived that the fork of the Ohio, so strangely neglected by the
+English, formed, together with Niagara, the key of the Great West. Could
+France hold firmly these two controlling passes, she might almost boast
+herself mistress of the continent.
+
+Note.--The Journal of Céloron (Archives de la Marine) is very long and
+circumstantial, including the procès verbaux, and reports of councils
+with Indians. The Journal of the chaplain, Bonnecamp (Dépôt de la
+Marine), is shorter, but is the work of an intelligent and observing
+man. The author, a Jesuit, was skilled in mathematics, made daily
+observations, and constructed a map of the route, still preserved at the
+Dépôt de la Marine. Concurrently with these French narratives, one may
+consult the English letters and documents bearing on the same subjects,
+in the Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, the Archives of Pennsylvania,
+and the Colonial Documents of New York.
+
+Three of Céloron's leaden plates have been found,--the two mentioned in
+the text, and another which was never buried, and which the Indians, who
+regarded these mysterious tablets as "bad medicine," procured by a trick
+from Joncaire, or, according to Governor Clinton, stole from him. A
+Cayuga chief brought it to Colonel Johnson, on the Mohawk, who
+interpreted the "Devilish writing" in such a manner as best to inspire
+horror of French designs.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+1749-1753.
+
+CONFLICT FOR THE WEST.
+
+The Five Nations • Caughnawaga • Abbé Piquet • His Schemes • His Journey
+• Fort Frontenac • Toronto • Niagara • Oswego • Success of Piquet •
+Detroit • La Jonquière • His Intrigues • His Trials • His Death •
+English Intrigues • Critical State of the West • Pickawillany Destroyed
+• Duquesne • His Grand Enterprise.
+
+The Iroquois, or Five Nations, sometimes called Six Nations after the
+Tuscaroras joined them, had been a power of high importance in American
+international politics. In a certain sense they may be said to have held
+the balance between their French and English neighbors; but their
+relative influence had of late declined. So many of them had emigrated
+and joined the tribes of the Ohio, that the centre of Indian population
+had passed to that region. Nevertheless, the Five Nations were still
+strong enough in their ancient abodes to make their alliance an object
+of the utmost consequence to both the European rivals. At the western
+end of their "Long House," or belt of confederated villages, Joncaire
+intrigued to gain them for France; while in the east he was counteracted
+by the young colonel of militia, William Johnson, who lived on the
+Mohawk, and was already well skilled in managing Indians. Johnson
+sometimes lost his temper; and once wrote to Governor Clinton to
+complain of the "confounded wicked things the French had infused into
+the Indians' heads; among the rest that the English were determined, the
+first opportunity, to destroy them all. I assure your Excellency I had
+hard work to beat these and several other cursed villanous things, told
+them by the French, out of their heads." [26]
+
+[26] Johnson to Clinton, 28 April, 1749.
+
+In former times the French had hoped to win over the Five Nations in a
+body, by wholesale conversion to the Faith; but the attempt had failed.
+They had, however, made within their own limits an asylum for such
+converts as they could gain, whom they collected together at
+Caughnawaga, near Montreal, to the number of about three hundred
+warriors. [27] These could not be trusted to fight their kinsmen, but
+willingly made forays against the English borders. Caughnawaga, like
+various other Canadian missions, was divided between the Church, the
+army, and the fur-trade. It had a chapel, fortifications, and
+storehouses; two Jesuits, an officer, and three chief traders. Of these
+last, two were maiden ladies, the Demoiselles Desauniers; and one of the
+Jesuits, their friend Father Tournois, was their partner in business.
+They carried on by means of the Mission Indians, and in collusion with
+influential persons in the colony, a trade with the Dutch at Albany,
+illegal, but very profitable. [28]
+
+[27] The estimate of a French official report, 1736, and of Sir William
+Johnson, 1763.
+
+[28] La Jonquière au Ministre, 27 Fév. 1750. Ibid., 29 Oct. 1751. Ordres
+du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, 1751. Notice biographique de la
+Jonquière. La Jonquière, governor of Canada, at last broke up their
+contraband trade, and ordered Tournois to Quebec.
+
+Besides this Iroquois mission, which was chiefly composed of Mohawks and
+Oneidas, another was now begun farther westward, to win over the
+Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. This was the establishment of Father
+Piquet, which Céloron had visited in its infancy when on his way to the
+Ohio, and again on his return. Piquet was a man in the prime of life, of
+an alert, vivacious countenance, by no means unprepossessing; [29] an
+enthusiastic schemer, with great executive talents; ardent, energetic,
+vain, self-confident, and boastful. The enterprise seems to have been of
+his own devising; but it found warm approval from the Government. [30]
+La Présentation, as he called the new mission, stood on the bank of the
+River Oswegatchie where it enters the St. Lawrence. Here the rapids
+ceased, and navigation was free to Lake Ontario. The place commanded the
+main river, and could bar the way to hostile war-parties or contraband
+traders. Rich meadows, forests, and abundance of fish and game, made it
+attractive to Indians, and the Oswegatchie gave access to the Iroquois
+towns. Piquet had chosen his site with great skill. His activity was
+admirable. His first stockade was burned by Indian incendiaries; but it
+rose quickly from its ashes, and within a year or two the mission of La
+Présentation had a fort of palisades flanked with blockhouses, a chapel,
+a storehouse, a barn, a stable, ovens, a saw-mill, broad fields of corn
+and beans, and three villages of Iroquois, containing, in all,
+forty-nine bark lodges, each holding three or four families, more or
+less converted to the Faith; and, as time went on, this number
+increased. The Governor had sent a squad of soldiers to man the fort,
+and five small cannon to mount upon it. The place was as safe for the
+new proselytes as it was convenient and agreeable. The Pennsylvanian
+interpreter, Conrad Weiser, was told at Onondaga, the Iroquois capital,
+that Piquet had made a hundred converts from that place alone; and that,
+"having clothed them all in very fine clothes, laced with silver and
+gold, he took them down and presented them to the French Governor at
+Montreal, who received them very kindly, and made them large presents."
+[31]
+
+[29] I once saw a contemporary portrait of him at the mission of Two
+Mountains, where he had been stationed.
+
+[30] Rouillé à la Jonquière, 1749. The Intendant Bigot gave him money
+and provisions. N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 204.
+
+[31] Journal of Conrad Weiser, 1750.
+
+Such were some of the temporal attractions of La Présentation. The
+nature of the spiritual instruction bestowed by Piquet and his
+fellow-priests may be partly inferred from the words of a proselyte
+warrior, who declared with enthusiasm that he had learned from the
+Sulpitian missionary that the King of France was the eldest son of the
+wife of Jesus Christ. [32] This he of course took in a literal sense,
+the mystic idea of the Church as the spouse of Christ being beyond his
+savage comprehension. The effect was to stimulate his devotion to the
+Great Onontio beyond the sea, and to the lesser Onontio who represented
+him as Governor of Canada.
+
+[32] Lalande, Notice de l'Abbé Piquet, in Lettres Édifiantes. See also
+Tassé in Revue Canadienne, 1870, p. 9.
+
+Piquet was elated by his success; and early in 1752 he wrote to the
+Governor and Intendant: "It is a great miracle that, in spite of envy,
+contradiction, and opposition from nearly all the Indian villages, I
+have formed in less than three years one of the most flourishing
+missions in Canada. I find myself in a position to extend the empire of
+my good masters, Jesus Christ and the King, even to the extremities of
+this new world; and, with some little help from you, to do more than
+France and England have been able to do with millions of money and all
+their troops." [33]
+
+[33] Piquet à la Jonquière et Bigot, 8 Fév. 1752. See Appendix A. In
+spite of Piquet's self-laudation, and in spite also of the detraction of
+the author of the Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760, there can be no
+doubt of his practical capacity and his fertility of resource. Duquesne,
+when governor of the colony, highly praises "ses talents et son activité
+pour le service de Sa Majesté."
+
+The letter from which this is taken was written to urge upon the
+Government a scheme in which the zealous priest could see nothing
+impracticable. He proposed to raise a war-party of thirty-eight hundred
+Indians, eighteen hundred of whom were to be drawn from the Canadian
+missions, the Five Nations, and the tribes of the Ohio, while the
+remaining two thousand were to be furnished by the Flatheads, or
+Choctaws, who were at the same time to be supplied with missionaries.
+The united force was first to drive the English from the Ohio, and next
+attack the Dog Tribe, or Cherokees, who lived near the borders of
+Virginia, with the people of which they were on friendly terms. "If,"
+says Piquet, "the English of Virginia give any help to this last-named
+tribe,--which will not fail to happen,--they [the war-party] will do
+their utmost against them, through a grudge they bear them by reason of
+some old quarrels." In other words, the missionary hopes to set a host
+of savages to butchering English settlers in time of peace! [34] His
+wild project never took effect, though the Governor, he says, at first
+approved it.
+
+[34] Appendix A.
+
+In the preceding year the "Apostle of the Iroquois," as he was called,
+made a journey to muster recruits for his mission, and kept a copious
+diary on the way. By accompanying him, one gets a clear view of an
+important part of the region in dispute between the rival nations. Six
+Canadians paddled him up the St. Lawrence, and five Indian converts
+followed in another canoe. Emerging from among the Thousand Islands,
+they stopped at Fort Frontenac, where Kingston now stands. Once the
+place was a great resort of Indians; now none were here, for the English
+post of Oswego, on the other side of the lake, had greater attractions.
+Piquet and his company found the pork and bacon very bad, and he
+complains that "there was not brandy enough in the fort to wash a
+wound." They crossed to a neighboring island, where they were soon
+visited by the chaplain of the fort, the storekeeper, his wife, and
+three young ladies, glad of an excursion to relieve the monotony of the
+garrison. "My hunters," says Piquet, "had supplied me with means of
+giving them a pretty good entertainment. We drank, with all our hearts,
+the health of the authorities, temporal and ecclesiastical, to the sound
+of our musketry, which was very well fired, and delighted the
+islanders." These islanders were a band of Indians who lived here.
+Piquet gave them a feast, then discoursed of religion, and at last
+persuaded them to remove to the new mission.
+
+During eight days he and his party coasted the northern shore of Lake
+Ontario, with various incidents, such as an encounter between his dog
+Cerberus and a wolf, to the disadvantage of the latter, and the meeting
+with "a very fine negro of twenty-two years, a fugitive from Virginia."
+On the twenty-sixth of June they reached the new fort of Toronto, which
+offered a striking contrast to their last stopping-place. "The wine here
+is of the best; there is nothing wanting in this fort; everything is
+abundant, fine, and good." There was reason for this. The Northern
+Indians were flocking with their beaver-skins to the English of Oswego;
+and in April, 1749, an officer named Portneuf had been sent with
+soldiers and workmen to build a stockaded trading-house at Toronto, in
+order to intercept them,--not by force, which would have been ruinous to
+French interests, but by a tempting supply of goods and brandy. [35]
+Thus the fort was kept well stocked, and with excellent effect. Piquet
+found here a band of Mississagas, who would otherwise, no doubt, have
+carried their furs to the English. He was strongly impelled to persuade
+them to migrate to La Présentation; but the Governor had told him to
+confine his efforts to other tribes; and lest, he says, the ardor of his
+zeal should betray him to disobedience, he reimbarked, and encamped six
+leagues from temptation.
+
+[35] On Toronto, La Jonquière et Bigot au Ministre, 1749. La Jonquière
+au Ministre, 30 Août, 1750. N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 201, 246.
+
+Two days more brought him to Niagara, where he was warmly received by
+the commandant, the chaplain, and the storekeeper,--the triumvirate who
+ruled these forest outposts, and stood respectively for their three
+vital principles, war, religion, and trade. Here Piquet said mass; and
+after resting a day, set out for the trading-house at the portage of the
+cataract, recently built, like Toronto, to stop the Indians on their way
+to Oswego. [36] Here he found Joncaire, and here also was encamped a
+large band of Senecas; though, being all drunk, men, women, and
+children, they were in no condition to receive the Faith, or appreciate
+the temporal advantages that attended it. On the next morning, finding
+them partially sober, he invited them to remove to La Présentation; "but
+as they had still something left in their bottles, I could get no answer
+till the following day." "I pass in silence," pursues the missionary,
+"an infinity of talks on this occasion. Monsieur de Joncaire forgot
+nothing that could help me, and behaved like a great servant of God and
+the King. My recruits increased every moment. I went to say my breviary
+while my Indians and the Senecas, without loss of time, assembled to
+hold a council with Monsieur de Joncaire." The result of the council was
+an entreaty to the missionary not to stop at Oswego, lest evil should
+befall him at the hands of the English. He promised to do as they
+wished, and presently set out on his return to Fort Niagara, attended by
+Joncaire and a troop of his new followers. The journey was a triumphal
+progress. "Whenever was passed a camp or a wigwam, the Indians saluted
+me by firing their guns, which happened so often that I thought all the
+trees along the way were charged with gunpowder; and when we reached the
+fort, Monsieur de Becancour received us with great ceremony and the
+firing of cannon, by which my savages were infinitely flattered."
+
+[36] La Jonquière au Ministre, 23 Fév. 1750. Ibid., 6 Oct. 1751. Compare
+Colonial Records of Pa., V. 508.
+
+His neophytes were gathered into the chapel for the first time in their
+lives, and there rewarded with a few presents. He now prepared to turn
+homeward, his flock at the mission being left in his absence without a
+shepherd; and on the sixth of July he embarked, followed by a swarm of
+canoes. On the twelfth they stopped at the Genesee, and went to visit
+the Falls, where the city of Rochester now stands. On the way, the
+Indians found a populous resort of rattlesnakes, and attacked the
+gregarious reptiles with great animation, to the alarm of the
+missionary, who trembled for his bare-legged retainers. His fears proved
+needless. Forty-two dead snakes, as he avers, requited the efforts of
+the sportsmen, and not one of them was bitten. When he returned to camp
+in the afternoon he found there a canoe loaded with kegs of brandy. "The
+English," he says, "had sent it to meet us, well knowing that this was
+the best way to cause disorder among my new recruits and make them
+desert me. The Indian in charge of the canoe, who had the look of a
+great rascal, offered some to me first, and then to my Canadians and
+Indians. I gave out that it was very probably poisoned, and immediately
+embarked again."
+
+He encamped on the fourteenth at Sodus Bay, and strongly advises the
+planting of a French fort there. "Nevertheless," he adds, "it would be
+still better to destroy Oswego, and on no account let the English build
+it again." On the sixteenth he came in sight of this dreaded post.
+Several times on the way he had met fleets of canoes going thither or
+returning, in spite of the rival attractions of Toronto and Niagara. No
+English establishment on the continent was of such ill omen to the
+French. It not only robbed them of the fur-trade, by which they lived,
+but threatened them with military and political, no less than
+commercial, ruin. They were in constant dread lest ships of war should
+be built here, strong enough to command Lake Ontario, thus separating
+Canada from Louisiana, and cutting New France asunder. To meet this
+danger, they soon after built at Fort Frontenac a large three-masted
+vessel, mounted with heavy cannon; thus, as usual, forestalling their
+rivals by promptness of action. [37] The ground on which Oswego stood
+was claimed by the Province of New York, which alone had control of it;
+but through the purblind apathy of the Assembly, and their incessant
+quarrels with the Governor, it was commonly left to take care of itself.
+For some time they would vote no money to pay the feeble little
+garrison; and Clinton, who saw the necessity of maintaining it, was
+forced to do so on his own personal credit. [38] "Why can't your
+Governor and your great men [the Assembly] agree?" asked a Mohawk chief
+of the interpreter, Conrad Weiser. [39]
+
+[37] Lieutenant Lindesay to Johnson, July, 1751.
+
+[38] Clinton to Lords of Trade, 30 July, 1750.
+
+[39] Journal of Conrad Weiser, 1750.
+
+Piquet kept his promise not to land at the English fort; but he
+approached in his canoe, and closely observed it. The shores, now
+covered by the city of Oswego, were then a desolation of bare hills and
+fields, studded with the stumps of felled trees, and hedged about with a
+grim border of forests. Near the strand, by the mouth of the Onondaga,
+were the houses of some of the traders; and on the higher ground behind
+them stood a huge block-house with a projecting upper story. This
+building was surrounded by a rough wall of stone, with flankers at the
+angles, forming what was called the fort. [40] Piquet reconnoitred it
+from his canoe with the eye of a soldier. "It is commanded," he says,
+"on almost every side; two batteries, of three twelve-pounders each,
+would be more than enough to reduce it to ashes." And he enlarges on the
+evils that arise from it. "It not only spoils our trade, but puts the
+English into communication with a vast number of our Indians, far and
+near. It is true that they like our brandy better than English rum; but
+they prefer English goods to ours, and can buy for two beaver-skins at
+Oswego a better silver bracelet than we sell at Niagara for ten."
+
+[40] Compare Doc. Hist. N. Y., I. 463.
+
+The burden of these reflections was lightened when he approached Fort
+Frontenac. "Never was reception more solemn. The Nipissings and
+Algonkins, who were going on a war-party with Monsieur Belêtre, formed a
+line of their own accord, and saluted us with three volleys of musketry,
+and cries of joy without end. All our little bark vessels replied in the
+same way. Monsieur de Verchères and Monsieur de Valtry ordered the
+cannon of the fort to be fired; and my Indians, transported with joy at
+the honor done them, shot off their guns incessantly, with cries and
+acclamations that delighted everybody." A goodly band of recruits joined
+him, and he pursued his voyage to La Présentation, while the canoes of
+his proselytes followed in a swarm to their new home; "that
+establishment"--thus in a burst of enthusiasm he closes his
+Journal--"that establishment which I began two years ago, in the midst
+of opposition; that establishment which may be regarded as a key of the
+colony; that establishment which officers, interpreters, and traders
+thought a chimæra,--that establishment, I say, forms already a mission
+of Iroquois savages whom I assembled at first to the number of only six,
+increased last year to eighty-seven, and this year to three hundred and
+ninety-six, without counting more than a hundred and fifty whom Monsieur
+Chabert de Joncaire is to bring me this autumn. And I certify that thus
+far I have received from His Majesty--for all favor, grace, and
+assistance--no more than a half pound of bacon and two pounds of bread
+for daily rations; and that he has not yet given a pin to the chapel,
+which I have maintained out of my own pocket, for the greater glory of
+my masters, God and the King." [41]
+
+[41] Journal qui peut servir de Mémoire et de Relation du Voyage que
+j'ay fait sur le Lac Ontario pour attirer au nouvel Établissement de La
+Présentation les Sauvages Iroquois des Cinq Nations, 1751. The last
+passage given above is condensed in the rendering, as the original is
+extremely involved and ungrammatical.
+
+In his late journey he had made the entire circuit of Lake Ontario.
+Beyond lay four other inland oceans, to which Fort Niagara was the key.
+As that all-essential post controlled the passage from Ontario to Erie,
+so did Fort Detroit control that from Erie to Huron, and Fort
+Michillimackinac that from Huron to Michigan; while Fort Ste. Marie, at
+the outlet of Lake Superior, had lately received a garrison, and changed
+from a mission and trading-station to a post of war. [42] This immense
+extent of inland navigation was safe in the hands of France so long as
+she held Niagara. Niagara lost, not only the lakes, but also the Valley
+of the Ohio was lost with it. Next in importance was Detroit. This was
+not a military post alone, but also a settlement; and, except the
+hamlets about Fort Chartres, the only settlement that France owned in
+all the West. There were, it is true, but a few families; yet the hope
+of growth seemed good; for to such as liked a wilderness home, no spot
+in America had more attraction. Father Bonnecamp stopped here for a day
+on his way back from the expedition of Céloron. "The situation," he
+says, "is charming. A fine river flows at the foot of the
+fortifications; vast meadows, asking only to be tilled, extend beyond
+the sight. Nothing can be more agreeable than the climate. Winter lasts
+hardly two months. European grains and fruits grow here far better than
+in many parts of France. It is the Touraine and Beauce of Canada." [43]
+The white flag of the Bourbons floated over the compact little palisaded
+town, with its population of soldiers and fur-traders; and from the
+block-houses which served as bastions, one saw on either hand the small
+solid dwellings of the habitants, ranged at intervals along the margin
+of the water; while at a little distance three Indian villages--Ottawa,
+Pottawattamie, and Wyandot--curled their wigwam smoke into the pure
+summer air. [44]
+
+[42] La Jonquière au Ministre, 24 Août, 1750.
+
+[43] Relation du Voiage de la Belle Rivière, 1749.
+
+[44] A plan of Detroit is before me, made about this time by the
+engineer Lery.
+
+When Céloron de Bienville returned from the Ohio, he went, with a royal
+commission, sent him a year before, to command at Detroit. [45] His late
+chaplain, the very intelligent Father Bonnecamp, speaks of him as
+fearless, energetic, and full of resource; but the Governor calls him
+haughty and insubordinate. Great efforts were made, at the same time, to
+build up Detroit as a centre of French power in the West. The methods
+employed were of the debilitating, paternal character long familiar to
+Canada. All emigrants with families were to be carried thither at the
+King's expense; and every settler was to receive in free gift a gun, a
+hoe, an axe, a ploughshare, a scythe, a sickle, two augers, large and
+small, a sow, six hens, a cock, six pounds of powder, and twelve pounds
+of lead; while to these favors were added many others. The result was
+that twelve families were persuaded to go, or about a twentieth part of
+the number wanted. [46] Detroit was expected to furnish supplies to the
+other posts for five hundred miles around, control the neighboring
+Indians, thwart English machinations, and drive off English interlopers.
+
+[45] Le Ministre à la Jonquière et Bigot, 14 Mai, 1749. Le Ministre à
+Céloron, 23 Mai, 1749.
+
+[46] Ordonnance du 2 Jan. 1750. La Jonquière et Bigot au Ministre, 1750.
+Forty-six persons of all ages and both sexes had been induced by La
+Galissonière to go the year before. Lettres communes de la Jonquière et
+Bigot, 1749. The total fixed population of Detroit and its neighborhood
+in 1750 is stated at four hundred and eighty-three souls. In the
+following two years, a considerable number of young men came of their
+own accord, and Céloron wrote to Montreal to ask for girls to marry
+them.
+
+La Galissonière no longer governed Canada. He had been honorably
+recalled, and the Marquis de la Jonquière sent in his stead. [47] La
+Jonquière, like his predecessor, was a naval officer of high repute; he
+was tall and imposing in person, and of undoubted capacity and courage;
+but old and, according to his enemies, very avaricious. [48] The
+Colonial Minister gave him special instructions regarding that thorn in
+the side of Canada, Oswego. To attack it openly would be indiscreet, as
+the two nations were at peace; but there was a way of dealing with it
+less hazardous, if not more lawful. This was to attack it vicariously by
+means of the Iroquois. "If Abbé Piquet succeeds in his mission," wrote
+the Minister to the new Governor, "we can easily persuade these savages
+to destroy Oswego. This is of the utmost importance; but act with great
+caution." [49] In the next year the Minister wrote again: "The only
+means that can be used for such an operation in time of peace are those
+of the Iroquois. If by making these savages regard such an establishment
+[Oswego] as opposed to their liberty, and, so to speak, a usurpation by
+which the English mean to get possession of their lands, they could be
+induced to undertake its destruction, an operation of the sort is not to
+be neglected; but M. le Marquis de la Jonquière should feel with what
+circumspection such an affair should be conducted, and he should labor
+to accomplish it in a manner not to commit himself." [50] To this La
+Jonquière replies that it will need time; but that he will gradually
+bring the Iroquois to attack and destroy the English post. He received
+stringent orders to use every means to prevent the English from
+encroaching, but to act towards them at the same time "with the greatest
+politeness." [51] This last injunction was scarcely fulfilled in a
+correspondence which he had with Clinton, governor of New York, who had
+written to complain of the new post at the Niagara portage as an
+invasion of English territory, and also of the arrest of four English
+traders in the country of the Miamis. Niagara, like Oswego, was in the
+country of the Five Nations, whom the treaty of Utrecht declared
+"subject to the dominion of Great Britain." [52] This declaration,
+preposterous in itself, was binding on France, whose plenipotentiaries
+had signed the treaty. The treaty also provided that the subjects of the
+two Crowns "shall enjoy full liberty of going and coming on account of
+trade," and Clinton therefore demanded that La Jonquière should disavow
+the arrest of the four traders and punish its authors. The French
+Governor replied with great asperity, spurned the claim that the Five
+Nations were British subjects, and justified the arrest. [53] He
+presently went further. Rewards were offered by his officers for the
+scalps of Croghan and of another trader named Lowry. [54] When this
+reached the ears of William Johnson, on the Mohawk, he wrote to Clinton
+in evident anxiety for his own scalp: "If the French go on so, there is
+no man can be safe in his own house; for I can at any time get an Indian
+to kill any man for a small matter. Their going on in that manner is
+worse than open war."
+
+[47] Le Ministre à la Galissonière, 14 Mai, 1749.
+
+[48] Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. The charges made here and
+elsewhere are denied, somewhat faintly, by a descendant of La Jonquière
+in his elaborate Notice biographique of his ancestor.
+
+[49] Le Ministre à La Jonquière, Mai, 1749. The instructions given to La
+Jonquière before leaving France also urge the necessity of destroying
+Oswego.
+
+[50] Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres; à MM. de la Jonquière et
+Bigot, 15 Avril, 1750. See Appendix A. for original.
+
+[51] Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, 1750.
+
+[52] Chalmers, Collection of Treaties, I. 382.
+
+[53] La Jonquière à Clinton, 10 Août, 1751.
+
+[54] Deposition of Morris Turner and Ralph Kilgore, in Colonial Records
+of Pa., V. 482. The deponents had been prisoners at Detroit.
+
+The French on their side made counter-accusations. The captive traders
+were examined on oath before La Jonquière, and one of them, John Patton,
+is reported to have said that Croghan had instigated Indians to kill
+Frenchmen. [55] French officials declared that other English traders
+were guilty of the same practices; and there is very little doubt that
+the charge was true.
+
+[55] Précis des Faits, avec leurs Pièces justificatives, 100.
+
+The dispute with the English was not the only source of trouble to the
+Governor. His superiors at Versailles would not adopt his views, and
+looked on him with distrust. He advised the building of forts near Lake
+Erie, and his advice was rejected. "Niagara and Detroit," he was told,
+"will secure forever our communications with Louisiana." [56] "His
+Majesty," again wrote the Colonial Minister, "thought that expenses
+would diminish after the peace; but, on the contrary, they have
+increased. There must be great abuses. You and the Intendant must look
+to it." [57] Great abuses there were; and of the money sent to Canada
+for the service of the King the larger part found its way into the
+pockets of peculators. The colony was eaten to the heart with official
+corruption; and the centre of it was François Bigot, the intendant. The
+Minister directed La Jonquière's attention to certain malpractices which
+had been reported to him; and the old man, deeply touched, replied: "I
+have reached the age of sixty-six years, and there is not a drop of
+blood in my veins that does not thrill for the service of my King. I
+will not conceal from you that the slightest suspicion on your part
+against me would cut the thread of my days." [58]
+
+[56] Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, 1750.
+
+[57] Ibid., 6 Juin, 1751.
+
+[58] La Jonquière au Ministre, 19 Oct. 1751.
+
+Perplexities increased; affairs in the West grew worse and worse. La
+Jonquière ordered Céloron to attack the English at Pickawillany; and
+Céloron could not or would not obey. "I cannot express," writes the
+Governor, "how much this business troubles me; it robs me of sleep; it
+makes me ill." Another letter of rebuke presently came from Versailles.
+"Last year you wrote that you would soon drive the English from the
+Ohio; but private letters say that you have done nothing. This is
+deplorable. If not expelled, they will seem to acquire a right against
+us. Send force enough at once to drive them off, and cure them of all
+wish to return." [59] La Jonquière answered with bitter complaints
+against Céloron, and then begged to be recalled. His health, already
+shattered, was ruined by fatigue and vexation; and he took to his bed.
+Before spring he was near his end. [60] It is said that, though very
+rich, his habits of thrift so possessed his last hours that, seeing
+wax-candles burning in his chamber, he ordered others of tallow to be
+brought instead, as being good enough to die by. Thus frugally lighted
+on its way, his spirit fled; and the Baron de Longueuil took his place
+till a new governor should arrive.
+
+[59] Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, 1751.
+
+[60] He died on the sixth of March, 1752 (Bigot au Ministre, 6 Mai); not
+on the seventeenth of May, as stated in the Mémoires sur le Canada,
+1749-1760.
+
+Sinister tidings came thick from the West. Raymond, commandant at the
+French fort on the Maumee, close to the centre of intrigue, wrote: "My
+people are leaving me for Detroit. Nobody wants to stay here and have
+his throat cut. All the tribes who go to the English at Pickawillany
+come back loaded with gifts. I am too weak to meet the danger. Instead
+of twenty men, I need five hundred.... We have made peace with the
+English, yet they try continually to make war on us by means of the
+Indians; they intend to be masters of all this upper country. The tribes
+here are leaguing together to kill all the French, that they may have
+nobody on their lands but their English brothers. This I am told by
+Coldfoot, a great Miami chief, whom I think an honest man, if there is
+any such thing among Indians.... If the English stay in this country we
+are lost. We must attack, and drive them out." And he tells of war-belts
+sent from tribe to tribe, and rumors of plots and conspiracies far and
+near.
+
+Without doubt, the English traders spared no pains to gain over the
+Indians by fair means or foul; sold them goods at low rates, made ample
+gifts, and gave gunpowder for the asking. Saint-Ange, who commanded at
+Vincennes, wrote that a storm would soon burst on the heads of the
+French. Joncaire reported that all the Ohio Indians sided with the
+English. Longueuil informed the Minister that the Miamis had scalped two
+soldiers; that the Piankishaws had killed seven Frenchmen; and that a
+squaw who had lived with one of the slain declared that the tribes of
+the Wabash and Illinois were leaguing with the Osages for a combined
+insurrection. Every letter brought news of murder. Small-pox had broken
+out at Detroit. "It is to be wished," says Longueuil, "that it would
+spread among our rebels; it would be fully as good as an army.... We are
+menaced with a general outbreak, and even Toronto is in danger....
+Before long the English on the Miami will gain over all the surrounding
+tribes, get possession of Fort Chartres, and cut our communications with
+Louisiana." [61]
+
+[61] Dépêches de Longueuil; Lettres de Raymond; Benoit de Saint-Clerc à
+la Jonquière, Oct. 1751.
+
+The moving spirit of disaffection was the chief called Old Britain, or
+the Demoiselle, and its focus was his town of Pickawillany, on the
+Miami. At this place it is said that English traders sometimes mustered
+to the number of fifty or more. "It is they," wrote Longueuil, "who are
+the instigators of revolt and the source of all our woes." [62]
+Whereupon the Colonial Minister reiterated his instructions to drive
+them off and plunder them, which he thought would "effectually disgust
+them," and bring all trouble to an end. [63]
+
+[62] Longueuil au Ministre, 21 Avril, 1752.
+
+[63] Le Ministre à la Jonquière, 1752. Le Ministre à Duquesne, 9
+Juillet, 1752.
+
+La Jonquière's remedy had been more heroic, for he had ordered Céloron
+to attack the English and their red allies alike; and he charged that
+officer with arrogance and disobedience because he had not done so. It
+is not certain that obedience was easy; for though, besides the garrison
+of regulars, a strong body of militia was sent up to Detroit to aid the
+stroke, [64] the Indians of that post, whose co-operation was thought
+necessary, proved half-hearted, intractable, and even touched with
+disaffection. Thus the enterprise languished till, in June, aid came
+from another quarter. Charles Langlade, a young French trader married to
+a squaw at Green Bay, and strong in influence with the tribes of that
+region, came down the lakes from Michillimackinac with a fleet of canoes
+manned by two hundred and fifty Ottawa and Ojibwa warriors; stopped a
+while at Detroit; then embarked again, paddled up the Maumee to
+Raymond's fort at the portage, and led his greased and painted rabble
+through the forest to attack the Demoiselle and his English friends.
+They approached Pickawillany at about nine o'clock on the morning of the
+twenty-first. The scared squaws fled from the cornfields into the town,
+where the wigwams of the Indians clustered about the fortified warehouse
+of the traders. Of these there were at the time only eight in the place.
+Most of the Indians also were gone on their summer hunt, though the
+Demoiselle remained with a band of his tribesmen. Great was the
+screeching of war-whoops and clatter of guns. Three of the traders were
+caught outside the fort. The remaining five closed the gate, and stood
+on their defence. The fight was soon over. Fourteen Miamis were shot
+down, the Demoiselle among the rest. The five white men held out till
+the afternoon, when three of them surrendered, and two, Thomas Burney
+and Andrew McBryer, made their escape. One of the English prisoners
+being wounded, the victors stabbed him to death. Seventy years of
+missionaries had not weaned them from cannibalism, and they boiled and
+eat the Demoiselle. [65]
+
+[64] La Jonquière à Céloron, 1 Oct. 1751.
+
+[65] On the attack of Pickawillany, Longueuil au Ministre, 18 Août,
+1752; Duquesne au Ministre, 25 Oct. 1752; Colonial Records of Pa., V.
+599; Journal of William Trent, 1752. Trent was on the spot a few days
+after the affair.
+
+The captive traders, plundered to the skin, were carried by Langlade to
+Duquesne, the new governor, who highly praised the bold leader of the
+enterprise, and recommended him to the Minister for such reward as
+befitted one of his station. "As he is not in the King's service, and
+has married a squaw, I will ask for him only a pension of two hundred
+francs, which will flatter him infinitely."
+
+The Marquis Duquesne, sprung from the race of the great naval commander
+of that name, had arrived towards midsummer; and he began his rule by a
+general review of troops and militia. His lofty bearing offended the
+Canadians; but he compelled their respect, and, according to a writer of
+the time, showed from the first that he was born to command. He
+presently took in hand an enterprise which his predecessor would
+probably have accomplished, had the Home Government encouraged him.
+Duquesne, profiting by the infatuated neglect of the British provincial
+assemblies, prepared to occupy the upper waters of the Ohio, and secure
+the passes with forts and garrisons. Thus the Virginian and
+Pennsylvanian traders would be debarred all access to the West, and the
+tribes of that region, bereft henceforth of English guns, knives,
+hatchets, and blankets, English gifts and English cajoleries, would be
+thrown back to complete dependence on the French. The moral influence,
+too, of such a movement would be incalculable; for the Indian respects
+nothing so much as a display of vigor and daring, backed by force. In
+short, the intended enterprise was a master-stroke, and laid the axe to
+the very root of disaffection. It is true that, under the treaty,
+commissioners had been long in session at Paris to settle the question
+of American boundaries; but there was no likelihood that they would come
+to agreement; and if France would make good her Western claims, it
+behooved her, while there was yet time, to prevent her rival from
+fastening a firm grasp on the countries in dispute.
+
+Yet the Colonial Minister regarded the plan with distrust. "Be on your
+guard," he wrote to Duquesne, "against new undertakings; private
+interests are generally at the bottom of them. It is through these that
+new posts are established. Keep only such as are indispensable, and
+suppress the others. The expenses of the colony are enormous; and they
+have doubled since the peace." Again, a little later: "Build on the Ohio 
+such forts as are absolutely necessary, but no more. Remember that His
+Majesty suspects your advisers of interested views." [66]
+
+[66] Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, 1753.
+
+No doubt there was justice in the suspicion. Every military movement,
+and above all the establishment of every new post, was an opportunity to
+the official thieves with whom the colony swarmed. Some band of favored
+knaves grew rich; while a much greater number, excluded from sharing the
+illicit profits, clamored against the undertaking, and wrote charges of
+corruption to Versailles. Thus the Minister was kept tolerably well
+informed; but was scarcely the less helpless, for with the Atlantic
+between, the disorders of Canada defied his control. Duquesne was
+exasperated by the opposition that met him on all hands, and wrote to
+the Minister: "There are so many rascals in this country that one is
+forever the butt of their attacks." [67]
+
+[67] Duquesne au Ministre, 29 Sept. 1754.
+
+It seems that unlawful gain was not the only secret spring of the
+movement. An officer of repute says that the Intendant, Bigot,
+enterprising in his pleasures as in his greed, was engaged in an
+intrigue with the wife of Chevalier Péan; and wishing at once to console
+the husband and to get rid of him, sought for him a high command at a
+distance from the colony. Therefore while Marin, an able officer, was
+made first in rank, Péan was made second. The same writer hints that
+Duquesne himself was influenced by similar motives in his appointment of
+leaders. [68]
+
+[68] Pouchot, Mémoire sur la dernière Guerre de l'Amérique
+septentrionale (ed. 1781), I. 8.
+
+He mustered the colony troops, and ordered out the Canadians. With the
+former he was but half satisfied; with the latter he was delighted; and
+he praises highly their obedience and alacrity. "I had not the least
+trouble in getting them to march. They came on the minute, bringing
+their own guns, though many people tried to excite them to revolt; for
+the whole colony opposes my operations." The expedition set out early in
+the spring of 1753. The whole force was not much above a thousand men,
+increased by subsequent detachments to fifteen hundred; but to the
+Indians it seemed a mighty host; and one of their orators declared that
+the lakes and rivers were covered with boats and soldiers from Montreal
+to Presquisle. [69] Some Mohawk hunters by the St. Lawrence saw them as
+they passed, and hastened home to tell the news to Johnson, whom they
+wakened at midnight, "whooping and hollowing in a frightful manner."
+[70] Lieutenant Holland at Oswego saw a fleet of canoes upon the lake,
+and was told by a roving Frenchman that they belonged to an army of six
+thousand men going to the Ohio, "to cause all the English to quit those
+parts." [71]
+
+[69] Duquesne au Ministre, 27 Oct. 1753.
+
+[70] Johnson to Clinton, 20 April, 1753, in N. Y. Col. Docs., VI. 778.
+
+[71] Holland to Clinton, 15 May, 1753, in N. Y. Col. Docs., VI. 780.
+
+The main body of the expedition landed at Presquisle, on the
+southeastern shore of Lake Erie, where the town of Erie now stands; and
+here for a while we leave them.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+1710-1754.
+
+CONFLICT FOR ACADIA.
+
+Acadia ceded to England • Acadians swear Fidelity • Halifax founded •
+French Intrigue • Acadian Priests • Mildness of English Rule • Covert
+Hostility of Acadians • The New Oath • Treachery of Versailles • Indians
+incited to War • Clerical Agents of Revolt • Abbé Le Loutre • Acadians
+impelled to emigrate • Misery of the Emigrants • Humanity of Cornwallis
+and Hopson • Fanaticism and Violence of Le Loutre • Capture of the "St.
+François" • The English at Beaubassin • Le Loutre drives out the
+Inhabitants • Murder of Howe • Beauséjour • Insolence of Le Loutre • His
+Harshness to the Acadians • The Boundary Commission • Its Failure •
+Approaching War
+
+While in the West all the signs of the sky foreboded storm, another
+tempest was gathering the East, less in extent, but not less in peril.
+The conflict in Acadia has a melancholy interest, since it ended in a
+catastrophe which prose and verse have joined to commemorate, but of
+which the causes have not been understood.
+
+Acadia--that it to say, the peninsula of Nova Scotia, with the addition,
+as the English claimed, of the present New Brunswick and some adjacent
+country--was conquered by General Nicholson in 1710, and formally
+transferred by France to the British Crown, three years later, by the
+treaty of Utrecht. By that treaty it was "expressly provided" that such
+of the French inhabitants as "are willing to remain there and to be
+subject to the Kingdom of Great Britain, are to enjoy the free exercise
+of their religion according to the usage of the Church of Rome, as far
+as the laws of Great Britain do allow the same;" but that any who choose
+may remove, with their effects, if they do so within a year. Very few
+availed themselves of this right; and after the end of the year those
+who remained were required to take an oath of allegiance to King George.
+There is no doubt that in a little time they would have complied, had
+they been let alone; but the French authorities of Canada and Cape
+Breton did their utmost to prevent them, and employed agents to keep
+them hostile to England. Of these the most efficient were the French
+priests, who, in spite of the treaty, persuaded their flocks that they
+were still subjects of King Louis. Hence rose endless perplexity to the
+English commanders at Annapolis, who more than suspected that the Indian
+attacks with which they were harassed were due mainly to French
+instigation. [72] It was not till seventeen years after the treaty that
+the Acadians could be brought to take the oath without qualifications
+which made it almost useless. The English authorities seem to have shown
+throughout an unusual patience and forbearance. At length, about 1730,
+nearly all the inhabitants signed by crosses, since few of them could
+write, an oath recognizing George II. as sovereign of Acadia, and
+promising fidelity and obedience to him. [73] This restored comparative
+quiet till the war of 1745, when some of the Acadians remained neutral,
+while some took arms against the English, and many others aided the
+enemy with information and supplies.
+
+[72] See the numerous papers in Selections from the Public Documents of
+the Province of Nova Scotia (Halifax, 1869), pp. 1-165; a Government
+publication of great value.
+
+[73] The oath was literatim as follows: "Je Promets et Jure Sincerement
+en Foi de Chrétien que Je serai entierement Fidele, et Obeierai Vraiment
+Sa Majesté Le Roy George Second, qui (sic) Je reconnoi pour Le Souvrain
+Seigneur de l'Accadie ou Nouvelle Ecosse. Ainsi Dieu me Soit en Aide."
+
+English power in Acadia, hitherto limited to a feeble garrison at
+Annapolis and a feebler one at Canseau, received at this time a great
+accession. The fortress of Louisbourg, taken by the English during the
+war, had been restored by the treaty; and the French at once prepared to
+make it a military and naval station more formidable than ever. Upon
+this the British Ministry resolved to establish another station as a
+counterpoise; and the harbor of Chebucto, on the south coast of Acadia,
+was chosen as the site of it. Thither in June, 1749, came a fleet of
+transports loaded with emigrants, tempted by offers of land and a home
+in the New World. Some were mechanics, tradesmen, farmers, and laborers;
+others were sailors, soldiers, and subaltern officers thrown out of
+employment by the peace. Including women and children, they counted in
+all about twenty-five hundred. Alone of all the British colonies on the
+continent, this new settlement was the offspring, not of private
+enterprise, but of royal authority. Yet is was free like the rest, with
+the same popular representation and local self-government. Edward
+Cornwallis, uncle of Lord Cornwallis of the Revolutionary War, was made
+governor and commander-in-chief. Wolfe calls him "a man of approved
+courage and fidelity;" and even the caustic Horace Walpole speaks of him
+as "a brave, sensible young man, of great temper and good nature."
+
+Before summer was over, the streets were laid out, and the building-lot
+of each settler was assigned to him; before winter closed, the whole
+were under shelter, the village was fenced with palisades and defended
+by redoubts of timber, and the battalions lately in garrison at
+Louisbourg manned the wooden ramparts. Succeeding years brought more
+emigrants, till in 1752 the population was above four thousand. Thus was
+born into the world the city of Halifax. Along with the crumbling old
+fort and miserably disciplined garrison at Annapolis, besides six or
+seven small detached posts to watch the Indians and Acadians, it
+comprised the whole British force on the peninsula; for Canseau had been
+destroyed by the French.
+
+The French had never reconciled themselves to the loss of Acadia, and
+were resolved, by diplomacy or force, to win it back again; but the
+building of Halifax showed that this was to be no easy task, and filled
+them at the same time with alarm for the safety of Louisbourg. On one
+point, at least, they saw their policy clear. The Acadians, though those
+of them who were not above thirty-five had been born under the British
+flag, must be kept French at heart, and taught that they were still
+French subjects. In 1748 they numbered eighty-eight hundred and fifty
+communicants, or from twelve to thirteen thousand souls; but an
+emigration, of which the causes will soon appear, had reduced them in
+1752 to but little more than nine thousand. [74] These were divided into
+six principal parishes, one of the largest being that of Annapolis.
+Other centres of population were Grand Pré, on the basin of Mines;
+Beaubassin, at the head of Chignecto Bay; Pisiquid, now Windsor; and
+Cobequid, now Truro. Their priests, who were missionaries controlled by
+the diocese of Quebec, acted also as their magistrates, ruling them for
+this world and the next. Bring subject to a French superior, and being,
+moreover, wholly French at heart, they formed in this British province a
+wheel within a wheel, the inner movement always opposing the outer.
+
+[74] Description de l'Acadie, avec le Nom des Paroisses et le Nombre des
+Habitants, 1748. Mémoire à présenter à la Cour sur la Necessité de fixer
+les Limites de l'Acadie, par l'Abbé de l'Isle-Dieu, 1753 (1754?).
+Compare the estimates in Censuses of Canada (Ottawa, 1876.)
+
+Although, by the twelfth article of the treaty of Utrecht, France had
+solemnly declared the Acadians to be British subjects, the Government of
+Louis XV. intrigued continually to turn them from subjects into enemies.
+Before me is a mass of English documents on Acadian affairs from the
+peace of Aix-la-Chapelle to the catastrophe of 1755, and above a
+thousand pages of French official papers from the archives of Paris,
+memorials, reports, and secret correspondence, relating to the same
+matters. With the help of these and some collateral lights, it is not
+difficult to make a correct diagnosis of the political disease that
+ravaged this miserable country. Of a multitude of proofs, only a few can
+be given here; but these will suffice.
+
+It was not that the Acadians had been ill-used by the English; the
+reverse was the case. They had been left in free exercise of their
+worship, as stipulated by treaty. It is true that, from time to time,
+there were loud complaints from French officials that religion was in
+danger, because certain priests had been rebuked, arrested, brought
+before the Council at Halifax, suspended from their functions, or
+required, on pain of banishment, to swear that they would do nothing
+against the interests of King George. Yet such action on the part of the
+provincial authorities seems, without a single exception, to have been
+the consequence of misconduct on the part of the priest, in opposing the
+Government and stirring his flock to disaffection. La Jonquière, the
+determined adversary of the English, reported to the bishop that they
+did not oppose the ecclesiastics in the exercise of their functions, and
+an order of Louis XV. admits that the Acadians have enjoyed liberty of
+religion. [75] In a long document addressed in 1750 to the Colonial
+Minister at Versailles, Roma, an officer at Louisbourg, testifies thus
+to the mildness of British rule, though he ascribes it to interested
+motives. "The fear that the Acadians have of the Indians is the
+controlling motive which makes them side with the French. The English,
+having in view the conquest of Canada, wished to give the French of that
+colony, in their conduct towards the Acadians, a striking example of the
+mildness of their government. Without raising the fortune of any of the
+inhabitants, they have supplied them for more than thirty-five years
+with the necessaries of life, often on credit and with an excess of
+confidence, without troubling their debtors, without pressing them,
+without wishing to force them to pay. They have left them an appearance
+of liberty so excessive that they have not intervened in their disputes
+or even punished their crimes. They have allowed them to refuse with
+insolence certain moderate rents payable in grain and lawfully due. They
+have passed over in silence the contemptuous refusal of the Acadians to
+take titles from them for the new lands which they chose to occupy. [76]
+
+[75] La Jonquière à l'Évêque de Québec, 14 Juin, 1750. Mémoire du Roy
+pour servir d'Instruction au Comte de Raymond, commandant pour Sa
+Majesté à l'Isle Royale [Cape Breton], 24 Avril, 1751.
+
+[76] See Appendix B.
+
+"We know very well," pursues Roma, "the fruits of this conduct in the
+last war; and the English know it also. Judge then what will be the
+wrath and vengeance of this cruel nation." The fruits to which Roma
+alludes were the hostilities, open or secret, committed by the Acadians
+against the English. He now ventures the prediction that the enraged
+conquerors will take their revenge by drafting all the young Acadians on
+board their ships of war, and there destroying them by slow starvation.
+He proved, however, a false prophet. The English Governor merely
+required the inhabitants to renew their oath of allegiance, without
+qualification or evasion.
+
+It was twenty years since the Acadians had taken such an oath; and
+meanwhile a new generation had grown up. The old oath pledged them to
+fidelity and obedience; but they averred that Phillips, then governor of
+the province, had given them, at the same time, assurance that they
+should not be required to bear arms against either French or Indians. In
+fact, such service had not been demanded of them, and they would have
+lived in virtual neutrality, had not many of them broken their oaths and
+joined the French war-parties. For this reason Cornwallis thought it
+necessary that, in renewing the pledge, they should bind themselves to
+an allegiance as complete as that required of other British subjects.
+This spread general consternation. Deputies from the Acadian settlements
+appeared at Halifax, bringing a paper signed with the marks of a
+thousand persons. The following passage contains the pith of it. "The
+inhabitants in general, sir, over the whole extent of this country are
+resolved not to take the oath which your Excellency requires of us; but
+if your Excellency will grant us our old oath, with an exemption for
+ourselves and our heirs from taking up arms, we will accept it." [77]
+The answer of Cornwallis was by no means so stern as it has been
+represented. [78] After the formal reception he talked in private with
+the deputies; and "they went home in good humor, promising great
+things." [79]
+
+[77] Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 173.
+
+[78] See Ibid., 174, where the answer is printed.
+
+[79] Cornwallis to the Board of Trade, 11 Sept. 1749.
+
+The refusal of the Acadians to take the required oath was not wholly
+spontaneous, but was mainly due to influence from without. The French
+officials of Cape Breton and Isle St. Jean, now Prince Edward Island,
+exerted themselves to the utmost, chiefly through the agency of the
+priests, to excite the people to refuse any oath that should commit them
+fully to British allegiance. At the same time means were used to induce
+them to migrate to the neighboring islands under French rule, and
+efforts were also made to set on the Indians to attack the English. But
+the plans of the French will best appear in a despatch sent by La
+Jonquière to the Colonial Minister in the autumn of 1749.
+
+"Monsieur Cornwallis issued an order on the tenth of the said month
+[August], to the effect that if the inhabitants will remain faithful
+subjects of the King of Great Britain, he will allow them priests and
+public exercise of their religion, with the understanding that no priest
+shall officiate without his permission or before taking an oath of
+fidelity to the King of Great Britain. Secondly, that the inhabitants
+shall not be exempted from defending their houses, their lands, and the
+Government. Thirdly, that they shall take an oath of fidelity to the
+King of Great Britain, on the twenty-sixth of this month, before
+officers sent them for that purpose."
+
+La Jonquière proceeds to say that on hearing these conditions the
+Acadians were filled with perplexity and alarm, and that he, the
+governor, had directed Boishébert, his chief officer on the Acadian
+frontier, to encourage them to leave their homes and seek asylum on
+French soil. He thus recounts the steps he has taken to harass the
+English of Halifax by means of their Indian neighbors. As peace had been
+declared, the operation was delicate; and when three of these Indians
+came to him from their missionary, Le Loutre, with letters on the
+subject, La Jonquière was discreetly reticent. "I did not care to give
+them any advice upon the matter, and confined myself to a promise that I
+would on no account abandon them; and I have provided for supplying them
+with everything, whether arms, ammunition, food, or other necessaries.
+It is to be desired that these savages should succeed in thwarting the
+designs of the English, and even their settlement at Halifax. They are
+bent on doing so; and if they can carry out their plans, it is certain
+that they will give the English great trouble, and so harass them that
+they will be a great obstacle in their path. These savages are to act
+alone; neither soldier nor French inhabitant is to join them; everything
+will be done of their own motion, and without showing that I had any
+knowledge of the matter. This is very essential; therefore I have
+written to the Sieur de Boishébert to observe great prudence in his
+measures, and to act very secretly, in order that the English may not
+perceive that we are providing for the needs of the said savages.
+
+"It will be the missionaries who will manage all the negotiation, and
+direct the movements of the savages, who are in excellent hands, as the
+Reverend Father Germain and Monsieur l'Abbé Le Loutre are very capable
+of making the most of them, and using them to the greatest advantage for
+our interests. They will manage their intrigue in such a way as not to
+appear in it."
+
+La Jonquière then recounts the good results which he expects from these
+measures: first, the English will be prevented from making any new
+settlements; secondly, we shall gradually get the Acadians out of their
+hands; and lastly, they will be so discouraged by constant Indian
+attacks that they will renounce their pretensions to the parts of the
+country belonging to the King of France. "I feel, Monseigneur,"--thus
+the Governor concludes his despatch,--"all the delicacy of this
+negotiation; be assured that I will conduct it with such precaution that
+the English will not be able to say that my orders had any part in it."
+[80]
+
+[80] La Jonquière au Ministre, 9 Oct. 1749. See Appendix B.
+
+He kept his word, and so did the missionaries. The Indians gave great
+trouble on the outskirts of Halifax, and murdered many harmless
+settlers; yet the English authorities did not at first suspect that they
+were hounded on by their priests, under the direction of the Governor of
+Canada, and with the privity of the Minister at Versailles. More than
+this; for, looking across the sea, we find royalty itself lending its
+august countenance to the machination. Among the letters read before the
+King in his cabinet in May, 1750, was one from Desherbiers, then
+commanding at Louisbourg, saying that he was advising the Acadians not
+to take the oath of allegiance to the King of England; another from Le
+Loutre, declaring that he and Father Germain were consulting together
+how to disgust the English with their enterprise of Halifax; and a third
+from the Intendant, Bigot, announcing that Le Loutre was using the
+Indians to harass the new settlement, and that he himself was sending
+them powder, lead, and merchandise, "to confirm them in their good
+designs." [81]
+
+[81] Resumé des Lettres lues au Travail du Roy, Mai, 1750.
+
+To this the Minister replies in a letter to Desherbiers: "His Majesty is
+well satisfied with all you have done to thwart the English in their new
+establishment. If the dispositions of the savages are such as they seem,
+there is reason to hope that in the course of the winter they will
+succeed in so harassing the settlers that some of them will become
+disheartened." Desherbiers is then told that His Majesty desires him to
+aid English deserters in escaping from Halifax. [82] Supplies for the
+Indians are also promised; and he is informed that twelve medals are
+sent him by the frigate "La Mutine," to be given to the chiefs who shall
+most distinguish themselves. In another letter Desherbiers is enjoined
+to treat the English authorities with great politeness. [83]
+
+[82] In 1750 nine captured deserters from Phillips's regiment declared
+on their trial that the French had aided them and supplied them all with
+money. Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 193.
+
+[83] Le Ministre à Desherbiers, 23 Mai, 1750; Ibid., 31 Mai, 1750.
+
+When Count Raymond took command at Louisbourg, he was instructed, under
+the royal hand, to give particular attention to the affairs of Acadia,
+especially in two points,--the management of the Indians, and the
+encouraging of Acadian emigration to countries under French rule. "His
+Majesty," says the document, "has already remarked that the savages have
+been most favorably disposed. It is of the utmost importance that no
+means be neglected to keep them so. The missionaries among them are in a
+better position than anybody to contribute to this end, and His Majesty
+has reason to be satisfied with the pains they take therein. The Sieur
+de Raymond will excite these missionaries not to slacken their efforts;
+but he will warn them at the same time so to contain their zeal as not
+to compromise themselves with the English, and give just occasion of
+complaint." [84] That is, the King orders his representative to
+encourage the missionaries in instigating their flocks to butcher
+English settlers, but to see that they take care not to be found out.
+The injunction was hardly needed. "Monsieur Desherbiers," says a letter
+of earlier date, "has engaged Abbé Le Loutre to distribute the usual
+presents among the savages, and Monsieur Bigot has placed in his hands
+an additional gift of cloth, blankets, powder, and ball, to be given
+them in case they harass the English at Halifax. This missionary is to
+induce them to do so." [85] In spite of these efforts, the Indians began
+to relent in their hostilities; and when Longueuil became provisional
+governor of Canada, he complained to the Minister that it was very
+difficult to prevent them from making peace with the English, though
+Father Germain was doing his best to keep them on the war-path. [86] La
+Jonquière, too, had done his best, even to the point of departing from
+his original policy of allowing no soldier or Acadian to take part with
+them. He had sent a body of troops under La Corne, an able partisan
+officer, to watch the English frontier; and in the same vessel was sent
+a supply of "merchandise, guns, and munitions for the savages and the
+Acadians who may take up arms with them; and the whole is sent under
+pretext of trading in furs with the savages." [87] On another occasion
+La Jonquière wrote: "In order that the savages may do their part
+courageously, a few Acadians, dressed and painted in their way, could
+join them to strike the English. I cannot help consenting to what these
+savages do, because we have our hands tied [by the peace], and so can do
+nothing ourselves. Besides, I do not think that any inconvenience will
+come of letting the Acadians mingle among them, because if they [the
+Acadians] are captured, we shall say that they acted of their own
+accord." [88] In other words, he will encourage them to break the peace;
+and then, by means of a falsehood, have them punished as felons. Many
+disguised Acadians did in fact join the Indian war-parties; and their
+doing so was no secret to the English. "What we call here an Indian
+war," wrote Hopson, successor of Cornwallis, "is no other than a
+pretence for the French to commit hostilities on His Majesty's
+subjects."
+
+[84] Mémoire du Roy pour servir d'Instruction au Comte de Raymond, 24
+Avril, 1751.
+
+[85] Lettre commune de Desherbiers et Bigot au Ministre, 15 Août, 1749.
+
+[86] Longueuil au Ministre, 26 Avril, 1752.
+
+[87] Bigot au Ministre, 1749.
+
+[88] Dépêches de la Jonquière, 1 Mai, 1751. See Appendix B.
+
+At length the Indians made peace, or pretended to do so. The chief of Le
+Loutre's mission, who called himself Major Jean-Baptiste Cope, came to
+Halifax with a deputation of his tribe, and they all affixed their
+totems to a solemn treaty. In the next summer they returned with ninety
+or a hundred warriors, were well entertained, presented with gifts, and
+sent homeward in a schooner. On the way they seized the vessel and
+murdered the crew. This is told by Prévost, intendant at Louisbourg, who
+does not say that French instigation had any part in the treachery. [89]
+It is nevertheless certain that the Indians were paid for this or some
+contemporary murder; for Prévost, writing just four weeks later, says:
+"Last month the savages took eighteen English scalps, and Monsieur Le
+Loutre was obliged to pay them eighteen hundred livres, Acadian money,
+which I have reimbursed him." [90]
+
+[89] Prévost au Ministre, 12 Mars, 1753; Ibid., 17 July, 1753. Prévost
+was ordonnateur, or intendant, at Louisbourg. The treaty will be found
+in full in Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 683.
+
+[90] Prévost au Ministre, 16 Août, 1753.
+
+From the first, the services of this zealous missionary had been beyond
+price. Prévost testifies that, though Cornwallis does his best to induce
+the Acadians to swear fidelity to King George, Le Loutre keeps them in
+allegiance to King Louis, and threatens to set his Indians upon them
+unless they declare against the English. "I have already," adds Prévost,
+"paid him 11,183 livres for his daily expenses; and I never cease
+advising him to be as economical as possible, and always to take care
+not to compromise himself with the English Government." [91] In
+consequence of "good service to religion and the state," Le Loutre
+received a pension of eight hundred livres, as did also Maillard, his
+brother missionary on Cape Breton. "The fear is," writes the Colonial
+Minister to the Governor of Louisbourg, "that their zeal may carry them
+too far. Excite them to keep the Indians in our interests, but do not
+let them compromise us. Act always so as to make the English appear as
+aggressors." [92]
+
+[91] Ibid., 22 Juillet, 1750.
+
+[92] Le Ministre au Comte de Raymond, 21 Juillet, 1752. It is curious to
+compare these secret instructions, given by the Minister to the colonial
+officials, with a letter which the same Minister, Rouillé, wrote
+ostensibly to La Jonquière, but which was really meant for the eye of
+the British Minister at Versailles, Lord Albemarle, to whom it was shown
+in proof of French good faith. It was afterwards printed, along with
+other papers, in a small volume called Précis des Faits, avec leurs
+Pièces justificatives which was sent by the French Government to all the
+courts of Europe to show that the English alone were answerable for the
+war. The letter, it is needless to say, breathes the highest sentiments
+of international honor.
+
+
+All the Acadian clergy, in one degree or another, seem to have used
+their influence to prevent the inhabitants from taking the oath, and to
+persuade them that they were still French subjects. Some were noisy,
+turbulent, and defiant; others were too tranquil to please the officers
+of the Crown. A missionary at Annapolis is mentioned as old, and
+therefore inefficient; while the curé at Grand Pré, also an elderly man,
+was too much inclined to confine himself to his spiritual functions. It
+is everywhere apparent that those who chose these priests, and sent them
+as missionaries into a British province, expected them to act as enemies
+of the British Crown. The maxim is often repeated that duty to religion
+is inseparable from the duty to the King of France. The Bishop of Quebec
+desired the Abbé de l'Isle-Dieu to represent to the Court the need of
+more missionaries to keep the Acadians Catholic and French; but, he
+adds, there is danger that they (the missionaries) will be required to
+take an oath to do nothing contrary to the interests of the King of
+Great Britain. [93] It is a wonder that such a pledge was not always
+demanded. It was exacted in a few cases, notably in that of Girard,
+priest at Cobequid, who, on charges of instigating his flock to
+disaffection, had been sent prisoner to Halifax, but released on taking
+an oath in the above terms. Thereupon he wrote to Longueuil at Quebec
+that his parishioners wanted to submit to the English, and that he,
+having sworn to be true to the British King, could not prevent them.
+"Though I don't pretend to be a casuist," writes Longueuil, "I could not
+help answering him that he is not obliged to keep such an oath, and that
+he ought to labor in all zeal to preserve and increase the number of the
+faithful." Girard, to his credit, preferred to leave the colony, and
+retired to Isle St. Jean. [94]
+
+[93] L'Isle-Dieu, Mémoire sur l'État actuel des Missions, 1753 (1754?).
+
+[94] Longueuil au Ministre, 27 Avril, 1752.
+
+Cornwallis soon discovered to what extent the clergy stirred their
+flocks to revolt; and he wrote angrily to the Bishop of Quebec: "Was it
+you who sent Le Loutre as a missionary to the Micmacs? and is it for
+their good that he excites these wretches to practise their cruelties
+against those who have shown them every kindness? The conduct of the
+priests of Acadia has been such that by command of his Majesty I have
+published an Order declaring that if any one of them presumes to
+exercise his functions without my express permission he shall be dealt
+with according to the laws of England." [95]
+
+[95] Cornwallis to the Bishop of Quebec, 1 Dec. 1749.
+
+The English, bound by treaty to allow the Acadians the exercise of their
+religion, at length conceived the idea of replacing the French priests
+by others to be named by the Pope at the request of the British
+Government. This, becoming known to the French, greatly alarmed them,
+and the Intendant at Louisbourg wrote to the Minister that the matter
+required serious attention. [96] It threatened, in fact, to rob them of
+their chief agents of intrigue; but their alarm proved needless, as the
+plan was not carried into execution.
+
+[96] Daudin, prêtre, à Prévost, 23 Oct. 1753. Prévost au Ministre, 24
+Nov. 1753.
+
+The French officials would have been better pleased had the conduct of
+Cornwallis been such as to aid their efforts to alienate the Acadians;
+and one writer, while confessing the "favorable treatment" of the
+English towards the inhabitants, denounces it as a snare. [97] If so, it
+was a snare intended simply to reconcile them to English rule. Nor was
+it without effect. "We must give up altogether the idea of an
+insurrection in Acadia," writes an officer of Cape Breton. "The Acadians
+cannot be trusted; they are controlled by fear of the Indians, which
+leads them to breathe French sentiments, even when their inclinations
+are English. They will yield to their interests; and the English will
+make it impossible that they should either hurt them or serve us, unless
+we take measures different from those we have hitherto pursued." [98]
+
+[97] Mémoire à présenter à la Cour, 1753.
+
+[98] Roma au Ministre, 11 Mars, 1750.
+
+During all this time, constant efforts were made to stimulate Acadian
+emigration to French territory, and thus to strengthen the French
+frontier. In this work the chief agent was Le Loutre. "This priest,"
+says a French writer of the time, "urged the people of Les Mines, Port
+Royal [Annapolis], and other places, to come and join the French, and
+promised to all, in the name of the Governor, to settle and support them
+for three years, and even indemnify them for any losses they might
+incur; threatening if they did not do as he advised, to abandon them,
+deprive them of their priests, have their wives and children carried
+off, and their property laid waste by the Indians." [99] Some passed
+over the isthmus to the shores of the gulf, and others made their way to
+the Strait of Canseau. Vessels were provided to convey them, in the one
+case to Isle St. Jean, now Prince Edward Island, and in the other to
+Isle Royale, called by the English, Cape Breton. Some were eager to go;
+some went with reluctance; some would scarcely be persuaded to go at
+all. "They leave their homes with great regret," reports the Governor of
+Isle St. Jean, speaking of the people of Cobequid, "and they began to
+move their luggage only when the savages compelled them." [100] These
+savages were the flock of Abbé Le Loutre, who was on the spot to direct
+the emigration. Two thousand Acadians are reported to have left the
+peninsula before the end of 1751, and many more followed within the next
+two years. Nothing could exceed the misery of a great part of these
+emigrants, who had left perforce most of their effects behind. They
+became disheartened and apathetic. The Intendant at Louisbourg says that
+they will not take the trouble to clear the land, and that some of them
+live, like Indians, under huts of spruce-branches. [101] The Governor of
+Isle St. Jean declares that they are dying of hunger. [102] Girard, the
+priest who had withdrawn to this island rather than break his oath to
+the English, writes: "Many of them cannot protect themselves day or
+night from the severity of the cold. Most of the children are entirely
+naked; and when I go into a house they are all crouched in the ashes,
+close to the fire. They run off and hide themselves, without shoes,
+stockings, or shirts. They are not all reduced to this extremity but
+nearly all are in want." [103] Mortality among them was great, and would
+have been greater but for rations supplied by the French Government.
+
+[99] Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
+
+[100] Bonaventure à Desherbiers, 26 Juin, 1751.
+
+[101] Prévost au Ministre, 25 Nov. 1750.
+
+[102] Bonaventure, ut supra.
+
+[103] Girard à (Bonaventure?), 27 Oct. 1753.
+
+During these proceedings, the English Governor, Cornwallis, seems to
+have justified the character of good temper given him by Horace Walpole.
+His attitude towards the Acadians remained on the whole patient and
+conciliatory. "My friends," he replied to a deputation of them asking a
+general permission to leave the province, "I am not ignorant of the fact
+that every means has been used to alienate the hearts of the French
+subjects of His Britannic Majesty. Great advantages have been promised
+you elsewhere, and you have been made to imagine that your religion was
+in danger. Threats even have been resorted to in order to induce you to
+remove to French territory. The savages are made use of to molest you;
+they are to cut the throats of all who remain in their native country,
+attached to their own interests and faithful to the Government. You know
+that certain officers and missionaries, who came from Canada last
+autumn, have been the cause of all our trouble during the winter. Their
+conduct has been horrible, without honor, probity, or conscience. Their
+aim is to embroil you with the Government. I will not believe that they
+are authorized to do so by the Court of France, that being contrary to
+good faith and the friendship established between the two Crowns."
+
+What foundation there was for this amiable confidence in the Court of
+Versailles has been seen already. "When you declared your desire to
+submit yourselves to another Government," pursues Cornwallis, "our
+determination was to hinder nobody from following what he imagined to be
+his interest. We know that a forced service is worth nothing, and that a
+subject compelled to be so against his will is not far from being an
+enemy. We confess, however, that your determination to go gives us pain.
+We are aware of your industry and temperance, and that you are not
+addicted to any vice or debauchery. This province is your country. You
+and your fathers have cultivated it; naturally you ought yourselves to
+enjoy the fruits of your labor. Such was the design of the King, our
+master. You know that we have followed his orders. You know that we have
+done everything to secure to you not only the occupation of your lands,
+but the ownership of them forever. We have given you also every possible
+assurance of the free and public exercise of the Roman Catholic
+religion. But I declare to you frankly that, according to our laws,
+nobody can possess lands or houses in the province who shall refuse to
+take the oath of allegiance to his King when required to do so. You know
+very well that there are ill-disposed and mischievous persons among you
+who corrupt the others. Your inexperience, your ignorance of the affairs
+of government, and your habit of following the counsels of those who
+have not your real interests at heart, make it an easy matter to seduce
+you. In your petitions you ask for a general leave to quit the province.
+The only manner in which you can do so is to follow the regulations
+already established, and provide yourselves with our passport. And we
+declare that nothing shall prevent us from giving such passports to all
+who ask for them, the moment peace and tranquillity are re-established."
+[104] He declares as his reason for not giving them at once, that on
+crossing the frontier "you will have to pass the French detachments and
+savages assembled there, and that they compel all the inhabitants who go
+there to take up arms" against the English. How well this reason was
+founded will soon appear.
+
+[104] The above passages are from two address of Cornwallis, read to the
+Acadian deputies in April and May, 1750. The combined extracts here
+given convey the spirit of the whole. See Public Documents of Nova
+Scotia, 185-190.
+
+Hopson, the next governor, described by the French themselves as a "mild
+and peaceable officer," was no less considerate in his treatment of the
+Acadians; and at the end of 1752 he issued the following order to his
+military subordinates: "You are to look on the French inhabitants in the
+same light as the rest of His Majesty's subjects, as to the protection
+of the laws and government; for which reason nothing is to be taken from
+them by force, or any price set upon their goods but what they
+themselves agree to. And if at any time the inhabitants should
+obstinately refuse to comply with what His Majesty's service may require
+of them, you are not to redress yourself by military force or in any
+unlawful manner, but to lay the case before the Governor and wait his
+orders thereon." [105] Unfortunately, the mild rule of Cornwallis and
+Hopson was not always maintained under their successor, Lawrence.
+
+[105] Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 197.
+
+Louis Joseph Le Loutre, vicar-general of Acadia and missionary to the
+Micmacs, was the most conspicuous person in the province, and more than
+any other man was answerable for the miseries that overwhelmed it. The
+sheep of which he was the shepherd dwelt, at a day's journey from
+Halifax, by the banks of the River Shubenacadie, in small cabins of
+logs, mixed with wigwams of birch-bark. They were not a docile flock;
+and to manage them needed address, energy, and money,--with all of which
+the missionary was provided. He fed their traditional dislike of the
+English, and fanned their fanaticism, born of the villanous counterfeit
+of Christianity which he and his predecessors had imposed on them. Thus
+he contrived to use them on the one hand to murder the English, and on
+the other to terrify the Acadians; yet not without cost to the French
+Government; for they had learned the value of money, and, except when
+their blood was up, were slow to take scalps without pay. Le Loutre was
+a man of boundless egotism, a violent spirit of domination, an intense
+hatred of the English, and a fanaticism that stopped at nothing. Towards
+the Acadians he was a despot; and this simple and superstitious people,
+extremely susceptible to the influence of their priests, trembled before
+him. He was scarcely less masterful in his dealings with the Acadian
+clergy; and, aided by his quality of the Bishop's vicar-general, he
+dragooned even the unwilling into aiding his schemes. Three successive
+governors of New France thought him invaluable, yet feared the
+impetuosity of his zeal, and vainly tried to restrain it within safe
+bounds. The Bishop, while approving his objects, thought his medicines
+too violent, and asked in a tone of reproof: "Is it right for you to
+refuse the Acadians the sacraments, to threaten that they shall be
+deprived of the services of a priest, and that the savages shall treat
+them as enemies?" [106] "Nobody," says a French Catholic contemporary,
+"was more fit than he to carry discord and desolation into a country."
+[107] Cornwallis called him "a good-for-nothing scoundrel," and offered
+a hundred pounds for his head. [108]
+
+[106] L'Évêque de Québec à Le Loutre; translation in Public Documents of
+Nova Scotia, 240.
+
+[107] Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
+
+[108] On Le Loutre, compare Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 178-180,
+note, with authorities there cited; N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 11; Mémoires
+sur le Canada, 1749-1760 (Quebec, 1838).
+
+
+The authorities at Halifax, while exasperated by the perfidy practised
+on them, were themselves not always models of international virtue. They
+seized a French vessel in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, on the
+charge--probably true--that she was carrying arms and ammunition to the
+Acadians and Indians. A less defensible act was the capture of the armed
+brig "St. François," laden with supplies for a fort lately
+re-established by the French, at the mouth of the River St. John, on
+ground claimed by both nations. Captain Rous, a New England officer
+commanding a frigate in the Royal Navy, opened fire on the "St.
+François," took her after a short cannonade, and carried her into
+Halifax, where she was condemned by the court. Several captures of small
+craft, accused of illegal acts, were also made by the English. These
+proceedings, being all of an overt nature, gave the officers of Louis
+XV. precisely what they wanted,--an occasion for uttering loud
+complaints, and denouncing the English as breakers of the peace.
+
+But the movement most alarming to the French was the English occupation
+of Beaubassin,--an act perfectly lawful in itself, since, without
+reasonable doubt, the place was within the limits of Acadia, and
+therefore on English ground.[109] Beaubassin was a considerable
+settlement on the isthmus that joins the Acadian peninsula to the
+mainland. Northwest of the settlement lay a wide marsh, through which
+ran a stream called the Missaguash, some two miles beyond which rose a
+hill called Beauséjour. On and near this hill were stationed the troops
+and Canadians sent under Boishébert and La Corne to watch the English
+frontier. This French force excited disaffection among the Acadians
+through all the neighboring districts, and constantly helped them to
+emigrate. Cornwallis therefore resolved to send an English force to the
+spot; and accordingly, towards the end of April, 1750, Major Lawrence
+landed at Beaubassin with four hundred men. News of their approach had
+come before them, and Le Loutre was here with his Micmacs, mixed with
+some Acadians whom he had persuaded or bullied to join him. Resolved
+that the people of Beaubassin should not live under English influence,
+he now with his own hand set fire to the parish church, while his white
+and red adherents burned the houses of the inhabitants, and thus
+compelled them to cross to the French side of the river. [110] This was
+the first forcible removal of the Acadians. It was as premature as it
+was violent; since Lawrence, being threatened by La Corne, whose force
+was several times greater than his own, presently reimbarked. In the
+following September he returned with seventeen small vessels and about
+seven hundred men, and again attempted to land on the strand of
+Beaubassin. La Jonquière says that he could only be resisted indirectly,
+because he was on the English side of the river. This indirect
+resistance was undertaken by Le Loutre, who had thrown up a breastwork
+along the shore and manned it with his Indians and his painted and
+be-feathered Acadians. Nevertheless the English landed, and, with some
+loss, drove out the defenders. Le Loutre himself seems not to have been
+among them; but they kept up for a time a helter-skelter fight,
+encouraged by two other missionaries, Germain and Lalerne, who were near
+being caught by the English. [111] Lawrence quickly routed them, took
+possession of the cemetery, and prepared to fortify himself. The village
+of Beaubassin, consisting, it is said, of a hundred and forty houses,
+had been burned in the spring; but there were still in the neighborhood,
+on the English side, many hamlets and farms, with barns full of grain
+and hay. Le Loutre's Indians now threatened to plunder and kill the
+inhabitants if they did not take arms against the English. Few complied,
+and the greater part fled to the woods. [112] On this the Indians and
+their Acadian allies set the houses and barns on fire, and laid waste
+the whole district, leaving the inhabitants no choice but to seek food
+and shelter with the French. [113]
+
+[109] La Jonquière himself admits that he thought so. "Cette partie là
+étant, à ce que je crois, dépendante de l'Acadie." La Jonquière au
+Ministre, 3 Oct. 1750.
+
+[110] It has been erroneously stated that Beaubassin was burned by its
+own inhabitants. "Laloutre, ayant vu que les Acadiens ne paroissoient
+pas fort pressés d'abandonner leurs biens, avoit lui-même mis le feu à
+l'Église, et l'avoit fait mettre aux maisons des habitants par
+quelques-uns de ceux qu'il avoit gagnés," etc. Mémoires sur le Canada,
+1749-1760. "Les sauvages y mirent le feu." Précis des Faits, 85. "Les
+sauvages mirent le feu aux maisons." Prévost au Ministre, 22 Juillet,
+1750.
+
+[111] La Vallière, Journal de ce qui s'est passé à Chenitou [Chignecto]
+et autres parties des Frontières de l'Acadie, 1750-1751. La Vallière was
+an officer on the spot to the footnote written.
+
+[112] Prévost au Ministre, 27 Sept. 1750.
+
+[113] "Les sauvages et Accadiens mirent le feu dans toutes les maisons
+et granges, pleines de bled et de fourrages, ce qui a causé une grande
+disette." La Vallière, ut supra.
+
+The English fortified themselves on a low hill by the edge of the marsh,
+planted palisades, built barracks, and named the new work Fort Lawrence.
+Slight skirmishes between them and the French were frequent. Neither
+party respected the dividing line of the Missaguash, and a petty warfare
+of aggression and reprisal began, and became chronic. Before the end of
+the autumn there was an atrocious act of treachery. Among the English
+officers was Captain Edward Howe, an intelligent and agreeable person,
+who spoke French fluently, and had been long stationed in the province.
+Le Loutre detested him; dreading his influence over the Acadians, by
+many of whom he was known and liked. One morning, at about eight
+o'clock, the inmates of Fort Lawrence saw what seemed an officer from
+Beauséjour, carrying a flag, and followed by several men in uniform,
+wading through the sea of grass that stretched beyond the Missaguash.
+When the tide was out, this river was but an ugly trench of reddish mud
+gashed across the face of the marsh, with a thread of half-fluid slime
+lazily crawling along the bottom; but at high tide it was filled to the
+brim with an opaque torrent that would have overflowed, but for the
+dikes thrown up to confine it. Behind the dike on the farther bank stood
+the seeming officer, waving his flag in sign that he desired a parley.
+He was in reality no officer, but one of Le Loutre's Indians in
+disguise, Étienne Le Bâtard, or, as others say, the great chief,
+Jean-Baptiste Cope. Howe, carrying a white flag, and accompanied by a
+few officers and men, went towards the river to hear what he had to say.
+As they drew near, his looks and language excited their suspicion. But
+it was too late; for a number of Indians, who had hidden behind the dike
+during the night, fired upon Howe across the stream, and mortally
+wounded him. They continued their fire on his companions, but could not
+prevent them from carrying the dying man to the fort. The French
+officers, indignant at this villany, did not hesitate to charge it upon
+Le Loutre; "for," says one of them, "what is not a wicked priest capable
+of doing?" But Le Loutre's brother missionary, Maillard, declares that
+it was purely an effect of religious zeal on the part of the Micmacs,
+who, according to him, bore a deadly grudge against Howe because,
+fourteen years before, he had spoken words disrespectful to the Holy
+Virgin. [114] Maillard adds that the Indians were much pleased with what
+they had done. Finding, however, that they could effect little against
+the English troops, they changed their field of action, repaired to the
+outskirts of Halifax, murdered about thirty settlers, and carried off
+eight or ten prisoners.
+
+[114] Maillard, Les Missions Micmaques. On the murder of Howe, Public
+Documents of Nova Scotia, 194, 195, 210; Mémoires sur le Canada,
+1749-1760, where it is said that Le Loutre was present at the deed; La
+Vallière, Journal, who says that some Acadians took part in it; Dépêches
+de la Jonquière, who says "les sauvages de l'Abbé le Loutre l'ont tué
+par trahison;" and Prévost au Ministre, 27 Oct. 1750.
+
+Strong reinforcements came from Canada. The French began a fort on the
+hill of Beauséjour, and the Acadians were required to work at it with no
+compensation but rations. They were thinly clad, some had neither shoes
+nor stockings, and winter was begun. They became so dejected that it was
+found absolutely necessary to give them wages enough to supply their
+most pressing needs. In the following season Fort Beauséjour was in a
+state to receive a garrison. It stood on the crown of the hill, and a
+vast panorama stretched below and around it. In front lay the Bay of
+Chignecto, winding along the fertile shores of Chipody and Memeramcook.
+Far on the right spread the great Tantemar marsh; on the left lay the
+marsh of the Missaguash; and on a knoll beyond it, not three miles
+distant, the red flag of England waved over the palisades of Fort
+Lawrence, while hills wrapped in dark forests bounded the horizon.
+
+How the homeless Acadians from Beaubassin lived through the winter is
+not very clear. They probably found shelter at Chipody and its
+neighborhood, where there were thriving settlements of their countrymen.
+Le Loutre, fearing that they would return to their lands and submit to
+the English, sent some of them to Isle St. Jean. "They refused to go,"
+says a French writer; "but he compelled them at last, by threatening to
+make the Indians pillage them, carry off their wives and children, and
+even kill them before their eyes. Nevertheless he kept about him such as
+were most submissive to his will." [115] In the spring after the English
+occupied Beaubassin, La Jonquière issued a strange proclamation. It
+commanded all Acadians to take forthwith an oath of fidelity to the King
+of France, and to enroll themselves in the French militia, on pain of
+being treated as rebels. [116] Three years after, Lawrence, who then
+governed the province, proclaimed in his turn that all Acadians who had
+at any time sworn fidelity to the King of England, and who should be
+found in arms against him, would be treated as criminals. [117] Thus
+were these unfortunates ground between the upper and nether millstones.
+Le Loutre replied to this proclamation of Lawrence by a letter in which
+he outdid himself. He declared that any of the inhabitants who had
+crossed to the French side of the line, and who should presume to return
+to the English, would be treated as enemies by his Micmacs; and in the
+name of these, his Indian adherents, he demanded that the entire eastern
+half of the Acadian peninsula, including the ground on which Fort
+Lawrence stood, should be at once made over to their sole use and
+sovereign ownership, [118]--"which being read and considered," says the
+record of the Halifax Council, "the contents appeared too insolent and
+absurd to be answered."
+
+[115] Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
+
+[116] Ordonnance du 12 Avril, 1751.
+
+[117] Écrit donné aux Habitants réfugiés à Beauséjour, 10 Août, 1754.
+
+[118] Copie de la Lettre de M. l'Abbé Le Loutre, Prêtre Missionnaire des
+Sauvages de l'Accadie, à M. Lawrence à Halifax, 26 Août, 1754. There is
+a translation in Public Documents of Nova Scotia.
+
+The number of Acadians who had crossed the line and were collected about
+Beauséjour was now large. Their countrymen of Chipody began to find them
+a burden, and they lived chiefly on Government rations. Le Loutre had
+obtained fifty thousand livres from the Court in order to dike in, for
+their use, the fertile marshes of Memeramcook; but the relief was
+distant, and the misery pressing. They complained that they had been
+lured over the line by false assurances, and they applied secretly to
+the English authorities to learn if they would be allowed to return to
+their homes. The answer was that they might do so with full enjoyment of
+religion and property, if they would take a simple oath of fidelity and
+loyalty to the King of Great Britain, qualified by an oral intimation
+that they would not be required for the present to bear arms. [119] When
+Le Loutre heard this, he mounted the pulpit, broke into fierce
+invectives, threatened the terrified people with excommunication, and
+preached himself into a state of exhaustion. [120] The military
+commandant at Beauséjour used gentler means of prevention; and the
+Acadians, unused for generations to think or act for themselves,
+remained restless, but indecisive, waiting till fate should settle for
+them the question, under which king?
+
+[119] Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 205, 209.
+
+[120] Compare Mémoires, 1749-1760, and Public Documents of Nova Scotia,
+229, 230.
+
+Meanwhile, for the past three years, the commissioners appointed under
+the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle to settle the question of boundaries
+between France and England in America had been in session at Paris,
+waging interminable war on paper; La Galissonière and Silhouette for
+France, Shirley and Mildmay for England. By the treaty of Utrecht,
+Acadia belonged to England; but what was Acadia? According to the
+English commissioners, it comprised not only the peninsula now called
+Nova Scotia, but all the immense tract of land between the River St.
+Lawrence on the north, the Gulf of the same name on the east, the
+Atlantic on the south, and New England on the west. [121] The French
+commissioners, on their part, maintained that the name Acadia belonged
+of right only to about a twentieth part of this territory, and that it
+did not even cover the whole of the Acadian peninsula, but only its
+southern coast, with an adjoining belt of barren wilderness. When the
+French owned Acadia, they gave it boundaries as comprehensive as those
+claimed for it by the English commissioners; now that it belonged to a
+rival, they cut it down to a paring of its former self. The denial that
+Acadia included the whole peninsula was dictated by the need of a winter
+communication between Quebec and Cape Breton, which was possible only
+with the eastern portions in French hands. So new was this denial that
+even La Galissonière himself, the foremost in making it, had declared
+without reservation two years before that Acadia was the entire
+peninsula. [122] "If," says a writer on the question, "we had to do with
+a nation more tractable, less grasping, and more conciliatory, it would
+be well to insist also that Halifax should be given up to us." He thinks
+that, on the whole, it would be well to make the demand in any case, in
+order to gain some other point by yielding this one. [123] It is curious
+that while denying that the country was Acadia, the French invariably
+called the inhabitants Acadians. Innumerable public documents,
+commissions, grants, treaties, edicts, signed by French kings and
+ministers, had recognized Acadia as extending over New Brunswick and a
+part of Maine. Four censuses of Acadia while it belonged to the French
+had recognized the mainland as included in it; and so do also the early
+French maps. Its prodigious shrinkage was simply the consequence of its
+possession by an alien.
+
+[121] The commission of De Monts, in 1603, defines Acadia as extending
+from the fortieth to the forty-sixth degrees of latitude,--that is, from
+central New Brunswick to southern Pennsylvania. Neither party cared to
+produce the document.
+
+[122] "L'Acadie suivant ses anciennes limites est la presquisle bornée
+par son isthme." La Galissonière au Ministre, 25 Juillet, 1749. The
+English commissioners were, of course, ignorant of this admission.
+
+[123] Mémoire de l'Abbé de l'Isle-Dieu, 1753 (1754?).
+
+Other questions of limits, more important and equally perilous, called
+loudly for solution. What line should separate Canada and her western
+dependencies from the British colonies? Various principles of
+demarcation were suggested, of which the most prominent on the French
+side was a geographical one. All countries watered by streams falling
+into the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi were to
+belong to her. This would have planted her in the heart of New York and
+along the crests of the Alleghanies, giving her all the interior of the
+continent, and leaving nothing to England but a strip of sea-coast. Yet
+in view of what France had achieved; of the patient gallantry of her
+explorers, the zeal of her missionaries, the adventurous hardihood of
+her bushrangers, revealing to civilized mankind the existence of this
+wilderness world, while her rivals plodded at their workshops, their
+farms, or their fisheries,--in view of all this, her pretensions were
+moderate and reasonable compared with those of England. The treaty of
+Utrecht had declared the Iroquois, or Five Nations, to be British
+subjects; therefore it was insisted that all countries conquered by them
+belonged to the British Crown. But what was an Iroquois conquest? The
+Iroquois rarely occupied the countries they overran. Their military
+expeditions were mere raids, great or small. Sometimes, as in the case
+of the Hurons, they made a solitude and called it peace; again, as in
+the case of the Illinois, they drove off the occupants of the soil, who
+returned after the invaders were gone. But the range of their
+war-parties was prodigious; and the English laid claim to every
+mountain, forest, or prairie where an Iroquois had taken a scalp. This
+would give them not only the country between the Alleghanies and the
+Mississippi, but also that between Lake Huron and the Ottawa, thus
+reducing Canada to the patch on the American map now represented by the
+province of Quebec,--or rather, by a part of it, since the extension of
+Acadia to the St. Lawrence would cut off the present counties of Gaspé,
+Rimouski, and Bonaventure. Indeed among the advocates of British claims
+there were those who denied that France had any rights whatever on the
+south side of the St. Lawrence. [124] Such being the attitude of the two
+contestants, it was plain that there was no resort but the last argument
+of kings. Peace must be won with the sword.
+
+[124] The extent of British claims is best shown on two maps of the
+time, Mitchell's Map of the British and French Dominions in North
+America and Huske's New and Accurate Map of North America; both are in
+the British Museum. Dr. John Mitchell, in his Contest in America
+(London, 1757) pushes the English claim to its utmost extreme, and
+denies that the French were rightful owners of anything in North America
+except the town of Quebec and the trading-post of Tadoussac. Besides the
+claim founded on the subjection of the Iroquois to the British Crown,
+the English somewhat inconsistently advanced others founded on titles
+obtained by treaty from these same tribes, and others still, founded on
+the original grants of some of the colonies, which ran indefinitely
+westward across the continent.
+
+The commissioners at Paris broke up their sessions, leaving as the
+monument of their toils four quarto volumes of allegations, arguments,
+and documentary proofs. [125] Out of the discussion rose also a swarm of
+fugitive publications in French, English, and Spanish; for the question
+of American boundaries had become European. There was one among them
+worth notice from its amusing absurdity. It is an elaborate
+disquisition, under the title of Roman politique, by an author faithful
+to the traditions of European diplomacy, and inspired at the same time
+by the new philosophy of the school of Rousseau. He insists that the
+balance of power must be preserved in America as well as in Europe,
+because "Nature," "the aggrandizement of the human soul," and the
+"felicity of man" are unanimous in demanding it. The English colonies
+are more populous and wealthy than the French; therefore the French
+should have more land, to keep the balance. Nature, the human soul, and
+the felicity of man require that France should own all the country
+beyond the Alleghanies and all Acadia but a strip of the south coast,
+according to the "sublime negotiations" of the French commissioners, of
+which the writer declares himself a "religious admirer." [126]
+
+[125] Mémoires des Commissaires de Sa Majesté Très Chrétienne et de ceux
+de Sa Majesté Brittanique. Paris, 1755. Several editions appeared.
+
+[126] Roman politique sur l'État présent des Affaires de l'Amérique
+(Amsterdam, 1756). For extracts from French Documents, see Appendix B.
+
+We know already that France had used means sharper than negotiation to
+vindicate her claim to the interior of the continent; had marched to the
+sources of the Ohio to entrench herself there, and hold the passes of
+the West against all comers. It remains to see how she fared in her bold
+enterprise.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+1753, 1754.
+
+WASHINGTON.
+
+The French occupy the Sources of the Ohio • Their Sufferings • Fort Le
+Bœuf • Legardeur de Saint-Pierre • Mission of Washington • Robert
+Dinwiddie • He opposes the French • His Dispute with the Burgesses • His
+Energy • His Appeals for Help • Fort Duquesne • Death of Jumonville •
+Washington at the Great Meadows • Coulon de Villiers • Fort Necessity.
+
+Towards the end of spring the vanguard of the expedition sent by
+Duquesne to occupy the Ohio landed at Presquisle, where Erie now stands.
+This route to the Ohio, far better than that which Céloron had followed,
+was a new discovery to the French; and Duquesne calls the harbor "the
+finest in nature." Here they built a fort of squared chestnut logs, and
+when it was finished they cut a road of several leagues through the
+woods to Rivière aux Bœufs, now French Creek. At the farther end of this
+road they began another wooden fort and called it Fort Le Bœuf. Thence,
+when the water was high, they could descend French Creek to the
+Allegheny, and follow that stream to the main current of the Ohio.
+
+It was heavy work to carry the cumbrous load of baggage across the
+portages. Much of it is said to have been superfluous, consisting of
+velvets, silks, and other useless and costly articles, sold to the King
+at enormous prices as necessaries of the expedition. [127] The weight of
+the task fell on the Canadians, who worked with cheerful hardihood, and
+did their part to admiration. Marin, commander of the expedition, a
+gruff, choleric old man of sixty-three, but full of force and capacity,
+spared himself so little that he was struck down with dysentery, and,
+refusing to be sent home to Montreal, was before long in a dying state.
+His place was taken by Péan, of whose private character there is little
+good to be said, but whose conduct as an officer was such that Duquesne
+calls him a prodigy of talents, resources, and zeal. [128] The
+subalterns deserve no such praise. They disliked the service, and made
+no secret of their discontent. Rumors of it filled Montreal; and
+Duquesne wrote to Marin: "I am surprised that you have not told me of
+this change. Take note of the sullen and discouraged faces about you.
+This sort are worse than useless. Rid yourself of them at once; send
+them to Montreal, that I may make an example of them." [129] Péan wrote
+at the end of September that Marin was in extremity; and the Governor,
+disturbed and alarmed, for he knew the value of the sturdy old officer,
+looked anxiously for a successor. He chose another veteran, Legardeur de
+Saint-Pierre, who had just returned from a journey of exploration
+towards the Rocky Mountains, [130] and whom Duquesne now ordered to the
+Ohio.
+
+[127] Pouchot, Mémoires sur la dernière Guerre de l'Amérique
+Septentrionale, I. 8.
+
+[128] Duquesne au Ministre, 2 Nov. 1753; compare Mémoire pour
+Michel-Jean Hugues Péan.
+
+[129] Duquesne à Marin, 27 Août, 1753.
+
+[130] Mémoire ou Journal sommaire du Voyage de Jacques Legardeur de
+Saint-Pierre.
+
+Meanwhile the effects of the expedition had already justified it. At
+first the Indians of the Ohio had shown a bold front. One of them, a
+chief whom the English called the Half-King, came to Fort Le Bœuf and
+ordered the French to leave the country; but was received by Marin with
+such contemptuous haughtiness that he went home shedding tears of rage
+and mortification. The Western tribes were daunted. The Miamis, but
+yesterday fast friends of the English, made humble submission to the
+French, and offered them two English scalps to signalize their
+repentance; while the Sacs, Pottawattamies, and Ojibwas were loud in
+professions of devotion. [131] Even the Iroquois, Delawares, and
+Shawanoes on the Alleghany had come to the French camp and offered their
+help in carrying the baggage. It needed but perseverance and success in
+the enterprise to win over every tribe from the mountains to the
+Mississippi. To accomplish this and to curb the English, Duquesne had
+planned a third fort, at the junction of French Creek with the
+Alleghany, or at some point lower down; then, leaving the three posts
+well garrisoned, Péan was to descend the Ohio with the whole remaining
+force, impose terror on the wavering tribes, and complete their
+conversion. Both plans were thwarted; the fort was not built, nor did
+Péan descend the Ohio. Fevers, lung diseases, and scurvy made such
+deadly havoc among troops and Canadians, that the dying Marin saw with
+bitterness that his work must be left half done. Three hundred of the
+best men were kept to garrison Forts Presquisle and Le Bœuf; and then,
+as winter approached, the rest were sent back to Montreal. When they
+arrived, the Governor was shocked at their altered looks. "I reviewed
+them, and could not help being touched by the pitiable state to which
+fatigues and exposures had reduced them. Past all doubt, if these
+emaciated figures had gone down the Ohio as intended, the river would
+have been strewn with corpses, and the evil-disposed savages would not
+have failed to attack the survivors, seeing that they were but
+spectres." [132]
+
+[131] Rapports de Conseils avec les Sauvages à Montreal, Juillet, 1753.
+Duquesne au Ministre, 31 Oct. 1753. Letter of Dr. Shuckburgh in N. Y.
+Col. Docs., VI. 806.
+
+[132] Duquesne au Ministre, 29 Nov. 1753. On this expedition, compare
+the letter of Duquesne in N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 255, and the deposition
+of Stephen Coffen, Ibid., VI. 835.
+
+Legardeur de Saint-Pierre arrived at the end of autumn, and made his
+quarters at Fort Le Bœuf. The surrounding forests had dropped their
+leaves, and in gray and patient desolation bided the coming winter.
+Chill rains drizzled over the gloomy "clearing," and drenched the
+palisades and log-built barracks, raw from the axe. Buried in the
+wilderness, the military exiles resigned themselves as they might to
+months of monotonous solitude; when, just after sunset on the eleventh
+of December, a tall youth came out of the forest on horseback, attended
+by a companion much older and rougher than himself, and followed by
+several Indians and four or five white men with packhorses. Officers
+from the fort went out to meet the strangers; and, wading through mud
+and sodden snow, they entered at the gate. On the next day the young
+leader of the party, with the help of an interpreter, for he spoke no
+French, had an interview with the commandant, and gave him a letter from
+Governor Dinwiddie. Saint-Pierre and the officer next in rank, who knew
+a little English, took it to another room to study it at their ease; and
+in it, all unconsciously, they read a name destined to stand one of the
+noblest in the annals of mankind; for it introduced Major George
+Washington, Adjutant-General of the Virginia militia. [133]
+
+[133] Journal of Major Washington. Journal of Mr. Christopher Gist.
+
+Dinwiddie, jealously watchful of French aggression, had learned through
+traders and Indians that a strong detachment from Canada had entered the
+territories of the King of England, and built forts on Lake Erie and on
+a branch of the Ohio. He wrote to challenge the invasion and summon the
+invaders to withdraw; and he could find none so fit to bear his message
+as a young man of twenty-one. It was this rough Scotchman who launched
+Washington on his illustrious career.
+
+Washington set out for the trading station of the Ohio Company on Will's
+Creek; and thence, at the middle of November, struck into the wilderness
+with Christopher Gist as a guide, Vanbraam, a Dutchman, as French
+interpreter, Davison, a trader, as Indian interpreter, and four woodsmen
+as servants. They went to the forks of the Ohio, and then down the river
+to Logstown, the Chiningué of Céloron de Bienville. There Washington had
+various parleys with the Indians; and thence, after vexatious delays, he
+continued his journey towards Fort Le Bœuf, accompanied by the friendly
+chief called the Half-King and by three of his tribesmen. For several
+days they followed the traders' path, pelted with unceasing rain and
+snow, and came at last to the old Indian town of Venango, where French
+Creek enters the Alleghany. Here there was an English trading-house; but
+the French had seized it, raised their flag over it, and turned it into
+a military outpost. [134] Joncaire was in command, with two subalterns;
+and nothing could exceed their civility. They invited the strangers to
+supper; and, says Washington, "the wine, as they dosed themselves pretty
+plentifully with it, soon banished the restraint which at first appeared
+in their conversation, and gave a license to their tongues to reveal
+their sentiments more freely. They told me that it was their absolute
+design to take possession of the Ohio, and, by G----, they would do it;
+for that although they were sensible the English could raise two men for
+their one, yet they knew their motions were too slow and dilatory to
+prevent any undertaking of theirs." [135]
+
+[134] Marin had sent sixty men in August to seize the house, which
+belonged to the trader Fraser. Dépêches de Duquesne. They carried off
+two men whom they found here. Letter of Fraser in Colonial Records of
+Pa., V. 659.
+
+[135] Journal of Washington, as printed at Williamsburg, just after his
+return.
+
+With all their civility, the French officers did their best to entice
+away Washington's Indians; and it was with extreme difficulty that he
+could persuade them to go with him. Through marshes and swamps, forests
+choked with snow, and drenched with incessant rain, they toiled on for
+four days more, till the wooden walls of Fort Le Bœuf appeared at last,
+surrounded by fields studded thick with stumps, and half-encircled by
+the chill current of French Creek, along the banks of which lay more
+than two hundred canoes, ready to carry troops in the spring. Washington
+describes Legardeur de Saint-Pierre as "an elderly gentleman with much
+the air of a soldier." The letter sent him by Dinwiddie expressed
+astonishment that his troops should build forts upon lands "so
+notoriously known to be the property of the Crown of Great Britain." "I
+must desire you," continued the letter, "to acquaint me by whose
+authority and instructions you have lately marched from Canada with an
+armed force, and invaded the King of Great Britain's territories. It
+becomes my duty to require your peaceable departure; and that you would
+forbear prosecuting a purpose so interruptive of the harmony and good
+understanding which His Majesty is desirous to continue and cultivate
+with the Most Christian King. I persuade myself you will receive and
+entertain Major Washington with the candor and politeness natural to
+your nation; and it will give me the greatest satisfaction if you return
+him with an answer suitable to my wishes for a very long and lasting
+peace between us."
+
+Saint-Pierre took three days to frame the answer. In it he said that he
+should send Dinwiddie's letter to the Marquis Duquesne and wait his
+orders; and that meanwhile he should remain at his post, according to
+the commands of his general. "I made it my particular care," so the
+letter closed, "to receive Mr. Washington with a distinction suitable to
+your dignity as well as his own quality and great merit." [136] No form
+of courtesy had, in fact, been wanting. "He appeared to be extremely
+complaisant," says Washington, "though he was exerting every artifice to
+set our Indians at variance with us. I saw that every stratagem was
+practised to win the Half-King to their interest." Neither gifts nor
+brandy were spared; and it was only by the utmost pains that Washington
+could prevent his red allies from staying at the fort, conquered by
+French blandishments.
+
+[136] "La Distinction qui convient à votre Dignitté à sa Qualité et à
+son grand Mérite." Copy of original letter sent by Dinwiddie to Governor
+Hamilton.
+
+After leaving Venango on his return, he found the horses so weak that,
+to arrive the sooner, he left them and their drivers in charge of
+Vanbraam and pushed forward on foot, accompanied by Gist alone. Each was
+wrapped to the throat in an Indian "matchcoat," with a gun in his hand
+and a pack at his back. Passing an old Indian hamlet called Murdering
+Town, they had an adventure which threatened to make good the name. A
+French Indian, whom they met in the forest, fired at them, pretending
+that his gun had gone off by chance. They caught him, and Gist would
+have killed him; but Washington interposed, and they let him go. [137]
+Then, to escape pursuit from his tribesmen, they walked all night and
+all the next day. This brought them to the banks of the Alleghany. They
+hoped to have found it dead frozen; but it was all alive and turbulent,
+filled with ice sweeping down the current. They made a raft, shoved out
+into the stream, and were soon caught helplessly in the drifting ice.
+Washington, pushing hard with his setting-pole, was jerked into the
+freezing river; but caught a log of the raft, and dragged himself out.
+By no efforts could they reach the farther bank, or regain that which
+they had left; but they were driven against an island, where they
+landed, and left the raft to its fate. The night was excessively cold,
+and Gist's feet and hands were badly frost-bitten. In the morning, the
+ice had set, and the river was a solid floor. They crossed it, and
+succeeded in reaching the house of the trader Fraser, on the
+Monongahela. It was the middle of January when Washington arrived at
+Williamsburg and made his report to Dinwiddie.
+
+[137] Journal of Mr. Christopher Gist, in Mass. Hist. Coll., 3rd Series,
+V.
+
+Robert Dinwiddie was lieutenant-governor of Virginia, in place of the
+titular governor, Lord Albemarle, whose post was a sinecure. He had
+been clerk in a government office in the West Indies; then surveyor of
+customs in the "Old Dominion,"--a position in which he made himself
+cordially disliked; and when he rose to the governorship he carried his
+unpopularity with him. Yet Virginia and all the British colonies owed
+him much; for, though past sixty, he was the most watchful sentinel
+against French aggression and its most strenuous opponent. Scarcely had
+Marin's vanguard appeared at Presquisle, when Dinwiddie warned the Home
+Government of the danger, and urged, what he had before urged in vain on
+the Virginian Assembly, the immediate building of forts on the Ohio.
+There came in reply a letter, signed by the King, authorizing him to
+build the forts at the cost of the Colony, and to repel force by force
+in case he was molested or obstructed. Moreover, the King wrote, "If you
+shall find that any number of persons shall presume to erect any fort or
+forts within the limits of our province of Virginia, you are first to
+require of them peaceably to depart; and if, notwithstanding your
+admonitions, they do still endeavor to carry out any such unlawful and
+unjustifiable designs, we do hereby strictly charge and command you to
+drive them off by force of arms." [138]
+
+[138] Instructions to Our Trusty and Well-beloved Robert Dinwiddie,
+Esq., 28 Aug. 1753.
+
+The order was easily given; but to obey it needed men and money, and for
+these Dinwiddie was dependent on his Assembly, or House of Burgesses. He
+convoked them for the first of November, sending Washington at the same
+time with the summons to Saint-Pierre. The burgesses met. Dinwiddie
+exposed the danger, and asked for means to meet it. [139] They seemed
+more than willing to comply; but debates presently arose concerning the
+fee of a pistole, which the Governor had demanded on each patent of land
+issued by him. The amount was trifling, but the principle was doubtful.
+The aristocratic republic of Virginia was intensely jealous of the
+slightest encroachment on its rights by the Crown or its representative.
+The Governor defended the fee. The burgesses replied that "subjects
+cannot be deprived of the least part of their property without their
+consent," declared the fee unlawful, and called on Dinwiddie to confess
+it to be so. He still defended it. They saw in his demand for supplies a
+means of bringing him to terms, and refused to grant money unless he
+would recede from his position. Dinwiddie rebuked them for "disregarding
+the designs of the French, and disputing the rights of the Crown"; and
+he "prorogued them in some anger." [140]
+
+[139] Address of Lieutenant-Governor Dinwiddie to the Council and
+Burgesses, 1 Nov. 1753.
+
+[140] Dinwiddie Papers.
+
+Thus he was unable to obey the instructions of the King. As a temporary
+resource, he ventured to order a draft of two hundred men from the
+militia. Washington was to have command, with the trader, William Trent,
+as his lieutenant. His orders were to push with all speed to the forks
+of the Ohio, and there build a fort; "but in case any attempts are made
+to obstruct the works by any persons whatsoever, to restrain all such
+offenders, and, in case of resistance, to make prisoners of, or kill and
+destroy them." [141] The Governor next sent messengers to the Catawbas,
+Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Iroquois of the Ohio, inviting them to take
+up the hatchet against the French, "who, under pretence of embracing
+you, mean to squeeze you to death." Then he wrote urgent letters to the
+governors of Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, Maryland, and New Jersey,
+begging for contingents of men, to be at Wills Creek in March at the
+latest. But nothing could be done without money; and trusting for a
+change of heart on the part of the burgesses, he summoned them to meet
+again on the fourteenth of February. "If they come in good temper," he
+wrote to Lord Fairfax, a nobleman settled in the colony, "I hope they
+will lay a fund to qualify me to send four or five hundred men more to
+the Ohio, which, with the assistance of our neighboring colonies, may
+make some figure."
+
+[141] Ibid. Instructions to Major George Washington, January, 1754.
+
+The session began. Again, somewhat oddly, yet forcibly, the Governor set
+before the Assembly the peril of the situation, and begged them to
+postpone less pressing questions to the exigency of the hour. [142] This
+time they listened; and voted ten thousand pounds in Virginia currency
+to defend the frontier. The grant was frugal, and they jealously placed
+its expenditure in the hands of a committee of their own. [143]
+Dinwiddie, writing to the Lords of Trade, pleads necessity as his excuse
+for submitting to their terms. "I am sorry," he says, "to find them too
+much in a republican way of thinking." What vexed him still more was
+their sending an agent to England to complain against him on the
+irrepressible question of the pistole fee; and he writes to his London
+friend, the merchant Hanbury: "I have had a great deal of trouble from
+the factious disputes and violent heats of a most impudent, troublesome
+party here in regard to that silly fee of a pistole. Surely every
+thinking man will make a distinction between a fee and a tax. Poor
+people! I pity their ignorance and narrow, ill-natured spirits. But, my
+friend, consider that I could by no means give up this fee without
+affronting the Board of Trade and the Council here who established it."
+His thoughts were not all of this harassing nature, and he ends his
+letter with the following petition: "Now, sir, as His Majesty is pleased
+to make me a military officer, please send for Scott, my tailor, to make
+me a proper suit of regimentals, to be here by His Majesty's birthday. I
+do not much like gayety in dress, but I conceive this necessary. I do
+not much care for lace on the coat, but a neat embroidered button-hole;
+though you do not deal that way, I know you have a good taste, that I
+may show my friend's fancy in that suit of clothes; a good laced hat and
+two pair stockings, one silk, the other fine thread." [144]
+
+[142] Speech of Lieutenant-Governor Dinwiddie to the Council and
+Burgesses 14 Feb., 1754.
+
+[143] See the bill in Hening, Statutes of Virginia, VI. 417.
+
+[144] Dinwiddie to Hanbury, 12 March, 1754; Ibid., 10 May, 1754.
+
+If the Governor and his English sometimes provoke a smile, he deserves
+admiration for the energy with which he opposed the public enemy, under
+circumstances the most discouraging. He invited the Indians to meet him
+in council at Winchester, and, as bait to attract them, coupled the
+message with a promise of gifts. He sent circulars from the King to the
+neighboring governors, calling for supplies, and wrote letter upon
+letter to rouse them to effort. He wrote also to the more distant
+governors, Delancey of New York, and Shirley of Massachusetts, begging
+them to make what he called a "faint" against Canada, to prevent the
+French from sending so large a force to the Ohio. It was to the nearer
+colonies, from New Jersey to South Carolina, that he looked for direct
+aid; and their several governors were all more or less active to procure
+it; but as most of them had some standing dispute with their assemblies,
+they could get nothing except on terms with which they would not, and
+sometimes could not, comply. As the lands invaded by the French belonged
+to one of the two rival claimants, Virginia and Pennsylvania, the other
+colonies had no mind to vote money to defend them. Pennsylvania herself
+refused to move. Hamilton, her governor, could do nothing against the
+placid obstinacy of the Quaker non-combatants and the stolid obstinacy
+of the German farmers who chiefly made up his Assembly. North Carolina
+alone answered the appeal, and gave money enough to raise three or four
+hundred men. Two independent companies maintained by the King in New
+York, and one in South Carolina, had received orders from England to
+march to the scene of action; and in these, with the scanty levies of
+his own and the adjacent province, lay Dinwiddie's only hope. With men
+abundant and willing, there were no means to put them into the field,
+and no commander whom they would all obey.
+
+From the brick house at Williamsburg pompously called the Governor's
+Palace, Dinwiddie despatched letters, orders, couriers, to hasten the
+tardy reinforcements of North Carolina and New York, and push on the raw
+soldiers of the Old Dominion, who now numbered three hundred men. They
+were called the Virginia regiment; and Joshua Fry, an English gentleman,
+bred at Oxford, was made their colonel, with Washington as next in
+command. Fry was at Alexandria with half the so-called regiment, trying
+to get it into marching order; Washington, with the other half, had
+pushed forward to the Ohio Company's storehouse at Wills Creek, which
+was to form a base of operations. His men were poor whites, brave, but
+hard to discipline; without tents, ill armed, and ragged as Falstaff's
+recruits. Besides these, a band of backwoodsmen under Captain Trent had
+crossed the mountains in February to build a fort at the forks of the
+Ohio, where Pittsburg now stands,--a spot which Washington had examined
+when on his way to Fort Le Bœuf, and which he had reported as the best
+for the purpose. The hope was that Trent would fortify himself before
+the arrival of the French, and that Washington and Fry would join him in
+time to secure the position. Trent had begun the fort; but for some
+unexplained reason had gone back to Wills Creek, leaving Ensign Ward
+with forty men at work upon it. Their labors were suddenly interrupted.
+On the seventeenth of April a swarm of bateaux and canoes came down the
+Alleghany, bringing, according to Ward, more than a thousand Frenchmen,
+though in reality not much above five hundred, who landed, planted
+cannon against the incipient stockade, and summoned the ensign to
+surrender, on pain of what might ensue. [145] He complied, and was
+allowed to depart with his men. Retracing his steps over the mountains,
+he reported his mishap to Washington; while the French demolished his
+unfinished fort, began a much larger and better one, and named it Fort
+Duquesne.
+
+[145] See the summons in Précis des Faits, 101.
+
+They had acted with their usual promptness. Their Governor, a practised
+soldier, knew the value of celerity, and had set his troops in motion
+with the first opening of spring. He had no refractory assembly to
+hamper him; no lack of money, for the King supplied it; and all Canada
+must march at his bidding. Thus, while Dinwiddie was still toiling to
+muster his raw recruits, Duquesne's lieutenant, Contrecœur, successor of
+Saint-Pierre, had landed at Presquisle with a much greater force, in
+part regulars, and in part Canadians.
+
+Dinwiddie was deeply vexed when a message from Washington told him how
+his plans were blighted; and he spoke his mind to his friend Hanbury:
+"If our Assembly had voted the money in November which they did in
+February, it's more than probable the fort would have been built and
+garrisoned before the French had approached; but these things cannot be
+done without money. As there was none in our treasury, I have advanced
+my own to forward the expedition; and if the independent companies from
+New York come soon, I am in hopes the eyes of the other colonies will be
+opened; and if they grant a proper supply of men, I hope we shall be
+able to dislodge the French or build a fort on that river. I
+congratulate you on the increase of your family. My wife and two girls
+join in our most sincere respects to good Mrs. Hanbury." [146]
+
+[146] Dinwiddie to Hanbury, 10 May, 1754.
+
+The seizure of a king's fort by planting cannon against it and
+threatening it with destruction was in his eyes a beginning of
+hostilities on the part of the French; and henceforth both he and
+Washington acted much as if war had been declared. From their station at
+Wills Creek, the distance by the traders' path to Fort Duquesne was
+about a hundred and forty miles. Midway was a branch of the Monongahela
+called Redstone Creek, at the mouth of which the Ohio Company had built
+another storehouse. Dinwiddie ordered all the forces to cross the
+mountains and assemble at this point, until they should be strong enough
+to advance against the French. The movement was critical in presence of
+an enemy as superior in discipline as he was in numbers, while the
+natural obstacles were great. A road for cannon and wagons must be cut
+through a dense forest and over two ranges of high mountains, besides
+countless hills and streams. Washington set all his force to the work,
+and they spent a fortnight in making twenty miles. Towards the end of
+May, however, Dinwiddie learned that he had crossed the main ridge of
+the Alleghanies, and was encamped with a hundred and fifty men near the
+parallel ridge of Laurel Hill, at a place called the Great Meadows.
+Trent's backwoodsmen had gone off in disgust; Fry, with the rest of the
+regiment, was still far behind; and Washington was daily expecting an
+attack. Close upon this, a piece of good news, or what seemed such, came
+over the mountains and gladdened the heart of the Governor. He heard
+that a French detachment had tried to surprise Washington, and that he
+had killed or captured the whole. The facts were as follows.
+
+Washington was on the Youghiogany, a branch of the Monongahela,
+exploring it in hopes that it might prove navigable, when a messenger
+came to him from his old comrade, the Half-King, who was on the way to
+join him. The message was to the effect that the French had marched from
+their fort, and meant to attack the first English they should meet. A
+report came soon after that they were already at the ford of the
+Youghiogany, eighteen miles distant. Washington at once repaired to the
+Great Meadows, a level tract of grass and bushes, bordered by wooded
+hills, and traversed in one part by a gully, which with a little labor
+the men turned into an entrenchment, at the same time cutting away the
+bushes and clearing what the young commander called "a charming field
+for an encounter." Parties were sent out to scour the woods, but they
+found no enemy. Two days passed; when, on the morning of the
+twenty-seventh, Christopher Gist, who had lately made a settlement on
+the farther side of Laurel Hill, twelve or thirteen miles distant, came
+to the camp with news that fifty Frenchmen had been at his house towards
+noon of the day before, and would have destroyed everything but for the
+intervention of two Indians whom he had left in charge during his
+absence. Washington sent seventy-five men to look for the party; but the
+search was vain, the French having hidden themselves so well as to
+escape any eye but that of an Indian. In the evening a runner came from
+the Half-King, who was encamped with a few warriors some miles distant.
+He had sent to tell Washington that he had found the tracks of two men,
+and traced them towards a dark glen in the forest, where in his belief
+all the French were lurking.
+
+Washington seems not to have hesitated a moment. Fearing a stratagem to
+surprise his camp, he left his main force to guard it, and at ten
+o'clock set out for the Half-King's wigwams at the head of forty men.
+The night was rainy, and the forest, to use his own words, "as black as
+pitch." "The path," he continues, "was hardly wide enough for one man;
+we often lost it, and could not find it again for fifteen or twenty
+minutes, and we often tumbled over each other in the dark." [147] Seven
+of his men were lost in the woods and left behind. The rest groped their
+way all night, and reached the Indian camp at sunrise. A council was
+held with the Half-King, and he and his warriors agreed to join in
+striking the French. Two of them led the way. The tracks of the two
+French scouts seen the day before were again found, and, marching in
+single file, the party pushed through the forest into the rocky hollow
+where the French were supposed to be concealed. They were there in fact;
+and they snatched their guns the moment they saw the English. Washington
+gave the word to fire. A short fight ensued. Coulon de Jumonville, an
+ensign in command, was killed, with nine others; twenty-two were
+captured, and none escaped but a Canadian who had fled at the beginning
+of the fray. After it was over, the prisoners told Washington that the
+party had been sent to bring him a summons from Contrecœur, the
+commandant at Fort Duquesne.
+
+[147] Journal of Washington in Précis des Faits, 109. This Journal,
+which is entirely distinct from that before cited, was found by the
+French among the baggage left on the field after the defeat of Braddock
+in 1755, and a translation of it was printed by them as above. The
+original has disappeared.
+
+Five days before, Contrecœur had sent Jumonville to scour the country as
+far as the dividing ridge of the Alleghanies. Under him were another
+officer, three cadets, a volunteer, an interpreter, and twenty-eight
+men. He was provided with a written summons, to be delivered to any
+English he might find. It required them to withdraw from the domain of
+the King of France, and threatened compulsion by force of arms in case
+of refusal. But before delivering the summons Jumonville was ordered to
+send two couriers back with all speed to Fort Duquesne to inform the
+commandant that he had found the English, and to acquaint him when he
+intended to communicate with them. [148] It is difficult to imagine any
+object for such an order except that of enabling Contrecœur to send to
+the spot whatever force might be needed to attack the English on their
+refusal to withdraw. Jumonville had sent the two couriers, and had
+hidden himself, apparently to wait the result. He lurked nearly two days
+within five miles of Washington's camp, sent out scouts to reconnoitre
+it, but gave no notice of his presence; played to perfection the part of
+a skulking enemy, and brought destruction on himself by conduct which
+can only be ascribed to a sinister motive on the one hand, or to extreme
+folly on the other. French deserters told Washington that the party came
+as spies, and were to show the summons only if threatened by a superior
+force. This last assertion is confirmed by the French officer Pouchot,
+who says that Jumonville, seeing himself the weaker party, tried to show
+the letter he had brought. [149]
+
+[148] The summons and the instructions to Jumonville are in Précis des
+Faits.
+
+[149] Pouchot, Mémoire sur la dernière Guerre.
+
+French writers say that, on first seeing the English, Jumonville's
+interpreter called out that he had something to say to them; but
+Washington, who was at the head of his men, affirms this to be
+absolutely false. The French say further that Jumonville was killed in
+the act of reading the summons. This is also denied by Washington, and
+rests only on the assertion of the Canadian who ran off at the outset,
+and on the alleged assertion of Indians who, if present at all, which is
+unlikely, escaped like the Canadian before the fray began. Druillon, an
+officer with Jumonville, wrote two letters to Dinwiddie after his
+capture, to claim the privileges of the bearer of a summons; but while
+bringing forward every other circumstance in favor of the claim, he does
+not pretend that the summons was read or shown either before or during
+the action. The French account of the conduct of Washington's Indians is
+no less erroneous. "This murder," says a chronicler of the time,
+"produced on the minds of the savages an effect very different from that
+which the cruel Washington had promised himself. They have a horror of
+crime; and they were so indignant at that which had just been
+perpetrated before their eyes, that they abandoned him, and offered
+themselves to us in order to take vengeance." [150] Instead of doing
+this, they boasted of their part in the fight, scalped all the dead
+Frenchmen, sent one scalp to the Delawares as an invitation to take up
+the hatchet for the English, and distributed the rest among the various
+Ohio tribes to the same end.
+
+[150] Poulin de Lumina, Histoire de la Guerre contre les Anglois, 15.
+
+Coolness of judgment, a profound sense of public duty, and a strong
+self-control, were even then the characteristics of Washington; but he
+was scarcely twenty-two, was full of military ardor, and was vehement
+and fiery by nature. Yet it is far from certain that, even when age and
+experience had ripened him, he would have forborne to act as he did, for
+there was every reason for believing that the designs of the French were
+hostile; and though by passively waiting the event he would have thrown
+upon them the responsibility of striking the first blow, he would have
+exposed his small party to capture or destruction by giving them time to
+gain reinforcements from Fort Duquesne. It was inevitable that the
+killing of Jumonville should be greeted in France by an outcry of real
+or assumed horror; but the Chevalier de Lévis, second in command to
+Montcalm, probably expresses the true opinion of Frenchmen best fitted
+to judge when he calls it "a pretended assassination." [151] Judge it as
+we may, this obscure skirmish began the war that set the world on fire.
+[152]
+
+[151] Lévis, Mémoire sur la Guerre du Canada.
+
+[152] On this affair, Sparks, Writings of Washington, II. 25-48, 447.
+Dinwiddie Papers. Letter of Contrecœur in Précis des Faits. Journal of
+Washington, Ibid. Washington to Dinwiddie, 3 June, 1754. Dussieux, Le
+Canada sous la Domination Française, 118. Gaspé, Anciens Canadiens,
+appendix, 396. The assertion of Abbé de l'Isle-Dieu, that Jumonville
+showed a flag of truce, is unsupported. Adam Stephen, who was in the
+fight, says that the guns of the English were so wet that they had to
+trust mainly to the bayonet. The Half-King boasted that he killed
+Jumonville with his tomahawk. Dinwiddie highly approved Washington's
+conduct.
+
+In 1755 the widow of Jumonville received a pension of one hundred and
+fifty francs. In 1775 his daughter, Charlotte Aimable, wishing to become
+a nun, was given by the King six hundred francs for her "trousseau" on
+entering the convent. Dossier de Jumonville et de sa Veuve, 22 Mars,
+1755. Mémoire pour Mlle. de Jumonville, 10 Juillet, 1775. Réponse du
+Garde des Sceaux, 25 Juillet, 1775.
+
+Washington returned to the camp at the Great Meadows; and, expecting
+soon to be attacked, sent for reinforcements to Colonel Fry, who was
+lying dangerously ill at Wills Creek. Then he set his men to work at an
+entrenchment, which he named Fort Necessity, and which must have been of
+the slightest, as they finished it within three days. [153] The
+Half-King now joined him, along with the female potentate known as Queen
+Alequippa, and some thirty Indian families. A few days after, Gist came
+from Wills Creek with news that Fry was dead. Washington succeeded to
+the command of the regiment, the remaining three companies of which
+presently appeared and joined their comrades, raising the whole number
+to three hundred. Next arrived the independent company from South
+Carolina; and the Great Meadows became an animated scene, with the
+wigwams of the Indians, the camp-sheds of the rough Virginians, the
+cattle grazing on the tall grass or drinking at the lazy brook that
+traversed it; the surrounding heights and forests; and over all, four
+miles away, the lofty green ridge of Laurel Hill.
+
+[153] Journal of Washington in Précis des Faits.
+
+
+The presence of the company of regulars was a doubtful advantage.
+Captain Mackay, its commander, holding his commission from the King,
+thought himself above any officer commissioned by the Governor. There
+was great courtesy between him and Washington; but Mackay would take no
+orders, nor even the countersign, from the colonel of volunteers. Nor
+would his men work, except for an additional shilling a day. To give
+this was impossible, both from want of money, and from the discontent it
+would have bred in the Virginians, who worked for nothing besides their
+daily pay of eightpence. Washington, already a leader of men, possessed
+himself in a patience extremely difficult to his passionate temper; but
+the position was untenable, and the presence of the military drones
+demoralized his soldiers. Therefore, leaving Mackay at the Meadows, he
+advanced towards Gist's settlement, cutting a wagon road as he went.
+
+On reaching the settlement the camp was formed and an entrenchment
+thrown up. Deserters had brought news that strong reinforcements were
+expected at Fort Duquesne, and friendly Indians repeatedly warned
+Washington that he would soon be attacked by overwhelming numbers. Forty
+Indians from the Ohio came to the camp, and several days were spent in
+councils with them; but they proved for the most part to be spies of the
+French. The Half-King stood fast by the English, and sent out three of
+his young warriors as scouts. Reports of attack thickened. Mackay and
+his men were sent for, and they arrived on the twenty-eighth of June. A
+council of war was held at Gist's house; and as the camp was commanded
+by neighboring heights, it was resolved to fall back. The horses were so
+few that the Virginians had to carry much of the baggage on their backs,
+and drag nine swivels over the broken and rocky road. The regulars,
+though they also were raised in the provinces, refused to give the
+slightest help. Toiling on for two days, they reached the Great Meadows
+on the first of July. The position, though perhaps the best in the
+neighborhood, was very unfavorable, and Washington would have retreated
+farther, but for the condition of his men. They were spent with fatigue,
+and there was no choice but to stay and fight.
+
+Strong reinforcements had been sent to Fort Duquesne in the spring, and
+the garrison now consisted of about fourteen hundred men. When news of
+the death of Jumonville reached Montreal, Coulon de Villiers, brother of
+the slain officer, was sent to the spot with a body of Indians from all
+the tribes in the colony. He made such speed that at eight o'clock on
+the morning of the twenty-sixth of June he reached the fort with his
+motley following. Here he found that five hundred Frenchmen and a few
+Ohio Indians were on the point of marching against the English, under
+Chevalier Le Mercier; but in view of his seniority in rank and his
+relationship to Jumonville, the command was now transferred to Villiers.
+Hereupon, the march was postponed; the newly-arrived warriors were
+called to council, and Contrecœur thus harangued them: "The English have
+murdered my children, my heart is sick; to-morrow I shall send my French
+soldiers to take revenge. And now, men of the Saut St. Louis, men of the
+Lake of Two Mountains, Hurons, Abenakis, Iroquois of La Présentation,
+Nipissings, Algonquins, and Ottawas,--I invite you all by this belt of
+wampum to join your French father and help him to crush the assassins.
+Take this hatchet, and with it two barrels of wine for a feast." Both
+hatchet and wine were cheerfully accepted. Then Contrecœur turned to the
+Delawares, who were also present: "By these four strings of wampum I
+invite you, if you are true children of Onontio, to follow the example
+of your brethren;" and with some hesitation they also took up the
+hatchet.
+
+The next day was spent by the Indians in making moccasons for the march,
+and by the French in preparing for an expedition on a larger scale than
+had been at first intended. Contrecœur, Villiers, Le Mercier, and
+Longueuil, after deliberating together, drew up a paper to the effect
+that "it was fitting (convenable) to march against the English with the
+greatest possible number of French and savages, in order to avenge
+ourselves and chastise them for having violated the most sacred laws of
+civilized nations;" that, thought their conduct justified the French in
+disregarding the existing treaty of peace, yet, after thoroughly
+punishing them, and compelling them to withdraw from the domain of the
+King, they should be told that, in pursuance of his royal orders, the
+French looked on them as friends. But it was further agreed that should
+the English have withdrawn to their own side of the mountains, "they
+should be followed to their settlements to destroy them and treat them
+as enemies, till that nation should give ample satisfaction and
+completely change its conduct." [154]
+
+[154] Journal de Campagne de M. de Villiers depuis son Arrivée au Fort
+Duquesne jusqu'à son Retour au dit Fort. These and other passages are
+omitted in the Journal as printed in Précis des Faits. Before me is a
+copy from the original in the Archives de la Marine.
+
+The party set out on the next morning, paddled their canoes up the
+Monongahela, encamped, heard Mass; and on the thirtieth reached the
+deserted storehouse of the Ohio Company at the mouth of Redstone Creek.
+It was a building of solid logs, well loopholed for musketry. To please
+the Indians by asking their advice, Villiers called all the chiefs to
+council; which, being concluded to their satisfaction, he left a
+sergeant's guard at the storehouse to watch the canoes, and began his
+march through the forest. The path was so rough that at the first halt
+the chaplain declared he could go no farther, and turned back for the
+storehouse, though not till he had absolved the whole company in a body.
+Thus lightened of their sins, they journeyed on, constantly sending out
+scouts. On the second of July they reached the abandoned camp of
+Washington at Gist's settlement; and here they bivouacked, tired, and
+drenched all night by rain. At daybreak they marched again, and passed
+through the gorge of Laurel Hill. It rained without ceasing; but
+Villiers pushed his way through the dripping forest to see the place,
+half a mile from the road, where his brother had been killed, and where
+several bodies still lay unburied. They had learned from a deserter the
+position of the enemy, and Villiers filled the woods in front with a
+swarm of Indian scouts. The crisis was near. He formed his men in
+column, and ordered every officer to his place.
+
+Washington's men had had a full day at Fort Necessity; but they spent it
+less in resting from their fatigue than in strengthening their rampart
+with logs. The fort was a simple square enclosure, with a trench said by
+a French writer to be only knee deep. On the south, and partly on the
+west, there was an exterior embankment, which seems to have been made,
+like a rifle-pit, with the ditch inside. The Virginians had but little
+ammunition, and no bread whatever, living chiefly on fresh beef. They
+knew the approach of the French, who were reported to Washington as nine
+hundred strong, besides Indians. Towards eleven o'clock a wounded
+sentinel came in with news that they were close at hand; and they
+presently appeared at the edge of the woods, yelling, and firing from
+such a distance that their shot fell harmless. Washington drew up his
+men on the meadow before the fort, thinking, he says, that the enemy,
+being greatly superior in force, would attack at once; and choosing for
+some reason to meet them on the open plain. But Villiers had other
+views. "We approached the English," he writes, "as near as possible,
+without uselessly exposing the lives of the King's subjects;" and he and
+his followers made their way through the forest till they came opposite
+the fort, where they stationed themselves on two densely wooded hills,
+adjacent, though separated by a small brook. One of these was about a
+hundred paces from the English, and the other about sixty. Their
+position was such that the French and Indians, well sheltered by trees
+and bushes, and with the advantage of higher ground, could cross their
+fire upon the fort and enfilade a part of it. Washington had meanwhile
+drawn his followers within the entrenchment; and the firing now began on
+both sides. Rain fell all day. The raw earth of the embankment was
+turned to soft mud, and the men in the ditch of the outwork stood to the
+knee in water. The swivels brought back from the camp at Gist's farm
+were mounted on the rampart; but the gunners were so ill protected that
+the pieces were almost silenced by the French musketry. The fight lasted
+nine hours. At times the fire on both sides was nearly quenched by the
+showers, and the bedrenched combatants could do little but gaze at each
+other through a gray veil of mist and rain. Towards night, however, the
+fusillade revived, and became sharp again until dark. At eight o'clock
+the French called out to propose a parley.
+
+Villiers thus gives his reason for these overtures. "As we had been wet
+all day by the rain, as the soldiers were very tired, as the savages
+said that they would leave us the next morning, and as there was a
+report that drums and the firing of cannon had been heard in the
+distance, I proposed to M. Le Mercier to offer the English a
+conference." He says further that ammunition was falling short, and that
+he thought the enemy might sally in a body and attack him. [155] The
+English, on their side, were in a worse plight. They were half starved,
+their powder was nearly spent, their guns were foul, and among them all
+they had but two screw-rods to clean them. In spite of his desperate
+position, Washington declined the parley, thinking it a pretext to
+introduce a spy; but when the French repeated their proposal and
+requested that he would send an officer to them, he could hesitate no
+longer. There were but two men with him who knew French, Ensign
+Peyroney, who was disabled by a wound, and the Dutchman, Captain
+Vanbraam. To him the unpalatable errand was assigned. After a long
+absence he returned with articles of capitulation offered by Villiers;
+and while the officers gathered about him in the rain, he read and
+interpreted the paper by the glimmer of a sputtering candle kept alight
+with difficulty. Objection was made to some of the terms, and they were
+changed. Vanbraam, however, apparently anxious to get the capitulation
+signed and the affair ended, mistranslated several passages, and
+rendered the words l'assassinat du Sieur de Jumonville as the death of
+the Sieur de Jumonville. [156] As thus understood, the articles were
+signed about midnight. They provided that the English should march out
+with drums beating and the honors of war, carrying with them one of
+their swivels and all their other property; that they should be
+protected against insult from French or Indians; that the prisoners
+taken in the affair of Jumonville should be set free; and that two
+officers should remain as hostages for their safe return to Fort
+Duquesne. The hostages chosen were Vanbraam and a brave but eccentric
+Scotchman, Robert Stobo, an acquaintance of the novelist Smollett, said
+to be the original of his Lismahago.
+
+[155] Journal de Villiers, original. Omitted in the Journal as printed
+by the French Government. A short and very incorrect abstract of this
+Journal will be found in N. Y. Col. Docs., X.
+
+[156] See Appendix C. On the fight at Great Meadows, compare Sparks,
+Writings of Washington, II. 456-468; also a letter of Colonel Innes to
+Governor Hamilton, written a week after the event, in Colonial Records
+of Pa., VI. 50, and a letter of Adam Stephen in Pennsylvania Gazette,
+1754.
+
+Washington reports that twelve of the Virginians were killed on the
+spot, and forty-three wounded, while on the casualties in Mackay's
+company no returns appear. Villiers reports his own loss at only twenty
+in all. [157] The numbers engaged are uncertain. The six companies of
+the Virginia regiment counted three hundred and five men and officers,
+and Mackay's company one hundred; but many were on the sick list, and
+some had deserted. About three hundred and fifty may have taken part in
+the fight. On the side of the French, Villiers says that the detachment
+as originally formed consisted of five hundred white men. These were
+increased after his arrival at Fort Duquesne, and one of the party
+reports that seven hundred marched on the expedition. [158] The number
+of Indians joining them is not given; but as nine tribes and communities
+contributed to it, and as two barrels of wine were required to give the
+warriors a parting feast, it must have been considerable. White men and
+red, it seems clear that the French force was more than twice that of
+the English, while they were better posted and better sheltered, keeping
+all day under cover, and never showing themselves on the open meadow.
+There were no Indians with Washington. Even the Half-King held aloof;
+though, being of a caustic turn, he did not spare his comments on the
+fight, telling Conrad Weiser, the provincial interpreter, that the
+French behaved like cowards, and the English like fools. [159]
+
+[157] Dinwiddie writes to the Lords of Trade that thirty in all were
+killed, and seventy wounded, on the English side; and the commissary
+Varin writes to Bigot that the French lost seventy-two killed and
+wounded.
+
+[158] A Journal had from Thomas Forbes, lately a Private Soldier in the
+King of France's Service. (Public Record Office.) Forbes was one of
+Villiers' soldiers. The commissary Varin puts the number of French at
+six hundred, besides Indians.
+
+[159] Journal of Conrad Weiser, in Colonial Records of Pa., VI. 150. The
+Half-King also remarked that Washington "was a good-natured man, but had
+no experience, and would by no means take advice from the Indians, but
+was always driving them on to fight by his directions; that he lay at
+one place from one full moon to the other, and made no fortifications at
+all, except that little thing upon the meadow, where he thought the
+French would come up to him in open field."
+
+In the early morning the fort was abandoned and the retreat began. The
+Indians had killed all the horses and cattle, and Washington's men were
+so burdened with the sick and wounded, whom they were obliged to carry
+on their backs, that most of the baggage was perforce left behind. Even
+then they could march but a few miles, and then encamped to wait for
+wagons. The Indians increased the confusion by plundering, and
+threatening an attack. They knocked to pieces the medicine-chest, thus
+causing great distress to the wounded, two of whom they murdered and
+scalped. For a time there was danger of panic; but order was restored,
+and the wretched march began along the forest road that led over the
+Alleghanies, fifty-two miles to the station at Wills Creek. Whatever may
+have been the feelings of Washington, he has left no record of them. His
+immense fortitude was doomed to severer trials in the future; yet
+perhaps this miserable morning was the darkest of his life. He was
+deeply moved by sights of suffering; and all around him were wounded men
+borne along in torture, and weary men staggering under the living load.
+His pride was humbled, and his young ambition seemed blasted in the bud.
+It was the fourth of July. He could not foresee that he was to make that
+day forever glorious to a new-born nation hailing him as its father.
+
+The defeat at Fort Necessity was doubly disastrous to the English, since
+it was a new step and a long one towards the ruin of their interest with
+the Indians; and when, in the next year, the smouldering war broke into
+flame, nearly all the western tribes drew their scalping-knives for
+France.
+
+Villiers went back exultant to Fort Duquesne, burning on his way the
+buildings of Gist's settlement and the storehouse at Redstone Creek. Not
+an English flag now waved beyond the Alleghanies. [160]
+
+[160] See Appendix C.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+1754, 1755.
+
+THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE.
+
+Troubles of Dinwiddie • Gathering of the Burgesses • Virginian Society •
+Refractory Legislators • The Quaker Assembly • It refuses to resist the
+French • Apathy of New York • Shirley and the General Court of
+Massachusetts • Short-sighted Policy • Attitude of Royal Governors •
+Indian Allies waver • Convention at Albany • Scheme of Union • It fails
+• Dinwiddie and Glen • Dinwiddie calls on England for Help • The Duke of
+Newcastle • Weakness of the British Cabinet • Attitude of France •
+Mutual Dissimulation • Both Powers send Troops to America • Collision •
+Capture of the "Alcide" and the "Lis."
+
+The defeat of Washington was a heavy blow to the Governor, and he
+angrily ascribed it to the delay of the expected reinforcements. The
+King's companies from New York had reached Alexandria, and crawled
+towards the scene of action with thin ranks, bad discipline, thirty
+women and children, no tents, no blankets, no knapsacks, and for
+munitions one barrel of spoiled gunpowder. [161] The case was still
+worse with the regiment from North Carolina. It was commanded by Colonel
+Innes, a countryman and friend of Dinwiddie, who wrote to him: "Dear
+James, I now wish that we had none from your colony but yourself, for I
+foresee nothing but confusion among them." The men were, in fact,
+utterly unmanageable. They had been promised three shillings a day,
+while the Virginians had only eightpence; and when they heard on the
+march that their pay was to be reduced, they mutinied, disbanded, and
+went home.
+
+[161] Dinwiddie to the Lords of Trade, 24 July, 1754. Ibid. to Delancey,
+20 June, 1754.
+
+"You may easily guess," says Dinwiddie to a London correspondent, "the
+great fatigue and trouble I have had, which is more than I ever went
+through in my life." He rested his hopes on the session of his Assembly,
+which was to take place in August; for he thought that the late disaster
+would move them to give him money for defending the colony. These
+meetings of the burgesses were the great social as well as political
+event of the Old Dominion, and gave a gathering signal to the Virginian
+gentry scattered far and wide on their lonely plantations. The capital
+of the province was Williamsburg, a village of about a thousand
+inhabitants, traversed by a straight and very wide street, and adorned
+with various public buildings, conspicuous among which was William and
+Mary College, a respectable structure, unjustly likened by Jefferson to
+a brick kiln with a roof. The capitol, at the other end of the town, had
+been burned some years before, and had just risen from its ashes. Not
+far distant was the so-called Governor's Palace, where Dinwiddie with
+his wife and two daughters exercised such official hospitality as his
+moderate salary and Scottish thrift would permit. [162]
+
+[162] For a contemporary account of Williamsburg, Burnaby, Travels in
+North America, 6. Smyth, Tour in America, I. 17, describes it some years
+later.
+
+In these seasons of festivity the dull and quiet village was
+transfigured. The broad, sandy street, scorching under a southern sun,
+was thronged with coaches and chariots brought over from London at heavy
+cost in tobacco, though soon to be bedimmed by Virginia roads and negro
+care; racing and hard-drinking planters; clergymen of the Establishment,
+not much more ascetic than their boon companions of the laity; ladies,
+with manners a little rusted by long seclusion; black coachmen and
+footmen, proud of their masters and their liveries; young cavaliers,
+booted and spurred, sitting their thoroughbreds with the careless grace
+of men whose home was the saddle. It was a proud little provincial
+society, which might seem absurd in its lofty self-appreciation, had it
+not soon approved itself so prolific in ability and worth. [163]
+
+[163] The English traveller Smyth, in his Tour, gives a curious and
+vivid picture of Virginian life. For the social condition of this and
+other colonies before the Revolution, one cannot do better than to
+consult Lodge's Short History of the English Colonies.
+
+The burgesses met, and Dinwiddie made them an opening speech, inveighing
+against the aggressions of the French, their "contempt of treaties," and
+"ambitious views for universal monarchy;" and he concluded: "I could
+expatiate very largely on these affairs, but my heart burns with
+resentment at their insolence. I think there is no room for many
+arguments to induce you to raise a considerable supply to enable me to
+defeat the designs of these troublesome people and enemies of mankind."
+The burgesses in their turn expressed the "highest and most becoming
+resentment," and promptly voted twenty thousand pounds; but on the third
+reading of the bill they added to it a rider which touched the old
+question of the pistole fee, and which, in the view of the Governor, was
+both unconstitutional and offensive. He remonstrated in vain; the
+stubborn republicans would not yield, nor would he; and again he
+prorogued them. This unexpected defeat depressed him greatly. "A
+governor," he wrote, "is really to be pitied in the discharge of his
+duty to his king and country, in having to do with such obstinate,
+self-conceited people.... I cannot satisfy the burgesses unless I
+prostitute the rules of government. I have gone through monstrous
+fatigues. Such wrong-headed people, I thank God, I never had to do with
+before." [164] A few weeks later he was comforted; for, having again
+called the burgesses, they gave him the money, without trying this time
+to humiliate him. [165]
+
+[164] Dinwiddie to Hamilton, 6 Sept., 1754. Ibid. to J. Abercrombie, 1
+Sept., 1754.
+
+[165] Hening, VI. 435.
+
+In straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel, aristocratic Virginia was
+far outdone by democratic Pennsylvania. Hamilton, her governor, had laid
+before the Assembly a circular letter from the Earl of Holdernesse
+directing him, in common with other governors, to call on his province
+for means to repel any invasion which might be made "within the
+undoubted limits of His Majesty's dominion." [166] The Assembly of
+Pennsylvania was curiously unlike that of Virginia, as half and often
+more than half of its members were Quaker tradesmen in sober raiment and
+broad-brimmed hats; while of the rest, the greater part were Germans who
+cared little whether they lived under English rule or French, provided
+that they were left in peace upon their farms. The House replied to the
+Governor's call: "It would be highly presumptuous in us to pretend to
+judge of the undoubted limits of His Majesty's dominions;" and they
+added: "the Assemblies of this province are generally composed of a
+majority who are constitutionally principled against war, and represent
+a well-meaning, peaceable people." [167] They then adjourned, telling
+the Governor that, "As those our limits have not been clearly
+ascertained to our satisfaction, we fear the precipitate call upon us as
+the province invaded cannot answer any good purpose at this time."
+
+[166] The Earl of Holdernesse to the Governors in America, 28 Aug. 1753.
+
+[167] Colonial Records of Pa., V. 748.
+
+In the next month they met again, and again Hamilton asked for means to
+defend the country. The question was put, Should the Assembly give money
+for the King's use? and the vote was feebly affirmative. Should the sum
+be twenty thousand pounds? The vote was overwhelming in the negative.
+Fifteen thousand, ten thousand, and five thousand, were successively
+proposed, and the answer was always, No. The House would give nothing
+but five hundred pounds for a present to the Indians; after which they
+adjourned "to the sixth of the month called May." [168] At their next
+meeting they voted to give the Governor ten thousand pounds; but under
+conditions which made them for some time independent of his veto, and
+which, in other respects, were contrary to his instructions from the
+King, as well as from the proprietaries of the province, to whom he had
+given bonds to secure his obedience. He therefore rejected the bill, and
+they adjourned. In August they passed a similar vote, with the same
+result. At their October meeting they evaded his call for supplies. In
+December they voted twenty thousand pounds, hampered with conditions
+which were sure to be refused, since Morris, the new governor, who had
+lately succeeded Hamilton, was under the same restrictions as his
+predecessor. They told him, however, that in the present case they felt
+themselves bound by no Act of Parliament, and added: "We hope the
+Governor, notwithstanding any penal bond he may have entered into, will
+on reflection think himself at liberty and find it consistent with his
+safety and honor to give his assent to this bill." Morris, who had taken
+the highest legal advice on the subject in England, declined to
+compromise himself, saying: "Consider, gentlemen, in what light you will
+appear to His Majesty while, instead of contributing towards your own
+defence, you are entering into an ill-timed controversy concerning the
+validity of royal instructions which may be delayed to a more convenient
+time without the least injury to the rights of the people." [169] They
+would not yield, and told him "that they had rather the French should
+conquer them than give up their privileges." [170] "Truly," remarks
+Dinwiddie, "I think they have given their senses a long holiday."
+
+[168] Pennsylvania Archives, II. 235. Colonial Records of Pa., VI.
+22-26. Works of Franklin, III. 265.
+
+[169] Colonial Records of Pa., VI. 215.
+
+[170] Morris to Penn, 1 Jan. 1755.
+
+New York was not much behind her sisters in contentious stubbornness. In
+answer to the Governor's appeal, the Assembly replied: "It appears that
+the French have built a fort at a place called French Creek, at a
+considerable distance from the River Ohio, which may, but does not by
+any evidence or information appear to us to be an invasion of any of His
+Majesty's colonies." [171] So blind were they as yet to "manifest
+destiny!" Afterwards, however, on learning the defeat of Washington,
+they gave five thousand pounds to aid Virginia. [172] Maryland, after
+long delay, gave six thousand. New Jersey felt herself safe behind the
+other colonies, and would give nothing. New England, on the other hand,
+and especially Massachusetts, had suffered so much from French
+war-parties that they were always ready to fight. Shirley, the governor
+of Massachusetts, had returned from his bootless errand to settle the
+boundary question at Paris. His leanings were strongly monarchical; yet
+he believed in the New Englanders, and was more or less in sympathy with
+them. Both he and they were strenuous against the French, and they had
+mutually helped each other to reap laurels in the last war. Shirley was
+cautious of giving umbrage to his Assembly, and rarely quarrelled with
+it, except when the amount of his salary was in question. He was not
+averse to a war with France; for though bred a lawyer, and now past
+middle life, he flattered himself with hopes of a high military command.
+On the present occasion, making use of a rumor that the French were
+seizing the carrying-place between the Chaudière and the Kennebec, he
+drew from the Assembly a large grant of money, and induced them to call
+upon him to march in person to the scene of danger. He accordingly
+repaired to Falmouth (now Portland); and, though the rumor proved false,
+sent eight hundred men under Captain John Winslow to build two forts on
+the Kennebec as a measure of precaution. [173]
+
+[171] Address of the Assembly to Lieutenant-Governor Delancey, 23 April,
+1754. Lords of Trade to Delancey, 5 July, 1754.
+
+[172] Delancey to Lords of Trade, 8 Oct. 1754.
+
+[173] Massachusetts Archives, 1754. Hutchinson, III. 26. Conduct of
+Major-General Shirley briefly stated. Journals of the Board of Trade,
+1754.
+
+While to these northern provinces Canada was an old and pestilent enemy,
+those towards the south scarcely knew her by name; and the idea of
+French aggression on their borders was so novel and strange that they
+admitted it with difficulty. Mind and heart were engrossed in strife
+with their governors: the universal struggle for virtual self-rule. But
+the war was often waged with a passionate stupidity. The colonist was
+not then an American; he was simply a provincial, and a narrow one. The
+time was yet distant when these dissevered and jealous communities
+should weld themselves into one broad nationality, capable, at need, of
+the mightiest efforts to purge itself of disaffection and vindicate its
+commanding unity.
+
+In the interest of that practical independence which they had so much at
+heart, two conditions were essential to the colonists. The one was a
+field for expansion, and the other was mutual help. Their first
+necessity was to rid themselves of the French, who, by shutting them
+between the Alleghanies and the sea, would cramp them into perpetual
+littleness. With France on their backs, growing while they had no room
+to grow, they must remain in helpless wardship, dependent on England,
+whose aid they would always need; but with the West open before them,
+their future was their own. King and Parliament would respect perforce
+the will of a people spread from the ocean to the Mississippi, and
+united in action as in aims. But in the middle of the last century the
+vision of the ordinary colonist rarely reached so far. The immediate
+victory over a governor, however slight the point at issue, was more
+precious in his eyes than the remote though decisive advantage which he
+saw but dimly.
+
+The governors, representing the central power, saw the situation from
+the national point of view. Several of them, notably Dinwiddie and
+Shirley, were filled with wrath at the proceedings of the French; and
+the former was exasperated beyond measure at the supineness of the
+provinces. He had spared no effort to rouse them, and had failed. His
+instincts were on the side of authority; but, under the circumstances,
+it is hardly to be imputed to him as a very deep offence against human
+liberty that he advised the compelling of the colonies to raise men and
+money for their own defence, and proposed, in view of their "intolerable
+obstinacy and disobedience to his Majesty's commands," that Parliament
+should tax them half-a-crown a head. The approaching war offered to the
+party of authority temptations from which the colonies might have saved
+it by opening their purse-strings without waiting to be told.
+
+The Home Government, on its part, was but half-hearted in the wish that
+they should unite in opposition to the common enemy. It was very willing
+that the several provinces should give money and men, but not that they
+should acquire military habits and a dangerous capacity of acting
+together. There was one kind of union, however, so obviously necessary,
+and at the same time so little to be dreaded, that the British Cabinet,
+instructed by the governors, not only assented to it, but urged it. This
+was joint action in making treaties with the Indians. The practice of
+separate treaties, made by each province in its own interest, had bred
+endless disorders. The adhesion of all the tribes had been so shaken,
+and the efforts of the French to alienate them were so vigorous and
+effective, that not a moment was to be lost. Joncaire had gained over
+most of the Senecas, Piquet was drawing the Onondagas more and more to
+his mission, and the Dutch of Albany were alienating their best friends,
+the Mohawks, by encroaching on their lands. Their chief, Hendrick, came
+to New York with a deputation of the tribe to complain of their wrongs;
+and finding no redress, went off in anger, declaring that the covenant
+chain was broken. [174] The authorities in alarm called William Johnson
+to their aid. He succeeded in soothing the exasperated chief, and then
+proceeded to the confederate council at Onondaga, where he found the
+assembled sachems full of anxieties and doubts. "We don't know what you
+Christians, English and French, intend," said one of their orators. "We
+are so hemmed in by you both that we have hardly a hunting-place left.
+In a little while, if we find a bear in a tree, there will immediately
+appear an owner of the land to claim the property and hinder us from
+killing it, by which we live. We are so perplexed between you that we
+hardly know what to say or think." [175] No man had such power over the
+Five Nations as Johnson. His dealings with them were at once honest,
+downright, and sympathetic. They loved and trusted him as much as they
+detested the Indian commissioners at Albany, whom the province of New
+York had charged with their affairs, and who, being traders, grossly
+abused their office.
+
+[174] N. Y. Col. Docs., VI. 788. Colonial Records of Pa., V. 625.
+
+[175] N. Y. Col. Docs., VI. 813.
+
+It was to remedy this perilous state of things that the Lords of Trade
+and Plantations directed the several governors to urge on their
+assemblies the sending of commissioners to make a joint treaty with the
+wavering tribes. [176] Seven of the provinces, New York, Pennsylvania,
+Maryland, and the four New England colonies, acceded to the plan, and
+sent to Albany, the appointed place of meeting, a body of men who for
+character and ability had never had an equal on the continent, but whose
+powers from their respective assemblies were so cautiously limited as to
+preclude decisive action. They met in the court-house of the little
+frontier city. A large "chain-belt" of wampum was provided, on which the
+King was symbolically represented, holding in his embrace the colonies,
+the Five Nations, and all their allied tribes. This was presented to the
+assembled warriors, with a speech in which the misdeeds of the French
+were not forgotten. The chief, Hendrick, made a much better speech in
+reply. "We do now solemnly renew and brighten the covenant chain. We
+shall take the chain-belt to Onondaga, where our council-fire always
+burns, and keep it so safe that neither thunder nor lightning shall
+break it." The commissioners had blamed them for allowing so many of
+their people to be drawn away to Piquet's mission. "It is true," said
+the orator, "that we live disunited. We have tried to bring back our
+brethren, but in vain; for the Governor of Canada is like a wicked,
+deluding spirit. You ask why we are so dispersed. The reason is that you
+have neglected us for these three years past." Here he took a stick and
+threw it behind him. "You have thus thrown us behind your back; whereas
+the French are a subtle and vigilant people, always using their utmost
+endeavors to seduce and bring us over to them." He then told them that
+it was not the French alone who invaded the country of the Indians. "The
+Governor of Virginia and the Governor of Canada are quarrelling about
+lands which belong to us, and their quarrel may end in our destruction."
+And he closed with a burst of sarcasm. "We would have taken Crown Point
+[in the last war], but you prevented us. Instead, you burned your own
+fort at Saratoga and ran away from it,--which was a shame and a scandal
+to you. Look about your country and see: you have no fortifications; no,
+not even in this city. It is but a step from Canada hither, and the
+French may come and turn you out of doors. You desire us to speak from
+the bottom of our hearts, and we shall do it. Look at the French: they
+are men; they are fortifying everywhere. But you are all like women,
+bare and open, without fortifications." [177]
+
+[176] Circular Letter of Lords of Trade to Governors in America, 18
+Sept. 1753. Lords of Trade to Sir Danvers Osborne, in N. Y. Col. Docs.,
+VI. 800.
+
+[177] Proceedings of the Congress at Albany, N. Y. Col. Docs., VI. 853.
+A few verbal changes, for the sake of brevity, are made in the above
+extracts.
+
+Hendrick's brother Abraham now took up the word, and begged that Johnson
+might be restored to the management of Indian affairs, which he had
+formerly held; "for," said the chief, "we love him and he us, and he has
+always been our good and trusty friend." The commissioners had not power
+to grant the request, but the Indians were assured that it should not be
+forgotten; and they returned to their villages soothed, but far from
+satisfied. Nor were the commissioners empowered to take any effective
+steps for fortifying the frontier.
+
+The congress now occupied itself with another matter. Its members were
+agreed that great danger was impending; that without wise and just
+treatment of the tribes, the French would gain them all, build forts
+along the back of the British colonies, and, by means of ships and
+troops from France, master them one by one, unless they would combine
+for mutual defence. The necessity of some form of union had at length
+begun to force itself upon the colonial mind. A rough woodcut had lately
+appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette, figuring the provinces under the
+not very flattering image of a snake cut to pieces, with the motto,
+"Join, or die." A writer of the day held up the Five Nations for
+emulation, observing that if ignorant savages could confederate, British
+colonists might do as much. [178] Franklin, the leading spirit of the
+congress, now laid before it his famous project of union, which has been
+too often described to need much notice here. Its fate is well known.
+The Crown rejected it because it gave too much power to the colonies;
+the colonies, because it gave too much power to the Crown, and because
+it required each of them to transfer some of its functions of
+self-government to a central council. Another plan was afterwards
+devised by the friends of prerogative, perfectly agreeable to the King,
+since it placed all power in the hands of a council of governors, and
+since it involved compulsory taxation of the colonists, who, for the
+same reasons, would have doggedly resisted it, had an attempt been made
+to carry it into effect. [179]
+
+[178] Kennedy, Importance of gaining and preserving the Friendship of
+the Indians.
+
+[179] On the Albany plan of union, Franklin's Works, I. 177. Shirley
+thought it "a great strain upon the prerogative of the Crown," and was
+for requiring the colonies to raise money and men "without farther
+consulting them upon any points whatever." Shirley to Robinson, 24 Dec.
+1754.
+
+Even if some plan of union had been agreed upon, long delay must have
+followed before its machinery could be set in motion; and meantime there
+was need of immediate action. War-parties of Indians from Canada, set
+on, it was thought, by the Governor, were already burning and murdering
+among the border settlements of New York and New Hampshire. In the south
+Dinwiddie grew more and more alarmed, "for the French are like so many
+locusts; they are collected in bodies in a most surprising manner; their
+number now on the Ohio is from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred." He
+writes to Lord Granville that, in his opinion, they aim to conquer the
+continent, and that "the obstinacy of this stubborn generation" exposes
+the country "to the merciless rage of a rapacious enemy." What vexed him
+even more than the apathy of the assemblies was the conduct of his
+brother-governor, Glen of South Carolina, who, apparently piqued at the
+conspicuous part Dinwiddie was acting, wrote to him in a "very
+dictatorial style," found fault with his measures, jested at his
+activity in writing letters, and even questioned the right of England to
+lands on the Ohio; till he was moved at last to retort: "I cannot help
+observing that your letters and arguments would have been more proper
+from a French officer than from one of His Majesty's governors. My
+conduct has met with His Majesty's gracious approbation; and I am sorry
+it has not received yours." Thus discouraged, even in quarters where he
+had least reason to expect it, he turned all his hopes to the Home
+Government; again recommended a tax by Act of Parliament, and begged, in
+repeated letters, for arms, munitions, and two regiments of infantry.
+[180] His petition was not made in vain.
+
+[180] Dinwiddie Papers; letters to Granville, Albemarle, Halifax, Fox,
+Holdernesse, Horace Walpole, and Lords of Trade.
+
+England at this time presented the phenomenon of a prime minister who
+could not command the respect of his own servants. A more preposterous
+figure than the Duke of Newcastle never stood at the head of a great
+nation. He had a feverish craving for place and power, joined to a total
+unfitness for both. He was an adept in personal politics, and was so
+busied with the arts of winning and keeping office that he had no
+leisure, even if he had had ability, for the higher work of government.
+He was restless, quick in movement, rapid and confused in speech, lavish
+of worthless promises, always in a hurry, and at once headlong, timid,
+and rash. "A borrowed importance and real insignificance," says Walpole,
+who knew him well, "gave him the perpetual air of a solicitor.... He had
+no pride, though infinite self-love. He loved business immoderately; yet
+was only always doing it, never did it. When left to himself, he always
+plunged into difficulties, and then shuddered for the consequences."
+Walpole gives an anecdote showing the state of his ideas on colonial
+matters. General Ligonier suggested to him that Annapolis ought to be
+defended. "To which he replied with his lisping, evasive hurry:
+'Annapolis, Annapolis! Oh, yes, Annapolis must be defended,--where is
+Annapolis?'" [181] Another contemporary, Smollett, ridicules him in his
+novel of Humphrey Clinker, and tells a similar story, which, founded in
+fact or not, shows in what estimation the minister was held: "Captain C.
+treated the Duke's character without any ceremony. 'This wiseacre,' said
+he, 'is still abed; and I think the best thing he can do is to sleep on
+till Christmas; for when he gets up he does nothing but expose his own
+folly. In the beginning of the war he told me in a great fright that
+thirty thousand French had marched from Acadia to Cape Breton. Where did
+they find transports? said I.--Transports! cried he, I tell you they
+marched by land.--By land to the island of Cape Breton!--What, is Cape
+Breton an island?--Certainly.--Ha! are you sure of that?--When I pointed
+it out on the map, he examined it earnestly with his spectacles; then,
+taking me in his arms,--My dear C., cried he, you always bring us good
+news. Egad! I'll go directly and tell the King that Cape Breton is an
+island.'"
+
+[181] Walpole, George II., I. 344.
+
+His wealth, county influence, flagitious use of patronage, and
+long-practised skill in keeping majorities in the House of Commons by
+means that would not bear the light, made his support necessary to Pitt
+himself, and placed a fantastic political jobber at the helm of England
+in a time when she needed a patriot and a statesman. Newcastle was the
+growth of the decrepitude and decay of a great party, which had
+fulfilled its mission and done its work. But if the Whig soil had become
+poor for a wholesome crop, it was never so rich for toadstools.
+
+Sir Thomas Robinson held the Southern Department, charged with the
+colonies; and Lord Mahon remarks of him that the Duke had achieved the
+feat of finding a secretary of state more incapable than himself. He had
+the lead of the House of Commons. "Sir Thomas Robinson lead us!" said
+Pitt to Henry Fox; "the Duke might as well send his jackboot to lead
+us." The active and aspiring Halifax was at the head of the Board of
+Trade and Plantations. The Duke of Cumberland commanded the army,--an
+indifferent soldier, though a brave one; harsh, violent, and headlong.
+Anson, the celebrated navigator, was First Lord of the Admiralty,--a
+position in which he disappointed everybody.
+
+In France the true ruler was Madame de Pompadour, once the King's
+mistress, now his procuress, and a sort of feminine prime minister.
+Machault d'Arnouville was at the head of the Marine and Colonial
+Department. The diplomatic representatives of the two Crowns were more
+conspicuous for social than for political talents. Of Mirepoix, French
+ambassador at London, Marshal Saxe had once observed: "It is a good
+appointment; he can teach the English to dance." Walpole says concerning
+him: "He could not even learn to pronounce the names of our games of
+cards,--which, however, engaged most of the hours of his negotiation. We
+were to be bullied out of our colonies by an apprentice at whist!" Lord
+Albemarle, English ambassador at Versailles, is held up by Chesterfield
+as an example to encourage his son in the pursuit of the graces: "What
+do you think made our friend Lord Albemarle colonel of a regiment of
+Guards, Governor of Virginia, Groom of the Stole, and ambassador to
+Paris,--amounting in all to sixteen or seventeen thousand pounds a year?
+Was it his birth? No; a Dutch gentleman only. Was it his estate? No; he
+had none. Was it his learning, his parts, his political abilities and
+application? You can answer these questions as easily and as soon as I
+can ask them. What was it then? Many people wondered; but I do not, for
+I know, and will tell you,--it was his air, his address, his manners,
+and his graces."
+
+The rival nations differed widely in military and naval strength.
+England had afloat more than two hundred ships of war, some of them of
+great force; while the navy of France counted little more than half the
+number. On the other hand, England had reduced her army to eighteen
+thousand men, and France had nearly ten times as many under arms. Both
+alike were weak in leadership. That rare son of the tempest, a great
+commander, was to be found in neither of them since the death of Saxe.
+
+In respect to the approaching crisis, the interests of the two Powers
+pointed to opposite courses of action. What France needed was time. It
+was her policy to put off a rupture, wreathe her face in diplomatic
+smiles, and pose in an attitude of peace and good faith, while
+increasing her navy, reinforcing her garrisons in America, and
+strengthening her positions there. It was the policy of England to
+attack at once, and tear up the young encroachments while they were yet
+in the sap, before they could strike root and harden into stiff
+resistance.
+
+When, on the fourteenth of November, the King made his opening speech to
+the Houses of Parliament, he congratulated them on the prevailing peace,
+and assured them that he should improve it to promote the trade of his
+subjects, "and protect those possessions which constitute one great
+source of their wealth." America was not mentioned; but his hearers
+understood him, and made a liberal grant for the service of the year.
+[182] Two regiments, each of five hundred men, had already been ordered
+to sail for Virginia, where their numbers were to be raised by
+enlistment to seven hundred. [183] Major-General Braddock, a man after
+the Duke of Cumberland's own heart, was appointed to the chief command.
+The two regiments--the forty-fourth and the forty-eighth--embarked at
+Cork in the middle of January. The soldiers detested the service, and
+many had deserted. More would have done so had they foreseen what
+awaited them.
+
+[182] Entick, Late War, I. 118.
+
+[183] Robinson to Lords of the Admiralty, 30 Sept. 1754. Ibid., to Board
+of Ordnance, 10 Oct. 1754. Ibid., Circular Letter to American Governors,
+26 Oct. 1754. Instructions to our Trusty and Well-beloved Edward
+Braddock, 25 Nov. 1754.
+
+This movement was no sooner known at Versailles than a counter
+expedition was prepared on a larger scale. Eighteen ships of war were
+fitted for sea at Brest and Rochefort, and the six battalions of La
+Reine, Bourgogne, Languedoc, Guienne, Artois, and Béarn, three thousand
+men in all, were ordered on board for Canada. Baron Dieskau, a German
+veteran who had served under Saxe, was made their general; and with him
+went the new governor of French America, the Marquis de Vaudreuil,
+destined to succeed Duquesne, whose health was failing under the
+fatigues of his office. Admiral Dubois de la Motte commanded the fleet;
+and lest the English should try to intercept it, another squadron of
+nine ships, under Admiral Macnamara, was ordered to accompany it to a
+certain distance from the coast. There was long and tedious delay.
+Doreil, commissary of war, who had embarked with Vaudreuil and Dieskau
+in the same ship, wrote from the harbor of Brest on the twenty-ninth of
+April: "At last I think we are off. We should have been outside by four
+o'clock this morning, if M. de Macnamara had not been obliged to ask
+Count Dubois de la Motte to wait till noon to mend some important part
+of the rigging (I don't know the name of it) which was broken. It is
+precious time lost, and gives the English the advantage over us of two
+tides. I talk of these things as a blind man does of colors. What is
+certain is that Count Dubois de la Motte is very impatient to get away,
+and that the King's fleet destined for Canada is in very able and
+zealous hands. It is now half-past two. In half an hour all may be
+ready, and we may get out of the harbor before night." He was again
+disappointed; it was the third of May before the fleet put to sea. [184]
+
+[184] Lettres de Cremille, de Rostaing, et de Doreil au Ministre, Avril
+18, 24, 28, 29, 1755. Liste des Vaisseaux de Guerre qui composent
+l'Escadre armée à Brest, 1755. Journal of M. de Vaudreuil's Voyage to
+Canada, in N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 297. Pouchot, I. 25.
+
+During these preparations there was active diplomatic correspondence
+between the two Courts. Mirepoix demanded why British troops were sent
+to America. Sir Thomas Robinson answered that there was no intention to
+disturb the peace or offend any Power whatever; yet the secret orders to
+Braddock were the reverse of pacific. Robinson asked on his part the
+purpose of the French armament at Brest and Rochefort; and the answer,
+like his own, was a protestation that no hostility was meant. At the
+same time Mirepoix in the name of the King proposed that orders should
+be given to the American governors on both sides to refrain from all
+acts of aggression. But while making this proposal the French Court
+secretly sent orders to Duquesne to attack and destroy Fort Halifax, one
+of the two forts lately built by Shirley on the Kennebec,--a river
+which, by the admission of the French themselves, belonged to the
+English. But, in making this attack, the French Governor was expressly
+enjoined to pretend that he acted without orders. [185] He was also told
+that, if necessary, he might make use of the Indians to harass the
+English. [186] Thus there was good faith on neither part; but it is
+clear through all the correspondence that the English expected to gain
+by precipitating an open rupture, and the French by postponing it.
+Projects of convention were proposed on both sides, but there was no
+agreement. The English insisted as a preliminary condition that the
+French should evacuate all the western country as far as the Wabash.
+Then ensued a long discussion of their respective claims, as futile as
+the former discussion at Paris on Acadian boundaries. [187]
+
+[185] Machault à Duquesne, 17 Fév. 1755. The letter of Mirepoix
+proposing mutual abstinence from aggression, is dated on the 6th of the
+same month. The French dreaded Fort Halifax, because they thought it
+prepared the way for an advance on Quebec by way of the Chaudière.
+
+[186] Ibid.
+
+[187] This correspondence is printed among the Pièces justificatives of
+the Précis des Faits.
+
+The British Court knew perfectly the naval and military preparations of
+the French. Lord Albemarle had died at Paris in December; but the
+secretary of the embassy, De Cosne, sent to London full information
+concerning the fleet at Brest and Rochefort. [188] On this, Admiral
+Boscawen, with eleven ships of the line and one frigate, was ordered to
+intercept it; and as his force was plainly too small, Admiral Holbourne,
+with seven more ships, was sent, nearly three weeks after, to join him
+if he could. Their orders were similar,--to capture or destroy any
+French vessels bound to North America. [189] Boscawen, who got to sea
+before La Motte, stationed himself near the southern coast of
+Newfoundland to cut him off; but most of the French squadron eluded him,
+and safely made their way, some to Louisbourg, and the others to Quebec.
+Thus the English expedition was, in the main, a failure. Three of the
+French ships, however, lost in fog and rain, had become separated from
+the rest, and lay rolling and tossing on an angry sea not far from Cape
+Race. One of them was the "Alcide," commanded by Captain Hocquart; the
+others were the "Lis" and the "Dauphin." The wind fell; but the fogs
+continued at intervals; till, on the afternoon of the seventh of June,
+the weather having cleared, the watchman on the maintop saw the distant
+ocean studded with ships. It was the fleet of Boscawen. Hocquart, who
+gives the account, says that in the morning they were within three
+leagues of him, crowding all sail in pursuit. Towards eleven o'clock one
+of them, the "Dunkirk," was abreast of him to windward, within short
+speaking distance; and the ship of the Admiral, displaying a red flag as
+a signal to engage, was not far off. Hocquart called out: "Are we at
+peace, or war?" He declares that Howe, captain of the "Dunkirk," replied
+in French: "La paix, la paix." Hocquart then asked the name of the
+British admiral; and on hearing it said: "I know him; he is a friend of
+mine." Being asked his own name in return, he had scarcely uttered it
+when the batteries of the "Dunkirk" belched flame and smoke, and
+volleyed a tempest of iron upon the crowded decks of the "Alcide." She
+returned the fire, but was forced at length to strike her colors.
+Rostaing, second in command of the troops, was killed; and six other
+officers, with about eighty men, were killed or wounded. [190] At the
+same time the "Lis" was attacked and overpowered. She had on board eight
+companies of the battalions of La Reine and Languedoc. The third French
+ship, the "Dauphin," escaped under cover of a rising fog. [191]
+
+[188] Particulars in Entick, I. 121.
+
+[189] Secret Instructions for our Trusty and Well-beloved Edward
+Boscawen, Esq., Vice-Admiral of the Blue, 16 April, 1755. Most secret
+Instructions for Francis Holbourne, Esq., Rear-Admiral of the Blue, 9
+May, 1755. Robinson to Lords of the Admiralty, 8 May, 1755.
+
+[190] Liste des Officiers tués et blessés dans le Combat de l'Alcide et
+du Lis.
+
+[191] Hocquart's account is given in full by Pichon, Lettres et Mémoires
+pour servir à l'Histoire du Cap-Breton. The short account in Précis des
+Faits, 272, seems, too, to be drawn from Hocquart. Also Boscawen to
+Robinson, 22 June, 1755. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1755.
+Entick, I. 137.
+
+Some English accounts say that Captain Howe, in answer to the question,
+"Are we at peace, or war?" returned, "I don't know; but you had better
+prepare for war." Boscawen places the action on the 10th, instead of the
+8th, and puts the English loss at seven killed and twenty-seven wounded.
+
+Here at last was an end to negotiation. The sword was drawn and
+brandished in the eyes of Europe.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+1755.
+
+BRADDOCK.
+
+Arrival of Braddock • His Character • Council at Alexandria • Plan of
+the Campaign • Apathy of the Colonists • Rage of Braddock • Franklin •
+Fort Cumberland • Composition of the Army • Offended Friends • The March
+• The French Fort • Savage Allies • The Captive • Beaujeu • He goes to
+meet the English • Passage of the Monongahela • The Surprise • The
+Battle • Rout of Braddock • His Death • Indian Ferocity • Reception of
+the Ill News • Weakness of Dunbar • The Frontier abandoned.
+
+"I have the pleasure to acquaint you that General Braddock came to my
+house last Sunday night," writes Dinwiddie, at the end of February, to
+Governor Dobbs of North Carolina. Braddock had landed at Hampton from
+the ship "Centurion," along with young Commodore Keppel, who commanded
+the American squadron. "I am mighty glad," again writes Dinwiddie, "that
+the General is arrived, which I hope will give me some ease; for these
+twelve months past I have been a perfect slave." He conceived golden
+opinions of his guest. "He is, I think, a very fine officer, and a
+sensible, considerate gentleman. He and I live in great harmony."
+
+Had he known him better, he might have praised him less. William
+Shirley, son of the Governor of Massachusetts, was Braddock's secretary;
+and after an acquaintance of some months wrote to his friend Governor
+Morris: "We have a general most judiciously chosen for being
+disqualified for the service he is employed in in almost every respect.
+He may be brave for aught I know, and he is honest in pecuniary
+matters." [192] The astute Franklin, who also had good opportunity of
+knowing him, says: "This general was, I think, a brave man, and might
+probably have made a good figure in some European war. But he had too
+much self-confidence; too high an opinion of the validity of regular
+troops; too mean a one of both Americans and Indians." [193] Horace
+Walpole, in his function of gathering and immortalizing the gossip of
+his time, has left a sharply drawn sketch of Braddock in two letters to
+Sir Horace Mann, written in the summer of this year: "I love to give you
+an idea of our characters as they rise upon the stage of history.
+Braddock is a very Iroquois in disposition. He had a sister who, having
+gamed away all her little fortune at Bath, hanged herself with a truly
+English deliberation, leaving only a note upon the table with those
+lines: 'To die is landing on some silent shore,' etc. When Braddock was
+told of it, he only said: 'Poor Fanny! I always thought she would play
+till she would be forced to tuck herself up.'" Under the name of Miss
+Sylvia S------, Goldsmith, in his life of Nash, tells the story of this
+unhappy woman. She was a rash but warm-hearted creature, reduced to
+penury and dependence, not so much by a passion for cards as by her
+lavish generosity to a lover ruined by his own follies, and with whom
+her relations are said to have been entirely innocent. Walpole
+continues: "But a more ridiculous story of Braddock, and which is
+recorded in heroics by Fielding in his Covent Garden Tragedy, was an
+amorous discussion he had formerly with a Mrs. Upton, who kept him. He
+had gone the greatest lengths with her pin-money, and was still craving.
+One day, that he was very pressing, she pulled out her purse and showed
+him that she had but twelve or fourteen shillings left. He twitched it
+from her: 'Let me see that.' Tied up at the other end he found five
+guineas. He took them, tossed the empty purse in her face, saying: 'Did
+you mean to cheat me?' and never went near her more. Now you are
+acquainted with General Braddock."
+
+[192] Shirley the younger to Morris, 23 May, 1755.
+
+[193] Franklin, Autobiography.
+
+"He once had a duel with Colonel Gumley, Lady Bath's brother, who had
+been his great friend. As they were going to engage, Gumley, who had
+good-humor and wit (Braddock had the latter), said: 'Braddock, you are a
+poor dog! Here, take my purse; if you kill me, you will be forced to run
+away, and then you will not have a shilling to support you.' Braddock
+refused the purse, insisted on the duel, was disarmed, and would not
+even ask his life. However, with all his brutality, he has lately been
+governor of Gibraltar, where he made himself adored, and where scarce
+any governor was endured before." [194]
+
+[194] Letters of Horace Walpole (1866), II. 459, 461. It is doubtful if
+Braddock was ever governor of Gibraltar; though, as Mr. Sargent shows,
+he once commanded a regiment there.
+
+Another story is told of him by an accomplished actress of the time,
+George Anne Bellamy, whom Braddock had known from girlhood, and with
+whom his present relations seem to have been those of an elderly adviser
+and friend. "As we were walking in the Park one day, we heard a poor
+fellow was to be chastised; when I requested the General to beg off the
+offender. Upon his application to the general officer, whose name was
+Dury, he asked Braddock how long since he had divested himself of the
+brutality and insolence of his manners? To which the other replied: 'You
+never knew me insolent to my inferiors. It is only to such rude men as
+yourself that I behave with the spirit which I think they deserve.'"
+
+Braddock made a visit to the actress on the evening before he left
+London for America. "Before we parted," she says, "the General told me
+that he should never see me more; for he was going with a handful of men
+to conquer whole nations; and to do this they must cut their way through
+unknown woods. He produced a map of the country, saying at the same
+time: 'Dear Pop, we are sent like sacrifices to the altar,'" [195]--a
+strange presentiment for a man of his sturdy temper.
+
+[195] Apology for the Life of George Anne Bellamy, written by herself,
+II. 204 (London, 1786).
+
+Whatever were his failings, he feared nothing, and his fidelity and
+honor in the discharge of public trusts were never questioned.
+"Desperate in his fortune, brutal in his behavior, obstinate in his
+sentiments," again writes Walpole, "he was still intrepid and capable."
+[196] He was a veteran in years and in service, having entered the
+Coldstream Guards as ensign in 1710.
+
+[196] Walpole, George II., I. 390.
+
+The transports bringing the two regiments from Ireland all arrived
+safely at Hampton, and were ordered to proceed up the Potomac to
+Alexandria, where a camp was to be formed. Thither, towards the end of
+March, went Braddock himself, along with Keppel and Dinwiddie, in the
+Governor's coach; while his aide-de-camp, Orme, his secretary, Shirley,
+and the servants of the party followed on horseback. Braddock had sent
+for the elder Shirley and other provincial governors to meet him in
+council; and on the fourteenth of April they assembled in a tent of the
+newly formed encampment. Here was Dinwiddie, who thought his troubles at
+an end, and saw in the red-coated soldiery the near fruition of his
+hopes. Here, too, was his friend and ally, Dobbs of North Carolina; with
+Morris of Pennsylvania, fresh from Assembly quarrels; Sharpe of
+Maryland, who, having once been a soldier, had been made a sort of
+provisional commander-in-chief before the arrival of Braddock; and the
+ambitious Delancey of New York, who had lately led the opposition
+against the Governor of that province, and now filled the office
+himself,--a position that needed all his manifold adroitness. But, next
+to Braddock, the most noteworthy man present was Shirley, governor of
+Massachusetts. There was a fountain of youth in this old lawyer. A few
+years before, when he was boundary commissioner in Paris, he had had the
+indiscretion to marry a young Catholic French girl, the daughter of his
+landlord; and now, when more than sixty years old, he thirsted for
+military honors, and delighted in contriving operations of war. He was
+one of a very few in the colonies who at this time entertained the idea
+of expelling the French from the continent. He held that Carthage must
+be destroyed; and, in spite of his Parisian marriage, was the foremost
+advocate of the root-and-branch policy. He and Lawrence, governor of
+Nova Scotia, had concerted an attack on the French fort of Beauséjour;
+and, jointly with others in New England, he had planned the capture of
+Crown Point, the key of Lake Champlain. By these two strokes and by
+fortifying the portage between the Kennebec and the Chaudière, he
+thought that the northern colonies would be saved from invasion, and
+placed in a position to become themselves invaders. Then, by driving the
+enemy from Niagara, securing that important pass, and thus cutting off
+the communication between Canada and her interior dependencies, all the
+French posts in the West would die of inanition. [197] In order to
+commend these schemes to the Home Government, he had painted in gloomy
+colors the dangers that beset the British colonies. Our Indians, he
+said, will all desert us if we submit to French encroachment. Some of
+the provinces are full of negro slaves, ready to rise against their
+masters, and of Roman Catholics, Jacobites, indented servants, and other
+dangerous persons, who would aid the French in raising a servile
+insurrection. Pennsylvania is in the hands of Quakers, who will not
+fight, and of Germans, who are likely enough to join the enemy. The
+Dutch of Albany would do anything to save their trade. A strong force of
+French regulars might occupy that place without resistance, then descend
+the Hudson, and, with the help of a naval force, capture New York and
+cut the British colonies asunder. [198]
+
+[197] Correspondence of Shirley, 1754, 1755.
+
+[198] Shirley to Robinson, 24 Jan. 1755.
+
+The plans against Crown Point and Beauséjour had already found the
+approval of the Home Government and the energetic support of all the New
+England colonies. Preparation for them was in full activity; and it was
+with great difficulty that Shirley had disengaged himself from these
+cares to attend the council at Alexandria. He and Dinwiddie stood in the
+front of opposition to French designs. As they both defended the royal
+prerogative and were strong advocates of taxation by Parliament, they
+have found scant justice from American writers. Yet the British colonies
+owed them a debt of gratitude, and the American States owe it still.
+
+Braddock, laid his instructions before the Council, and Shirley found
+them entirely to his mind; while the General, on his part, fully
+approved the schemes of the Governor. The plan of the campaign was
+settled. The French were to be attacked at four points at once. The two
+British regiments lately arrived were to advance on Fort Duquesne; two
+new regiments, known as Shirley's and Pepperell's, just raised in the
+provinces, and taken into the King's pay, were to reduce Niagara; a body
+of provincials from New England, New York, and New Jersey was to seize
+Crown Point; and another body of New England men to capture Beauséjour
+and bring Acadia to complete subjection. Braddock himself was to lead
+the expedition against Fort Duquesne. He asked Shirley, who, though a
+soldier only in theory, had held the rank of colonel since the last war,
+to charge himself with that against Niagara; and Shirley eagerly
+assented. The movement on Crown Point was intrusted to Colonel William
+Johnson, by reason of his influence over the Indians and his reputation
+for energy, capacity, and faithfulness. Lastly, the Acadian enterprise
+was assigned to Lieutenant-Colonel Monckton, a regular officer of merit.
+
+To strike this fourfold blow in time of peace was a scheme worthy of
+Newcastle and of Cumberland. The pretext was that the positions to be
+attacked were all on British soil; that in occupying them the French had
+been guilty of invasion; and that to expel the invaders would be an act
+of self-defence. Yet in regard to two of these positions, the French, if
+they had no other right, might at least claim one of prescription. Crown
+Point had been twenty-four years in their undisturbed possession, while
+it was three quarters of a century since they first occupied Niagara;
+and, though New York claimed the ground, no serious attempt had been
+made to dislodge them.
+
+Other matters now engaged the Council. Braddock, in accordance with his
+instructions, asked the governors to urge upon their several assemblies
+the establishment of a general fund for the service of the campaign; but
+the governors were all of opinion that the assemblies would
+refuse,--each being resolved to keep the control of its money in its own
+hands; and all present, with one voice, advised that the colonies should
+be compelled by Act of Parliament to contribute in due proportion to the
+support of the war. Braddock next asked if, in the judgment of the
+Council, it would not be well to send Colonel Johnson with full powers
+to treat with the Five Nations, who had been driven to the verge of an
+outbreak by the misconduct of the Dutch Indian commissioners at Albany.
+The measure was cordially approved, as was also another suggestion of
+the General, that vessels should be built at Oswego to command Lake
+Ontario. The Council then dissolved.
+
+Shirley hastened back to New England, burdened with the preparation for
+three expeditions and the command of one of them. Johnson, who had been
+in the camp, though not in the Council, went back to Albany, provided
+with a commission as sole superintendent of Indian affairs, and charged,
+besides, with the enterprise against Crown Point; while an express was
+despatched to Monckton at Halifax, with orders to set at once to his
+work of capturing Beauséjour. [199]
+
+[199] Minutes of a Council held at the Camp at Alexandria, in Virginia,
+April 14, 1755. Instructions to Major-General Braddock, 25 Nov. 1754.
+Secret Instructions to Major-General Braddock, same date. Napier to
+Braddock, written by Order of the Duke of Cumberland, 25 Nov. 1754, in
+Précis des Faits, Pièces justificatives, 168. Orme, Journal of
+Braddock's Expedition. Instructions to Governor Shirley. Correspondence
+of Shirley. Correspondence of Braddock (Public Record Office). Johnson
+Papers. Dinwiddie Papers. Pennsylvania Archives, II.
+
+In regard to Braddock's part of the campaign, there had been a serious
+error. If, instead of landing in Virginia and moving on Fort Duquesne by
+the long and circuitous route of Wills Creek, the two regiments had
+disembarked at Philadelphia and marched westward, the way would have
+been shortened, and would have lain through one of the richest and most
+populous districts on the continent, filled with supplies of every kind.
+In Virginia, on the other hand, and in the adjoining province of
+Maryland, wagons, horses, and forage were scarce. The enemies of the
+Administration ascribed this blunder to the influence of the Quaker
+merchant, John Hanbury, whom the Duke of Newcastle had consulted as a
+person familiar with American affairs. Hanbury, who was a prominent
+stockholder in the Ohio Company, and who traded largely in Virginia, saw
+it for his interest that the troops should pass that way; and is said to
+have brought the Duke to this opinion. [200] A writer of the time thinks
+that if they had landed in Pennsylvania, forty thousand pounds would
+have been saved in money, and six weeks in time. [201]
+
+[200] Shebbeare's Tracts, Letter I. Dr. Shebbeare was a political
+pamphleteer, pilloried by one ministry, and rewarded by the next. He
+certainly speaks of Hanbury, though he does not give his name. Compare
+Sargent, 107, 162.
+
+[201] Gentleman's Magazine, Aug. 1755.
+
+Not only were supplies scarce, but the people showed such unwillingness
+to furnish them, and such apathy in aiding the expedition, that even
+Washington was provoked to declare that "they ought to be chastised."
+[202] Many of them thought that the alarm about French encroachment was
+a device of designing politicians; and they did not awake to a full
+consciousness of the peril till it was forced upon them by a deluge of
+calamities, produced by the purblind folly of their own representatives,
+who, instead of frankly promoting the expedition, displayed a perverse
+and exasperating narrowness which chafed Braddock to fury. He praises
+the New England colonies, and echoes Dinwiddie's declaration that they
+have shown a "fine martial spirit," and he commends Virginia as having
+done far better than her neighbors; but for Pennsylvania he finds no
+words to express his wrath. [203] He knew nothing of the intestine war
+between proprietaries and people, and hence could see no palliation for
+a conduct which threatened to ruin both the expedition and the colony.
+Everything depended on speed, and speed was impossible; for stores and
+provisions were not ready, though notice to furnish them had been given
+months before. The quartermaster-general, Sir John Sinclair, "stormed
+like a lion rampant," but with small effect. [204] Contracts broken or
+disavowed, want of horses, want of wagons, want of forage, want of
+wholesome food, or sufficient food of any kind, caused such delay that
+the report of it reached England, and drew from Walpole the comment that
+Braddock was in no hurry to be scalped. In reality he was maddened with
+impatience and vexation.
+
+[202] Writings of Washington, II. 78. He speaks of the people of
+Pennsylvania.
+
+[203] Braddock to Robinson, 18 March, 19 April, 5 June, 1755, etc. On
+the attitude of Pennsylvania, Colonial Records of Pa., VI., passim.
+
+[204] Colonial Records of Pa., VI. 368.
+
+A powerful ally presently came to his aid in the shape of Benjamin
+Franklin, then postmaster-general of Pennsylvania. That sagacious
+personage,--the sublime of common-sense, about equal in his instincts
+and motives of character to the respectable average of the New England
+that produced him, but gifted with a versatile power of brain rarely
+matched on earth,--was then divided between his strong desire to repel a
+danger of which he saw the imminence, and his equally strong antagonism
+to the selfish claims of the Penns, proprietaries of Pennsylvania. This
+last motive had determined his attitude towards their representative,
+the Governor, and led him into an opposition as injurious to the
+military good name of the province as it was favorable to its political
+longings. In the present case there was no such conflict of
+inclinations; he could help Braddock without hurting Pennsylvania. He
+and his son had visited the camp, and found the General waiting
+restlessly for the report of the agents whom he had sent to collect
+wagons. "I stayed with him," says Franklin, "several days, and dined
+with him daily. When I was about to depart, the returns of wagons to be
+obtained were brought in, by which it appeared that they amounted only
+to twenty-five, and not all of these were in serviceable condition." On
+this the General and his officers declared that the expedition was at an
+end, and denounced the Ministry for sending them into a country void of
+the means of transportation. Franklin remarked that it was a pity they
+had not landed in Pennsylvania, where almost every farmer had his wagon.
+Braddock caught eagerly at his words, and begged that he would use his
+influence to enable the troops to move. Franklin went back to
+Pennsylvania, issued an address to the farmers appealing to their
+interest and their fears, and in a fortnight procured a hundred and
+fifty wagons, with a large number of horses. [205] Braddock, grateful to
+his benefactor, and enraged at everybody else, pronounced him "Almost
+the only instance of ability and honesty I have known in these
+provinces." [206] More wagons and more horses gradually arrived, and at
+the eleventh hour the march began.
+
+[205] Franklin, Autobiography. Advertisement of B. Franklin for Wagons;
+Address to the Inhabitants of the Counties of York, Lancaster, and
+Cumberland, in Pennsylvania Archives, II. 294.
+
+[206] Braddock to Robinson, 5 June, 1755. The letters of Braddock here
+cited are the originals in the Public Record Office.
+
+On the tenth of May Braddock reached Wills Creek, where the whole force
+was now gathered, having marched thither by detachments along the banks
+of the Potomac. This old trading-station of the Ohio Company had been
+transformed into a military post and named Fort Cumberland. During the
+past winter the independent companies which had failed Washington in his
+need had been at work here to prepare a base of operations for Braddock.
+Their axes had been of more avail than their muskets. A broad wound had
+been cut in the bosom of the forest, and the murdered oaks and chestnuts
+turned into ramparts, barracks, and magazines. Fort Cumberland was an
+enclosure of logs set upright in the ground, pierced with loopholes, and
+armed with ten small cannon. It stood on a rising ground near the point
+where Wills Creek joined the Potomac, and the forest girded it like a
+mighty hedge, or rather like a paling of gaunt brown stems upholding a
+canopy of green. All around spread illimitable woods, wrapping hill,
+valley, and mountain. The spot was an oasis in a desert of leaves,--if
+the name oasis can be given to anything so rude and harsh. In this
+rugged area, or "clearing," all Braddock's force was now assembled,
+amounting, regulars, provincials, and sailors, to about twenty-two
+hundred men. The two regiments, Halket's and Dunbar's, had been
+completed by enlistment in Virginia to seven hundred men each. Of
+Virginians there were nine companies of fifty men, who found no favor in
+the eyes of Braddock or his officers. To Ensign Allen of Halket's
+regiment was assigned the duty of "making them as much like soldiers as
+possible." [207]--that is, of drilling them like regulars. The General
+had little hope of them, and informed Sir Thomas Robinson that "their
+slothful and languid disposition renders them very unfit for military
+service,"--a point on which he lived to change his mind. Thirty sailors,
+whom Commodore Keppel had lent him, were more to his liking, and were in
+fact of value in many ways. He had now about six hundred baggage-horses,
+besides those of the artillery, all weakening daily on their diet of
+leaves; for no grass was to be found. There was great show of
+discipline, and little real order. Braddock's executive capacity seems
+to have been moderate, and his dogged, imperious temper, rasped by
+disappointments, was in constant irritation. "He looks upon the country,
+I believe," writes Washington, "as void of honor or honesty. We have
+frequent disputes on this head, which are maintained with warmth on both
+sides, especially on his, as he is incapable of arguing without it, or
+giving up any point he asserts, be it ever so incompatible with reason
+or common sense." [208] Braddock's secretary, the younger Shirley,
+writing to his friend Governor Morris, spoke thus irreverently of his
+chief: "As the King said of a neighboring governor of yours [Sharpe],
+when proposed for the command of the American forces about a twelvemonth
+ago, and recommended as a very honest man, though not remarkably able,
+'a little more ability and a little less honesty upon the present
+occasion might serve our turn better.' It is a joke to suppose that
+secondary officers can make amends for the defects of the first; the
+mainspring must be the mover. As to the others, I don't think we have
+much to boast; some are insolent and ignorant, others capable, but
+rather aiming at showing their own abilities than making a proper use of
+them. I have a very great love for my friend Orme, and think it
+uncommonly fortunate for our leader that he is under the influence of so
+honest and capable a man; but I wish for the sake of the public he had
+some more experience of business, particularly in America. I am greatly
+disgusted at seeing an expedition (as it is called), so ill-concerted
+originally in England, so improperly conducted since in America." [209]
+
+[207] Orme, Journal.
+
+[208] Writings of Washington, II. 77.
+
+[209] Shirley the younger to Morris, 23 May, 1755, in Colonial Records
+of Pa., VI. 404.
+
+Captain Robert Orme, of whom Shirley speaks, was aide-de-camp to
+Braddock, and author of a copious and excellent Journal of the
+expedition, now in the British Museum.[210] His portrait, painted at
+full length by Sir Joshua Reynolds, hangs in the National Gallery at
+London. He stands by his horse, a gallant young figure, with a face
+pale, yet rather handsome, booted to the knee, his scarlet coat, ample
+waistcoat, and small three-cornered hat all heavy with gold lace. The
+General had two other aides-de-camp, Captain Roger Morris and Colonel
+George Washington, whom he had invited, in terms that do him honor, to
+become one of his military family.
+
+[210] Printed by Sargent, in his excellent monograph of Braddock's
+Expedition.
+
+It has been said that Braddock despised not only provincials, but
+Indians. Nevertheless he took some pains to secure their aid, and
+complained that Indian affairs had been so ill conducted by the
+provinces that it was hard to gain their confidence. This was true; the
+tribes had been alienated by gross neglect. Had they been protected from
+injustice and soothed by attentions and presents, the Five Nations,
+Delawares, and Shawanoes would have been retained as friends. But their
+complaints had been slighted, and every gift begrudged. The trader
+Croghan brought, however, about fifty warriors, with as many women and
+children, to the camp at Fort Cumberland. They were objects of great
+curiosity to the soldiers, who gazed with astonishment on their faces,
+painted red, yellow, and black, their ears slit and hung with pendants,
+and their heads close shaved, except the feathered scalp-lock at the
+crown. "In the day," says an officer, "they are in our camp, and in the
+night they go into their own, where they dance and make a most horrible
+noise." Braddock received them several times in his tent, ordered the
+guard to salute them, made them speeches, caused cannon to be fired and
+drums and fifes to play in their honor, regaled them with rum, and gave
+them a bullock for a feast; whereupon, being much pleased, they danced a
+war-dance, described by one spectator as "droll and odd, showing how
+they scalp and fight;" after which, says another, "they set up the most
+horrid song or cry that ever I heard." [211] These warriors, with a few
+others, promised the General to join him on the march; but he apparently
+grew tired of them, for a famous chief, called Scarroyaddy, afterwards
+complained: "He looked upon us as dogs, and would never hear anything
+that we said to him." Only eight of them remained with him to the end.
+[212]
+
+[211] Journal of a Naval Officer, in Sargent. The Expedition of
+Major-General Braddock, being Extracts of Letters from an Officer
+(London, 1755).
+
+[212] Statement of George Croghan, in Sargent, appendix iii.
+
+Another ally appeared at the camp. This was a personage long known in
+Western fireside story as Captain Jack, the Black Hunter, or the Black
+Rifle. It was said of him that, having been a settler on the farthest
+frontier, in the Valley of the Juniata, he returned one evening to his
+cabin and found it burned to the ground by Indians, and the bodies of
+his wife and children lying among the ruins. He vowed undying vengeance,
+raised a band of kindred spirits, dressed and painted like Indians, and
+became the scourge of the red man and the champion of the white. But he
+and his wild crew, useful as they might have been, shocked Braddock's
+sense of military fitness; and he received them so coldly that they left
+him. [213]
+
+[213] See several traditional accounts and contemporary letters in
+Hazard's Pennsylvania Register, IV. 389, 390, 416; V. 191.
+
+It was the tenth of June before the army was well on its march. Three
+hundred axemen led the way, to cut and clear the road; and the long
+train of packhorses, wagons, and cannon toiled on behind, over the
+stumps, roots, and stones of the narrow track, the regulars and
+provincials marching in the forest close on either side. Squads of men
+were thrown out on the flanks, and scouts ranged the woods to guard
+against surprise; for, with all his scorn of Indians and Canadians,
+Braddock did not neglect reasonable precautions. Thus, foot by foot,
+they advanced into the waste of lonely mountains that divided the
+streams flowing to the Atlantic from those flowing to the Gulf of
+Mexico,--a realm of forests ancient as the world. The road was but
+twelve feet wide, and the line of march often extended four miles. It
+was like a thin, long party-colored snake, red, blue, and brown,
+trailing slowly through the depth of leaves, creeping round inaccessible
+heights, crawling over ridges, moving always in dampness and shadow, by
+rivulets and waterfalls, crags and chasms, gorges and shaggy steps. In
+glimpses only, through jagged boughs and flickering leaves, did this
+wild primeval world reveal itself, with its dark green mountains,
+flecked with the morning mist, and its distant summits pencilled in
+dreamy blue. The army passed the main Alleghany, Meadow Mountain, and
+Great Savage Mountain, and traversed the funereal pine-forest afterwards
+called the Shades of Death. No attempt was made to interrupt their
+march, though the commandant of Fort Duquesne had sent out parties for
+that purpose. A few French and Indians hovered about them, now and then
+scalping a straggler or inscribing filthy insults on trees; while others
+fell upon the border settlements which the advance of the troops had
+left defenceless. Here they were more successful, butchering about
+thirty persons, chiefly women and children.
+
+It was the eighteenth of June before the army reached a place called the
+Little Meadows, less than thirty miles from Fort Cumberland. Fever and
+dysentery among the men, and the weakness and worthlessness of many of
+the horses, joined to the extreme difficulty of the road, so retarded
+them that they could move scarcely more than three miles a day. Braddock
+consulted with Washington, who advised him to leave the heavy baggage to
+follow as it could, and push forward with a body of chosen troops. This
+counsel was given in view of a report that five hundred regulars were on
+the way to reinforce Fort Duquesne. It was adopted. Colonel Dunbar was
+left to command the rear division, whose powers of movement were now
+reduced to the lowest point. The advance corps, consisting of about
+twelve hundred soldiers, besides officers and drivers, began its march
+on the nineteenth with such artillery as was thought indispensable,
+thirty wagons, and a large number of packhorses. "The prospect," writes
+Washington to his brother, "conveyed infinite delight to my mind, though
+I was excessively ill at the time. But this prospect was soon clouded,
+and my hopes brought very low indeed when I found that, instead of
+pushing on with vigor without regarding a little rough road, they were
+halting to level every mole-hill, and to erect bridges over every brook,
+by which means we were four days in getting twelve miles." It was not
+till the seventh of July that they neared the mouth of Turtle Creek, a
+stream entering the Monongahela about eight miles from the French fort.
+The way was direct and short, but would lead them through a difficult
+country and a defile so perilous that Braddock resolved to ford the
+Monongahela to avoid this danger, and then ford it again to reach his
+destination.
+
+Fort Duquesne stood on the point of land where the Alleghany and the
+Monongahela join to form the Ohio, and where now stands Pittsburg, with
+its swarming population, its restless industries, the clang of its
+forges, and its chimneys vomiting foul smoke into the face of heaven. At
+that early day a white flag fluttering over a cluster of palisades and
+embankments betokened the first intrusion of civilized men upon a scene
+which, a few months before, breathed the repose of a virgin wilderness,
+voiceless but for the lapping of waves upon the pebbles, or the note of
+some lonely bird. But now the sleep of ages was broken, and bugle and
+drum told the astonished forest that its doom was pronounced and its
+days numbered. The fort was a compact little work, solidly built and
+strong, compared with others on the continent. It was a square of four
+bastions, with the water close on two sides, and the other two protected
+by ravelins, ditch, glacis, and covered way. The ramparts on these sides
+were of squared logs, filled in with earth, and ten feet or more thick.
+The two water sides were enclosed by a massive stockade of upright logs,
+twelve feet high, mortised together and loopholed. The armament
+consisted of a number of small cannon mounted on the bastions. A gate
+and drawbridge on the east side gave access to the area within, which
+was surrounded by barracks for the soldiers, officers' quarters, the
+lodgings of the commandant, a guard-house, and a storehouse, all built
+partly of logs and partly of boards. There were no casemates, and the
+place was commanded by a high woody hill beyond the Monongahela. The
+forest had been cleared away to the distance of more than a musket shot
+from the ramparts, and the stumps were hacked level with the ground.
+Here, just outside the ditch, bark cabins had been built for such of the
+troops and Canadians as could not find room within; and the rest of the
+open space was covered with Indian corn and other crops. [214]
+
+[214] M'Kinney's Description of Fort Duquesne, 1756, in Hazard's
+Pennsylvania Register, VIII. 318. Letters of Robert Stobo, Hostage at
+Fort Duquesne, 1754, in Colonial Records of Pa., VI. 141, 161. Stobo's
+Plan of Fort Duquesne, 1754. Journal of Thomas Forbes, 1755. Letter of
+Captain Haslet, 1758, in Olden Time, I. 184. Plan of Fort Duquesne in
+Public Record Office.
+
+The garrison consisted of a few companies of the regular troops
+stationed permanently in the colony, and to these were added a
+considerable number of Canadians. Contrecœur still held the command.
+[215] Under him were three other captains, Beaujeu, Dumas, and Ligneris.
+Besides the troops and Canadians, eight hundred Indian warriors,
+mustered from far and near, had built their wigwams and camp-sheds on
+the open ground, or under the edge of the neighboring woods,--very
+little to the advantage of the young corn. Some were baptized savages
+settled in Canada,--Caughnawagas from Saut St. Louis, Abenakis from St.
+Francis, and Hurons from Lorette, whose chief bore the name of Anastase,
+in honor of that Father of the Church. The rest were unmitigated
+heathen,--Pottawattamies and Ojibwas from the northern lakes under
+Charles Langlade, the same bold partisan who had led them, three years
+before, to attack the Miamis at Pickawillany; Shawanoes and Mingoes from
+the Ohio; and Ottawas from Detroit, commanded, it is said, by that most
+redoubtable of savages, Pontiac. The law of the survival of the fittest
+had wrought on this heterogeneous crew through countless generations;
+and with the primitive Indian, the fittest was the hardiest, fiercest,
+most adroit, and most wily. Baptized and heathen alike, they had just
+enjoyed a diversion greatly to their taste. A young Pennsylvanian named
+James Smith, a spirited and intelligent boy of eighteen, had been
+waylaid by three Indians on the western borders of the province and led
+captive to the fort. When the party came to the edge of the clearing,
+his captors, who had shot and scalped his companion, raised the
+scalp-yell; whereupon a din of responsive whoops and firing of guns rose
+from all the Indian camps, and their inmates swarmed out like bees,
+while the French in the fort shot off muskets and cannon to honor the
+occasion. The unfortunate boy, the object of this obstreperous
+rejoicing, presently saw a multitude of savages, naked, hideously
+bedaubed with red, blue, black, and brown, and armed with sticks or
+clubs, ranging themselves in two long parallel lines, between which he
+was told that he must run, the faster the better, as they would beat him
+all the way. He ran with his best speed, under a shower of blows, and
+had nearly reached the end of the course, when he was knocked down. He
+tried to rise, but was blinded by a handful of sand thrown into his
+face; and then they beat him till he swooned. On coming to his senses he
+found himself in the fort, with the surgeon opening a vein in his arm
+and a crowd of French and Indians looking on. In a few days he was able
+to walk with the help of a stick; and, coming out from his quarters one
+morning, he saw a memorable scene. [216]
+
+[215] See Appendix D.
+
+[216] Account of Remarkable Occurrences in the Life of Colonel James
+Smith, written by himself. Perhaps the best of all the numerous
+narratives of captives among the Indians.
+
+Three days before, an Indian had brought the report that the English
+were approaching; and the Chevalier de la Perade was sent out to
+reconnoitre. [217] He returned on the next day, the seventh, with news
+that they were not far distant. On the eighth the brothers Normanville
+went out, and found that they were within six leagues of the fort. The
+French were in great excitement and alarm; but Contrecœur at length took
+a resolution, which seems to have been inspired by Beaujeu. [218] It was
+determined to meet the enemy on the march, and ambuscade them if
+possible at the crossing of the Monongahela, or some other favorable
+spot. Beaujeu proposed the plan to the Indians, and offered them the
+war-hatchet; but they would not take it. "Do you want to die, my father,
+and sacrifice us besides?" That night they held a council, and in the
+morning again refused to go. Beaujeu did not despair. "I am determined,"
+he exclaimed, "to meet the English. What! will you let your father go
+alone?" [219] The greater part caught fire at his words, promised to
+follow him, and put on their war-paint. Beaujeu received the communion,
+then dressed himself like a savage, and joined the clamorous throng.
+Open barrels of gunpowder and bullets were set before the gate of the
+fort, and James Smith, painfully climbing the rampart with the help of
+his stick, looked down on the warrior rabble as, huddling together, wild
+with excitement, they scooped up the contents to fill their powder-horns
+and pouches. Then, band after band, they filed off along the forest
+track that led to the ford of the Monongahela. They numbered six hundred
+and thirty-seven; and with them went thirty-six French officers and
+cadets, seventy-two regular soldiers, and a hundred and forty-six
+Canadians, or about nine hundred in all. [220] At eight o'clock the
+tumult was over. The broad clearing lay lonely and still, and
+Contrecœur, with what was left of his garrison, waited in suspense for
+the issue.
+
+[217] Relation de Godefroy, in Shea, Bataille du Malangueulé
+(Monongahela).
+
+[218] Dumas, however, declares that Beaujeu adopted the plan at his
+suggestion. Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1756.
+
+[219] Relation depuis le Départ des Trouppes de Québec jusqu'au 30 du
+Mois de Septembre, 1755.
+
+[220] Liste des Officiers, Cadets, Soldats, Miliciens, et Sauvages qui
+composaient le Détachement qui a été au devant d'un Corps de 2,000
+Anglois à 3 Lieues du Fort Duquesne, le 9 Juillet, 1755; joint à la
+Lettre de M. Bigot du 6 Août, 1755.
+
+It was near one o'clock when Braddock crossed the Monongahela for the
+second time. If the French made a stand anywhere, it would be, he
+thought, at the fording-place; but Lieutenant-Colonel Gage, whom he sent
+across with a strong advance-party, found no enemy, and quietly took
+possession of the farther shore. Then the main body followed. To impose
+on the imagination of the French scouts, who were doubtless on the
+watch, the movement was made with studied regularity and order. The sun
+was cloudless, and the men were inspirited by the prospect of near
+triumph. Washington afterwards spoke with admiration of the spectacle.
+[221] The music, the banners, the mounted officers, the troop of light
+cavalry, the naval detachment, the red-coated regulars, the blue-coated
+Virginians, the wagons and tumbrils, cannon, howitzers, and coehorns,
+the train of packhorses, and the droves of cattle, passed in long
+procession through the rippling shallows, and slowly entered the
+bordering forest. Here, when all were over, a short halt was ordered for
+rest and refreshment.
+
+[221] Compare the account of another eye-witness, Dr. Walker, in
+Hazard's Pennsylvania Register, VI. 104.
+
+Why had not Beaujeu defended the ford? This was his intention in the
+morning; but he had been met by obstacles, the nature of which is not
+wholly clear. His Indians, it seems, had proved refractory. Three
+hundred of them left him, went off in another direction, and did not
+rejoin him till the English had crossed the river. [222] Hence perhaps
+it was that, having left Fort Duquesne at eight o'clock, he spent half
+the day in marching seven miles, and was more than a mile from the
+fording-place when the British reached the eastern shore. The delay,
+from whatever cause arising, cost him the opportunity of laying an
+ambush either at the ford or in the gullies and ravines that channelled
+the forest through which Braddock was now on the point of marching.
+
+[222] Relation de Godefroy, in Shea, Bataille du Malangueulé.
+
+Not far from the bank of the river, and close by the British line of
+march, there was a clearing and a deserted house that had once belonged
+to the trader Fraser. Washington remembered it well. It was here that he
+found rest and shelter on the winter journey homeward from his mission
+to Fort Le Bœuf. He was in no less need of rest at this moment; for
+recent fever had so weakened him that he could hardly sit his horse.
+From Fraser's house to Fort Duquesne the distance was eight miles by a
+rough path, along which the troops were now beginning to move after
+their halt. It ran inland for a little; then curved to the left, and
+followed a course parallel to the river along the base of a line of
+steep hills that here bordered the valley. These and all the country
+were buried in dense and heavy forest, choked with bushes and the
+carcases of fallen trees. Braddock has been charged with marching
+blindly into an ambuscade; but it was not so. There was no ambuscade;
+and had there been one, he would have found it. It is true that he did
+not reconnoitre the woods very far in advance of the head of the column;
+yet, with this exception, he made elaborate dispositions to prevent
+surprise. Several guides, with six Virginian light horsemen, led the
+way. Then, a musket-shot behind, came the vanguard; then three hundred
+soldiers under Gage; then a large body of axemen, under Sir John
+Sinclair, to open the road; then two cannon with tumbrils and
+tool-wagons; and lastly the rear-guard, closing the line, while
+flanking-parties ranged the woods on both sides. This was the
+advance-column. The main body followed with little or no interval. The
+artillery and wagons moved along the road, and the troops filed through
+the woods close on either hand. Numerous flanking-parties were thrown
+out a hundred yards and more to right and left; while, in the space
+between them and the marching column, the pack horses and cattle, with
+their drivers, made their way painfully among the trees and thickets;
+since, had they been allowed to follow the road, the line of march would
+have been too long for mutual support. A body of regulars and
+provincials brought up the rear.
+
+Gage, with his advance-column, had just passed a wide and bushy ravine
+that crossed their path, and the van of the main column was on the point
+of entering it, when the guides and light horsemen in the front suddenly
+fell back; and the engineer, Gordon, then engaged in marking out the
+road, saw a man, dressed like an Indian, but wearing the gorget of an
+officer, bounding forward along the path. [223] He stopped when he
+discovered the head of the column, turned, and waved his hat. The forest
+behind was swarming with French and savages. At the signal of the
+officer, who was probably Beaujeu, they yelled the war-whoop, spread
+themselves to right and left, and opened a sharp fire under cover of the
+trees. Gage's column wheeled deliberately into line, and fired several
+volleys with great steadiness against the now invisible assailants. Few
+of them were hurt; the trees caught the shot, but the noise was
+deafening under the dense arches of the forest. The greater part of the
+Canadians, to borrow the words of Dumas, "fled shamefully, crying 'Sauve
+qui peut!'" [224] Volley followed volley, and at the third Beaujeu
+dropped dead. Gage's two cannon were now brought to bear, on which the
+Indians, like the Canadians, gave way in confusion, but did not, like
+them, abandon the field. The close scarlet ranks of the English were
+plainly to be seen through the trees and the smoke; they were moving
+forward, cheering lustily, and shouting "God save the King!" Dumas, now
+chief in command, thought that all was lost. "I advanced," he says,
+"with the assurance that comes from despair, exciting by voice and
+gesture the few soldiers that remained. The fire of my platoon was so
+sharp that the enemy seemed astonished." The Indians, encouraged, began
+to rally. The French officers who commanded them showed admirable
+courage and address; and while Dumas and Ligneris, with the regulars and
+what was left of the Canadians, held the ground in front, the savage
+warriors, screeching their war-cries, swarmed through the forest along
+both flanks of the English, hid behind trees, bushes, and fallen trunks,
+or crouched in gullies and ravines, and opened a deadly fire on the
+helpless soldiery, who, themselves completely visible, could see no
+enemy, and wasted volley after volley on the impassive trees. The most
+destructive fire came from a hill on the English right, where the
+Indians lay in multitudes, firing from their lurking-places on the
+living target below. But the invisible death was everywhere, in front,
+flank, and rear. The British cheer was heard no more. The troops broke
+their ranks and huddled together in a bewildered mass, shrinking from
+the bullets that cut them down by scores.
+
+[223] Journal of the Proceeding of the Detachment of Seamen, in Sargent.
+
+[224] Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1756. Contrecœur à Vaudreuil, 14
+Juillet, 1755. See Appendix D, where extracts are given.
+
+When Braddock heard the firing in the front, he pushed forward with the
+main body to the support of Gage, leaving four hundred men in the rear,
+under Sir Peter Halket, to guard the baggage. At the moment of his
+arrival Gage's soldiers had abandoned their two cannon, and were falling
+back to escape the concentrated fire of the Indians. Meeting the
+advancing troops, they tried to find cover behind them. This threw the
+whole into confusion. The men of the two regiments became mixed
+together; and in a short time the entire force, except the Virginians
+and the troops left with Halket, were massed in several dense bodies
+within a small space of ground, facing some one way and some another,
+and all alike exposed without shelter to the bullets that pelted them
+like hail. Both men and officers were new to this blind and frightful
+warfare of the savage in his native woods. To charge the Indians in
+their hiding-places would have been useless. They would have eluded
+pursuit with the agility of wildcats, and swarmed back, like angry
+hornets, the moment that it ceased. The Virginians alone were equal to
+the emergency. Fighting behind trees like the Indians themselves, they
+might have held the enemy in check till order could be restored, had not
+Braddock, furious at a proceeding that shocked all his ideas of courage
+and discipline, ordered them, with oaths, to form into line. A body of
+them under Captain Waggoner made a dash for a fallen tree lying in the
+woods, far out towards the lurking-places of the Indians, and, crouching
+behind the huge trunk, opened fire; but the regulars, seeing the smoke
+among the bushes, mistook their best friends for the enemy, shot at them
+from behind, killed many, and forced the rest to return. A few of the
+regulars also tried in their clumsy way to fight behind trees; but
+Braddock beat them with his sword, and compelled them to stand with the
+rest, an open mark for the Indians. The panic increased; the soldiers
+crowded together, and the bullets spent themselves in a mass of human
+bodies. Commands, entreaties, and threats were lost upon them. "We would
+fight," some of them answered, "if we could see anybody to fight with."
+Nothing was visible but puffs of smoke. Officers and men who had stood
+all the afternoon under fire afterwards declared that they could not be
+sure they had seen a single Indian. Braddock ordered Lieutenant-Colonel
+Burton to attack the hill where the puffs of smoke were thickest, and
+the bullets most deadly. With infinite difficulty that brave officer
+induced a hundred men to follow him; but he was soon disabled by a
+wound, and they all faced about. The artillerymen stood for some time by
+their guns, which did great damage to the trees and little to the enemy.
+The mob of soldiers, stupefied with terror, stood panting, their
+foreheads beaded with sweat, loading and firing mechanically, sometimes
+into the air, sometimes among their own comrades, many of whom they
+killed. The ground, strewn with dead and wounded men, the bounding of
+maddened horses, the clatter and roar of musketry and cannon, mixed with
+the spiteful report of rifles and the yells that rose from the
+indefatigable throats of six hundred unseen savages, formed a chaos of
+anguish and terror scarcely paralleled even in Indian war. "I cannot
+describe the horrors of that scene," one of Braddock's officers wrote
+three weeks after; "no pen could do it. The yell of the Indians is fresh
+on my ear, and the terrific sound will haunt me till the hour of my
+dissolution." [225]
+
+[225] Leslie to a Merchant of Philadelphia, 30 July, 1755, in Hazard's
+Pennsylvania Register, V. 191. Leslie was a lieutenant of the
+Forty-fourth.
+
+Braddock showed a furious intrepidity. Mounted on horseback, he dashed
+to and fro, storming like a madman. Four horses were shot under him, and
+he mounted a fifth. Washington seconded his chief with equal courage; he
+too no doubt using strong language, for he did not measure words when
+the fit was on him. He escaped as by miracle. Two horses were killed
+under him, and four bullets tore his clothes. The conduct of the British
+officers was above praise. Nothing could surpass their undaunted
+self-devotion; and in their vain attempts to lead on the men, the havoc
+among them was frightful. Sir Peter Halket was shot dead. His son, a
+lieutenant in his regiment, stooping to raise the body of his father,
+was shot dead in turn. Young Shirley, Braddock's secretary, was pierced
+through the brain. Orme and Morris, his aides-de-camp, Sinclair, the
+quartermaster-general, Gates and Gage, both afterwards conspicuous on
+opposite sides in the War of the Revolution, and Gladwin, who, eight
+years later, defended Detroit against Pontiac, were all wounded. Of
+eighty-six officers, sixty-three were killed or disabled; [226] while
+out of thirteen hundred and seventy-three non-commissioned officers and
+privates, only four hundred and fifty-nine came off unharmed. [227]
+
+[226] A List of the Officers who were present, and of those killed and
+wounded, in the Action on the Banks of the Monongahela, 9 July, 1755
+(Public Record Office, America and West Indies, LXXXII.).
+
+[227] Statement of the engineer, Mackellar. By another account, out of a
+total, officers and men, of 1,460, the number of all ranks who escaped
+was 583. Braddock's force, originally 1,200, was increased, a few days
+before the battle, by detachments from Dunbar.
+
+Braddock saw that all was lost. To save the wreck of his force from
+annihilation, he at last commanded a retreat; and as he and such of his
+officers as were left strove to withdraw the half-frenzied crew in some
+semblance of order, a bullet struck him down. The gallant bulldog fell
+from his horse, shot through the arm into the lungs. It is said, though
+on evidence of no weight, that the bullet came from one of his own men.
+Be this as it may, there he lay among the bushes, bleeding, gasping,
+unable even to curse. He demanded to be left where he was. Captain
+Stewart and another provincial bore him between them to the rear.
+
+It was about this time that the mob of soldiers, having been three hours
+under fire, and having spent their ammunition, broke away in a blind
+frenzy, rushed back towards the ford, "and when," says Washington, "we
+endeavored to rally them, it was with as much success as if we had
+attempted to stop the wild bears of the mountains." They dashed across,
+helter-skelter, plunging through the water to the farther bank, leaving
+wounded comrades, cannon, baggage, the military chest, and the General's
+papers, a prey to the Indians. About fifty of these followed to the edge
+of the river. Dumas and Ligneris, who had now only about twenty
+Frenchmen with them, made no attempt to pursue, and went back to the
+fort, because, says Contrecœur, so many of the Canadians had "retired at
+the first fire." The field, abandoned to the savages, was a pandemonium
+of pillage and murder. [228]
+
+[228] "Nous prîmes le parti de nous retirer en vue de rallier notre
+petite armée." Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1756.
+
+On the defeat of Braddock, besides authorities already cited,--Shirley
+to Robinson, 5 Nov. 1755, accompanying the plans of the battle
+reproduced in this volume (Public Record Office, America and West
+Indies, LXXXII.). The plans were drawn at Shirley's request by Patrick
+Mackellar, chief engineer of the expedition, who was with Gage in the
+advance column when the fight began. They were examined and fully
+approved by the chief surviving officers, and they closely correspond
+with another plan made by the aide-de-camp Orme,--which, however, shows
+only the beginning of the affair.
+
+Report of the Court of Inquiry into the Behavior of the Troops at the
+Monongahela. Letters of Dinwiddie. Letters of Gage. Burd to Morris, 25
+July, 1755. Sinclair to Robinson, 3 Sept. Rutherford to------, 12 July.
+Writings of Washington, II. 68-93. Review of Military Operations in
+North America. Entick, I. 145. Gentleman's Magazine (1755), 378, 426.
+Letter to a Friend on the Ohio Defeat (Boston, 1755).
+
+Contrecœur à Vaudreuil, 14 Juillet, 1755. Estat de l'Artillerie, etc.,
+qui se sont trouvés sur le Champ de Bataille. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5
+Août, 1755. Bigot au Ministre, 27 Août. Relation du Combat du 9 Juillet.
+Relation depuis le Départ des Trouppes de Québec jusqu'au 30 du Mois de
+Septembre. Lotbinière à d'Argenson, 24 Oct. Relation officielle imprimée
+au Louvre. Relation de Godefroy (Shea). Extraits du Registre du Fort
+Duquesne (Ibid.). Relation de diverses Mouvements (Ibid.). Pouchot, I.
+37.
+
+James Smith, the young prisoner at Fort Duquesne, had passed a day of
+suspense, waiting the result. "In the afternoon I again observed a great
+noise and commotion in the fort, and, though at that time I could not
+understand French, I found it was the voice of joy and triumph, and
+feared that they had received what I called bad news. I had observed
+some of the old-country soldiers speak Dutch; as I spoke Dutch, I went
+to one of them and asked him what was the news. He told me that a runner
+had just arrived who said that Braddock would certainly be defeated;
+that the Indians and French had surrounded him, and were concealed
+behind trees and in gullies, and kept a constant fire upon the English;
+and that they saw the English falling in heaps; and if they did not take
+the river, which was the only gap, and make their escape, there would
+not be one man left alive before sundown. Some time after this, I heard
+a number of scalp-halloos, and saw a company of Indians and French
+coming in. I observed they had a great number of bloody scalps,
+grenadiers' caps, British canteens, bayonets, etc., with them. They
+brought the news that Braddock was defeated. After that another company
+came in, which appeared to be about one hundred, and chiefly Indians;
+and it seemed to me that almost every one of this company was carrying
+scalps. After this came another company with a number of wagon-horses,
+and also a great many scalps. Those that were coming in and those that
+had arrived kept a constant firing of small arms, and also the great
+guns in the fort, which were accompanied with the most hideous shouts
+and yells from all quarters, so that it appeared to me as though the
+infernal regions had broke loose.
+
+"About sundown I beheld a small party coming in with about a dozen
+prisoners, stripped naked, with their hands tied behind their backs and
+their faces and part of their bodies blacked; these prisoners they
+burned to death on the bank of Alleghany River, opposite the fort. I
+stood on the fort wall until I beheld them begin to burn one of these
+men; they had him tied to a stake, and kept touching him with
+firebrands, red-hot irons, etc., and he screaming in a most doleful
+manner, the Indians in the meantime yelling like infernal spirits. As
+this scene appeared too shocking for me to behold, I retired to my
+lodging, both sore and sorry. When I came into my lodgings I saw
+Russel's Seven Sermons, which they had brought from the field of battle,
+which a Frenchman made a present of to me."
+
+The loss of the French was slight, but fell chiefly on the officers,
+three of whom were killed, and four wounded. Of the regular soldiers,
+all but four escaped untouched. The Canadians suffered still less, in
+proportion to their numbers, only five of them being hurt. The Indians,
+who won the victory, bore the principal loss. Of those from Canada,
+twenty-seven were killed and wounded; while the casualties among the
+Western tribes are not reported. [229] All of these last went off the
+next morning with their plunder and scalps, leaving Contrecœur in great
+anxiety lest the remnant of Braddock's troops, reinforced by the
+division under Dunbar, should attack him again. His doubts would have
+vanished had he known the condition of his defeated enemy.
+
+[229] Liste des Officiers, Soldats, Miliciens, et Sauvages de Canada qui
+ont été tués et blessés le 9 Juillet, 1755.
+
+In the pain and languor of a mortal wound, Braddock showed unflinching
+resolution. His bearers stopped with him at a favorable spot beyond the
+Monongahela; and here he hoped to maintain his position till the arrival
+of Dunbar. By the efforts of the officers about a hundred men were
+collected around him; but to keep them there was impossible. Within an
+hour they abandoned him, and fled like the rest. Gage, however,
+succeeded in rallying about eighty beyond the other fording-place; and
+Washington, on an order from Braddock, spurred his jaded horse towards
+the camp of Dunbar to demand wagons, provisions, and hospital stores.
+
+Fright overcame fatigue. The fugitives toiled on all night, pursued by
+spectres of horror and despair; hearing still the war-whoops and the
+shrieks; possessed with the one thought of escape from the wilderness of
+death. In the morning some order was restored. Braddock was placed on a
+horse; then, the pain being insufferable, he was carried on a litter,
+Captain Orme having bribed the carriers by the promise of a guinea and a
+bottle of rum apiece. Early in the succeeding night, such as had not
+fainted on the way reached the deserted farm of Gist. Here they met
+wagons and provisions, with a detachment of soldiers sent by Dunbar,
+whose camp was six miles farther on; and Braddock ordered them to go to
+the relief of the stragglers left behind.
+
+At noon of that day a number of wagoners and packhorse-drivers had come
+to Dunbar's camp with wild tidings of rout and ruin. More fugitives
+followed; and soon after a wounded officer was brought in upon a sheet.
+The drums beat to arms. The camp was in commotion; and many soldiers and
+teamsters took to flight, in spite of the sentinels, who tried in vain
+to stop them. [230] There was a still more disgraceful scene on the next
+day, after Braddock, with the wreck of his force, had arrived. Orders
+were given to destroy such of the wagons, stores, and ammunition as
+could not be carried back at once to Fort Cumberland. Whether Dunbar or
+the dying General gave these orders is not clear; but it is certain that
+they were executed with shameful alacrity. More than a hundred wagons
+were burned; cannon, coehorns, and shells were burst or buried; barrels
+of gunpowder were staved, and the contents thrown into a brook;
+provisions were scattered through the woods and swamps. Then the whole
+command began its retreat over the mountains to Fort Cumberland, sixty
+miles distant. This proceeding, for which, in view of the condition of
+Braddock, Dunbar must be held answerable, excited the utmost indignation
+among the colonists. If he could not advance, they thought, he might at
+least have fortified himself and held his ground till the provinces
+could send him help; thus covering the frontier, and holding French
+war-parties in check.
+
+[230] Depositions of Matthew Laird, Michael Hoover, and Jacob Hoover,
+Wagoners, in Colonial Records of Pa., VI. 482.
+
+Braddock's last moment was near. Orme, who, though himself severely
+wounded, was with him till his death, told Franklin that he was totally
+silent all the first day, and at night said only, "Who would have
+thought it?" that all the next day he was again silent, till at last he
+muttered, "We shall better know how to deal with them another time,"
+and died a few minutes after. He had nevertheless found breath to give
+orders at Gist's for the succor of the men who had dropped on the road.
+It is said, too, that in his last hours "he could not bear the sight of
+a red coat," but murmured praises of "the blues," or Virginians, and
+said that he hoped he should live to reward them. [231] He died at about
+eight o'clock in the evening of Sunday, the thirteenth. Dunbar had begun
+his retreat that morning, and was then encamped near the Great Meadows.
+On Monday the dead commander was buried in the road; and men, horses,
+and wagons passed over his grave, effacing every sign of it, lest the
+Indians should find and mutilate the body.
+
+[231] Bolling to his Son, 13 Aug. 1755. Bolling was a Virginian
+gentleman whose son was at school in England.
+
+Colonel James Innes, commanding at Fort Cumberland, where a crowd of
+invalids with soldiers' wives and other women had been left when the
+expedition marched, heard of the defeat, only two days after it
+happened, from a wagoner who had fled from the field on horseback. He at
+once sent a note of six lines to Lord Fairfax: "I have this moment
+received the most melancholy news of the defeat of our troops, the
+General killed, and numbers of our officers; our whole artillery taken.
+In short, the account I have received is so very bad, that as, please
+God, I intend to make a stand here, 'tis highly necessary to raise the
+militia everywhere to defend the frontiers." A boy whom he sent out on
+horseback met more fugitives, and came back on the fourteenth with
+reports as vague and disheartening as the first. Innes sent them to
+Dinwiddie. [232] Some days after, Dunbar and his train arrived in
+miserable disorder, and Fort Cumberland was turned into a hospital for
+the shattered fragments of a routed and ruined army.
+
+[232] Innes to Dinwiddie, 14 July, 1755.
+
+On the sixteenth a letter was brought in haste to one Buchanan at
+Carlisle, on the Pennsylvanian frontier:--
+
+Sir,--I thought it proper to let you know that I was in the battle where
+we were defeated. And we had about eleven hundred and fifty private men,
+besides officers and others. And we were attacked the ninth day about
+twelve o'clock, and held till about three in the afternoon, and then we
+were forced to retreat, when I suppose we might bring off about three
+hundred whole men, besides a vast many wounded. Most of our officers
+were either wounded or killed; General Braddock is wounded, but I hope
+not mortal; and Sir John Sinclair and many others, but I hope not
+mortal. All the train is cut off in a manner. Sir Peter Halket and his
+son, Captain Polson, Captain Gethan, Captain Rose, Captain Tatten
+killed, and many others. Captain Ord of the train is wounded, but I hope
+not mortal. We lost all our artillery entirely, and everything else.
+
+To Mr. John Smith and Buchannon, and give it to the next post, and let
+him show this to Mr. George Gibson in Lancaster, and Mr. Bingham, at the
+sign of the Ship, and you'll oblige,
+
+Yours to command,
+
+John Campbell, Messenger.[233]
+
+[233] Colonial Records of Pa., VI. 481.
+
+The evil tidings quickly reached Philadelphia, where such confidence had
+prevailed that certain over-zealous persons had begun to collect money
+for fireworks to celebrate the victory. Two of these, brother physicians
+named Bond, came to Franklin and asked him to subscribe; but the sage
+looked doubtful. "Why, the devil!" said one of them, "you surely don't
+suppose the fort will not be taken?" He reminded them that war is always
+uncertain; and the subscription was deferred. [234] The Governor laid
+the news of the disaster before his Council, telling them at the same
+time that his opponents in the Assembly would not believe it, and had
+insulted him in the street for giving it currency. [235]
+
+[234] Autobiography of Franklin.
+
+[235] Colonial Records of Pa., VI. 480.
+
+Dinwiddie remained tranquil at Williamsburg, sure that all would go
+well. The brief note of Innes, forwarded by Lord Fairfax, first
+disturbed his dream of triumph; but on second thought he took comfort.
+"I am willing to think that account was from a deserter who, in a great
+panic, represented what his fears suggested. I wait with impatience for
+another express from Fort Cumberland, which I expect will greatly
+contradict the former." The news got abroad, and the slaves showed signs
+of excitement. "The villany of the negroes on any emergency is what I
+always feared," continues the Governor. "An example of one or two at
+first may prevent these creatures entering into combinations and wicked
+designs." [236] And he wrote to Lord Halifax: "The negro slaves have
+been very audacious on the news of defeat on the Ohio. These poor
+creatures imagine the French will give them their freedom. We have too
+many here; but I hope we shall be able to keep them in proper
+subjection." Suspense grew intolerable. "It's monstrous they should be
+so tardy and dilatory in sending down any farther account." He sent
+Major Colin Campbell for news; when, a day or two later, a courier
+brought him two letters, one from Orme, and the other from Washington,
+both written at Fort Cumberland on the eighteenth. The letter of Orme
+began thus: "My dear Governor, I am so extremely ill in bed with the
+wound I have received that I am under the necessity of employing my
+friend Captain Dobson as my scribe." Then he told the wretched story of
+defeat and humiliation. "The officers were absolutely sacrificed by
+their unparalleled good behavior; advancing before their men sometimes
+in bodies, and sometimes separately, hoping by such an example to engage
+the soldiers to follow them; but to no purpose. Poor Shirley was shot
+through the head, Captain Morris very much wounded. Mr. Washington had
+two horses shot under him, and his clothes shot through in several
+places; behaving the whole time with the greatest courage and
+resolution."
+
+[236] Dinwiddie to Colonel Charles Carter, 18 July, 1755.
+
+Washington wrote more briefly, saying that, as Orme was giving a full
+account of the affair, it was needless for him to repeat it. Like many
+others in the fight, he greatly underrated the force of the enemy, which
+he placed at three hundred, or about a third of the actual number,--a
+natural error, as most of the assailants were invisible. "Our poor
+Virginians behaved like men, and died like soldiers; for I believe that
+out of three companies that were there that day, scarce thirty were left
+alive. Captain Peronney and all his officers down to a corporal were
+killed. Captain Polson shared almost as hard a fate, for only one of his
+escaped. In short, the dastardly behavior of the English soldiers
+exposed all those who were inclined to do their duty to almost certain
+death. It is imagined (I believe with great justice, too) that two
+thirds of both killed and wounded received their shots from our own
+cowardly dogs of soldiers, who gathered themselves into a body, contrary
+to orders, ten and twelve deep, would then level, fire, and shoot down
+the men before them." [237]
+
+[237] These extracts are taken from the two letters preserved in the
+Public Record Office, America and West Indies, LXXIV. LXXXII.
+
+To Orme, Dinwiddie replied: "I read your letter with tears in my eyes;
+but it gave me much pleasure to see your name at the bottom, and more so
+when I observed by the postscript that your wound is not dangerous. But
+pray, dear sir, is it not possible by a second attempt to retrieve the
+great loss we have sustained? I presume the General's chariot is at the
+fort. In it you may come here, and my house is heartily at your command.
+Pray take care of your valuable health; keep your spirits up, and I
+doubt not of your recovery. My wife and girls join me in most sincere
+respects and joy at your being so well, and I always am, with great
+truth, dear friend, your affectionate humble servant."
+
+To Washington he is less effusive, though he had known him much longer.
+He begins, it is true, "Dear Washington," and congratulates him on his
+escape; but soon grows formal, and asks: "Pray, sir, with the number of
+them remaining, is there no possibility of doing something on the other
+side of the mountains before the winter months? Surely you must mistake.
+Colonel Dunbar will not march to winter-quarters in the middle of
+summer, and leave the frontiers exposed to the invasions of the enemy!
+No; he is a better officer, and I have a different opinion of him. I
+sincerely wish you health and happiness, and am, with great respect,
+sir, your obedient, humble servant."
+
+Washington's letter had contained the astonishing announcement that
+Dunbar meant to abandon the frontier and march to Philadelphia.
+Dinwiddie, much disturbed, at once wrote to that officer, though without
+betraying any knowledge of his intention. "Sir, the melancholy account
+of the defeat of our forces gave me a sensible and real concern"--on
+which he enlarges for a while; then suddenly changes style: "Dear
+Colonel, is there no method left to retrieve the dishonor done to the
+British arms? As you now command all the forces that remain, are you not
+able, after a proper refreshment of your men, to make a second attempt?
+You have four months now to come of the best weather of the year for
+such an expedition. What a fine field for honor will Colonel Dunbar have
+to confirm and establish his character as a brave officer." Then, after
+suggesting plans of operation, and entering into much detail, the fervid
+Governor concludes: "It gives me great pleasure that under our great
+loss and misfortunes the command devolves on an officer of so great
+military judgment and established character. With my sincere respect and
+hearty wishes for success to all your proceedings, I am, worthy sir,
+your most obedient, humble servant."
+
+Exhortation and flattery were lost on Dunbar. Dinwiddie received from
+him in reply a short, dry note, dated on the first of August, and
+acquainting him that he should march for Philadelphia on the second.
+This, in fact, he did, leaving the fort to be defended by invalids and a
+few Virginians. "I acknowledge," says Dinwiddie, "I was not brought up
+to arms; but I think common sense would have prevailed not to leave the
+frontiers exposed after having opened a road over the mountains to the
+Ohio, by which the enemy can the more easily invade us.... Your great
+colonel," he writes to Orme, "is gone to a peaceful colony, and left our
+frontiers open.... The whole conduct of Colonel Dunbar appears to me
+monstrous.... To march off all the regulars, and leave the fort and
+frontiers to be defended by four hundred sick and wounded, and the poor
+remains of our provincial forces, appears to me absurd." [238]
+
+[238] Dinwiddie's view of Dunbar's conduct is fully justified by the
+letters of Shirley, Governor Morris, and Dunbar himself.
+
+He found some comfort from the burgesses, who gave him forty thousand
+pounds, and would, he thinks, have given a hundred thousand if another
+attempt against Fort Duquesne had been set afoot. Shirley, too, whom the
+death of Braddock had made commander-in-chief, approved the Governor's
+plan of renewing offensive operations, and instructed Dunbar to that
+effect; ordering him, however, should they prove impracticable, to march
+for Albany in aid of the Niagara expedition. [239] The order found him
+safe in Philadelphia. Here he lingered for a while; then marched to join
+the northern army, moving at a pace which made it certain that he could
+not arrive in time to be of the least use.
+
+[239] Orders for Colonel Thomas Dunbar, 12 Aug. 1755. These supersede a
+previous order of August 6, by which Shirley had directed Dunbar to
+march northward at once.
+
+Thus the frontier was left unguarded; and soon, as Dinwiddie had
+foreseen, there burst upon it a storm of blood and fire.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+1755-1763.
+
+REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS.
+
+State of Acadia • Threatened Invasion • Peril of the English • Their
+Plans • French Forts to be attacked • Beauséjour and its Occupants •
+French Treatment of the Acadians • John Winslow • Siege and Capture of
+Beauséjour • Attitude of Acadians • Influence of their Priests • They
+Refuse the Oath of Allegiance • Their Condition and Character •
+Pretended Neutrals • Moderation of English Authorities • The Acadians
+persist in their Refusal • Enemies or Subjects? • Choice of the Acadians
+• The Consequence • Their Removal determined • Winslow at Grand Pré •
+Conference with Murray • Summons to the Inhabitants • Their Seizure •
+Their Embarkation • Their Fate • Their Treatment in Canada •
+Misapprehension concerning them.
+
+By the plan which the Duke of Cumberland had ordained and Braddock had
+announced in the Council at Alexandria, four blows were to be struck at
+once to force back the French boundaries, lop off the dependencies of
+Canada, and reduce her from a vast territory to a petty province. The
+first stroke had failed, and had shattered the hand of the striker; it
+remains to see what fortune awaited the others.
+
+It was long since a project of purging Acadia of French influence had
+germinated in the fertile mind of Shirley. We have seen in a former
+chapter the condition of that afflicted province. Several thousands of
+its inhabitants, wrought upon by intriguing agents of the French
+Government; taught by their priests that fidelity to King Louis was
+inseparable from fidelity to God, and that to swear allegiance to the
+British Crown was eternal perdition; threatened with plunder and death
+at the hands of the savages whom the ferocious missionary, Le Loutre,
+held over them in terror,--had abandoned, sometimes willingly, but
+oftener under constraint, the fields which they and their fathers had
+tilled, and crossing the boundary line of the Missaguash, had placed
+themselves under the French flag planted on the hill of Beauséjour.[240]
+Here, or in the neighborhood, many of them had remained, wretched 
+and half starved; while others had been transported to Cape Breton, Isle
+St. Jean, or the coasts of the Gulf,--not so far, however, that they
+could not on occasion be used to aid in an invasion of British Acadia.
+[241] Those of their countrymen who still lived under the British flag
+were chiefly the inhabitants of the district of Mines and of the valley
+of the River Annapolis, who, with other less important settlements,
+numbered a little more than nine thousand souls. We have shown already,
+by the evidence of the French themselves, that neither they nor their
+emigrant countrymen had been oppressed or molested in matters temporal
+or spiritual, but that the English authorities, recognizing their value
+as an industrious population, had labored to reconcile them to a change
+of rulers which on the whole was to their advantage. It has been shown
+also how, with a heartless perfidy and a reckless disregard of their
+welfare and safety, the French Government and its agents labored to keep
+them hostile to the Crown of which it had acknowledged them to be
+subjects. The result was, that though they did not, like their emigrant
+countrymen, abandon their homes, they remained in a state of restless
+disaffection, refused to supply English garrisons with provisions,
+except at most exorbitant rates, smuggled their produce to the French
+across the line, gave them aid and intelligence, and sometimes,
+disguised as Indians, robbed and murdered English settlers. By the
+new-fangled construction of the treaty of Utrecht which the French
+boundary commissioners had devised, [242] more than half the Acadian
+peninsula, including nearly all the cultivated land and nearly all the
+population of French descent, was claimed as belonging to France, though
+England had held possession of it more than forty years. Hence,
+according to the political ethics adopted at the time by both nations,
+it would be lawful for France to reclaim it by force. England, on her
+part, it will be remembered, claimed vast tracts beyond the isthmus;
+and, on the same pretext, held that she might rightfully seize them and
+capture Beauséjour, with the other French garrisons that guarded them.
+
+[240] See ante, Chapter IV.
+
+[241] Rameau (La France aux Colonies, I. 63), estimates the total
+emigration from 1748 to 1755 at 8,600 souls,--which number seems much
+too large. This writer, though vehemently anti-English, gives the
+following passage from a letter of a high French official: "que les
+Acadiens émigrés et en grande misère comptaient se retirer à Québec et
+demander des terres, mais il conviendrait mieux qu'ils restent où ils
+sont, afin d'avoir le voisinage de l'Acadie bien peuplé et défriché,
+pour approvisionner l'Isle Royale [Cape Breton] et tomber en cas de
+guerre sur l'Acadie." Rameau, I. 133.
+
+[242] Supra, p. 123.
+
+On the part of France, an invasion of the Acadian peninsula seemed more
+than likely. Honor demanded of her that, having incited the Acadians to
+disaffection, and so brought on them the indignation of the English
+authorities, she should intervene to save them from the consequences.
+Moreover the loss of the Acadian peninsula had been gall and wormwood to
+her; and in losing it she had lost great material advantages. Its
+possession was necessary to connect Canada with the Island of Cape
+Breton and the fortress of Louisbourg. Its fertile fields and
+agricultural people would furnish subsistence to the troops and
+garrisons in the French maritime provinces, now dependent on supplies
+illicitly brought by New England traders, and liable to be cut off in
+time of war when they were needed most. The harbors of Acadia, too,
+would be invaluable as naval stations from which to curb and threaten
+the northern English colonies. Hence the intrigues so assiduously
+practised to keep the Acadians French at heart, and ready to throw off
+British rule at any favorable moment. British officers believed that
+should a French squadron with a sufficient force of troops on board
+appear in the Bay of Fundy, the whole population on the Basin of Mines
+and along the Annapolis would rise in arms, and that the emigrants
+beyond the isthmus, armed and trained by French officers, would come to
+their aid. This emigrant population, famishing in exile, looked back
+with regret to the farms they had abandoned; and, prevented as they were
+by Le Loutre and his colleagues from making their peace with the
+English, they would, if confident of success, have gladly joined an
+invading force to regain their homes by reconquering Acadia for Louis
+XV. In other parts of the continent it was the interest of France to put
+off hostilities; if Acadia alone had been in question, it would have
+been her interest to precipitate them.
+
+Her chances of success were good. The French could at any time send
+troops from Louisbourg or Quebec to join those maintained upon the
+isthmus; and they had on their side of the lines a force of militia and
+Indians amounting to about two thousand, while the Acadians within the
+peninsula had about an equal number of fighting men who, while calling
+themselves neutrals, might be counted on to join the invaders. The
+English were in no condition to withstand such an attack. Their regular
+troops were scattered far and wide through the province, and were
+nowhere more than equal to the local requirement; while of militia,
+except those of Halifax, they had few or none whom they dared to trust.
+Their fort at Annapolis was weak and dilapidated, and their other posts
+were mere stockades. The strongest place in Acadia was the French fort
+of Beauséjour, in which the English saw a continual menace.
+
+
+Their apprehensions were well grounded. Duquesne, governor of Canada,
+wrote to Le Loutre, who virtually shared the control of Beauséjour with
+Vergor, its commandant: "I invite both yourself and M. Vergor to devise
+a plausible pretext for attacking them [the English] vigorously." [243]
+Three weeks after this letter was written, Lawrence, governor of Nova
+Scotia, wrote to Shirley from Halifax: "Being well informed that the
+French have designs of encroaching still farther upon His Majesty's
+rights in this province, and that they propose, the moment they have
+repaired the fortifications of Louisbourg, to attack our fort at
+Chignecto [Fort Lawrence], I think it high time to make some effort to
+drive them from the north side of the Bay of Fundy." [244] This letter
+was brought to Boston by Lieutenant-Colonel Monckton, who was charged by
+Lawrence to propose to Shirley the raising of two thousand men in New
+England for the attack of Beauséjour and its dependent forts. Almost at
+the moment when Lawrence was writing these proposals to Shirley, Shirley
+was writing with the same object to Lawrence, enclosing a letter from
+Sir Thomas Robinson, concerning which he said: "I construe the contents
+to be orders to us to act in concert for taking any advantages to drive
+the French of Canada out of Nova Scotia. If that is your sense of them,
+and your honor will be pleased to let me know whether you want any and
+what assistance to enable you to execute the orders, I will endeavor to
+send you such assistance from this province as you shall want." [245]
+
+[243] Duquesne à Le Loutre, 15 Oct. 1754; extract in Public Documents of
+Nova Scotia, 239.
+
+[244] Lawrence to Shirley, 5 Nov. 1754. Instructions of Lawrence to
+Monckton, 7 Nov. 1754.
+
+[245] Shirley to Lawrence, 7 Nov. 1754.
+
+The letter of Sir Thomas Robinson, of which a duplicate had already been
+sent to Lawrence, was written in answer to one of Shirley informing the
+Minister that the Indians of Nova Scotia, prompted by the French, were
+about to make an attack on all the English settlements east of the
+Kennebec; whereupon Robinson wrote: "You will without doubt have given
+immediate intelligence thereof to Colonel Lawrence, and will have
+concerted the properest measures with him for taking all possible
+advantage in Nova Scotia itself from the absence of those Indians, in
+case Mr. Lawrence shall have force enough to attack the forts erected by
+the French in those parts, without exposing the English settlements; and
+I am particularly to acquaint you that if you have not already entered
+into such a concert with Colonel Lawrence, it is His Majesty's pleasure
+that you should immediately proceed thereupon." [246]
+
+[246] Robinson to Shirley, 5 July, 1754.
+
+The Indian raid did not take place; but not the less did Shirley and
+Lawrence find in the Minister's letter their authorization for the
+attack of Beauséjour. Shirley wrote to Robinson that the expulsion of
+the French from the forts on the isthmus was a necessary measure of
+self-defence; that they meant to seize the whole country as far as Mines
+Basin, and probably as far as Annapolis, to supply their Acadian rebels
+with land; that of these they had, without reckoning Indians, fourteen
+hundred fighting men on or near the isthmus, and two hundred and fifty
+more on the St. John, with whom, aided by the garrison of Beauséjour,
+they could easily take Fort Lawrence; that should they succeed in this,
+the whole Acadian population would rise in arms, and the King would lose
+Nova Scotia. We should anticipate them, concludes Shirley, and strike
+the first blow. [247]
+
+[247] Shirley to Robinson, 8 Dec. 1754. Ibid., 24 Jan. 1755. The Record
+Office contains numerous other letters of Shirley on the subject. "I am
+obliged to your Honor for communicating to me the French Mémoire, which,
+with other reasons, puts it out of doubt that the French are determined
+to begin an offensive war on the peninsula as soon as ever they shall
+think themselves strengthened enough to venture up it, and that they
+have thoughts of attempting it in the ensuing spring. I enclose your
+Honor extracts from two letters from Annapolis Royal, which show that
+the French inhabitants are in expectation of its being begun in the
+spring." Shirley to Lawrence, 6 Jan. 1755.
+
+He opened his plans to his Assembly in secret session, and found them of
+one mind with himself. Preparation was nearly complete, and the men
+raised for the expedition, before the Council at Alexandria, recognized
+it as a part of a plan of the summer campaign.
+
+The French fort of Beauséjour, mounted on its hill between the marshes
+of Missaguash and Tantemar, was a regular work, pentagonal in form, with
+solid earthern ramparts, bomb-proofs, and an armament of twenty-four
+cannon and one mortar. The commandant, Duchambon de Vergor, a captain in
+the colony regulars, was a dull man of no education, of stuttering
+speech, unpleasing countenance, and doubtful character. He owed his
+place to the notorious Intendant, Bigot, who, it is said, was in his
+debt for disreputable service in an affair of gallantry, and who had
+ample means of enabling his friends to enrich themselves by defrauding
+the King. Beauséjour was one of those plague-spots of official
+corruption which dotted the whole surface of New France. Bigot, sailing
+for Europe in the summer of 1754, wrote thus to his confederate: "Profit
+by your place, my dear Vergor; clip and cut--you are free to do what you
+please--so that you can come soon to join me in France and buy an estate
+near me." [248] Vergor did not neglect his opportunities. Supplies in
+great quantities were sent from Quebec for the garrison and the emigrant
+Acadians. These last got but a small part of them. Vergor and his
+confederates sent the rest back to Quebec, or else to Louisbourg, and
+sold them for their own profit to the King's agents there, who were also
+in collusion with him.
+
+[248] Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. This letter is also mentioned
+in another contemporary document, Mémoire sur les Fraudes commises dans
+la Colonie.
+
+Vergor, however, did not reign alone. Le Loutre, by force of energy,
+capacity, and passionate vehemence, held him in some awe, and divided
+his authority. The priest could count on the support of Duquesne, who
+had found, says a contemporary, that "he promised more than he could
+perform, and that he was a knave," but who nevertheless felt compelled
+to rely upon him for keeping the Acadians on the side of France. There
+was another person in the fort worthy of notice. This was Thomas Pichon,
+commissary of stores, a man of education and intelligence, born in
+France of an English mother. He was now acting the part of a traitor,
+carrying on a secret correspondence with the commandant of Fort
+Lawrence, and acquainting him with all that passed at Beauséjour. It was
+partly from this source that the hostile designs of the French became
+known to the authorities of Halifax, and more especially the proceedings
+of "Moses," by which name Pichon always designated Le Loutre, because he
+pretended to have led the Acadians from the land of bondage. [249]
+
+[249] Pichon, called also Tyrrell from the name of his mother, was
+author of Genuine Letters and Memoirs relating to Cape Breton,--a book
+of some value. His papers are preserved at Halifax, and some of them are
+printed in the Public Documents of Nova Scotia.
+
+These exiles, who cannot be called self-exiled, in view of the
+outrageous means used to force most of them from their homes, were in a
+deplorable condition. They lived in constant dread of Le Loutre, backed
+by Vergor and his soldiers. The savage missionary, bad as he was, had in
+him an ingredient of honest fanaticism, both national and religious;
+though hatred of the English held a large share in it. He would gladly,
+if he could, have forced the Acadians into a permanent settlement on the
+French side of the line, not out of love for them, but in the interest
+of the cause with which he had identified his own ambition. His efforts
+had failed. There was not land enough for their subsistence and that of
+the older settlers; and the suffering emigrants pined more and more for
+their deserted farms. Thither he was resolved that they should not
+return. "If you go," he told them, "you will have neither priests nor
+sacraments, but will die like miserable wretches." [250] The assertion
+was false. Priests and sacraments had never been denied them. It is true
+that Daudin, priest of Pisiquid, had lately been sent to Halifax for
+using insolent language to the commandant, threatening him with an
+insurrection of the inhabitants, and exciting them to sedition; but on
+his promise to change conduct, he was sent back to his parishioners.
+[251] Vergor sustained Le Loutre, and threatened to put in irons any of
+the exiles who talked of going back to the English. Some of them
+bethought themselves of an appeal to Duquesne, and drew up a petition
+asking leave to return home. Le Loutre told the signers that if they did
+not efface their marks from the paper they should have neither
+sacraments in this life nor heaven in the next. He nevertheless allowed
+two of them to go to Quebec as deputies, writing at the same time to the
+Governor, that his mind might be duly prepared. Duquesne replied: "I
+think that the two rascals of deputies whom you sent me will not soon
+recover from the fright I gave them, notwithstanding the emollient I
+administered after my reprimand; and since I told them that they were
+indebted to you for not being allowed to rot in a dungeon, they have
+promised me to comply with your wishes." [252]
+
+[250] Pichon to Captain Scott, 14 Oct. 1754, in Public Documents of Nova
+Scotia, 229.
+
+[251] Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 223, 224, 226, 227, 238.
+
+[252] Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 239.
+
+An entire heartlessness marked the dealings of the French authorities
+with the Acadians. They were treated as mere tools of policy, to be
+used, broken, and flung away. Yet, in using them, the sole condition of
+their efficiency was neglected. The French Government, cheated of
+enormous sums by its own ravenous agents, grudged the cost of sending a
+single regiment to the Acadian border. Thus unsupported, the Acadians
+remained in fear and vacillation, aiding the French but feebly, though a
+ceaseless annoyance and menace to the English.
+
+This was the state of affairs at Beauséjour while Shirley and Lawrence
+were planning its destruction. Lawrence had empowered his agent,
+Monckton, to draw without limit on two Boston merchants, Apthorp and
+Hancock. Shirley, as commander-in-chief of the province of
+Massachusetts, commissioned John Winslow to raise two thousand
+volunteers. Winslow was sprung from the early governors of Plymouth
+colony; but, though well-born, he was ill-educated, which did not
+prevent him from being both popular and influential. He had strong
+military inclinations, had led a company of his own raising in the
+luckless attack on Carthagena, had commanded the force sent in the
+preceding summer to occupy the Kennebec, and on various other occasions
+had left his Marshfield farm to serve his country. The men enlisted
+readily at his call, and were formed into a regiment, of which Shirley
+made himself the nominal colonel. It had two battalions, of which
+Winslow, as lieutenant-colonel, commanded the first, and George Scott
+the second, both under the orders of Monckton. Country villages far and
+near, from the western borders of the Connecticut to uttermost Cape Cod,
+lent soldiers to the new regiment. The muster-rolls preserve their
+names, vocations, birthplaces, and abode. Obadiah, Nehemiah, Jedediah,
+Jonathan, Ebenezer, Joshua, and the like Old Testament names abound upon
+the list. Some are set down as "farmers," "yeomen," or "husbandmen;"
+others as "shopkeepers," others as "fishermen," and many as "laborers;"
+while a great number were handicraftsmen of various trades, from
+blacksmiths to wig-makers. They mustered at Boston early in April, where
+clothing, haversacks, and blankets were served out to them at the charge
+of the King; and the crooked streets of the New England capital were
+filled with staring young rustics. On the next Saturday the following
+mandate went forth: "The men will behave very orderly on the Sabbath
+Day, and either stay on board their transports, or else go to church,
+and not stroll up and down the streets." The transports, consisting of
+about forty sloops and schooners, lay at Long Wharf; and here on Monday
+a grand review took place,--to the gratification, no doubt, of a
+populace whose amusements were few. All was ready except the muskets,
+which were expected from England, but did not come. Hence the delay of a
+month, threatening to ruin the enterprise. When Shirley returned from
+Alexandria he found, to his disgust, that the transports still lay at
+the wharf where he had left them on his departure. [253] The muskets
+arrived at length, and the fleet sailed on the twenty-second of May.
+Three small frigates, the "Success," the "Mermaid," and the "Siren,"
+commanded by the ex-privateersman, Captain Rous, acted as convoy; and on
+the twenty-sixth the whole force safely reached Annapolis. Thence after
+some delay they sailed up the Bay of Fundy, and at sunset on the first
+of June anchored within five miles of the hill of Beauséjour.
+
+[253] Shirley to Robinson, 20 June, 1755.
+
+At two o'clock on the next morning a party of Acadians from Chipody
+roused Vergor with the news. In great alarm, he sent a messenger to
+Louisbourg to beg for help, and ordered all the fighting men of the
+neighborhood to repair to the fort. They counted in all between twelve
+and fifteen hundred; [254] but they had no appetite for war. The force
+of the invaders daunted them; and the hundred and sixty regulars who
+formed the garrison of Beauséjour were too few to revive their
+confidence. Those of them who had crossed from the English side dreaded
+what might ensue should they be caught in arms; and, to prepare an
+excuse beforehand, they begged Vergor to threaten them with punishment
+if they disobeyed his order. He willingly complied, promised to have
+them killed if they did not fight, and assured them at the same time
+that the English could never take the fort. [255] Three hundred of them
+thereupon joined the garrison, and the rest, hiding their families in
+the woods, prepared to wage guerilla war against the invaders.
+
+[254] Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. An English document, State of
+the English and French Forts in Nova Scotia, says 1,200 to 1,400.
+
+[255] Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
+
+Monckton, with all his force, landed unopposed, and encamped at night on
+the fields around Fort Lawrence, whence he could contemplate Fort
+Beauséjour at his ease. The regulars of the English garrison joined the
+New England men; and then, on the morning of the fourth, they marched to
+the attack. Their course lay along the south bank of the Missaguash to
+where it was crossed by a bridge called Pont-à-Buot. This bridge had
+been destroyed; and on the farther bank there was a large blockhouse and
+a breastwork of timber defended by four hundred regulars, Acadians, and
+Indians. They lay silent and unseen till the head of the column reached
+the opposite bank; then raised a yell and opened fire, causing some
+loss. Three field-pieces were brought up, the defenders were driven out,
+and a bridge was laid under a spattering fusillade from behind bushes,
+which continued till the English had crossed the stream. Without further
+opposition, they marched along the road to Beauséjour, and, turning to
+the right, encamped among the woody hills half a league from the fort.
+That night there was a grand illumination, for Vergor set fire to the
+church and all the houses outside the ramparts. [256]
+
+[256] Winslow, Journal and Letter Book. Mémoires sur le Canada,
+1749-1760. Letters from officers on the spot in Boston Evening Post and
+Boston News Letter. Journal of Surgeon John Thomas.
+
+The English spent some days in preparing their camp and reconnoitring
+the ground. Then Scott, with five hundred provincials, seized upon a
+ridge within easy range of the works. An officer named Vannes came out
+to oppose him with a hundred and eighty men, boasting that he would do
+great things; but on seeing the enemy, quietly returned, to become the
+laughing-stock of the garrison. The fort fired furiously, but with
+little effect. In the night of the thirteenth, Winslow, with a part of
+his own battalion, relieved Scott, and planted in the trenches two small
+mortars, brought to the camp on carts. On the next day they opened fire.
+One of them was disabled by the French cannon, but Captain Hazen brought
+up two more, of larger size, on ox-wagons; and, in spite of heavy rain,
+the fire was brisk on both sides.
+
+Captain Rous, on board his ship in the harbor, watched the bombardment
+with great interest. Having occasion to write to Winslow, he closed his
+letter in a facetious strain. "I often hear of your success in plunder,
+particularly a coach. [257] I hope you have some fine horses for it, at
+least four, to draw it, that it may be said a New England colonel [rode
+in] his coach and four in Nova Scotia. If you have any good
+saddle-horses in your stable, I should be obliged to you for one to ride
+round the ship's deck on for exercise, for I am not likely to have any
+other."
+
+[257] "11 June. Capt. Adams went with a Company of Raingers, and
+Returned at 11 Clock with a Coach and Sum other Plunder." Journal of
+John Thomas.
+
+Within the fort there was little promise of a strong defence. Le Loutre,
+it is true, was to be seen in his shirt-sleeves, with a pipe in his
+mouth, directing the Acadians in their work of strengthening the
+fortifications. [258] They, on their part, thought more of escape than
+of fighting. Some of them vainly begged to be allowed to go home; others
+went off without leave,--which was not difficult, as only one side of
+the place was attacked. Even among the officers there were some in whom
+interest was stronger than honor, and who would rather rob the King than
+die for him. The general discouragement was redoubled when, on the
+fourteenth, a letter came from the commandant of Louisbourg to say that
+he could send no help, as British ships blocked the way. On the morning
+of the sixteenth, a mischance befell, recorded in these words in the
+diary of Surgeon John Thomas: "One of our large shells fell through what
+they called their bomb-proof, where a number of their officers were
+sitting, killed six of them dead, and one Ensign Hay, which the Indians
+had took prisoner a few days agone and carried to the fort." The party
+was at breakfast when the unwelcome visitor burst in. Just opposite was
+a second bomb-proof, where was Vergor himself, with Le Loutre, another
+priest, and several officers, who felt that they might at any time share
+the same fate. The effect was immediate. The English, who had not yet
+got a single cannon into position, saw to their surprise a white flag
+raised on the rampart. Some officers of the garrison protested against
+surrender; and Le Loutre, who thought that he had everything to fear at
+the hands of the victors, exclaimed that it was better to be buried
+under the ruins of the fort than to give it up; but all was in vain, and
+the valiant Vannes was sent out to propose terms of capitulation. They
+were rejected, and others offered, to the following effect: the garrison
+to march out with the honors of war and to be sent to Louisbourg at the
+charge of the King of England, but not to bear arms in America for the
+space of six months. The Acadians to be pardoned the part they had just
+borne in the defence, "seeing that they had been compelled to take arms
+on pain of death." Confusion reigned all day at Beauséjour. The Acadians
+went home loaded with plunder. The French officers were so busy in
+drinking and pillaging that they could hardly be got away to sign the
+capitulation. At the appointed hour, seven in the evening, Scott marched
+in with a body of provincials, raised the British flag on the ramparts,
+and saluted it by a general discharge of the French cannon, while Vergor
+as a last act of hospitality gave a supper to the officers. [259]
+
+[258] Journal of Pichon, cited by Beamish Murdoch.
+
+[259] On the capture of Beauséjour, Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760;
+Pichon, Cape Breton, 318; Journal of Pichon, cited by Murdoch; and the
+English accounts already mentioned.
+
+
+Le Loutre was not to be found; he had escaped in disguise with his box
+of papers, and fled to Baye Verte to join his brother missionary,
+Manach. Thence he made his way to Quebec, where the Bishop received him
+with reproaches. He soon embarked for France; but the English captured
+him on the way, and kept him eight years in Elizabeth Castle, on the
+Island of Jersey. Here on one occasion a soldier on guard made a dash at
+the father, tried to stab him with his bayonet, and was prevented with
+great difficulty. He declared that, when he was with his regiment in
+Acadia, he had fallen into the hands of Le Loutre, and narrowly escaped
+being scalped alive, the missionary having doomed him to this fate, and
+with his own hand drawn a knife round his head as a beginning of the
+operation. The man swore so fiercely that he would have his revenge,
+that the officer in command transferred him to another post. [260]
+
+[260] Knox, Campaigns in North America, I. 114, note. Knox, who was
+stationed in Nova Scotia, says that Le Loutre left behind him "a most
+remarkable character for inhumanity."
+
+Throughout the siege, the Acadians outside the fort, aided by Indians,
+had constantly attacked the English, but were always beaten off with
+loss. There was an affair of this kind on the morning of the surrender,
+during which a noted Micmac chief was shot, and being brought into the
+camp, recounted the losses of his tribe; "after which, and taking a dram
+or two, he quickly died," writes Winslow in his Journal.
+
+Fort Gaspereau, at Baye Verte, twelve miles distant, was summoned by
+letter to surrender. Villeray, its commandant, at once complied; and
+Winslow went with a detachment to take possession. [261] Nothing
+remained but to occupy the French post at the mouth of the St. John.
+Captain Rous, relieved at last from inactivity, was charged with the
+task; and on the thirtieth he appeared off the harbor, manned his boats,
+and rowed for shore. The French burned their fort, and withdrew beyond
+his reach. [262] A hundred and fifty Indians, suddenly converted from
+enemies to pretended friends, stood on the strand, firing their guns
+into the air as a salute, and declaring themselves brothers of the
+English. All Acadia was now in British hands. Fort Beauséjour became
+Fort Cumberland,--the second fort in America that bore the name of the
+royal Duke.
+
+[261] Winslow, Journal. Villeray au Ministre, 20 Sept. 1755.
+
+[262] Drucour au Ministre, 1 Déc. 1755.
+
+The defence had been of the feeblest. Two years later, on pressing
+demands from Versailles, Vergor was brought to trial, as was also
+Villeray. The Governor, Vaudreuil, and the Intendant, Bigot, who had
+returned to Canada, were in the interest of the chief defendant. The
+court-martial was packed; adverse evidence was shuffled out of sight;
+and Vergor, acquitted and restored to his rank, lived to inflict on New
+France another and a greater injury. [263]
+
+[263] Mémoire sur les Fraudes commises dans la Colonie, 1759. Mémoires
+sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
+
+Now began the first act of a deplorable drama. Monckton, with his small
+body of regulars, had pitched their tents under the walls of Beauséjour.
+Winslow and Scott, with the New England troops, lay not far off. There
+was little intercourse between the two camps. The British officers bore
+themselves towards those of the provincials with a supercilious coldness
+common enough on their part throughout the war. July had passed in what
+Winslow calls "an indolent manner," with prayers every day in the
+Puritan camp, when, early in August, Monckton sent for him, and made an
+ominous declaration. "The said Monckton was so free as to acquaint me
+that it was determined to remove all the French inhabitants out of the
+province, and that he should send for all the adult males from Tantemar,
+Chipody, Aulac, Beauséjour, and Baye Verte to read the Governor's
+orders; and when that was done, was determined to retain them all
+prisoners in the fort. And this is the first conference of a public
+nature I have had with the colonel since the reduction of Beauséjour;
+and I apprehend that no officer of either corps has been made more free
+with."
+
+Monckton sent accordingly to all the neighboring settlements, commanding
+the male inhabitants to meet him at Beauséjour. Scarcely a third part of
+their number obeyed. These arrived on the tenth, and were told to stay
+all night under the guns of the fort. What then befell them will appear
+from an entry in the diary of Winslow under date of August eleventh:
+"This day was one extraordinary to the inhabitants of Tantemar, Oueskak,
+Aulac, Baye Verte, Beauséjour, and places adjacent; the male
+inhabitants, or the principal of them, being collected together in Fort
+Cumberland to hear the sentence, which determined their property, from
+the Governor and Council of Halifax; which was that they were declared
+rebels, their lands, goods, and chattels forfeited to the Crown, and
+their bodies to be imprisoned. Upon which the gates of the fort were
+shut, and they all confined, to the amount of four hundred men and
+upwards." Parties were sent to gather more, but caught very few, the
+rest escaping to the woods.
+
+Some of the prisoners were no doubt among those who had joined the
+garrison at Beauséjour, and had been pardoned for doing so by the terms
+of the capitulation. It was held, however, that, though forgiven this
+special offence, they were not exempted from the doom that had gone
+forth against the great body of their countrymen. We must look closely
+at the motives and execution of this stern sentence.
+
+At any time up to the spring of 1755 the emigrant Acadians were free to
+return to their homes on taking the ordinary oath of allegiance required
+of British subjects. The English authorities of Halifax used every means
+to persuade them to do so; yet the greater part refused. This was due
+not only to Le Loutre and his brother priests, backed by the military
+power, but also to the Bishop of Quebec, who enjoined the Acadians to
+demand of the English certain concessions, the chief of which were that
+the priests should exercise their functions without being required to
+ask leave of the Governor, and that the inhabitants should not be called
+upon for military service of any kind. The Bishop added that the
+provisions of the treaty of Utrecht were insufficient, and that others
+ought to be exacted. [264] The oral declaration of the English
+authorities, that for the present the Acadians should not be required to
+bear arms, was not thought enough. They, or rather their prompters,
+demanded a written pledge.
+
+[264] L'Évêque de Québec à Le Loutre, Nov. 1754, in Public Documents of
+Nova Scotia, 240.
+
+The refusal to take the oath without reservation was not confined to the
+emigrants. Those who remained in the peninsula equally refused it,
+though most of them were born and had always lived under the British
+flag. Far from pledging themselves to complete allegiance, they showed
+continual signs of hostility. In May three pretended French deserters
+were detected among them inciting them to take arms against the English.
+[265]
+
+[265] Ibid., 242.
+
+On the capture of Beauséjour the British authorities found themselves in
+a position of great difficulty. The New England troops were enlisted for
+the year only, and could not be kept in Acadia. It was likely that the
+French would make a strong effort to recover the province, sure as they
+were of support from the great body of its people. The presence of this
+disaffected population was for the French commanders a continual
+inducement to invasion; and Lawrence was not strong enough to cope at
+once with attack from without and insurrection from within.
+
+Shirley had held for some time that there was no safety for Acadia but
+in ridding it of the Acadians. He had lately proposed that the lands of
+the district of Chignecto, abandoned by their emigrant owners, should be
+given to English settlers, who would act as a check and a counterpoise
+to the neighboring French population. This advice had not been acted
+upon. Nevertheless Shirley and his brother Governor of Nova Scotia were
+kindred spirits, and inclined to similar measures. Colonel Charles
+Lawrence had not the good-nature and conciliatory temper which marked
+his predecessors, Cornwallis and Hopson. His energetic will was not apt
+to relent under the softer sentiments, and the behavior of the Acadians
+was fast exhausting his patience. More than a year before, the Lords of
+Trade had instructed him that they had no right to their lands if they
+persisted in refusing the oath. [266] Lawrence replied, enlarging on
+their obstinacy, treachery, and "ingratitude for the favor, indulgence,
+and protection they have at all times so undeservedly received from His
+Majesty's Government;" declaring at the same time that, "while they
+remain without taking the oaths, and have incendiary French priests
+among them, there are no hopes of their amendment;" and that "it would
+be much better, if they refuse the oaths, that they were away." [267]
+"We were in hopes," again wrote the Lords of Trade, "that the lenity
+which had been shown to those people by indulging them in the free
+exercise of their religion and the quiet possession of their lands,
+would by degrees have gained their friendship and assistance, and weaned
+their affections from the French; but we are sorry to find that this
+lenity has had so little effect, and that they still hold the same
+conduct, furnishing them with labor, provisions, and intelligence, and
+concealing their designs from us." In fact, the Acadians, while calling
+themselves neutrals, were an enemy encamped in the heart of the
+province. These are the reasons which explain and palliate a measure too
+harsh and indiscriminate to be wholly justified.
+
+[266] Lords of Trade to Lawrence, 4 March, 1754.
+
+[267] Lawrence to Lords of Trade, 1 Aug. 1754.
+
+Abbé Raynal, who never saw the Acadians, has made an ideal picture of
+them, [268] since copied and improved in prose and verse, till Acadia
+has become Arcadia. The plain realities of their condition and fate are
+touching enough to need no exaggeration. They were a simple and very
+ignorant peasantry, industrious and frugal till evil days came to
+discourage them; living aloof from the world, with little of that spirit
+of adventure which an easy access to the vast fur-bearing interior had
+developed in their Canadian kindred; having few wants, and those of the
+rudest; fishing a little and hunting in the winter, but chiefly employed
+in cultivating the meadows along the River Annapolis, or rich marshes
+reclaimed by dikes from the tides of the Bay of Fundy. The British
+Government left them entirely free of taxation. They made clothing of
+flax and wool of their own raising, hats of similar materials, and shoes
+or moccasons of moose and seal skin. They bred cattle, sheep, hogs, and
+horses in abundance; and the valley of the Annapolis, then as now, was
+known for the profusion and excellence of its apples. For drink, they
+made cider or brewed spruce-beer. French officials describe their
+dwellings as wretched wooden boxes, without ornaments or conveniences,
+and scarcely supplied with the most necessary furniture. [269] Two or
+more families often occupied the same house; and their way of life,
+though simple and virtuous, was by no means remarkable for cleanliness.
+Such as it was, contentment reigned among them, undisturbed by what
+modern America calls progress. Marriages were early, and population grew
+apace. This humble society had its disturbing elements; for the
+Acadians, like the Canadians, were a litigious race, and neighbors often
+quarrelled about their boundaries. Nor were they without a bountiful
+share of jealousy, gossip, and backbiting, to relieve the monotony of
+their lives; and every village had its turbulent spirits, sometimes by
+fits, though rarely long, contumacious even toward the curé, the guide,
+counsellor, and ruler of his flock. Enfeebled by hereditary mental
+subjection, and too long kept in leading-strings to walk alone, they
+needed him, not for the next world only, but for this; and their
+submission, compounded of love and fear, was commonly without bounds. He
+was their true government; to him they gave a frank and full allegiance,
+and dared not disobey him if they would. Of knowledge he gave them
+nothing; but he taught them to be true to their wives and constant at
+confession and Mass, to stand fast for the Church and King Louis, and to
+resist heresy and King George; for, in one degree or another, the
+Acadian priest was always the agent of a double-headed foreign
+power,--the Bishop of Quebec allied with the Governor of Canada. [270]
+
+[268] Histoire philosophique et politique, VI. 242 (ed. 1772).
+
+[269] Beauharnois et Hocquart au Comte de Maurepas, 12 Sept. 1745.
+
+[270] Franquet, Journal, 1751, says of the Acadians: "Ils aiment
+l'argent, n'ont dans toute leur conduite que leur intérêt pour objet,
+sont, indifféremment des deux sexes, d'une inconsidération dans leurs
+discours qui dénote de la méchanceté." Another observer, Dieréville,
+gives a more favorable picture.
+
+When Monckton and the Massachusetts men laid siege to Beauséjour,
+Governor Lawrence thought the moment favorable for exacting an
+unqualified oath of allegiance from the Acadians. The presence of a
+superior and victorious force would help, he thought, to bring them to
+reason; and there were some indications that this would be the result. A
+number of Acadian families, who at the promptings of Le Loutre had
+emigrated to Cape Breton, had lately returned to Halifax, promising to
+be true subjects of King George if they could be allowed to repossess
+their lands. They cheerfully took the oath; on which they were
+reinstated in their old homes, and supplied with food for the winter.
+[271] Their example unfortunately found few imitators.
+
+[271] Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 228.
+
+Early in June the principal inhabitants of Grand Pré and other
+settlements about the Basin of Mines brought a memorial, signed with
+their crosses, to Captain Murray, the military commandant in their
+district, and desired him to send it to Governor Lawrence, to whom it
+was addressed. Murray reported that when they brought it to him they
+behaved with the greatest insolence, though just before they had been
+unusually submissive. He thought that this change of demeanor was caused
+by a report which had lately got among them of a French fleet in the Bay
+of Fundy; for it had been observed that any rumor of an approaching
+French force always had a similar effect. The deputies who brought the
+memorial were sent with it to Halifax, where they laid it before the
+Governor and Council. It declared that the signers had kept the
+qualified oath they had taken, "in spite of the solicitations and
+dreadful threats of another power," and that they would continue to
+prove "an unshaken fidelity to His Majesty, provided that His Majesty
+shall allow us the same liberty that he has [hitherto] granted us."
+Their memorial then demanded, in terms highly offensive to the Council,
+that the guns, pistols, and other weapons, which they had lately been
+required to give up, should be returned to them. They were told in reply
+that they had been protected for many years in the enjoyment of their
+lands, though they had not complied with the terms on which the lands
+were granted; "that they had always been treated by the Government with
+the greatest lenity and tenderness, had enjoyed more privileges than
+other English subjects, and had been indulged in the free exercise of
+their religion;" all which they acknowledged to be true. The Governor
+then told them that their conduct had been undutiful and ungrateful;
+"that they had discovered a constant disposition to assist His Majesty's
+enemies and to distress his subjects; that they had not only furnished
+the enemy with provisions and ammunition, but had refused to supply the
+[English] inhabitants or Government, and when they did supply them, had
+exacted three times the price for which they were sold at other
+markets." The hope was then expressed that they would no longer obstruct
+the settlement of the province by aiding the Indians to molest and kill
+English settlers; and they were rebuked for saying in their memorial
+that they would be faithful to the King only on certain conditions. The
+Governor added that they had some secret reason for demanding their
+weapons, and flattered themselves that French troops were at hand to
+support their insolence. In conclusion, they were told that now was a
+good opportunity to prove their sincerity by taking the oath of
+allegiance, in the usual form, before the Council. They replied that
+they had not made up their minds on that point, and could do nothing
+till they had consulted their constituents. Being reminded that the oath
+was personal to themselves, and that six years had already been given
+them to think about it, they asked leave to retire and confer together.
+This was granted, and at the end of an hour they came back with the same
+answer as before; whereupon they were allowed till ten o'clock on the
+next morning for a final decision. [272]
+
+[272] Minutes of Council at Halifax, 3 July, 1755, in Public Documents
+of Nova Scotia, 247-255.
+
+At the appointed time the Council again met, and the deputies were
+brought in. They persisted stubbornly in the same refusal. "They were
+then informed," says the record, "that the Council could no longer look
+on them as subjects to His Britannic Majesty, but as subjects to the
+King of France, and as such they must hereafter be treated; and they
+were ordered to withdraw." A discussion followed in the Council. It was
+determined that the Acadians should be ordered to send new deputies to
+Halifax, who should answer for them, once for all, whether they would
+accept the oath or not; that such as refused it should not thereafter be
+permitted to take it; and "that effectual measures ought to be taken to
+remove all such recusants out of the province."
+
+The deputies, being then called in and told this decision, became
+alarmed, and offered to swear allegiance in the terms required. The
+answer was that it was too late; that as they had refused the oath under
+persuasion, they could not be trusted when they took it under
+compulsion. It remained to see whether the people at large would profit
+by their example.
+
+"I am determined," wrote Lawrence to the Lords of Trade, "to bring the
+inhabitants to a compliance, or rid the province of such perfidious
+subjects." [273] First, in answer to the summons of the Council, the
+deputies from Annapolis appeared, declaring that they had always been
+faithful to the British Crown, but flatly refusing the oath. They were
+told that, far from having been faithful subjects, they had always
+secretly aided the Indians, and that many of them had been in arms
+against the English; that the French were threatening the province; and
+that its affairs had reached a crisis when its inhabitants must either
+pledge themselves without equivocation to be true to the British Crown,
+or else must leave the country. They all declared that they would lose
+their lands rather than take the oath. The Council urged them to
+consider the matter seriously, warning them that, if they now persisted
+in refusal, no farther choice would be allowed them; and they were given
+till ten o'clock on the following Monday to make their final answer.
+
+[273] Lawrence to Lords of Trade, 18 July, 1755.
+
+When that day came, another body of deputies had arrived from Grand Pré
+and the other settlements of the Basin of Mines; and being called before
+the Council, both they and the former deputation absolutely refused to
+take the oath of allegiance. These two bodies represented nine tenths of
+the Acadian population within the peninsula. "Nothing," pursues the
+record of the Council, "now remained to be considered but what measures
+should be taken to send the inhabitants away, and where they should be
+sent to." If they were sent to Canada, Cape Breton, or the neighboring
+islands, they would strengthen the enemy, and still threaten the
+province. It was therefore resolved to distribute them among the various
+English colonies, and to hire vessels for the purpose with all despatch.
+[274]
+
+[274] Minutes of Council, 4 July--28 July, in Public Documents of Nova
+Scotia, 255-267. Copies of these and other parts of the record were sent
+at the time to England, and are now in the Public Record Office, along
+with the letters of Lawrence.
+
+The oath, the refusal of which had brought such consequences, was a
+simple pledge of fidelity and allegiance to King George II. and his
+successors. Many of the Acadians had already taken an oath of fidelity,
+though with the omission of the word "allegiance," and, as they
+insisted, with a saving clause exempting them from bearing arms. The
+effect of this was that they did not regard themselves as British
+subjects, and claimed, falsely as regards most of them, the character of
+neutrals. It was to put an end to this anomalous state of things that
+the oath without reserve had been demanded of them. Their rejection of
+it, reiterated in full view of the consequences, is to be ascribed
+partly to a fixed belief that the English would not execute their
+threats, partly to ties of race and kin, but mainly to superstition.
+They feared to take part with heretics against the King of France, whose
+cause, as already stated, they had been taught to regard as one with the
+cause of God; they were constrained by the dread of perdition. "If the
+Acadians are miserable, remember that the priests are the cause of it,"
+writes the French officer Boishébert to the missionary Manach. [275]
+
+[275] On the oath and its history, compare a long note by Mr. Akin in
+Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 263-267. Winslow in his Journal gives
+an abstract of a memorial sent him by the Acadians, in which they say
+that they had refused the oath, and so forfeited their lands, from
+motives of religion. I have shown in a former chapter that the priests
+had been the chief instruments in preventing them from accepting the
+English government. Add the following:--
+
+"Les malheurs des Accadiens sont beaucoup moins leur ouvrage que le
+fruit des sollicitations et des démarches des missionnaires." Vaudreuil
+au Ministre, 6 Mai, 1760.
+
+"Si nous avons la guerre, et si les Accadiens sont misérables,
+souvenez-vous que ce sont les prêtres qui en sont la cause." Boishébert
+à Manach, 21 Fév. 1760. Both these writers had encouraged the priests in
+their intrigues so long as there were likely to profit the French
+Government, and only blamed them after they failed to accomplished what
+was expected of them.
+
+"Nous avons six missionnaires dont l'occupation perpetuelle est de
+porter les esprits au fanatisme et à la vengeance.... Je ne puis
+supporter dans nos prêtres ces odieuses déclamations qu'ils font tous
+les jours aux sauvages: 'Les Anglois sont les ennemis de Dieu, les
+compagnons du Diable.'" Pichon, Lettres et Mémoires pour servir à
+l'Histoire du Cap-Breton, 160, 161. (La Haye, 1760.)
+
+The Council having come to a decision, Lawrence acquainted Monckton with
+the result, and ordered him to seize all the adult males in the
+neighborhood of Beauséjour; and this, as we have seen, he promptly did.
+It remains to observe how the rest of the sentence was carried into
+effect.
+
+Instructions were sent to Winslow to secure the inhabitants on or near
+the Basin of Mines and place them on board transports, which, he was
+told, would soon arrive from Boston. His orders were stringent: "If you
+find that fair means will not do with them, you must proceed by the most
+vigorous measures possible, not only in compelling them to embark, but
+in depriving those who shall escape of all means of shelter or support,
+by burning their houses and by destroying everything that may afford
+them the means of subsistence in the country." Similar orders were given
+to Major Handfield, the regular officer in command at Annapolis.
+
+On the fourteenth of August Winslow set out from his camp at Fort
+Beauséjour, or Cumberland, on his unenviable errand. He had with him but
+two hundred and ninety-seven men. His mood of mind was not serene. He
+was chafed because the regulars had charged his men with stealing sheep;
+and he was doubly vexed by an untoward incident that happened on the
+morning of his departure. He had sent forward his detachment under
+Adams, the senior captain, and they were marching by the fort with drums
+beating and colors flying, when Monckton sent out his aide-de-camp with
+a curt demand that the colors should be given up, on the ground that
+they ought to remain with the regiment. Whatever the soundness of the
+reason, there was no courtesy in the manner of enforcing it. "This
+transaction raised my temper some," writes Winslow in his Diary; and he
+proceeds to record his opinion that "it is the most ungenteel,
+ill-natured thing that ever I saw." He sent Monckton a quaintly
+indignant note, in which he observed that the affair "looks odd, and
+will appear so in future history;" but his commander, reckless of the
+judgments of posterity, gave him little satisfaction.
+
+Thus ruffled in spirit, he embarked with his men and sailed down
+Chignecto Channel to the Bay of Fundy. Here, while they waited the turn
+of the tide to enter the Basin of Mines, the shores of Cumberland lay
+before them dim in the hot and hazy air, and the promontory of Cape
+Split, like some misshapen monster of primeval chaos, stretched its
+portentous length along the glimmering sea, with head of yawning rock,
+and ridgy back bristled with forests. Borne on the rushing flood, they
+soon drifted through the inlet, glided under the rival promontory of
+Cape Blomedon, passed the red sandstone cliffs of Lyon's Cove, and
+descried the mouths of the rivers Canard and Des Habitants, where
+fertile marshes, diked against the tide, sustained a numerous and
+thriving population. Before them spread the boundless meadows of Grand
+Pré, waving with harvests or alive with grazing cattle; the green slopes
+behind were dotted with the simple dwellings of the Acadian farmers, and
+the spire of the village church rose against a background of woody
+hills. It was a peaceful, rural scene, soon to become one of the most
+wretched spots on earth. Winslow did not land for the present, but held
+his course to the estuary of the River Pisiquid, since called the Avon.
+Here, where the town of Windsor now stands, there was a stockade called
+Fort Edward, where a garrison of regulars under Captain Alexander Murray
+kept watch over the surrounding settlements. The New England men pitched
+their tents on shore, while the sloops that had brought them slept on
+the soft bed of tawny mud left by the fallen tide.
+
+Winslow found a warm reception, for Murray and his officers had been
+reduced too long to their own society not to welcome the coming of
+strangers. The two commanders conferred together. Both had been ordered
+by Lawrence to "clear the whole country of such bad subjects;" and the
+methods of doing so had been outlined for their guidance. Having come to
+some understanding with his brother officer concerning the duties
+imposed on both, and begun an acquaintance which soon grew cordial on
+both sides, Winslow embarked again and retraced his course to Grand Pré,
+the station which the Governor had assigned him. "Am pleased," he wrote
+to Lawrence, "with the place proposed by your Excellency for our
+reception [the village church]. I have sent for the elders to remove all
+sacred things, to prevent their being defiled by heretics." The church
+was used as a storehouse and place of arms; the men pitched their tents
+between it and the graveyard; while Winslow took up his quarters in the
+house of the priest, where he could look from his window on a tranquil
+scene. Beyond the vast tract of grassland to which Grand Pré owed its
+name, spread the blue glistening breast of the Basin of Mines; beyond
+this again, the distant mountains of Cobequid basked in the summer sun;
+and nearer, on the left, Cape Blomedon reared its bluff head of rock and
+forest above the sleeping waves.
+
+As the men of the settlement greatly outnumbered his own, Winslow set
+his followers to surrounding the camp with a stockade. Card-playing was
+forbidden, because it encouraged idleness, and pitching quoits in camp,
+because it spoiled the grass. Presently there came a letter from
+Lawrence expressing a fear that the fortifying of the camp might alarm
+the inhabitants. To which Winslow replied that the making of the
+stockade had not alarmed them in the least, since they took it as a
+proof that the detachment was to spend the winter with them; and he
+added, that as the harvest was not yet got in, he and Murray had agreed
+not to publish the Governor's commands till the next Friday. He
+concludes: "Although it is a disagreeable part of duty we are put upon,
+I am sensible it is a necessary one, and shall endeavor strictly to obey
+your Excellency's orders."
+
+On the thirtieth, Murray, whose post was not many miles distant, made
+him a visit. They agreed that Winslow should summon all the male
+inhabitants about Grand Pré to meet him at the church and hear the
+King's orders, and that Murray should do the same for those around Fort
+Edward. Winslow then called in his three captains,--Adams, Hobbs, and
+Osgood,--made them swear secrecy, and laid before them his instructions
+and plans; which latter they approved. Murray then returned to his post,
+and on the next day sent Winslow a note containing the following: "I
+think the sooner we strike the stroke the better, therefore will be glad
+to see you here as soon as conveniently you can. I shall have the orders
+for assembling ready written for your approbation, only the day blank,
+and am hopeful everything will succeed according to our wishes. The
+gentlemen join me in our best compliments to you and the Doctor."
+
+On the next day, Sunday, Winslow and the Doctor, whose name was
+Whitworth, made the tour of the neighborhood, with an escort of fifty
+men, and found a great quantity of wheat still on the fields. On Tuesday
+Winslow "set out in a whale-boat with Dr. Whitworth and Adjutant
+Kennedy, to consult with Captain Murray in this critical conjuncture."
+They agreed that three in the afternoon of Friday should be the time of
+assembling; then between them they drew up a summons to the inhabitants,
+and got one Beauchamp, a merchant, to "put it into French." It ran as
+follows:--
+
+By John Winslow, Esquire, Lieutenant-Colonel and Commander of His
+Majesty's troops at Grand Pré, Mines, River Canard, and places adjacent.
+
+To the inhabitants of the districts above named, as well ancients as
+young men and lads.
+
+Whereas His Excellency the Governor has instructed us of his last
+resolution respecting the matters proposed lately to the inhabitants,
+and has ordered us to communicate the same to the inhabitants in general
+in person, His Excellency being desirous that each of them should be
+fully satisfied of His Majesty's intentions, which he has also ordered
+us to communicate to you, such as they have been given him.
+
+We therefore order and strictly enjoin by these presents to all the
+inhabitants, as well of the above-named districts as of all the other
+districts, both old men and young men, as well as all the lads of ten
+years of age, to attend at the church in Grand Pré on Friday, the fifth
+instant, at three of the clock in the afternoon, that we may impart what
+we are ordered to communicate to them; declaring that no excuse will be
+admitted on any pretence whatsoever, on pain of forfeiting goods and
+chattels in default.
+
+Given at Grand Pré, the second of September, in the twenty-ninth year of
+His Majesty's reign, a.d. 1755.
+
+A similar summons was drawn up in the name of Murray for the inhabitants
+of the district of Fort Edward.
+
+Captain Adams made a reconnoissance of the rivers Canard and Des
+Habitants, and reported "a fine country and full of inhabitants, a
+beautiful church, and abundance of the goods of the world." Another
+reconnoissance by Captains Hobbs and Osgood among the settlements behind
+Grand Pré brought reports equally favorable. On the fourth, another
+letter came from Murray: "All the people quiet, and very busy at their
+harvest; if this day keeps fair, all will be in here in their barns. I
+hope to-morrow will crown all our wishes." The Acadians, like the bees,
+were to gather a harvest for others to enjoy. The summons was sent out
+that afternoon. Powder and ball were served to the men, and all were
+ordered to keep within the lines.
+
+On the next day the inhabitants appeared at the hour appointed, to the
+number of four hundred and eighteen men. Winslow ordered a table to be
+set in the middle of the church, and placed on it his instructions and
+the address he had prepared. Here he took his stand in his laced
+uniform, with one or two subalterns from the regulars at Fort Edward,
+and such of the Massachusetts officers as were not on guard duty;
+strong, sinewy figures, bearing, no doubt, more or less distinctly, the
+peculiar stamp with which toil, trade, and Puritanism had imprinted the
+features of New England. Their commander was not of the prevailing type.
+He was fifty-three years of age, with double chin, smooth forehead,
+arched eyebrows, close powdered wig, and round, rubicund face, from
+which the weight of an odious duty had probably banished the smirk of
+self-satisfaction that dwelt there at other times. [276] Nevertheless,
+he had manly and estimable qualities. The congregation of peasants, clad
+in rough homespun, turned their sunburned faces upon him, anxious and
+intent; and Winslow "delivered them by interpreters the King's orders in
+the following words," which, retouched in orthography and syntax, ran
+thus:--
+
+Gentlemen,--I have received from His Excellency, Governor Lawrence, the
+King's instructions, which I have in my hand. By his orders you are
+called together to hear His Majesty's final resolution concerning the
+French inhabitants of this his province of Nova Scotia, who for almost
+half a century have had more indulgence granted them than any of his
+subjects in any part of his dominions. What use you have made of it you
+yourselves best know.
+
+The duty I am now upon, though necessary, is very disagreeable to my
+natural make and temper, as I know it must be grievous to you, who are
+of the same species. But it is not my business to animadvert on the
+orders I have received, but to obey them; and therefore without
+hesitation I shall deliver to you His Majesty's instructions and
+commands, which are that your lands and tenements and cattle and
+live-stock of all kinds are forfeited to the Crown, with all your other
+effects, except money and household goods, and that you yourselves are
+to be removed from this his province.
+
+The peremptory orders of His Majesty are that all the French inhabitants
+of these districts be removed; and through His Majesty's goodness I am
+directed to allow you the liberty of carrying with you your money and as
+many of your household goods as you can take without overloading the
+vessels you go in. I shall do everything in my power that all these
+goods be secured to you, and that you be not molested in carrying them
+away, and also that whole families shall go in the same vessel; so that
+this removal, which I am sensible must give you a great deal of trouble,
+may be made as easy as His Majesty's service will admit; and I hope that
+in whatever part of the world your lot may fall, you may be faithful
+subjects, and a peaceable and happy people.
+
+I must also inform you that it is His Majesty's pleasure that you remain
+in security under the inspection and direction of the troops that I have
+the honor to command.
+
+[276] See his portrait, at the rooms of the Massachusetts Historical
+Society.
+
+He then declared them prisoners of the King. "They were greatly struck,"
+he says, "at this determination, though I believe they did not imagine
+that they were actually to be removed." After delivering the address, he
+returned to his quarters at the priest's house, whither he was followed
+by some of the elder prisoners, who begged leave to tell their families
+what had happened, "since they were fearful that the surprise of their
+detention would quite overcome them." Winslow consulted with his
+officers, and it was arranged that the Acadians should choose twenty of
+their number each day to revisit their homes, the rest being held
+answerable for their return.
+
+A letter, dated some days before, now came from Major Handfield at
+Annapolis, saying that he had tried to secure the men of that
+neighborhood, but that many of them had escaped to the woods. Murray's
+report from Fort Edward came soon after, and was more favorable: "I have
+succeeded finely, and have got a hundred and eighty-three men into my
+possession." To which Winslow replies: "I have the favor of yours of
+this day, and rejoice at your success, and also for the smiles that have
+attended the party here." But he adds mournfully: "Things are now very
+heavy on my heart and hands." The prisoners were lodged in the church,
+and notice was sent to their families to bring them food. "Thus," says
+the Diary of the commander, "ended the memorable fifth of September, a
+day of great fatigue and trouble."
+
+There was one quarter where fortune did not always smile. Major Jedediah
+Preble, of Winslow's battalion, wrote to him that Major Frye had just
+returned from Chipody, whither he had gone with a party of men to
+destroy the settlements and bring off the women and children. After
+burning two hundred and fifty-three buildings he had reimbarked, leaving
+fifty men on shore at a place called Peticodiac to give a finishing
+stroke to the work by burning the "Mass House," or church. While thus
+engaged, they were set upon by three hundred Indians and Acadians, led
+by the partisan officer Boishébert. More than half their number were
+killed, wounded, or taken. The rest ensconced themselves behind the
+neighboring dikes, and Frye, hastily landing with the rest of his men,
+engaged the assailants for three hours, but was forced at last to
+reimbark. [277] Captain Speakman, who took part in the affair, also sent
+Winslow an account of it, and added: "The people here are much concerned
+for fear your party should meet with the same fate (being in the heart
+of a numerous devilish crew), which I pray God avert."
+
+[277] Also Boishébert à Drucourt, 10 Oct. 1755, an exaggerated account.
+Vaudreuil au Ministre, 18 Oct. 1755, sets Boishébert's force at one
+hundred and twenty-five men.
+
+Winslow had indeed some cause for anxiety. He had captured more Acadians
+since the fifth; and had now in charge nearly five hundred able-bodied
+men, with scarcely three hundred to guard them. As they were allowed
+daily exercise in the open air, they might by a sudden rush get
+possession of arms and make serious trouble. On the Wednesday after the
+scene in the church some unusual movements were observed among them, and
+Winslow and his officers became convinced that they could not safely be
+kept in one body. Five vessels, lately arrived from Boston, were lying
+within the mouth of the neighboring river. It was resolved to place
+fifty of the prisoners on board each of these, and keep them anchored in
+the Basin. The soldiers were all ordered under arms, and posted on an
+open space beside the church and behind the priest's house. The
+prisoners were then drawn up before them, ranked six deep,--the young
+unmarried men, as the most dangerous, being told off and placed on the
+left, to the number of a hundred and forty-one. Captain Adams, with
+eighty men, was then ordered to guard them to the vessels. Though the
+object of the movement had been explained to them, they were possessed
+with the idea that they were to be torn from their families and sent
+away at once; and they all, in great excitement, refused to go. Winslow
+told them that there must be no parley or delay; and as they still
+refused, a squad of soldiers advanced towards them with fixed bayonets;
+while he himself, laying hold of the foremost young man, commanded him
+to move forward. "He obeyed; and the rest followed, though slowly, and
+went off praying, singing, and crying, being met by the women and
+children all the way (which is a mile and a half) with great
+lamentation, upon their knees, praying." When the escort returned, about
+a hundred of the married men were ordered to follow the first party;
+and, "the ice being broken," they readily complied. The vessels were
+anchored at a little distance from shore, and six soldiers were placed
+on board each of them as a guard. The prisoners were offered the King's
+rations, but preferred to be supplied by their families, who, it was
+arranged, should go in boats to visit them every day; "and thus," says
+Winslow, "ended this troublesome job." He was not given to effusions of
+feeling, but he wrote to Major Handfield: "This affair is more grievous
+to me than any service I was ever employed in." [278]
+
+[278] Haliburton, who knew Winslow's Journal only by imperfect extracts,
+erroneously states that the men put on board the vessels were sent away
+immediately. They remained at Grand Pré several weeks, and were then
+sent off at intervals with their families.
+
+Murray sent him a note of congratulation: "I am extremely pleased that
+things are so clever at Grand Pré, and that the poor devils are so
+resigned. Here they are more patient than I could have expected for
+people in their circumstances; and what surprises me still more is the
+indifference of the women, who really are, or seem, quite unconcerned. I
+long much to see the poor wretches embarked and our affair a little
+settled; and then I will do myself the pleasure of meeting you and
+drinking their good voyage."
+
+This agreeable consummation was still distant. There was a long and
+painful delay. The provisions for the vessels which were to carry the
+prisoners did not come; nor did the vessels themselves, excepting the
+five already at Grand Pré. In vain Winslow wrote urgent letters to
+George Saul, the commissary, to bring the supplies at once. Murray, at
+Fort Edward, though with less feeling than his brother officer, was
+quite as impatient of the burden of suffering humanity on his hands. "I
+am amazed what can keep the transports and Saul. Surely our friend at
+Chignecto is willing to give us as much of our neighbors' company as he
+well can." [279] Saul came at last with a shipload of provisions; but
+the lagging transports did not appear. Winslow grew heartsick at the
+daily sight of miseries which he himself had occasioned, and wrote to a
+friend at Halifax: "I know they deserve all and more than they feel; yet
+it hurts me to hear their weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. I
+am in hopes our affairs will soon put on another face, and we get
+transports, and I rid of the worst piece of service that ever I was in."
+
+[279] Murray to Winslow, 26 Sept. 1755.
+
+After weeks of delay, seven transports came from Annapolis; and Winslow
+sent three of them to Murray, who joyfully responded: "Thank God, the
+transports are come at last. So soon as I have shipped off my rascals, I
+will come down and settle matters with you, and enjoy ourselves a
+little."
+
+Winslow prepared for the embarkation. The Acadian prisoners and their
+families were divided into groups answering to their several villages,
+in order that those of the same village might, as far as possible, go in
+the same vessel. It was also provided that the members of each family
+should remain together; and notice was given them to hold themselves in
+readiness. "But even now," he writes, "I could not persuade the people I
+was in earnest." Their doubts were soon ended. The first embarkation
+took place on the eighth of October, under which date the Diary contains
+this entry: "Began to embark the inhabitants who went off very
+solentarily [sic] and unwillingly, the women in great distress, carrying
+off their children in their arms; others carrying their decrepit parents
+in their carts, with all their goods; moving in great confusion, and
+appeared a scene of woe and distress." [280]
+
+[280] In spite of Winslow's care, some cases of separation of families
+occurred; but they were not numerous.
+
+Though a large number were embarked on this occasion, still more
+remained; and as the transports slowly arrived, the dismal scene was
+repeated at intervals, with more order than at first, as the Acadians
+had learned to accept their fate as a certainty. So far as Winslow was
+concerned, their treatment seems to have been as humane as was possible
+under the circumstances; but they complained of the men, who disliked
+and despised them. One soldier received thirty lashes for stealing fowls
+from them; and an order was issued forbidding soldiers or sailors, on
+pain of summary punishment, to leave their quarters without permission,
+"that an end may be put to distressing this distressed people." Two of
+the prisoners, however, while trying to escape, were shot by a
+reconnoitring party.
+
+At the beginning of November Winslow reported that he had sent off
+fifteen hundred and ten persons, in nine vessels, and that more than six
+hundred still remained in his district. [281] The last of these were not
+embarked till late in December. Murray finished his part of the work at
+the end of October, having sent from the district of Fort Edward eleven
+hundred persons in four frightfully crowded transports. [282] At the
+close of that month sixteen hundred and sixty-four had been sent from
+the district of Annapolis, where many others escaped to the woods. [283]
+A detachment which was ordered to seize the inhabitants of the district
+of Cobequid failed entirely, finding the settlements abandoned. In the
+country about Fort Cumberland, Monckton, who directed the operation in
+person, had very indifferent success, catching in all but little more
+than a thousand. [284] Le Guerne, missionary priest in this
+neighborhood, gives a characteristic and affecting incident of the
+embarkation. "Many unhappy women, carried away by excessive attachment
+to their husbands, whom they had been allowed to see too often, and
+closing their ears to the voice of religion and their missionary, threw
+themselves blindly and despairingly into the English vessels. And now
+was seen the saddest of spectacles; for some of these women, solely from
+a religious motive, refused to take with them their grown-up sons and
+daughters." [285] They would expose their own souls to perdition among
+heretics, but not those of their children.
+
+[281] Winslow to Monckton, 3 Nov. 1755.
+
+[282] Ibid.
+
+[283] Captain Adams to Winslow, 29 Nov. 1755; see also Knox, I. 85, who
+exactly confirms Adams's figures.
+
+[284] Monckton to Winslow, 7 Oct. 1755.
+
+[285] Le Guerne à Prévost, 10 Mars, 1756.
+
+When all, or nearly all, had been sent off from the various points of
+departure, such of the houses and barns as remained standing were
+burned, in obedience to the orders of Lawrence, that those who had
+escaped might be forced to come in and surrender themselves. The whole
+number removed from the province, men, women, and children, was a little
+above six thousand. Many remained behind; and while some of these
+withdrew to Canada, Isle St. Jean, and other distant retreats, the rest
+lurked in the woods or returned to their old haunts, whence they waged,
+for several years a guerilla warfare against the English. Yet their
+strength was broken, and they were no longer a danger to the province.
+
+Of their exiled countrymen, one party overpowered the crew of the vessel
+that carried them, ran her ashore at the mouth of the St. John, and
+escaped. [286] The rest were distributed among the colonies from
+Massachusetts to Georgia, the master of each transport having been
+provided with a letter from Lawrence addressed to the Governor of the
+province to which he was bound, and desiring him to receive the
+unwelcome strangers. The provincials were vexed at the burden imposed
+upon them; and though the Acadians were not in general ill-treated,
+their lot was a hard one. Still more so was that of those among them who
+escaped to Canada. The chronicle of the Ursulines of Quebec, speaking of
+these last, says that their misery was indescribable, and attributes it
+to the poverty of the colony. But there were other causes. The exiles
+found less pity from kindred and fellow Catholics than from the heretics
+of the English colonies. Some of them who had made their way to Canada
+from Boston, whither they had been transported, sent word to a gentleman
+of that place who had befriended them, that they wished to return. [287]
+Bougainville, the celebrated navigator, then aide-de-camp to Montcalm,
+says concerning them: "They are dying by wholesale. Their past and
+present misery, joined to the rapacity of the Canadians, who seek only
+to squeeze out of them all the money they can, and then refuse them the
+help so dearly bought, are the cause of this mortality." "A citizen of
+Quebec," he says farther on, "was in debt to one of the partners of the
+Great Company [Government officials leagued for plunder]. He had no
+means of paying. They gave him a great number of Acadians to board and
+lodge. He starved them with hunger and cold, got out of them what money
+they had, and paid the extortioner. Quel pays! Quels mœurs!" [288]
+
+[286] Lettre commune de Drucour et Prévost au Ministre, 6 Avril, 1756.
+Vaudreuil au Ministre, 1 Juin, 1756.
+
+[287] Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., III. 42, note.
+
+[288] Bougainville, Journal, 1756-1758. His statements are sustained by
+Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
+
+Many of the exiles eventually reached Louisiana, where their descendants
+now form a numerous and distinct population. Some, after incredible
+hardship, made their way back to Acadia, where, after the peace, they
+remained unmolested, and, with those who had escaped seizure, became the
+progenitors of the present Acadians, now settled in various parts of the
+British maritime provinces, notably at Madawaska, on the upper St. John,
+and at Clare, in Nova Scotia. Others were sent from Virginia to England;
+and others again, after the complete conquest of the country, found
+refuge in France.
+
+In one particular the authors of the deportation were disappointed in
+its results. They had hoped to substitute a loyal population for a
+disaffected one; but they failed for some time to find settlers for the
+vacated lands. The Massachusetts soldiers, to whom they were offered,
+would not stay in the province; and it was not till five years later
+that families of British stock began to occupy the waste fields of the
+Acadians. This goes far to show that a longing to become their heirs had
+not, as has been alleged, any considerable part in the motives for their
+removal.
+
+New England humanitarianism, melting into sentimentality at a tale of
+woe, has been unjust to its own. Whatever judgment may be passed on the
+cruel measure of wholesale expatriation, it was not put in execution
+till every resource of patience and persuasion had been tried in vain.
+The agents of the French Court, civil, military, and ecclesiastical, had
+made some act of force a necessity. We have seen by what vile practices
+they produced in Acadia a state of things intolerable, and impossible of
+continuance. They conjured up the tempest; and when it burst on the
+heads of the unhappy people, they gave no help. The Government of Louis
+XV. began with making the Acadians its tools, and ended with making them
+its victims. [289]
+
+[289] It may not be remembered that the predecessor of Louis XV.,
+without the slightest provocation or the pretence of any, gave orders
+that the whole Protestant population of the colony of New York,
+amounting to about eighteen thousand, should be seized, despoiled of
+their property, placed on board his ships, and dispersed among the other
+British colonies in such a way that they could not reunite. Want of
+power alone prevented the execution of the order. See Frontenac and New
+France under Louis XIV., 189, 190.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+1755.
+
+DIESKAU.
+
+Expedition against Crown Point • William Johnson • Vaudreuil • Dieskau •
+Johnson and the Indians • The Provincial Army • Doubts and Delays •
+March to Lake George • Sunday in Camp • Advance of Dieskau • He changes
+Plan • Marches against Johnson • Ambush • Rout of Provincials • Battle
+of Lake George • Rout of the French • Rage of the Mohawks • Peril of
+Dieskau • Inaction of Johnson • The Homeward March • Laurels of Victory.
+
+The next stroke of the campaign was to be the capture of Crown Point,
+that dangerous neighbor which, for a quarter of a century, had
+threatened the northern colonies. Shirley, in January, had proposed an
+attack on it to the Ministry; and in February, without waiting their
+reply, he laid the plan before his Assembly. They accepted it, and voted
+money for the pay and maintenance of twelve hundred men, provided the
+adjacent colonies would contribute in due proportion. [290]
+Massachusetts showed a military activity worthy of the reputation she
+had won. Forty-five hundred of her men, or one in eight of her adult
+males, volunteered to fight the French, and enlisted for the various
+expeditions, some in the pay of the province, and some in that of the
+King. [291] It remained to name a commander for the Crown Point
+enterprise. Nobody had power to do so, for Braddock was not yet come;
+but that time might not be lost, Shirley, at the request of his
+Assembly, took the responsibility on himself. If he had named a
+Massachusetts officer, it would have roused the jealousy of the other
+New England colonies; and he therefore appointed William Johnson of New
+York, thus gratifying that important province and pleasing the Five
+Nations, who at this time looked on Johnson with even more than usual
+favor. Hereupon, in reply to his request, Connecticut voted twelve
+hundred men, New Hampshire five hundred, and Rhode Island four hundred,
+all at their own charge; while New York, a little later, promised eight
+hundred more. When, in April, Braddock and the Council at Alexandria
+approved the plan and the commander, Shirley gave Johnson the commission
+of major-general of the levies of Massachusetts; and the governors of
+the other provinces contributing to the expedition gave him similar
+commissions for their respective contingents. Never did general take the
+field with authority so heterogeneous.
+
+[290] Governor Shirley's Message to his Assembly, 13 Feb. 1755.
+Resolutions of the Assembly of Massachusetts, 18 Feb. 1755. Shirley's
+original idea was to build a fort on a rising ground near Crown Point,
+in order to command it. This was soon abandoned for the more honest and
+more practical plan of direct attack.
+
+[291] Correspondence of Shirley, Feb. 1755. The number was much
+increased later in the season.
+
+He had never seen service, and knew nothing of war. By birth he was
+Irish, of good family, being nephew of Admiral Sir Peter Warren, who,
+owning extensive wild lands on the Mohawk, had placed the young man in
+charge of them nearly twenty years before. Johnson was born to prosper.
+He had ambition, energy, an active mind, a tall, strong person, a rough,
+jovial temper, and a quick adaptation to his surroundings. He could
+drink flip with Dutch boors, or Madeira with royal governors. He liked
+the society of the great, would intrigue and flatter when he had an end
+to gain, and foil a rival without looking too closely at the means; but
+compared with the Indian traders who infested the border, he was a model
+of uprightness. He lived by the Mohawk in a fortified house which was a
+stronghold against foes and a scene of hospitality to friends, both
+white and red. Here--for his tastes were not fastidious--presided for
+many years a Dutch or German wench whom he finally married; and after
+her death a young Mohawk squaw took her place. Over his neighbors, the
+Indians of the Five Nations, and all others of their race with whom he
+had to deal, he acquired a remarkable influence. He liked them, adopted
+their ways, and treated them kindly or sternly as the case required, but
+always with a justice and honesty in strong contrast with the
+rascalities of the commission of Albany traders who had lately managed
+their affairs, and whom they so detested that one of their chiefs called
+them "not men, but devils." Hence, when Johnson was made Indian
+superintendent there was joy through all the Iroquois confederacy. When,
+in addition, he was made a general, he assembled the warriors in council
+to engage them to aid the expedition.
+
+This meeting took place at his own house, known as Fort Johnson; and as
+more than eleven hundred Indians appeared at his call, his larder was
+sorely taxed to entertain them. The speeches were interminable. Johnson,
+as master of Indian rhetoric, knew his audience too well not to contest
+with them the palm of insufferable prolixity. The climax was reached on
+the fourth day, and he threw down the war-belt. An Oneida chief took it
+up; Stevens, the interpreter, began the war-dance, and the assembled
+warriors howled in chorus. Then a tub of punch was brought in, and they
+all drank the King's health. [292] They showed less alacrity, however,
+to fight his battles, and scarcely three hundred of them would take the
+war-path. Too many of their friends and relatives were enlisted for the
+French.
+
+[292] Report of Conference between Major-General Johnson and the
+Indians, June, 1755.
+
+While the British colonists were preparing to attack Crown Point, the
+French of Canada were preparing to defend it. Duquesne, recalled from
+his post, had resigned the government to the Marquis de Vaudreuil, who
+had at his disposal the battalions of regulars that had sailed in the
+spring from Brest under Baron Dieskau. His first thought was to use them
+for the capture of Oswego; but the letters of Braddock, found on the
+battle-field, warned him of the design against Crown Point; while a
+reconnoitring party which had gone as far as the Hudson brought back
+news that Johnson's forces were already in the field. Therefore the plan
+was changed, and Dieskau was ordered to lead the main body of his
+troops, not to Lake Ontario, but to Lake Champlain. He passed up the
+Richelieu, and embarked in boats and canoes for Crown Point. The veteran
+knew that the foes with whom he had to deal were but a mob of
+countrymen. He doubted not of putting them to rout, and meant never to
+hold his hand till he had chased them back to Albany. [293] "Make all
+haste," Vaudreuil wrote to him; "for when you return we shall send you
+to Oswego to execute our first design." [294]
+
+[293] Bigot au Ministre, 27 Août, 1755. Ibid., 5 Sept. 1755.
+
+[294] Mémoire pour servir d'Instruction à M. le Baron de Dieskau,
+Maréchal des Camps et Armées du Roy, 15 Août, 1755.
+
+Johnson on his part was preparing to advance. In July about three
+thousand provincials were encamped near Albany, some on the "Flats"
+above the town, and some on the meadows below. Hither, too, came a swarm
+of Johnson's Mohawks,--warriors, squaws, and children. They adorned the
+General's face with war-paint, and he danced the war-dance; then with
+his sword he cut the first slice from the ox that had been roasted whole
+for their entertainment. "I shall be glad," wrote the surgeon of a New
+England regiment, "if they fight as eagerly as they ate their ox and
+drank their wine."
+
+Above all things the expedition needed promptness; yet everything moved
+slowly. Five popular legislatures controlled the troops and the
+supplies. Connecticut had refused to send her men till Shirley promised
+that her commanding officer should rank next to Johnson. The whole
+movement was for some time at a deadlock because the five governments
+could not agree about their contributions of artillery and stores. [295]
+The New Hampshire regiment had taken a short cut for Crown Point across
+the wilderness of Vermont; but had been recalled in time to save them
+from probable destruction. They were now with the rest in the camp at
+Albany, in such distress for provisions that a private subscription was
+proposed for their relief. [296]
+
+[295] The Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly stated (London,
+1758).
+
+[296] Blanchard to Wentworth, 28 Aug. 1755, in Provincial Papers of New
+Hampshire, VI. 429.
+
+Johnson's army, crude as it was, had in it good material. Here was
+Phineas Lyman, of Connecticut, second in command, once a tutor at Yale
+College, and more recently a lawyer,--a raw soldier, but a vigorous and
+brave one; Colonel Moses Titcomb, of Massachusetts, who had fought with
+credit at Louisbourg; and Ephraim Williams, also colonel of a
+Massachusetts regiment, a tall and portly man, who had been a captain in
+the last war, member of the General Court, and deputy-sheriff. He made
+his will in the camp at Albany, and left a legacy to found the school
+which has since become Williams College. His relative, Stephen Williams,
+was chaplain of his regiment, and his brother Thomas was its surgeon.
+Seth Pomeroy, gunsmith at Northampton, who, like Titcomb, had seen
+service at Louisbourg, was its lieutenant-colonel. He had left a wife at
+home, an excellent matron, to whom he was continually writing
+affectionate letters, mingling household cares with news of the camp,
+and charging her to see that their eldest boy, Seth, then in college at
+New Haven, did not run off to the army. Pomeroy had with him his brother
+Daniel; and this he thought was enough. Here, too, was a man whose name
+is still a household word in New England,--the sturdy Israel Putnam,
+private in a Connecticut regiment; and another as bold as he, John
+Stark, lieutenant in the New Hampshire levies, and the future victor of
+Bennington.
+
+The soldiers were no soldiers, but farmers and farmers' sons who had
+volunteered for the summer campaign. One of the corps had a blue uniform
+faced with red. The rest wore their daily clothing. Blankets had been
+served out to them by the several provinces, but the greater part
+brought their own guns; some under the penalty of a fine if they came
+without them, and some under the inducement of a reward. [297] They had
+no bayonets, but carried hatchets in their belts as a sort of
+substitute. [298] At their sides were slung powder-horns, on which, in
+the leisure of the camp, they carved quaint devices with the points of
+their jack-knives. They came chiefly from plain New England
+homesteads,--rustic abodes, unpainted and dingy, with long well-sweeps,
+capacious barns, rough fields of pumpkins and corn, and vast kitchen
+chimneys, above which in winter hung squashes to keep them from frost,
+and guns to keep them from rust.
+
+[297] Proclamation of Governor Shirley, 1755.
+
+[298] Second Letter to a Friend on the Battle of Lake George.
+
+As to the manners and morals of the army there is conflict of evidence.
+In some respects nothing could be more exemplary. "Not a chicken has
+been stolen," says William Smith, of New York; while, on the other hand,
+Colonel Ephraim Williams writes to Colonel Israel Williams, then
+commanding on the Massachusetts frontier: "We are a wicked, profane
+army, especially the New York and Rhode Island troops. Nothing to be
+heard among a great part of them but the language of Hell. If Crown
+Point is taken, it will not be for our sakes, but for those good people
+left behind." [299] There was edifying regularity in respect to form.
+Sermons twice a week, daily prayers, and frequent psalm-singing
+alternated with the much-needed military drill. [300] "Prayers among us
+night and morning," writes Private Jonathan Caswell, of Massachusetts,
+to his father. "Here we lie, knowing not when we shall march for Crown
+Point; but I hope not long to tarry. Desiring your prayers to God for me
+as I am going to war, I am Your Ever Dutiful son." [301]
+
+[299] Papers of Colonel Israel Williams.
+
+[300] Massachusetts Archives.
+
+[301] Jonathan Caswell to John Caswell, 6 July, 1755.
+
+To Pomeroy and some of his brothers in arms it seemed that they were
+engaged in a kind of crusade against the myrmidons of Rome. "As you have
+at heart the Protestant cause," he wrote to his friend Israel Williams,
+"so I ask an interest in your prayers that the Lord of Hosts would go
+forth with us and give us victory over our unreasonable, encroaching,
+barbarous, murdering enemies."
+
+Both Williams the surgeon and Williams the colonel chafed at the
+incessant delays. "The expedition goes on very much as a snail runs,"
+writes the former to his wife; "it seems we may possibly see Crown Point
+this time twelve months." The Colonel was vexed because everything was
+out of joint in the department of transportation: wagoners mutinous for
+want of pay; ordnance stores, camp-kettles, and provisions left behind.
+"As to rum," he complains, "it won't hold out nine weeks. Things appear
+most melancholy to me." Even as he was writing, a report came of the
+defeat of Braddock; and, shocked at the blow, his pen traced the words:
+"The Lord have mercy on poor New England!"
+
+Johnson had sent four Mohawk scouts to Canada. They returned on the
+twenty-first of August with the report that the French were all astir
+with preparation, and that eight thousand men were coming to defend
+Crown Point. On this a council of war was called; and it was resolved to
+send to the several colonies for reinforcements. [302] Meanwhile the
+main body had moved up the river to the spot called the Great Carrying
+Place, where Lyman had begun a fortified storehouse, which his men
+called Fort Lyman, but which was afterwards named Fort Edward. Two
+Indian trails led from this point to the waters of Lake Champlain, one
+by way of Lake George, and the other by way of Wood Creek. There was
+doubt which course the army should take. A road was begun to Wood Creek;
+then it was countermanded, and a party was sent to explore the path to
+Lake George. "With submission to the general officers," Surgeon Williams
+again writes, "I think it a very grand mistake that the business of
+reconnoitring was not done months agone." It was resolved at last to
+march for Lake George; gangs of axemen were sent to hew out the way; and
+on the twenty-sixth two thousand men were ordered to the lake, while
+Colonel Blanchard, of New Hampshire, remained with five hundred to
+finish and defend Fort Lyman.
+
+[302] Minutes of Council of War, 22 Aug. 1755. Ephraim Williams to
+Benjamin Dwight, 22 Aug. 1755.
+
+The train of Dutch wagons, guarded by the homely soldiery, jolted slowly
+over the stumps and roots of the newly made road, and the regiments
+followed at their leisure. The hardships of the way were not without
+their consolations. The jovial Irishman who held the chief command made
+himself very agreeable to the New England officers. "We went on about
+four or five miles," says Pomeroy in his Journal, "then stopped, ate
+pieces of broken bread and cheese, and drank some fresh lemon-punch and
+the best of wine with General Johnson and some of the field-officers."
+It was the same on the next day. "Stopped about noon and dined with
+General Johnson by a small brook under a tree; ate a good dinner of cold
+boiled and roast venison; drank good fresh lemon-punch and wine."
+
+That afternoon they reached their destination, fourteen miles from Fort
+Lyman. The most beautiful lake in America lay before them; then more
+beautiful than now, in the wild charm of untrodden mountains and virgin
+forests. "I have given it the name of Lake George," wrote Johnson to the
+Lords of Trade, "not only in honor of His Majesty, but to ascertain his
+undoubted dominion here." His men made their camp on a piece of rough
+ground by the edge of the water, pitching their tents among the stumps
+of the newly felled trees. In their front was a forest of pitch-pine; on
+their right, a marsh, choked with alders and swamp-maples; on their
+left, the low hill where Fort George was afterwards built; and at their
+rear, the lake. Little was done to clear the forest in front, though it
+would give excellent cover to an enemy. Nor did Johnson take much pains
+to learn the movements of the French in the direction of Crown Point,
+though he sent scouts towards South Bay and Wood Creek. Every day stores
+and bateaux, or flat boats, came on wagons from Fort Lyman; and
+preparation moved on with the leisure that had marked it from the first.
+About three hundred Mohawks came to the camp, and were regarded by the
+New England men as nuisances. On Sunday the gray-haired Stephen Williams
+preached to these savage allies a long Calvinistic sermon, which must
+have sorely perplexed the interpreter whose business it was to turn it
+into Mohawk; and in the afternoon young Chaplain Newell, of Rhode
+Island, expounded to the New England men the somewhat untimely text,
+"Love your enemies." On the next Sunday, September seventh, Williams
+preached again, this time to the whites from a text in Isaiah. It was a
+peaceful day, fair and warm, with a few light showers; yet not wholly a
+day of rest, for two hundred wagons came up from Fort Lyman, loaded with
+bateaux. After the sermon there was an alarm. An Indian scout came in
+about sunset, and reported that he had found the trail of a body of men
+moving from South Bay towards Fort Lyman. Johnson called for a volunteer
+to carry a letter of warning to Colonel Blanchard, the commander. A
+wagoner named Adams offered himself for the perilous service, mounted,
+and galloped along the road with the letter. Sentries were posted, and
+the camp fell asleep.
+
+While Johnson lay at Lake George, Dieskau prepared a surprise for him.
+The German Baron had reached Crown Point at the head of three thousand
+five hundred and seventy-three men, regulars, Canadians, and Indians.
+[303] He had no thought of waiting there to be attacked. The troops were
+told to hold themselves ready to move at a moment's notice. Officers--so
+ran the order--will take nothing with them but one spare shirt, one
+spare pair of shoes, a blanket, a bearskin, and provisions for twelve
+days; Indians are not to amuse themselves by taking scalps till the
+enemy is entirely defeated, since they can kill ten men in the time
+required to scalp one. [304] Then Dieskau moved on, with nearly all his
+force, to Carillon, or Ticonderoga, a promontory commanding both the
+routes by which alone Johnson could advance, that of Wood Creek and that
+of Lake George.
+
+[303] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 25 Sept. 1755.
+
+[304] Livre d'Ordres, Août, Sept. 1755.
+
+The Indians allies were commanded by Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, the
+officer who had received Washington on his embassy to Fort Le Bœuf.
+These unmanageable warriors were a constant annoyance to Dieskau, being
+a species of humanity quite new to him. "They drive us crazy," he says,
+"from morning till night. There is no end to their demands. They have
+already eaten five oxen and as many hogs, without counting the kegs of
+brandy they have drunk. In short, one needs the patience of an angel to
+get on with these devils; and yet one must always force himself to seem
+pleased with them." [305]
+
+[305] Dieskau à Vaudreuil, 1 Sept. 1755.
+
+They would scarcely even go out as scouts. At last, however, on the
+fourth of September, a reconnoitring party came in with a scalp and an
+English prisoner caught near Fort Lyman. He was questioned under the
+threat of being given to the Indians for torture if he did not tell the
+truth; but, nothing daunted, he invented a patriotic falsehood; and
+thinking to lure his captors into a trap, told them that the English
+army had fallen back to Albany, leaving five hundred men at Fort Lyman,
+which he represented as indefensible. Dieskau resolved on a rapid
+movement to seize the place. At noon of the same day, leaving a part of
+his force at Ticonderoga, he embarked the rest in canoes and advanced
+along the narrow prolongation of Lake Champlain that stretched southward
+through the wilderness to where the town of Whitehall now stands. He
+soon came to a point where the lake dwindled to a mere canal, while two
+mighty rocks, capped with stunted forests, faced each other from the
+opposing banks. Here he left an officer named Roquemaure with a
+detachment of troops, and again advanced along a belt of quiet water
+traced through the midst of a deep marsh, green at that season with
+sedge and water-weeds, and known to the English as the Drowned Lands.
+Beyond, on either hand, crags feathered with birch and fir, or hills
+mantled with woods, looked down on the long procession of canoes. [306]
+As they neared the site of Whitehall, a passage opened on the right, the
+entrance to a sheet of lonely water slumbering in the shadow of woody
+mountains, and forming the lake then, as now, called South Bay. They
+advanced to its head, landed where a small stream enters it, left the
+canoes under a guard, and began their march through the forest. They
+counted in all two hundred and sixteen regulars of the battalions of
+Languedoc and La Reine, six hundred and eighty-four Canadians, and above
+six hundred Indians. [307] Every officer and man carried provisions for
+eight days in his knapsack. They encamped at night by a brook, and in
+the morning, after hearing Mass, marched again. The evening of the next
+day brought them near the road that led to Lake George. Fort Lyman was
+but three miles distant. A man on horseback galloped by; it was Adams,
+Johnson's unfortunate messenger. The Indians shot him, and found the
+letter in his pocket. Soon after, ten or twelve wagons appeared in
+charge of mutinous drivers, who had left the English camp without
+orders. Several of them were shot, two were taken, and the rest ran off.
+The two captives declared that, contrary to the assertion of the
+prisoner at Ticonderoga, a large force lay encamped at the lake. The
+Indians now held a council, and presently gave out that they would not
+attack the fort, which they thought well supplied with cannon, but that
+they were willing to attack the camp at Lake George. Remonstrance was
+lost upon them. Dieskau was not young, but he was daring to rashness,
+and inflamed to emulation by the victory over Braddock. The enemy were
+reported greatly to outnumber him; but his Canadian advisers had assured
+him that the English colony militia were the worst troops on the face of
+the earth. "The more there are," he said to the Canadians and Indians,
+"the more we shall kill;" and in the morning the order was given to
+march for the lake.
+
+[306] I passed this way three weeks ago. There are some points where the
+scene is not much changed since Dieskau saw it.
+
+[307] Mémoire sur l'Affaire du 8 Septembre.
+
+
+They moved rapidly on through the waste of pines, and soon entered the
+rugged valley that led to Johnson's camp. On their right was a gorge
+where, shadowed in bushes, gurgled a gloomy brook; and beyond rose the
+cliffs that buttressed the rocky heights of French Mountain, seen by
+glimpses between the boughs. On their left rose gradually the lower
+slopes of West Mountain. All was rock, thicket, and forest; there was no
+open space but the road along which the regulars marched, while the
+Canadians and Indians pushed their way through the woods in such order
+as the broken ground would permit.
+
+They were three miles from the lake, when their scouts brought in a
+prisoner who told them that a column of English troops was approaching.
+Dieskau's preparations were quickly made. While the regulars halted on
+the road, the Canadians and Indians moved to the front, where most of
+them hid in the forest along the slopes of West Mountain, and the rest
+lay close among the thickets on the other side. Thus, when the English
+advanced to attack the regulars in front, they would find themselves
+caught in a double ambush. No sight or sound betrayed the snare; but
+behind every bush crouched a Canadian or a savage, with gun cocked and
+ears intent, listening for the tramp of the approaching column.
+
+The wagoners who escaped the evening before had reached the camp about
+midnight, and reported that there was a war-party on the road near Fort
+Lyman. Johnson had at this time twenty-two hundred effective men,
+besides his three hundred Indians. [308] He called a council of war in
+the morning, and a resolution was taken which can only be explained by a
+complete misconception as to the force of the French. It was determined
+to send out two detachments of five hundred men each, one towards Fort
+Lyman, and the other towards South Bay, the object being, according to
+Johnson, "to catch the enemy in their retreat." [309] Hendrick, chief of
+the Mohawks, a brave and sagacious warrior, expressed his dissent after
+a fashion of his own. He picked up a stick and broke it; then he picked
+up several sticks, and showed that together they could not be broken.
+The hint was taken, and the two detachments were joined in one. Still
+the old savage shook his head. "If they are to be killed," he said,
+"they are too many; if they are to fight, they are too few."
+Nevertheless, he resolved to share their fortunes; and mounting on a
+gun-carriage, he harangued his warriors with a voice so animated and
+gestures so expressive, that the New England officers listened in
+admiration, though they understood not a word. One difficulty remained.
+He was too old and fat to go afoot; but Johnson lent him a horse, which
+he bestrode, and trotted to the head of the column, followed by two
+hundred of his warriors as fast as they could grease, paint, and
+befeather themselves.
+
+[308] Wraxall to Lieutenant-Governor Delancey, 10 Sept. 1755. Wraxall
+was Johnson's aide-de-camp and secretary. The Second Letter to a Friend
+says twenty-one hundred whites and two hundred or three hundred Indians.
+Blodget, who was also on the spot, sets the whites at two thousand.
+
+[309] Letter to the Governors of the several Colonies, 9 Sept. 1755.
+
+Captain Elisha Hawley was in his tent, finishing a letter which he had
+just written to his brother Joseph; and these were the last words: "I am
+this minute agoing out in company with five hundred men to see if we can
+intercept 'em in their retreat, or find their canoes in the Drowned
+Lands; and therefore must conclude this letter." He closed and directed
+it; and in an hour received his death-wound.
+
+It was soon after eight o'clock when Ephraim Williams left the camp with
+his regiment, marched a little distance, and then waited for the rest of
+the detachment under Lieutenant-Colonel Whiting. Thus Dieskau had full
+time to lay his ambush. When Whiting came up, the whole moved on
+together, so little conscious of danger that no scouts were thrown out
+in front or flank; and, in full security, they entered the fatal snare.
+Before they were completely involved in it, the sharp eye of old
+Hendrick detected some sign of an enemy. At that instant, whether by
+accident or design, a gun was fired from the bushes. It is said that
+Dieskau's Iroquois, seeing Mohawks, their relatives, in the van, wished
+to warn them of danger. If so, the warning came too late. The thickets
+on the left blazed out a deadly fire, and the men fell by scores. In the
+words of Dieskau, the head of the column "was doubled up like a pack of
+cards." Hendrick's horse was shot down, and the chief was killed with a
+bayonet as he tried to rise. Williams, seeing a rising ground on his
+right, made for it, calling on his men to follow; but as he climbed the
+slope, guns flashed from the bushes, and a shot through the brain laid
+him dead. The men in the rear pressed forward to support their comrades,
+when a hot fire was suddenly opened on them from the forest along their
+right flank. Then there was a panic; some fled outright, and the whole
+column recoiled. The van now became the rear, and all the force of the
+enemy rushed upon it, shouting and screeching. There was a moment of
+total confusion; but a part of Williams's regiment rallied under command
+of Whiting, and covered the retreat, fighting behind trees like Indians,
+and firing and falling back by turns, bravely aided by some of the
+Mohawks and by a detachment which Johnson sent to their aid. "And a very
+handsome retreat they made," writes Pomeroy; "and so continued till they
+came within about three quarters of a mile of our camp. This was the
+last fire our men gave our enemies, which killed great numbers of them;
+they were seen to drop as pigeons." So ended the fray long known in New
+England fireside story as the "bloody morning scout." Dieskau now
+ordered a halt, and sounded his trumpets to collect his scattered men.
+His Indians, however, were sullen and unmanageable, and the Canadians
+also showed signs of wavering. The veteran who commanded them all,
+Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, had been killed. At length they were
+persuaded to move again, the regulars leading the way.
+
+About an hour after Williams and his men had begun their march, a
+distant rattle of musketry was heard at the camp; and as it grew nearer
+and louder, the listeners knew that their comrades were on the retreat.
+Then, at the eleventh hour, preparations were begun for defence. A sort
+of barricade was made along the front of the camp, partly of wagons, and
+partly of inverted bateaux, but chiefly of the trunks of trees hastily
+hewn down in the neighboring forest and laid end to end in a single row.
+The line extended from the southern slopes of the hill on the left
+across a tract of rough ground to the marshes on the right. The forest,
+choked with bushes and clumps of rank ferns, was within a few yards of
+the barricade, and there was scarcely time to hack away the intervening
+thickets. Three cannon were planted to sweep the road that descended
+through the pines, and another was dragged up to the ridge of the hill.
+The defeated party began to come in; first, scared fugitives both white
+and red; then, gangs of men bringing the wounded; and at last, an hour
+and a half after the first fire was heard, the main detachment was seen
+marching in compact bodies down the road.
+
+Five hundred men were detailed to guard the flanks of the camp. The rest
+stood behind the wagons or lay flat behind the logs and inverted
+bateaux, the Massachusetts men on the right, and the Connecticut men on
+the left. Besides Indians, this actual fighting force was between
+sixteen and seventeen hundred rustics, very few of whom had been under
+fire before that morning. They were hardly at their posts when they saw
+ranks of white-coated soldiers moving down the road, and bayonets that
+to them seemed innumerable glittering between the boughs. At the same
+time a terrific burst of war-whoops rose along the front; and, in the
+words of Pomeroy, "the Canadians and Indians, helter-skelter, the woods
+full of them, came running with undaunted courage right down the hill
+upon us, expecting to make us flee." [310] Some of the men grew uneasy;
+while the chief officers, sword in hand, threatened instant death to any
+who should stir from their posts. [311] If Dieskau had made an assault
+at that instant, there could be little doubt of the result.
+
+[310] Seth Pomeroy to his Wife, 10 Sept. 1755.
+
+[311] Dr. Perez Marsh to William Williams, 25 Sept. 1755.
+
+This he well knew; but he was powerless. He had his small force of
+regulars well in hand; but the rest, red and white, were beyond control,
+scattering through the woods and swamps, shouting, yelling, and firing
+from behind trees. The regulars advanced with intrepidity towards the
+camp where the trees were thin, deployed, and fired by platoons, till
+Captain Eyre, who commanded the artillery, opened on them with grape,
+broke their ranks, and compelled them to take to cover. The fusillade
+was now general on both sides, and soon grew furious. "Perhaps," Seth
+Pomeroy wrote to his wife, two days after, "the hailstones from heaven
+were never much thicker than their bullets came; but, blessed be God!
+that did not in the least daunt or disturb us." Johnson received a
+flesh-wound in the thigh, and spent the rest of the day in his tent.
+Lyman took command; and it is a marvel that he escaped alive, for he was
+four hours in the heat of the fire, directing and animating the men. "It
+was the most awful day my eyes ever beheld," wrote Surgeon Williams to
+his wife; "there seemed to be nothing but thunder and lightning and
+perpetual pillars of smoke." To him, his colleague Doctor Pynchon, one
+assistant, and a young student called "Billy," fell the charge of the
+wounded of his regiment. "The bullets flew about our ears all the time
+of dressing them; so we thought best to leave our tent and retire a few
+rods behind the shelter of a log-house." On the adjacent hill stood one
+Blodget, who seems to have been a sutler, watching, as well as bushes,
+trees, and smoke would let him, the progress of the fight, of which he
+soon after made and published a curious bird's-eye view. As the wounded
+men were carried to the rear, the wagoners about the camp took their
+guns and powder-horns, and joined in the fray. A Mohawk, seeing one of
+these men still unarmed, leaped over the barricade, tomahawked the
+nearest Canadian, snatched his gun, and darted back unhurt. The brave
+savage found no imitators among his tribesmen, most of whom did nothing
+but utter a few war-whoops, saying that they had come to see their
+English brothers fight. Some of the French Indians opened a distant
+flank fire from the high ground beyond the swamp on the right, but were
+driven off by a few shells dropped among them.
+
+Dieskau had directed his first attack against the left and centre of
+Johnson's position. Making no impression here, he tried to force the
+right, where lay the regiments of Titcomb, Ruggles, and Williams. The
+fire was hot for about an hour. Titcomb was shot dead, a rod in front of
+the barricade, firing from behind a tree like a common soldier. At
+length Dieskau, exposing himself within short range of the English line,
+was hit in the leg. His adjutant, Montreuil, himself wounded, came to
+his aid, and was washing the injured limb with brandy, when the
+unfortunate commander was again hit in the knee and thigh. He seated
+himself behind a tree, while the Adjutant called two Canadians to carry
+him to the rear. One of them was instantly shot down. Montreuil took his
+place; but Dieskau refused to be moved, bitterly denounced the Canadians
+and Indians, and ordered the Adjutant to leave him and lead the regulars
+in a last effort against the camp.
+
+It was too late. Johnson's men, singly or in small squads, already
+crossing their row of logs; and in a few moments the whole dashed
+forward with a shout, falling upon the enemy with hatchets and the butts
+of their guns. The French and their allies fled. The wounded General
+still sat helpless by the tree, when he saw a soldier aiming at him. He
+signed to the man not to fire; but he pulled trigger, shot him across
+the hips, leaped upon him, and ordered him in French to surrender. "I
+said," writes Dieskau, "'You rascal, why did you fire? You see a man
+lying in his blood on the ground, and you shoot him!' He answered: 'How
+did I know that you had not got a pistol? I had rather kill the devil
+than have the devil kill me.' 'You are a Frenchman?' I asked. 'Yes,' he
+replied; 'it is more than ten years since I left Canada;' whereupon
+several others fell on me and stripped me. I told them to carry me to
+their general, which they did. On learning who I was, he sent for
+surgeons, and, though wounded himself, refused all assistance till my
+wounds were dressed." [312]
+
+[312] Dialogue entre le Maréchal de Saxe et le Baron de Dieskau aux
+Champs Élysées. This paper is in the Archives de la Guerre, and was
+evidently written or inspired by Dieskau himself. In spite of its
+fanciful form, it is a sober statement of the events of the campaign.
+There is a translation of it in N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 340.
+
+It was near five o'clock when the final rout took place. Some time
+before, several hundred of the Canadians and Indians had left the field
+and returned to the scene of the morning fight, to plunder and scalp the
+dead. They were resting themselves near a pool in the forest, close
+beside the road, when their repose was interrupted by a volley of
+bullets. It was fired by a scouting party from Fort Lyman, chiefly
+backwoodsmen, under Captains Folsom and McGinnis. The assailants were
+greatly outnumbered; but after a hard fight the Canadians and Indians
+broke and fled. McGinnis was mortally wounded. He continued to give
+orders till the firing was over; then fainted, and was carried, dying,
+to the camp. The bodies of the slain, according to tradition, were
+thrown into the pool, which bears to this day the name of Bloody Pond.
+
+The various bands of fugitives rejoined each other towards night, and
+encamped in the forest; then made their way round the southern shoulder
+of French Mountain, till, in the next evening, they reached their
+canoes. Their plight was deplorable; for they had left their knapsacks
+behind, and were spent with fatigue and famine.
+
+Meanwhile their captive general was not yet out of danger. The Mohawks
+were furious at their losses in the ambush of the morning, and above all
+at the death of Hendrick. Scarcely were Dieskau's wounds dressed, when
+several of them came into the tent. There was a long and angry dispute
+in their own language between them and Johnson, after which they went
+out very sullenly. Dieskau asked what they wanted. "What do they want?"
+returned Johnson. "To burn you, by God, eat you, and smoke you in their
+pipes, in revenge for three or four of their chiefs that were killed.
+But never fear; you shall be safe with me, or else they shall kill us
+both." [313] The Mohawks soon came back, and another talk ensued,
+excited at first, and then more calm; till at length the visitors,
+seemingly appeased, smiled, gave Dieskau their hands in sign of
+friendship, and quietly went out again. Johnson warned him that he was
+not yet safe; and when the prisoner, fearing that his presence might
+incommode his host, asked to be removed to another tent, a captain and
+fifty men were ordered to guard him. In the morning an Indian, alone and
+apparently unarmed, loitered about the entrance, and the stupid sentinel
+let him pass in. He immediately drew a sword from under a sort of cloak
+which he wore, and tried to stab Dieskau; but was prevented by the
+Colonel to whom the tent belonged, who seized upon him, took away his
+sword, and pushed him out. As soon as his wounds would permit, Dieskau
+was carried on a litter, strongly escorted, to Fort Lyman, whence he was
+sent to Albany, and afterwards to New York. He is profuse in expressions
+of gratitude for the kindness shown him by the colonial officers, and
+especially by Johnson. Of the provincial soldiers he remarked soon after
+the battle that in the morning they fought like good boys, about noon
+like men, and in the afternoon like devils. [314] In the spring of 1757
+he sailed for England, and was for a time at Falmouth; whence Colonel
+Matthew Sewell, fearing that he might see and learn too much, wrote to
+the Earl of Holdernesse: "The Baron has great penetration and quickness
+of apprehension. His long service under Marshal Saxe renders him a man
+of real consequence, to be cautiously observed. His circumstances
+deserve compassion, for indeed they are very melancholy, and I much
+doubt of his being ever perfectly cured." He was afterwards a long time
+at Bath, for the benefit of the waters. In 1760 the famous Diderot met
+him at Paris, cheerful and full of anecdote, though wretchedly shattered
+by his wounds. He died a few years later.
+
+[313] See the story as told by Dieskau to the celebrated Diderot, at
+Paris, in 1760. Mémoires de Diderot, I. 402 (1830). Compare N. Y. Col.
+Docs., X. 343.
+
+[314] Dr. Perez Marsh to William Williams, 25 Sept. 1755.
+
+On the night after the battle the yeomen warriors felt the truth of the
+saying that, next to defeat, the saddest thing is victory. Comrades and
+friends by scores lay scattered through the forest. As soon as he could
+snatch a moment's leisure, the overworked surgeon sent the dismal
+tidings to his wife: "My dear brother Ephraim was killed by a ball
+through his head; poor brother Josiah's wound I fear will prove mortal;
+poor Captain Hawley is yet alive, though I did not think he would live
+two hours after bringing him in." Daniel Pomeroy was shot dead; and his
+brother Seth wrote the news to his wife Rachel, who was just delivered
+of a child: "Dear Sister, this brings heavy tidings; but let not your
+heart sink at the news, though it be your loss of a dear husband. Monday
+the eighth instant was a memorable day; and truly you may say, had not
+the Lord been on our side, we must all have been swallowed up. My
+brother, being one that went out in the first engagement, received a
+fatal shot through the middle of the head." Seth Pomeroy found a moment
+to write also to his own wife, whom he tells that another attack is
+expected; adding, in quaintly pious phrase: "But as God hath begun to
+show mercy, I hope he will go on to be gracious." Pomeroy was employed
+during the next few days with four hundred men in what he calls "the
+melancholy piece of business" of burying the dead. A letter-writer of
+the time does not approve what was done on this occasion. "Our people,"
+he says, "not only buried the French dead, but buried as many of them as
+might be without the knowledge of our Indians, to prevent their being
+scalped. This I call an excess of civility;" his reason being that
+Braddock's dead soldiers had been left to the wolves.
+
+The English loss in killed, wounded, and missing was two hundred and
+sixty-two; [315] and that of the French by their own account, two
+hundred and twenty-eight, [316]--a somewhat modest result of five hours'
+fighting. The English loss was chiefly in the ambush of the morning,
+where the killed greatly outnumbered the wounded, because those who fell
+and could not be carried away were tomahawked by Dieskau's Indians. In
+the fight at the camp, both Indians and Canadians kept themselves so
+well under cover that it was very difficult for the New England men to
+pick them off, while they on their part lay close behind their row of
+logs. On the French side, the regular officers and troops bore the brunt
+of the battle and suffered the chief loss, nearly all of the former and
+nearly half of the latter being killed or wounded.
+
+[315] Return of Killed, Wounded, and Missing at the Battle of Lake
+George.
+
+[316] Doreil au Ministre, 20 Oct. 1755. Surgeon Williams gives the
+English loss as two hundred and sixteen killed, and ninety-six wounded.
+Pomeroy thinks that the French lost four or five hundred. Johnson places
+their loss at four hundred.
+
+Johnson did not follow up his success. He says that his men were tired.
+Yet five hundred of them had stood still all day, and boats enough for
+their transportation were lying on the beach. Ten miles down the lake, a
+path led over a gorge of the mountains to South Bay, where Dieskau had
+left his canoes and provisions. It needed but a few hours to reach and
+destroy them; but no such attempt was made. Nor, till a week after, did
+Johnson send out scouts to learn the strength of the enemy at
+Ticonderoga. Lyman strongly urged him to make an effort to seize that
+important pass; but Johnson thought only of holding his own position. "I
+think," he wrote, "we may expect very shortly a more formidable attack."
+He made a solid breastwork to defend his camp; and as reinforcements
+arrived, set them at building a fort on a rising ground by the lake. It
+is true that just after the battle he was deficient in stores, and had
+not bateaux enough to move his whole force. It is true, also, that he
+was wounded, and that he was too jealous of Lyman to delegate the
+command to him; and so the days passed till, within a fortnight, his
+nimble enemy were entrenched at Ticonderoga in force enough to defy him.
+
+The Crown Point expedition was a failure disguised under an incidental
+success. The northern provinces, especially Massachusetts and
+Connecticut, did what they could to forward it, and after the battle
+sent a herd of raw recruits to the scene of action. Shirley wrote to
+Johnson from Oswego; declared that his reasons for not advancing were
+insufficient, and urged him to push for Ticonderoga at once. Johnson
+replied that he had not wagons enough, and that his troops were
+ill-clothed, ill-fed, discontented, insubordinate, and sickly. He
+complained that discipline was out of the question, because the officers
+were chosen by popular election; that many of them were no better than
+the men, unfit for command, and like so many "heads of a mob." [317] The
+reinforcements began to come in, till, in October, there were thirty-six
+hundred men in the camp; and as most of them wore summer clothing and
+had but one thin domestic blanket, they were half frozen in the chill
+autumn nights.
+
+[317] Shirley to Johnson, 19 Sept. 1755. Ibid., 24 Sept. 1755. Johnson
+to Shirley, 22 Sept. 1755. Johnson to Phipps, 10 Oct. 1755
+(Massachusetts Archives).
+
+Johnson called a council of war; and as he was suffering from inflamed
+eyes, and was still kept in his tent by his wound, he asked Lyman to
+preside,--not unwilling, perhaps, to shift the responsibility upon him.
+After several sessions and much debate, the assembled officers decided
+that it was inexpedient to proceed. [318] Yet the army lay more than a
+month longer at the lake, while the disgust of the men increased daily
+under the rains, frosts, and snows of a dreary November. On the
+twenty-second, Chandler, chaplain of one of the Massachusetts regiments,
+wrote in the interleaved almanac that served him as a diary: "The men
+just ready to mutiny. Some clubbed their firelocks and marched, but
+returned back. Very rainy night. Miry water standing the tents. Very
+distressing time among the sick." The men grew more and more unruly, and
+went off in squads without asking leave. A difficult question arose: Who
+should stay for the winter to garrison the new forts, and who should
+command them? It was settled at last that a certain number of soldiers
+from each province should be assigned to this ungrateful service, and
+that Massachusetts should have the first officer, Connecticut the
+second, and New York the third. Then the camp broke up. "Thursday the
+27th," wrote the chaplain in his almanac, "we set out about ten of the
+clock, marched in a body, about three thousand, the wagons and baggage
+in the centre, our colonel much insulted by the way." The soldiers
+dispersed to their villages and farms, where in blustering winter
+nights, by the blazing logs of New England hearthstones, they told their
+friends and neighbors the story of the campaign.
+
+[318] Reports of Council of War, 11-21 Oct. 1755.
+
+The profit of it fell to Johnson. If he did not gather the fruits of
+victory, at least he reaped its laurels. He was a courtier in his rough
+way. He had changed the name of Lac St. Sacrement to Lake George, in
+compliment to the King. He now changed that of Fort Lyman to Fort
+Edward, in compliment to one of the King's grandsons; and, in compliment
+to another, called his new fort at the lake, William Henry. Of General
+Lyman he made no mention in his report of the battle, and his partisans
+wrote letters traducing that brave officer; though Johnson is said to
+have confessed in private that he owed him the victory. He himself found
+no lack of eulogists; and, to quote the words of an able but somewhat
+caustic and prejudiced opponent, "to the panegyrical pen of his
+secretary, Mr. Wraxall, and the sic volo sic jubeo of
+Lieutenant-Governor Delancey, is to be ascribed that mighty renown which
+echoed through the colonies, reverberated to Europe, and elevated a raw,
+inexperienced youth into a kind of second Marlborough." [319] Parliament
+gave him five thousand pounds, and the King made him a baronet.
+
+[319] Review of Military Operations in North America, in a Letter to a
+Nobleman (ascribed to William Livingston).
+
+On the Battle of Lake George a mass of papers will be found in the N. Y.
+Col. Docs., Vols. VI. and X. Those in Vol. VI., taken chiefly from the
+archives of New York, consist of official and private letters, reports,
+etc., on the English side. Those in Vol. X. are drawn chiefly from the
+archives of the French War Department, and include the correspondence of
+Dieskau and his adjutant Montreuil. I have examined most of them in the
+original. Besides these I have obtained from the Archives de la Marine
+and other sources a number of important additional papers, which have
+never been printed, including Vaudreuil's reports to the Minister of
+War, and his strictures on Dieskau, whom he accuses of disobeying orders
+by dividing his force; also the translation of an English journal of the
+campaign found in the pocket of a captured officer, and a long account
+of the battle sent by Bigot to the Minister of Marine, 4 Oct. 1755.
+
+I owe to the kindness of Theodore Pomeroy, Esq., a copy of the Journal
+of Lieutenant-Colonel Seth Pomeroy, whose letters are full of interest;
+as are those of Surgeon Williams, from the collection of William L.
+Stone, Esq. The papers of Colonel Israel Williams, in the Library of the
+Massachusetts Historical Society, contain many other curious letters
+relating to the campaign, extracts from some of which are given in the
+text. One of the most curious records of the battle is A
+Prospective-Plan of the Battle near Lake George, with an Explanation
+thereof, containing a full, though short, History of that important
+Affair, by Samuel Blodget, occasionally at the Camp when the Battle was
+fought. It is an engraving, printed at Boston soon after the fight, of
+which it gives a clear idea. Four years after, Blodget opened a shop in
+Boston, where, as appears by his advertisements in the newspapers, he
+sold "English Goods, also English Hatts, etc." The engraving is
+reproduced in the Documentary History of New York, IV., and elsewhere.
+The Explanation thereof is only to be found complete in the original.
+This, as well as the anonymous Second Letter to a Friend, also printed
+at Boston in 1755, is excellent for the information it gives as to the
+condition of the ground where the conflict took place, and the position
+of the combatants. The unpublished Archives of Massachusetts; the
+correspondence of Sir William Johnson; the Review of Military Operations
+in North America; Dwight, Travels in New England and New York, III.; and
+Hoyt, Antiquarian Researches on Indian Wars,--should also be mentioned.
+Dwight and Hoyt drew their information from aged survivors of the
+battle. I have repeatedly examined the localities.
+
+In the odd effusion of the colonial muse called Tilden's Poems, chiefly
+to Animate and Rouse the Soldiers, printed 1756, is a piece styled The
+Christian Hero, or New England's Triumphs, beginning with the
+invocation,--
+
+   "O Heaven, indulge my feeble Muse,
+    Teach her what numbers for to choose!"
+
+and containing the following stanza:--
+
+   "Their Dieskau we from them detain,
+    While Canada aloud complains
+    And counts the numbers of their slain
+       And makes a dire complaint;
+    The Indians to their demon gods;
+    And with the French there's little odds,
+    While images receive their nods,
+       Invoking rotten saints."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+1755, 1756.
+
+SHIRLEY.  BORDER WAR.
+
+The Niagara Campaign • Albany • March to Oswego • Difficulties • The
+Expedition abandoned • Shirley and Johnson • Results of the Campaign •
+The Scourge of the Border • Trials of Washington • Misery of the
+Settlers • Horror of their Situation • Philadelphia and the Quakers •
+Disputes with the Penns • Democracy and Feudalism • Pennsylvanian
+Population • Appeals from the Frontier • Quarrel of Governor and
+Assembly • Help refused • Desperation of the Borderers • Fire and
+Slaughter • The Assembly alarmed • They pass a mock Militia Law • They
+are forced to yield.
+
+The capture of Niagara was to finish the work of the summer. This alone
+would have gained for England the control of the valley of the Ohio, and
+made Braddock's expedition superfluous. One marvels at the
+short-sightedness, the dissensions, the apathy which had left this key
+of the interior so long in the hands of France without an effort to
+wrest it from her. To master Niagara would be to cut the communications
+of Canada with the whole system of French forts and settlements in the
+West, and leave them to perish like limbs of a girdled tree.
+
+Major-General Shirley, in the flush of his new martial honors, was to
+try his prentice hand at the work. The lawyer-soldier could plan a
+campaign boldly and well. It remained to see how he would do his part
+towards executing it. In July he arrived at Albany, the starting-point
+of his own expedition as well as that of Johnson. This little Dutch city
+was an outpost of civilization. The Hudson, descending from the northern
+wilderness, connected it with the lakes and streams that formed the
+thoroughfare to Canada; while the Mohawk, flowing from the west, was a
+liquid pathway to the forest homes of the Five Nations. Before the war
+was over, a little girl, Anne MacVicar, daughter of a Highland officer,
+was left at Albany by her father, and spent several years there in the
+house of Mrs. Schuyler, aunt of General Schuyler of the Revolution. Long
+after, married and middle-aged, she wrote down her recollections of the
+place,--the fort on the hill behind; the great street, grassy and broad,
+that descended thence to the river, with market, guard-house, town-hall,
+and two churches in the middle, and rows of quaint Dutch-built houses on
+both sides, each detached from its neighbors, each with its well,
+garden, and green, and its great overshadowing tree. Before every house
+was a capacious porch, with seats where the people gathered in the
+summer twilight; old men at one door, matrons at another, young men and
+girls mingling at a third; while the cows with their tinkling bells came
+from the common at the end of the town, each stopping to be milked at
+the door of its owner; and children, porringer in hand, sat on the
+steps, watching the process and waiting their evening meal.
+
+Such was the quiet picture painted on the memory of Anne MacVicar, and
+reproduced by the pen of Mrs. Anne Grant. [320] The patriarchal,
+semi-rural town had other aspects, not so pleasing. The men were mainly
+engaged in the fur-trade, sometimes legally with the Five Nations, and
+sometimes illegally with the Indians of Canada,--an occupation which by
+no means tends to soften the character. The Albany Dutch traders were a
+rude, hard race, loving money, and not always scrupulous as to the means
+of getting it. Coming events, too, were soon to have their effect on
+this secluded community. Regiments, red and blue, trumpets, drums,
+banners, artillery trains, and all the din of war transformed its
+peaceful streets, and brought some attaint to domestic morals hitherto
+commendable; for during the next five years Albany was to be the
+principal base of military operations on the continent.
+
+[320] Memoirs of an American Lady (Mrs. Schuyler), Chap. VI. A genuine
+picture of colonial life, and a charming book, though far from being
+historically trustworthy. Compare the account of Albany in Kalm, II.
+102.
+
+Shirley had left the place, and was now on his way up the Mohawk. His
+force, much smaller than at first intended, consisted of the New Jersey
+regiment, which mustered five hundred men, known as the Jersey Blues,
+and of the fiftieth and fifty-first regiments, called respectively
+Shirley's and Pepperell's. These, though paid by the King and counted as
+regulars, were in fact raw provincials, just raised in the colonies, and
+wearing their gay uniforms with an awkward, unaccustomed air. How they
+gloried in them may be gathered from a letter of Sergeant James Gray, of
+Pepperell's, to his brother John: "I have two Holland shirts, found me
+by the King, and two pair of shoes and two pair of worsted stockings; a
+good silver-laced hat (the lace I could sell for four dollars); and my
+clothes is as fine scarlet broadcloth as ever you did see. A sergeant
+here in the King's regiment is counted as good as an ensign with you;
+and one day in every week we must have our hair or wigs powdered." [321]
+Most of these gorgeous warriors were already on their way to Oswego,
+their first destination.
+
+[321] James Gray to John Gray, 11 July, 1755.
+
+Shirley followed, embarking at the Dutch village of Schenectady, and
+ascending the Mohawk with about two hundred of the so-called regulars in
+bateaux. They passed Fort Johnson, the two villages of the Mohawks, and
+the Palatine settlement of German Flats; left behind the last trace of
+civilized man, rowed sixty miles through a wilderness, and reached the
+Great Carrying Place, which divided the waters that flow to the Hudson
+from those that flow to Lake Ontario. Here now stands the city which the
+classic zeal of its founders has adorned with the name of Rome. Then all
+was swamp and forest, traversed by a track that led to Wood
+Creek,--which is not to be confounded with the Wood Creek of Lake
+Champlain. Thither the bateaux were dragged on sledges and launched on
+the dark and tortuous stream, which, fed by a decoction of forest leaves
+that oozed from the marshy shores, crept in shadow through depths of
+foliage, with only a belt of illumined sky gleaming between the jagged
+tree-tops. Tall and lean with straining towards the light, their rough,
+gaunt stems trickling with perpetual damps, stood on either hand the
+silent hosts of the forest. The skeletons of their dead, barkless,
+blanched, and shattered, strewed the mudbanks and shallows; others lay
+submerged, like bones of drowned mammoths, thrusting lank, white limbs
+above the sullen water; and great trees, entire as yet, were flung by
+age or storms athwart the current,--a bristling barricade of matted
+boughs. There was work for the axe as well as for the oar; till at
+length Lake Oneida opened before them, and they rowed all day over its
+sunny breast, reached the outlet, and drifted down the shallow eddies of
+the Onondaga, between walls of verdure, silent as death, yet haunted
+everywhere with ambushed danger. It was twenty days after leaving
+Schenectady when they neared the mouth of the river; and Lake Ontario
+greeted them, stretched like a sea to the pale brink of the northern
+sky, while on the bare hill at their left stood the miserable little
+fort of Oswego.
+
+Shirley's whole force soon arrived; but not the needful provisions and
+stores. The machinery of transportation and the commissariat was in the
+bewildered state inevitable among a peaceful people at the beginning of
+a war; while the news of Braddock's defeat produced such an effect on
+the boatmen and the draymen at the carrying-places, that the greater
+part deserted. Along with these disheartening tidings, Shirley learned
+the death of his eldest son, killed at the side of Braddock. He had with
+him a second son, Captain John Shirley, a vivacious young man, whom his
+father and his father's friends in their familiar correspondence always
+called "Jack." John Shirley's letters give a lively view of the
+situation.
+
+"I have sat down to write to you,"--thus he addresses Governor Morris,
+of Pennsylvania, who seems to have had a great liking for him,--"because
+there is an opportunity of sending you a few lines; and if you will
+promise to excuse blots, interlineations, and grease (for this is
+written in the open air, upon the head of a pork-barrel, and twenty
+people about me), I will begin another half-sheet. We are not more than
+about fifteen hundred men fit for duty; but that, I am pretty sure, if
+we can go in time in our sloop, schooner, row-galleys, and whale-boats,
+will be sufficient to take Frontenac; after which we may venture to go
+upon the attack of Niagara, but not before. I have not the least doubt
+with myself of knocking down both these places yet this fall, if we can
+get away in a week. If we take or destroy their two vessels at
+Frontenac, and ruin their harbor there, and destroy the two forts of
+that and Niagara, I shall think we have done great things. Nobody holds
+it out better than my father and myself. We shall all of us relish a
+good house over our heads, being all encamped, except the General and
+some few field-officers, who have what are called at Oswego houses; but
+they would in other countries be called only sheds, except the fort,
+where my father is. Adieu, dear sir; I hope my next will be directed
+from Frontenac. Yours most affectionately, John Shirley." [322]
+
+[322] The young author of this letter was, like his brother, a victim of
+the war.
+
+"Permit me, good sir, to offer you my hearty condolence upon the death
+of my friend Jack, whose worth I admired, and feel for him more than I
+can express.... Few men of his age had so many friends." Governor Morris
+to Shirley, 27 Nov. 1755.
+
+"My heart bleeds for Mr. Shirley. He must be overwhelmed with Grief when
+he hears of Capt. John Shirley's Death, of which I have an Account by
+the last Post from New York, where he died of a Flux and Fever that he
+had contracted at Oswego. The loss of Two Sons in one Campaign scarcely
+admits of Consolation. I feel the Anguish of the unhappy Father, and mix
+my Tears very heartily with his. I have had an intimate Acquaintance
+with Both of Them for many Years, and know well their inestimable
+Value." Morris to Dinwiddie, 29 Nov. 1755.
+
+Fort Frontenac lay to the northward, fifty miles or more across the
+lake. Niagara lay to the westward, at the distance of four or five days
+by boat or canoe along the south shore. At Frontenac there was a French
+force of fourteen hundred regulars and Canadians. [323] They had vessels
+and canoes to cross the lake and fall upon Oswego as soon as Shirley
+should leave it to attack Niagara; for Braddock's captured papers had
+revealed to them the English plan. If they should take it, Shirley would
+be cut off from his supplies and placed in desperate jeopardy, with the
+enemy in his rear. Hence it is that John Shirley insists on taking
+Frontenac before attempting Niagara. But the task was not easy; for the
+French force at the former place was about equal in effective strength
+to that of the English at Oswego. At Niagara, too, the French had, at
+the end of August, nearly twelve hundred Canadians and Indians from Fort
+Duquesne and the upper lakes. [324] Shirley was but imperfectly informed
+by his scouts of the unexpected strength of the opposition that awaited
+him; but he knew enough to see that his position was a difficult one.
+His movement on Niagara was stopped, first by want of provisions, and
+secondly because he was checkmated by the troops at Frontenac. He did
+not despair. Want of courage was not among his failings, and he was but
+too ready to take risks. He called a council of officers, told them that
+the total number of men fit for duty was thirteen hundred and
+seventy-six, and that as soon as provisions enough should arrive he
+would embark for Niagara with six hundred soldiers and as many Indians
+as possible, leaving the rest to defend Oswego against the expected
+attack from Fort Frontenac. [325]
+
+[323] Bigot au Ministre, 27 Août, 1755.
+
+[324] Bigot au Ministre, 5 Sept. 1755.
+
+[325] Minutes of a Council of War at Oswego, 18 Sept. 1755.
+
+"All I am uneasy about is our provisions," writes John Shirley to his
+friend Morris; "our men have been upon half allowance of bread these
+three weeks past, and no rum given to 'em. My father yesterday called
+all the Indians together and made 'em a speech on the subject of General
+Johnson's engagement, which he calculated to inspire them with a spirit
+of revenge." After the speech he gave them a bullock for a feast, which
+they roasted and ate, pretending that they were eating the Governor of
+Canada! Some provisions arriving, orders were given to embark on the
+next day; but the officers murmured their dissent. The weather was
+persistently bad, their vessels would not hold half the party, and the
+bateaux, made only for river navigation, would infallibly founder on the
+treacherous and stormy lake. "All the field-officers," says John
+Shirley, "think it too rash an attempt; and I have heard so much of it
+that I think it my duty to let my father know what I hear." Another
+council was called; and the General, reluctantly convinced of the
+danger, put the question whether to go or not. The situation admitted
+but one reply. The council was of opinion that for the present the
+enterprise was impracticable; that Oswego should be strengthened, more
+vessels built, and preparation made to renew the attempt as soon as
+spring opened. [326] All thoughts of active operations were now
+suspended, and during what was left of the season the troops exchanged
+the musket for the spade, saw, and axe. At the end of October, leaving
+seven hundred men at Oswego, Shirley returned to Albany, and narrowly
+escaped drowning on the way, while passing a rapid in a whale-boat, to
+try the fitness of that species of craft for river navigation. [327]
+
+[326] Minutes of a Council of War at Oswego, 27 Sept. 1755.
+
+[327] On the Niagara expedition, Braddock's Instructions to
+Major-General Shirley. Correspondence of Shirley, 1755. Conduct of
+Major-General Shirley (London, 1758). Letters of John Shirley in
+Pennsylvania Archives, II. Bradstreet to Shirley, 17 Aug. 1755. MSS. in
+Massachusetts Archives. Review of Military Operations in North America.
+Gentleman's Magazine, 1757, p. 73. London Magazine, 1759, p. 594.
+Trumbull, Hist. Connecticut, II. 370.
+
+Unfortunately for him, he had fallen out with Johnson, whom he had made
+what he was, but who now turned against him,--a seeming ingratitude not
+wholly unprovoked. Shirley had diverted the New Jersey regiment,
+destined originally for Crown Point, to his own expedition against
+Niagara. Naturally inclined to keep all the reins in his own hands, he
+had encroached on Johnson's new office of Indian superintendent, held
+conferences with the Five Nations, and employed agents of his own to
+deal with them. These agents were persons obnoxious to Johnson, being
+allied with the clique of Dutch traders at Albany, who hated him because
+he had supplanted them in the direction of Indian affairs; and in a
+violent letter to the Lords of Trade, he inveighs against their
+"licentious and abandoned proceedings," "villanous conduct," "scurrilous
+falsehoods," and "base and insolent behavior." [328] "I am considerable
+enough," he says, "to have enemies and to be envied;" [329] and he
+declares he has proof that Shirley told the Mohawks that he, Johnson,
+was an upstart of his creating, whom he had set up and could pull down.
+Again, he charges Shirley's agents with trying to "debauch the Indians
+from joining him;" while Shirley, on his side, retorts the same
+complaint against his accuser. [330] When, by the death of Braddock,
+Shirley became commander-in-chief, Johnson grew so restive at being
+subject to his instructions that he declined to hold the management of
+Indian affairs unless it was made independent of his rival. The dispute
+became mingled with the teapot-tempest of New York provincial politics.
+The Lieutenant-Governor, Delancey, a politician of restless ambition and
+consummate dexterity, had taken umbrage at Shirley, of whose rising
+honors, not borne with remarkable humility, he appears to have been
+jealous. Delancey had hitherto favored the Dutch faction in the
+Assembly, hostile to Johnson; but he now changed attitude, and joined
+hands with him against the object of their common dislike. The one was
+strong in the prestige of a loudly-trumpeted victory, and the other had
+means of influence over the Ministry. Their coalition boded ill to
+Shirley, and he soon felt its effects. [331]
+
+[328] Johnson to the Lords of Trade, 3 Sept. 1755.
+
+[329] Johnson to the Lords of Trade, 17 Jan. 1756.
+
+[330] John Shirley to Governor Morris, 12 Aug. 1755.
+
+[331] On this affair, see various papers in N. Y. Col. Docs., VI., VII.
+Smith, Hist. New York, Part II., Chaps. IV. V. Review of Military
+Operations in North America. Both Smith and Livingston, the author of
+the Review, were personally cognizant of the course of the dispute.
+
+The campaign was now closed,--a sufficiently active one, seeing that the
+two nations were nominally at peace. A disastrous rout on the
+Monongahela, failure at Niagara, a barren victory at Lake George, and
+three forts captured in Acadia, were the disappointing results on the
+part of England. Nor had her enemies cause to boast. The Indians, it is
+true, had won a battle for them: but they had suffered mortifying defeat
+from a raw militia; their general was a prisoner; and they had lost
+Acadia past hope.
+
+The campaign was over; but not its effects. It remains to see what
+befell from the rout of Braddock and the unpardonable retreat of Dunbar
+from the frontier which it was his duty to defend. Dumas had replaced
+Contrecœur in the command of Fort Duquesne; and his first care was to
+set on the Western tribes to attack the border settlements. His success
+was triumphant. The Delawares and Shawanoes, old friends of the English,
+but for years past tending to alienation through neglect and ill-usage,
+now took the lead against them. Many of the Mingoes, or Five Nation
+Indians on the Ohio, also took up the hatchet, as did various remoter
+tribes. The West rose like a nest of hornets, and swarmed in fury
+against the English frontier. Such was the consequence of the defeat of
+Braddock aided by the skilful devices of the French commander. "It is by
+means such as I have mentioned," says Dumas, "varied in every form to
+suit the occasion, that I have succeeded in ruining the three adjacent
+provinces, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, driving off the
+inhabitants, and totally destroying the settlements over a tract of
+country thirty leagues wide, reckoning from the line of Fort Cumberland.
+M. de Contrecœur had not been gone a week before I had six or seven
+different war-parties in the field at once, always accompanied by
+Frenchmen. Thus far, we have lost only two officers and a few soldiers;
+but the Indian villages are full of prisoners of every age and sex. The
+enemy has lost far more since the battle than on the day of his defeat."
+[332]
+
+[332] Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1756.
+
+Dumas, required by the orders of his superiors to wage a detestable
+warfare against helpless settlers and their families, did what he could
+to temper its horrors, and enjoined the officers who went with the
+Indians to spare no effort to prevent them from torturing prisoners.
+[333] The attempt should be set down to his honor; but it did not avail
+much. In the record of cruelties committed this year on the borders, we
+find repeated instances of children scalped alive. "They kill all they
+meet," writes a French priest; "and after having abused the women and
+maidens, they slaughter or burn them." [334]
+
+[333] Mémoires de Famille de l'Abbé Casgrain, cited in Le Foyer
+Canadien, III. 26, where an extract is given from an order of Dumas to
+Baby, a Canadian officer. Orders of Contrecœur and Ligneris to the same
+effect are also given. A similar order, signed by Dumas, was found in
+the pocket of Douville, an officer killed by the English on the
+Frontier. Writings of Washington, II. 137, note.
+
+[334] Rec. Claude Godefroy Cocquard, S. J., à son Frère, Mars (?), 1757.
+
+Washington was now in command of the Virginia regiment, consisting of a
+thousand men, raised afterwards to fifteen hundred. With these he was to
+protect a frontier of three hundred and fifty miles against more
+numerous enemies, who could choose their time and place of attack. His
+headquarters were at Winchester. His men were an ungovernable crew,
+enlisted chiefly on the turbulent border, and resenting every kind of
+discipline as levelling them with negroes; while the sympathizing House
+of Burgesses hesitated for months to pass any law for enforcing
+obedience, lest it should trench on the liberties of free white men. The
+service was to the last degree unpopular. "If we talk of obliging men to
+serve their country," wrote London Carter, "we are sure to hear a fellow
+mumble over the words 'liberty' and 'property' a thousand times." [335]
+The people, too, were in mortal fear of a slave insurrection, and
+therefore dared not go far from home. [336] Meanwhile a panic reigned
+along the border. Captain Waggoner, passing a gap in the Blue Ridge,
+could hardly make his way for the crowd of fugitives. "Every day,"
+writes Washington, "we have accounts of such cruelties and barbarities
+as are shocking to human nature. It is not possible to conceive the
+situation and danger of this miserable country. Such numbers of French
+and Indians are all around that no road is safe."
+
+[335] Extract in Writings of Washington, II. 145, note.
+
+[336] Letters of Dinwiddie, 1755.
+
+These frontiers had always been at peace. No forts of refuge had thus
+far been built, and the scattered settlers had no choice but flight.
+Their first impulse was to put wife and children beyond reach of the
+tomahawk. As autumn advanced, the invading bands grew more and more
+audacious. Braddock had opened a road for them by which they could cross
+the mountains at their ease; and scouts from Fort Cumberland reported
+that this road was beaten by as many feet as when the English army
+passed last summer. Washington was beset with difficulties. Men and
+officers alike were unruly and mutinous. He was at once blamed for their
+disorders and refused the means of repressing them. Envious detractors
+published slanders against him. A petty Maryland captain, who had once
+had a commission from the King, refused to obey his orders, and stirred
+up factions among his officers. Dinwiddie gave him cold support. The
+temper of the old Scotchman, crabbed at the best, had been soured by
+disappointment, vexation, weariness, and ill-health. He had, besides, a
+friend and countryman, Colonel Innes, whom, had he dared, he would
+gladly have put in Washington's place. He was full of zeal in the common
+cause, and wanted to direct the defence of the borders from his house at
+Williamsburg, two hundred miles distant. Washington never hesitated to
+obey; but he accompanied his obedience by a statement of his own
+convictions and his reasons for them, which, though couched in terms the
+most respectful, galled his irascible chief. The Governor acknowledged
+his merit; but bore him no love, and sometimes wrote to him in terms
+which must have tried his high temper to the utmost. Sometimes, though
+rarely, he gave words to his emotion.
+
+"Your Honor," he wrote in April, "may see to what unhappy straits the
+distressed inhabitants and myself are reduced. I see inevitable
+destruction in so clear a light, that unless vigorous measures are taken
+by the Assembly, and speedy assistance sent from below, the poor
+inhabitants that are now in forts must unavoidably fall, while the
+remainder are flying before the barbarous foe. In fine, the melancholy
+situation of the people; the little prospect of assistance; the gross
+and scandalous abuse cast upon the officers in general, which is
+reflecting upon me in particular for suffering misconduct of such
+extraordinary kinds; and the distant prospect, if any, of gaining honor
+and reputation in the service,--cause me to lament the hour that gave me
+a commission, and would induce me at any other time than this of
+imminent danger to resign, without one hesitating moment, a command from
+which I never expect to reap either honor or benefit, but, on the
+contrary, have almost an absolute certainty of incurring displeasure
+below, while the murder of helpless families may be laid to my account
+here.
+
+"The supplicating tears of the women and moving petitions of the men
+melt me into such deadly sorrow, that I solemnly declare, if I know my
+own mind, I could offer myself a willing sacrifice to the butchering
+enemy, provided that would contribute to the people's ease." [337]
+
+[337] Writings of Washington, II. 143.
+
+In the turmoil around him, patriotism and public duty seemed all to be
+centred in the breast of one heroic youth. He was respected and
+generally beloved, but he did not kindle enthusiasm. His were the
+qualities of an unflagging courage, an all-enduring fortitude, and a
+deep trust. He showed an astonishing maturing of character, and the kind
+of mastery over others which begins with mastery over self. At
+twenty-four he was the foremost man, and acknowledged as such, along the
+whole long line of the western border.
+
+To feel the situation, the nature of these frontiers must be kept in
+mind. Along the skirts of the southern and middle colonies ran for six
+or seven hundred miles a loose, thin, dishevelled fringe of population,
+the half-barbarous pioneers of advancing civilization. Their rude
+dwellings were often miles apart. Buried in woods, the settler lived in
+an appalling loneliness. A low-browed cabin of logs, with moss stuffed
+in the chinks to keep out the wind, roof covered with sheets of bark,
+chimney of sticks and clay, and square holes closed by a shutter in
+place of windows; an unkempt matron, lean with hard work, and a brood of
+children with bare heads and tattered garments eked out by
+deerskin,--such was the home of the pioneer in the remoter and wilder
+districts. The scene around bore witness to his labors. It was the
+repulsive transition from savagery to civilization, from the forest to
+the farm. The victims of his axe lay strewn about the dismal "clearing"
+in a chaos of prostrate trunks, tangled boughs, and withered leaves,
+waiting for the fire that was to be the next agent in the process of
+improvement; while around, voiceless and grim, stood the living forest,
+gazing on the desolation, and biding its own day of doom. The owner of
+the cabin was miles away, hunting in the woods for the wild turkey and
+venison which were the chief food of himself and his family till the
+soil could be tamed into the bearing of crops.
+
+Towards night he returned; and as he issued from the forest shadows he
+saw a column of blue smoke rising quietly in the still evening air. He
+ran to the spot; and there, among the smouldering logs of his dwelling,
+lay, scalped and mangled, the dead bodies of wife and children. A
+war-party had passed that way. Breathless, palpitating, his brain on
+fire, he rushed through the thickening night to carry the alarm to his
+nearest neighbor, three miles distant.
+
+Such was the character and the fate of many incipient settlements of the
+utmost border. Farther east, they had a different aspect. Here, small
+farms with well-built log-houses, cattle, crops of wheat and Indian
+corn, were strung at intervals along some woody valley of the lower
+Alleghanies: yesterday a scene of hardy toil; to-day swept with
+destruction from end to end. There was no warning; no time for concert,
+perhaps none for flight. Sudden as the leaping panther, a pack of human
+wolves burst out of the forest, did their work, and vanished.
+
+If the country had been an open one, like the plains beyond the
+Mississippi, the situation would have been less frightful; but the
+forest was everywhere, rolled over hill and valley in billows of
+interminable green,--a leafy maze, a mystery of shade, a universal
+hiding-place, where murder might lurk unseen at its victim's side, and
+Nature seemed formed to nurse the mind with wild and dark imaginings.
+The detail of blood is set down in the untutored words of those who saw
+and felt it. But there was a suffering that had no record,--the mortal
+fear of women and children in the solitude of their wilderness homes,
+haunted, waking and sleeping, with nightmares of horror that were but
+the forecast of an imminent reality. The country had in past years been
+so peaceful, and the Indians so friendly, that many of the settlers,
+especially on the Pennsylvanian border, had no arms, and were doubly in
+need of help from the Government. In Virginia they had it, such as it
+was. In Pennsylvania they had for months none whatever; and the Assembly
+turned a deaf ear to their cries.
+
+Far to the east, sheltered from danger, lay staid and prosperous
+Philadelphia, the home of order and thrift. It took its stamp from the
+Quakers, its original and dominant population, set apart from the other
+colonists not only in character and creed, but in the outward symbols of
+a peculiar dress and a daily sacrifice of grammar on the altar of
+religion. The even tenor of their lives counteracted the effects of
+climate, and they are said to have been perceptibly more rotund in
+feature and person than their neighbors. Yet, broad and humanizing as
+was their faith, they were capable of extreme bitterness towards
+opponents, clung tenaciously to power, and were jealous for the
+ascendency of their sect, which had begun to show signs of wavering. On
+other sects they looked askance; and regarded the Presbyterians in
+particular with a dislike which in moments of crisis rose to
+detestation. [338] They held it sin to fight, and above all to fight
+against Indians.
+
+[338] See a crowd of party pamphlets, Quaker against Presbyterian, which
+appeared at Philadelphia in 1764, abusively acrimonious on both sides.
+
+Here was one cause of military paralysis. It was reinforced by another.
+The old standing quarrel between governor and assembly had grown more
+violent than ever; and this as a direct consequence of the public
+distress, which above all things demanded harmony. The dispute turned
+this time on a single issue,--that of the taxation of the proprietary
+estates. The estates in question consisted of vast tracts of wild land,
+yielding no income, and at present to a great extent worthless, being
+overrun by the enemy. [339] The Quaker Assembly had refused to protect
+them; and on one occasion had rejected an offer of the proprietaries to
+join them in paying the cost of their defence. [340] But though they
+would not defend the land, they insisted on taxing it; and farther
+insisted that the taxes upon it should be laid by the provincial
+assessors. By a law of the province, these assessors were chosen by
+popular vote; and in consenting to this law, the proprietaries had
+expressly provided that their estates should be exempted from all taxes
+to be laid by officials in whose appointment they had no voice.[341]
+Thomas and Richard Penn, the present proprietaries, had debarred their
+deputy, the Governor, both by the terms of his commission and by special
+instruction, from consenting to such taxation, and had laid him under
+heavy bonds to secure his obedience. Thus there was another side to the
+question than that of the Assembly; though our American writers have
+been slow to acknowledge it.
+
+[339] The productive estates of the proprietaries were taxed through the
+tenants.
+
+[340] The proprietaries offered to contribute to the cost of building
+and maintaining a fort on the spot where the French soon after built
+Fort Duquesne. This plan, vigorously executed, would have saved the
+province from a deluge of miseries. One of the reasons assigned by the
+Assembly for rejecting it was that it would irritate the enemy. See
+supra, p. 60.
+
+[341] A Brief View of the Conduct of Pennsylvania for the year 1755.
+
+Benjamin Franklin was leader in the Assembly and shared its views. The
+feudal proprietorship of the Penn family was odious to his democratic
+nature. It was, in truth, a pestilent anomaly, repugnant to the genius
+of the people; and the disposition and character of the present
+proprietaries did not tend to render it less vexatious. Yet there were
+considerations which might have tempered the impatient hatred with which
+the colonists regarded it. The first proprietary, William Penn, had used
+his feudal rights in the interest of a broad liberalism; and through
+them had established the popular institutions and universal tolerance
+which made Pennsylvania the most democratic province in America, and
+nursed the spirit of liberty which now revolted against his heirs. The
+one absorbing passion of Pennsylvania was resistance to their deputy,
+the Governor. The badge of feudalism, though light, was insufferably
+irritating; and the sons of William Penn were moreover detested by the
+Quakers as renegades from the faith of their father. Thus the immediate
+political conflict engrossed mind and heart; and in the rancor of their
+quarrel with the proprietaries, the Assembly forgot the French and
+Indians.
+
+In Philadelphia and the eastern districts the Quakers could ply their
+trades, tend their shops, till their farms, and discourse at their ease
+on the wickedness of war. The midland counties, too, were for the most
+part tolerably safe. They were occupied mainly by crude German peasants,
+who nearly equalled in number all the rest of the population, and who,
+gathered at the centre of the province, formed a mass politically
+indigestible. Translated from servitude to the most ample liberty, they
+hated the thought of military service, which reminded them of former
+oppression, cared little whether they lived under France or England,
+and, thinking themselves out of danger, had no mind to be taxed for the
+defence of others. But while the great body of the Germans were
+sheltered from harm, those of them who lived farther westward were not
+so fortunate. Here, mixed with Scotch Irish Presbyterians and Celtic
+Irish Catholics, they formed a rough border population, the discordant
+elements of which could rarely unite for common action; yet, though
+confused and disjointed, they were a living rampart to the rest of the
+colony. Against them raged the furies of Indian war; and, maddened with
+distress and terror, they cried aloud for help.
+
+
+Petition after petition came from the borders for arms and ammunition,
+and for a militia law to enable the people to organize and defend
+themselves. The Quakers resisted. "They have taken uncommon pains,"
+writes Governor Morris to Shirley, "to prevent the people from taking up
+arms." [342] Braddock's defeat, they declared, was a just judgment on
+him and his soldiers for molesting the French in their settlements on
+the Ohio. [343] A bill was passed by the Assembly for raising fifty
+thousand pounds for the King's use by a tax which included the
+proprietary lands. The Governor, constrained by his instructions and his
+bonds, rejected it. "I can only say," he told them, "that I will readily
+pass a bill for striking any sum in paper money the present exigency may
+require, provided funds are established for sinking the same in five
+years." Messages long and acrimonious were exchanged between the
+parties. The Assembly, had they chosen, could easily have raised money
+enough by methods not involving the point in dispute; but they thought
+they saw in the crisis a means of forcing the Governor to yield. The
+Quakers had an alternative motive: if the Governor gave way, it was a
+political victory; if he stood fast, their non-resistance principles
+would triumph, and in this triumph their ascendency as a sect would be
+confirmed. The debate grew every day more bitter and unmannerly. The
+Governor could not yield; the Assembly would not. There was a complete
+deadlock. The Assembly requested the Governor "not to make himself the
+hateful instrument of reducing a free people to the abject state of
+vassalage." [344] As the raising of money and the control of its
+expenditure was in their hands; as he could not prorogue or dissolve
+them, and as they could adjourn on their own motion to such time as
+pleased them; as they paid his support, and could withhold it if he
+offended them,--which they did in the present case,--it seemed no easy
+task for him to reduce them to vassalage. "What must we do," pursued the
+Assembly, "to please this kind governor, who takes so much pains to
+render us obnoxious to our sovereign and odious to our fellow-subjects?
+If we only tell him that the difficulties he meets with are not owing to
+the causes he names,--which indeed have no existence,--but to his own
+want of skill and abilities for his station, he takes it extremely
+amiss, and says 'we forget all decency to those in authority.' We are
+apt to think there is likewise some decency due to the Assembly as a
+part of the government; and though we have not, like the Governor, had a
+courtly education, but are plain men, and must be very imperfect in our
+politeness, yet we think we have no chance of improving by his example."
+[345] Again, in another Message, the Assembly, with a thrust at Morris
+himself, tell him that colonial governors have often been "transient
+persons, of broken fortunes, greedy of money, destitute of all
+concern for those they govern, often their enemies, and endeavoring not
+only to oppress, but to defame them." [346] In such unseemly fashion was
+the battle waged. Morris, who was himself a provincial, showed more
+temper and dignity; though there was not too much on either side. "The
+Assembly," he wrote to Shirley, "seem determined to take advantage of
+the country's distress to get the whole power of government into their
+own hands." And the Assembly proclaimed on their part that the Governor
+was taking advantage of the country's distress to reduce the province to
+"Egyptian bondage."
+
+[342] Morris to Shirley, 16 Aug. 1755.
+
+[343] Morris to Sir Thomas Robinson, 28 Aug. 1755.
+
+[344] Colonial Records of Pa., VI. 584.
+
+[345] Message of the Assembly to the Governor, 29 Sept. 1755 (written by
+Franklin), in Colonial Records of Pa., VI. 631, 632.
+
+[346] Writings of Franklin, III. 447. The Assembly at first suppressed
+this paper, but afterwards printed it.
+
+Petitions poured in from the miserable frontiersmen. "How long will
+those in power, by their quarrels, suffer us to be massacred?" demanded
+William Trent, the Indian trader. "Two and forty bodies have been buried
+on Patterson's Creek; and since they have killed more, and keep on
+killing." [347] Early in October news came that a hundred persons had
+been murdered near Fort Cumberland. Repeated tidings followed of murders
+on the Susquehanna; then it was announced that the war-parties had
+crossed that stream, and were at their work on the eastern side. Letter
+after letter came from the sufferers, bringing such complaints as this:
+"We are in as bad circumstances as ever any poor Christians were ever
+in; for the cries of widowers, widows, fatherless and motherless
+children, are enough to pierce the most hardest of hearts. Likewise it's
+a very sorrowful spectacle to see those that escaped with their lives
+with not a mouthful to eat, or bed to lie on, or clothes to cover their
+nakedness, or keep them warm, but all they had consumed into ashes.
+These deplorable circumstances cry aloud for your Honor's most wise
+consideration; for it is really very shocking for the husband to see the
+wife of his bosom her head cut off, and the children's blood drunk like
+water, by these bloody and cruel savages." [348]
+
+[347] Trent to James Burd, 4 Oct. 1755.
+
+[348] Adam Hoops to Governor Morris, 3 Nov. 1755.
+
+Morris was greatly troubled. "The conduct of the Assembly," he wrote to
+Shirley, "is to me shocking beyond parallel." "The inhabitants are
+abandoning their plantations, and we are in a dreadful situation," wrote
+John Harris from the east bank of the Susquehanna. On the next day he
+wrote again: "The Indians are cutting us off every day, and I had a
+certain account of about fifteen hundred Indians, besides French, being
+on their march against us and Virginia, and now close on our borders,
+their scouts scalping our families on our frontiers daily." The report
+was soon confirmed; and accounts came that the settlements in the valley
+called the Great Cove had been completely destroyed. All this was laid
+before the Assembly. They declared the accounts exaggerated, but
+confessed that outrages had been committed; hinted that the fault was
+with the proprietaries; and asked the Governor to explain why the
+Delawares and Shawanoes had become unfriendly. "If they have suffered
+wrongs," said the Quakers, "we are resolved to do all in our power to
+redress them, rather than entail upon ourselves and our posterity the
+calamities of a cruel Indian war." The Indian records were searched, and
+several days spent in unsuccessful efforts to prove fraud in a late
+land-purchase.
+
+Post after post still brought news of slaughter. The upper part of
+Cumberland County was laid waste. Edward Biddle wrote from Reading: "The
+drum is beating and bells ringing, and all the people under arms. This
+night we expect an attack. The people exclaim against the Quakers." "We
+seem to be given up into the hands of a merciless enemy," wrote John
+Elder from Paxton. And he declares that more than forty persons have
+been killed in that neighborhood, besides numbers carried off. Meanwhile
+the Governor and Assembly went on fencing with words and exchanging
+legal subtleties; while, with every cry of distress that rose from the
+west, each hoped that the other would yield.
+
+On the eighth of November the Assembly laid before Morris for his
+concurrence a bill for emitting bills of credit to the amount of sixty
+thousand pounds, to be sunk in four years by a tax including the
+proprietary estates. [349] "I shall not," he replied, "enter into a
+dispute whether the proprietaries ought to be taxed or not. It is
+sufficient for me that they have given me no power in that case; and I
+cannot think it consistent either with my duty or safety to exceed the
+powers of my commission, much less to do what that commission expressly
+prohibits." [350] He stretched his authority, however, so far as to
+propose a sort of compromise by which the question should be referred to
+the King; but they refused it; and the quarrel and the murders went on
+as before. "We have taken," said the Assembly, "every step in our power,
+consistent with the just rights of the freemen of Pennsylvania, for the
+relief of the poor distressed inhabitants; and we have reason to believe
+that they themselves would not wish us to go farther. Those who would
+give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve
+neither liberty nor safety." [351] Then the borderers deserved neither;
+for, rather than be butchered, they would have let the proprietary lands
+lie untaxed for another year. "You have in all," said the Governor,
+"proposed to me five money bills, three of them rejected because
+contrary to royal instructions; the other two on account of the unjust
+method proposed for taxing the proprietary estate. If you are disposed
+to relieve your country, you have many other ways of granting money to
+which I shall have no objection. I shall put one proof more both of your
+sincerity and mine in our professions of regard for the public, by
+offering to agree to any bill in the present exigency which it is
+consistent with my duty to pass; lest, before our present disputes can
+be brought to an issue, we should neither have a privilege to dispute
+about, nor a country to dispute in." [352] They stood fast; and with an
+obstinacy for which the Quakers were chiefly answerable, insisted that
+they would give nothing, except by a bill taxing real estate, and
+including that of the proprietaries.
+
+[349] Colonial Records of Pa., VI. 682.
+
+[350] Message of the Governor to the Assembly, 8 Nov. 1755, in Colonial
+Records of Pa., VI. 684.
+
+[351] Message of the Assembly to the Governor, 11 Nov. Ibid., VI. 692.
+The words are Franklin's.
+
+[352] Message of the Governor to the Assembly, 22 Nov. 1755, in Colonial
+Records of Pa., VI. 714.
+
+But now the Assembly began to feel the ground shaking under their feet.
+A paper, called a "Representation," signed by some of the chief
+citizens, was sent to the House, calling for measures of defence. "You
+will forgive us, gentlemen," such was its language, "if we assume
+characters somewhat higher than that of humble suitors praying for the
+defence of our lives and properties as a matter of grace or favor on
+your side. You will permit us to make a positive and immediate demand of
+it." [353] This drove the Quakers mad. Preachers, male and female,
+harangued in the streets, denouncing the iniquity of war. Three of the
+sect from England, two women and a man, invited their brethren of the
+Assembly to a private house, and fervently exhorted them to stand firm.
+Some of the principal Quakers joined in an address to the House, in
+which they declared that any action on its part "inconsistent with the
+peaceable testimony we profess and have borne to the world appears to us
+in its consequences to be destructive of our religious liberties." [354]
+And they protested that they would rather "suffer" than pay taxes for
+such ends. Consistency, even in folly, has in it something respectable;
+but the Quakers were not consistent. A few years after, when heated with
+party-passion and excited by reports of an irruption of incensed
+Presbyterian borderers, some of the pacific sectaries armed for battle;
+and the streets of Philadelphia beheld the curious conjunction of musket
+and broad-brimmed hat. [355]
+
+[353] Pennsylvania Archives, II. 485.
+
+[354] Ibid., II. 487.
+
+[355] See Conspiracy of Pontiac, II. 143, 152.
+
+The mayor, aldermen, and common council next addressed the Assembly,
+adjuring them, "in the most solemn manner, before God and in the name of
+all our fellow-citizens," to provide for defending the lives and
+property of the people. [356] A deputation from a band of Indians on the
+Susquehanna, still friendly to the province, came to ask whether the
+English meant to fight or not; for, said their speaker, "if they will
+not stand by us, we will join the French." News came that the settlement
+of Tulpehocken, only sixty miles distant, had been destroyed; and then
+that the Moravian settlement of Gnadenhütten was burned, and nearly all
+its inmates massacred. Colonel William Moore wrote to the Governor that
+two thousand men were coming from Chester County to compel him and the
+Assembly to defend the province; and Conrad Weiser wrote that more were
+coming from Berks on the same errand. Old friends of the Assembly began
+to cry out against them. Even the Germans, hitherto their fast allies,
+were roused from their attitude of passivity, and four hundred of them
+came in procession to demand measures of war. A band of frontiersmen
+presently arrived, bringing in a wagon the bodies of friends and
+relatives lately murdered, displaying them at the doors of the Assembly,
+cursing the Quakers, and threatening vengeance. [357]
+
+[356] A Remonstrance, etc., in Colonial Records of Pa., VI. 734.
+
+[357] Mante, 47; Entick, I. 377.
+
+Finding some concession necessary, the House at length passed a militia
+law,--probably the most futile ever enacted. It specially exempted the
+Quakers, and constrained nobody; but declared it lawful, for such as
+chose, to form themselves into companies and elect officers by ballot.
+The company officers thus elected might, if they saw fit, elect, also by
+ballot, colonels, lieutenant-colonels, and majors. These last might
+then, in conjunction with the Governor, frame articles of war; to which,
+however, no officer or man was to be subjected unless, after three days'
+consideration, he subscribed them in presence of a justice of the peace,
+and declared his willingness to be bound by them. [358]
+
+[358] This remarkable bill, drawn by Franklin, was meant for political
+rather than military effect. It was thought that Morris would refuse to
+pass it, and could therefore be accused of preventing the province from
+defending itself; but he avoided the snare by signing it.
+
+This mockery could not appease the people; the Assembly must raise money
+for men, arms, forts, and all the detested appliances of war. Defeat
+absolute and ignominious seemed hanging over the House, when an incident
+occurred which gave them a decent pretext for retreat. The Governor
+informed them that he had just received a letter from the proprietaries,
+giving to the province five thousand pounds sterling to aid in its
+defence, on condition that the money should be accepted as a free gift,
+and not as their proportion of any tax that was or might be laid by the
+Assembly. They had not learned the deplorable state of the country, and
+had sent the money in view of the defeat of Braddock and its probable
+consequences. The Assembly hereupon yielded, struck out from the bill
+before them the clause taxing the proprietary estates, and, thus
+amended, presented it to the Governor, who by his signature made it a
+law. [359]
+
+[359] Minutes of Council, 27 Nov. 1755.
+
+The House had failed to carry its point. The result disappointed
+Franklin, and doubly disappointed the Quakers. His maxim was: Beat the
+Governor first, and then beat the enemy; theirs: Beat the Governor, and
+let the enemy alone. The measures that followed, directed in part by
+Franklin himself, held the Indians in check, and mitigated the distress
+of the western counties; yet there was no safety for them throughout the
+two or three years when France was cheering on her hell-hounds against
+this tormented frontier.
+
+As in Pennsylvania, so in most of the other colonies there was conflict
+between assemblies and governors, to the unspeakable detriment of the
+public service. In New York, though here no obnoxious proprietary stood
+between the people and the Crown, the strife was long and severe. The
+point at issue was an important one,--whether the Assembly should
+continue their practice of granting yearly supplies to the Governor, or
+should establish a permanent fund for the ordinary expenses of
+government,--thus placing him beyond their control. The result was a
+victory for the Assembly.
+
+Month after month the great continent lay wrapped in snow. Far along the
+edge of the western wilderness men kept watch and ward in lonely
+blockhouses, or scoured the forest on the track of prowling war-parties.
+The provincials in garrison at forts Edward, William Henry, and Oswego
+dragged out the dreary winter; while bands of New England rangers,
+muffled against the piercing cold, caps of fur on their heads, hatchets
+in their belts, and guns in the mittened hands, glided on skates along
+the gleaming ice-floor of Lake George, to spy out the secrets of
+Ticonderoga, or seize some careless sentry to tell them tidings of the
+foe. Thus the petty war went on; but the big war was frozen into torpor,
+ready, like a hibernating bear, to wake again with the birds, the bees,
+and the flowers. [360]
+
+[360] On Pennsylvanian disputes,--A Brief State of the Province of
+Pennsylvania (London, 1755). A Brief View of the Conduct of Pennsylvania
+(London, 1756). These are pamphlets on the Governor's side, by William
+Smith, D.D., Provost of the College of Pennsylvania. An Answer to an
+invidious Pamphlet, intituled a Brief State, etc. (London, 1755).
+Anonymous. A True and Impartial State of the Province of Pennsylvania
+(Philadelphia, 1759). Anonymous. The last two works attack the first two
+with great vehemence. The True and Impartial State is an able
+presentation of the case of the Assembly, omitting, however, essential
+facts. But the most elaborate work on the subject is the Historical
+Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania, inspired and
+partly written by Franklin. It is hotly partisan, and sometimes
+sophistical and unfair. Articles on the quarrel will also be found in
+the provincial newspapers, especially the New York Mercury, and in the
+Gentleman's Magazine for 1755 and 1756. But it is impossible to get any
+clear and just view of it without wading through the interminable
+documents concerning it in the Colonial Records of Pennsylvania and the
+Pennsylvania Archives.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+1712-1756.
+
+MONTCALM.
+
+War declared • State of Europe • Pompadour and Maria Theresa •
+Infatuation of the French Court • The European War • Montcalm to command
+in America • His early Life • An intractable Pupil • His Marriage • His
+Family • His Campaigns • Preparation for America • His Associates •
+Lévis, Bourlamaque, Bougainville • Embarkation • The Voyage • Arrival •
+Vaudreuil • Forces of Canada • Troops of the Line, Colony Troops,
+Militia, Indians • The Military Situation • Capture of Fort Bull •
+Montcalm at Ticonderoga.
+
+On the eighteenth of May, 1756, England, after a year of open hostility,
+at length declared war. She had attacked France by land and sea, turned
+loose her ships to prey on French commerce, and brought some three
+hundred prizes into her ports. It was the act of a weak Government,
+supplying by spasms of violence what it lacked in considerate
+resolution. France, no match for her amphibious enemy in the game of
+marine depredation, cried out in horror; and to emphasize her complaints
+and signalize a pretended good faith which her acts had belied,
+ostentatiously released a British frigate captured by her cruisers. She
+in her turn declared war on the ninth of June: and now began the most
+terrible conflict of the eighteenth century; one that convulsed Europe
+and shook America, India, the coasts of Africa, and the islands of the
+sea.
+
+In Europe the ground was trembling already with the coming earthquake.
+Such smothered discords, such animosities, ambitions, jealousies,
+possessed the rival governments; such entanglements of treaties and
+alliances, offensive or defensive, open or secret,--that a blow at one
+point shook the whole fabric. Hanover, like the heel of Achilles, was
+the vulnerable part for which England was always trembling. Therefore
+she made a defensive treaty with Prussia, by which each party bound
+itself to aid the other, should its territory be invaded. England thus
+sought a guaranty against France, and Prussia against Russia. She had
+need. Her King, Frederic the Great, had drawn upon himself an avalanche.
+Three women--two empresses and a concubine--controlled the forces of the
+three great nations, Austria, Russia, and France; and they all hated
+him: Elizabeth of Russia, by reason of a distrust fomented by secret
+intrigue and turned into gall by the biting tongue of Frederic himself,
+who had jibed at her amours, compared her to Messalina, and called her
+"infâme catin du Nord;" Maria Theresa of Austria, because she saw in him
+a rebellious vassal of the Holy Roman Empire, and, above all, because he
+had robbed her of Silesia; Madame de Pompadour, because when she sent
+him a message of compliment, he answered, "Je ne la connais pas,"
+forbade his ambassador to visit her, and in his mocking wit spared
+neither her nor her royal lover. Feminine pique, revenge, or vanity had
+then at their service the mightiest armaments of Europe.
+
+The recovery of Silesia and the punishment of Frederic for his audacity
+in seizing it, possessed the mind of Maria Theresa with the force of a
+ruling passion. To these ends she had joined herself in secret league
+with Russia; and now at the prompting of her minister Kaunitz she
+courted the alliance of France. It was a reversal of the hereditary
+policy of Austria; joining hands with an old and deadly foe, and
+spurning England, of late her most trusty ally. But France could give
+powerful aid against Frederic; and hence Maria Theresa, virtuous as she
+was high-born and proud, stooped to make advances to the all-powerful
+mistress of Louis XV., wrote her flattering letters, and addressed her,
+it is said, as "Ma chère cousine." Pompadour was delighted, and could
+hardly do enough for her imperial friend. She ruled the King, and could
+make and unmake ministers at will. They hastened to do her pleasure,
+disguising their subserviency by dressing it out in specious reasons of
+state. A conference at her summer-house, called Babiole, "Bawble,"
+prepared the way for a treaty which involved the nation in the
+anti-Prussian war, and made it the instrument of Austria in the attempt
+to humble Frederic,--an attempt which if successful would give the
+hereditary enemy of France a predominance over Germany. France engaged
+to aid the cause with twenty-four thousand men; but in the zeal of her
+rulers began with a hundred thousand. Thus the three great Powers stood
+leagued against Prussia. Sweden and Saxony joined them; and the Empire
+itself, of which Prussia was a part, took arms against its obnoxious
+member.
+
+Never in Europe had power been more centralized, and never in France had
+the reins been held by persons so pitiful, impelled by motives so
+contemptible. The levity, vanity, and spite of a concubine became a
+mighty engine to influence the destinies of nations. Louis XV.,
+enervated by pleasures and devoured by ennui, still had his emotions; he
+shared Pompadour's detestation of Frederic, and he was tormented at
+times by a lively fear of damnation. But how damn a king who had entered
+the lists as champion of the Church? England was Protestant, and so was
+Prussia; Austria was supremely Catholic. Was it not a merit in the eyes
+of God to join her in holy war against the powers of heresy? The King of
+the Parc-aux-Cerfs would propitiate Heaven by a new crusade.
+
+Henceforth France was to turn her strength against her European foes;
+and the American war, the occasion of the universal outbreak, was to
+hold in her eyes a second place. The reasons were several: the vanity of
+Pompadour, infatuated by the advances of the Empress-Queen, and eager to
+secure her good graces; the superstition of the King; the anger of both
+against Frederic; the desire of D'Argenson, minister of war, that the
+army, and not the navy, should play the foremost part; and the passion
+of courtiers and nobles, ignorant of the naval service, to win laurels
+in a continental war,--all conspired to one end. It was the interest of
+France to turn her strength against her only dangerous rival; to
+continue as she had begun, in building up a naval power that could face
+England on the seas and sustain her own rising colonies in America,
+India, and the West Indies: for she too might have multiplied herself,
+planted her language and her race over all the globe, and grown with the
+growth of her children, had she not been at the mercy of an effeminate
+profligate, a mistress turned procuress, and the favorites to whom they
+delegated power.
+
+Still, something must be done for the American war; at least there must
+be a new general to replace Dieskau. None of the Court favorites wanted
+a command in the backwoods, and the minister of war was free to choose
+whom he would. His choice fell on Louis Joseph, Marquis de
+Montcalm-Gozon de Saint-Véran.
+
+Montcalm was born in the south of France, at the Château of Candiac,
+near Nîmes, on the twenty-ninth of February, 1712. At the age of six he
+was placed in the charge of one Dumas, a natural son of his grandfather.
+This man, a conscientious pedant, with many theories of education, ruled
+his pupil stiffly; and, before the age of fifteen, gave him a good
+knowledge of Latin, Greek, and history. Young Montcalm had a taste for
+books, continued his reading in such intervals of leisure as camps and
+garrisons afforded, and cherished to the end of his life the ambition of
+becoming a member of the Academy. Yet, with all his liking for study, he
+sometimes revolted against the sway of the pedagogue who wrote letters
+of complaint to his father protesting against the "judgments of the
+vulgar, who, contrary to the experience of ages, say that if children
+are well reproved they will correct their faults." Dumas, however, was
+not without sense, as is shown by another letter to the elder Montcalm,
+in which he says that the boy had better be ignorant of Latin and Greek
+"than know them as he does without knowing how to read, write, and speak
+French well." The main difficulty was to make him write a good hand,--a
+point in which he signally failed to the day of his death. So refractory
+was he at times, that his master despaired. "M. de Montcalm," Dumas
+informs the father, "has great need of docility, industry, and
+willingness to take advice. What will become of him?" The pupil, aware
+of these aspersions, met them by writing to his father his own ideas of
+what his aims should be. "First, to be an honorable man, of good morals,
+brave, and a Christian. Secondly, to read in moderation; to know as much
+Greek and Latin as most men of the world; also the four rules of
+arithmetic, and something of history, geography, and French and Latin
+belles-lettres, as well as to have a taste for the arts and sciences.
+Thirdly, and above all, to be obedient, docile, and very submissive to
+your orders and those of my dear mother; and also to defer to the advice
+of M. Dumas. Fourthly, to fence and ride as well as my small abilities
+will permit." [361]
+
+[361] This passage is given by Somervogel from the original letter.
+
+If Louis de Montcalm failed to satisfy his preceptor, he had a brother
+who made ample amends. Of this infant prodigy it is related that at six
+years he knew Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and had some acquaintance with
+arithmetic, French history, geography, and heraldry. He was destined for
+the Church, but died at the age of seven; his precocious brain having
+been urged to fatal activity by the exertions of Dumas.
+
+Other destinies and a more wholesome growth were the lot of young Louis.
+At fifteen he joined the army as ensign in the regiment of Hainaut. Two
+years after, his father bought him a captaincy, and he was first under
+fire at the siege of Philipsbourg. His father died in 1735, and left him
+heir to a considerable landed estate, much embarrassed by debt. The
+Marquis de la Fare, a friend of the family, soon after sought for him an
+advantageous marriage to strengthen his position and increase his
+prospects of promotion; and he accordingly espoused Mademoiselle
+Angélique Louise Talon du Boulay,--a union which brought him influential
+alliances and some property. Madame de Montcalm bore him ten children,
+of whom only two sons and four daughters were living in 1752. "May God
+preserve them all," he writes in his autobiography, "and make them
+prosper for this world and the next! Perhaps it will be thought that the
+number is large for so moderate a fortune, especially as four of them
+are girls; but does God ever abandon his children in their need?"
+
+   "'Aux petits des oiseaux il donne la pâture,
+    Et sa bonté s'étend sur toute la nature.'"
+
+He was pious in his soldierly way, and ardently loyal to Church and
+King.
+
+His family seat was Candiac; where, in the intervals of campaigning, he
+found repose with his wife, his children, and his mother, who was a
+woman of remarkable force of character and who held great influence over
+her son. He had a strong attachment to this home of his childhood; and
+in after years, out of the midst of the American wilderness, his
+thoughts turned longingly towards it. "Quand reverrai-je mon cher
+Candiac!"
+
+In 1741 Montcalm took part in the Bohemian campaign. He was made colonel
+of the regiment of Auxerrois two years later, and passed unharmed
+through the severe campaign of 1744. In the next year he fought in Italy
+under Maréchal de Maillebois. In 1746, at the disastrous action under
+the walls of Piacenza, where he twice rallied his regiment, he received
+five sabre-cuts,--two of which were in the head,--and was made prisoner.
+Returning to France on parole, he was promoted in the year following to
+the rank of brigadier; and being soon after exchanged, rejoined the
+army, and was again wounded by a musket-shot. The peace of
+Aix-la-Chapelle now gave him a period of rest. [362] At length, being on
+a visit to Paris late in the autumn of 1755, the minister, D'Argenson,
+hinted to him that he might be appointed to command the troops in
+America. He heard no more of the matter till, after his return home, he
+received from D'Argenson a letter dated at Versailles the twenty-fifth
+of January, at midnight. "Perhaps, Monsieur," it began, "you did not
+expect to hear from me again on the subject of the conversation I had
+with you the day you came to bid me farewell at Paris. Nevertheless I
+have not forgotten for a moment the suggestion I then made you; and it
+is with the greatest pleasure that I announce to you that my views have
+prevailed. The King has chosen you to command his troops in North
+America, and will honor you on your departure with the rank of
+major-general."
+
+[362] The account of Montcalm up to this time is chiefly from his
+unpublished autobiography, preserved by his descendants, and entitled
+Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire de ma Vie. Somervogel, Comme on
+servait autrefois; Bonnechose, Montcalm et le Canada; Martin, Le Marquis
+de Montcalm; Éloge de Montcalm; Autre Éloge de Montcalm; Mémoires sur le
+Canada, 1749-1760, and other writings in print and manuscript have also
+been consulted.
+
+The Chevalier de Lévis, afterwards Marshal of France, was named as his
+second in command, with the rank of brigadier, and the Chevalier de
+Bourlamaque as his third, with the rank of colonel; but what especially
+pleased him was the appointment of his eldest son to command a regiment
+in France. He set out from Candiac for the Court, and occupied himself
+on the way with reading Charlevoix. "I take great pleasure in it," he
+writes from Lyons to his mother; "he gives a pleasant account of Quebec.
+But be comforted; I shall always be glad to come home." At Paris he
+writes again: "Don't expect any long letter from me before the first of
+March; all my business will be done by that time, and I shall begin to
+breathe again. I have not yet seen the Chevalier de Montcalm [his son].
+Last night I came from Versailles, and am going back to-morrow. The King
+gives me twenty-five thousand francs a year, as he did to M. Dieskau,
+besides twelve thousand for my equipment, which will cost me above a
+thousand crowns more; but I cannot stop for that. I embrace my dearest
+and all the family." A few days later his son joined him. "He is as thin
+and delicate as ever, but grows prodigiously tall."
+
+On the second of March he informs his mother, "My affairs begin to get
+on. A good part of the baggage went off the day before yesterday in the
+King's wagons; an assistant-cook and two liverymen yesterday. I have got
+a good cook. Estève, my secretary, will go on the eighth; Joseph and
+Déjean will follow me. To-morrow evening I go to Versailles till Sunday,
+and will write from there to Madame de Montcalm [his wife]. I have three
+aides-de-camp; one of them, Bougainville, a man of parts, pleasant
+company. Madame Mazade was happily delivered on Wednesday; in extremity
+on Friday with a malignant fever; Saturday and yesterday, reports
+favorable. I go there twice a day, and am just going now. She
+has a girl. I embrace you all." Again, on the fifteenth: "In a few hours
+I set out for Brest. Yesterday I presented my son, with whom I am well
+pleased, to all the royal family. I shall have a secretary at Brest, and
+will write more at length." On the eighteenth he writes from Rennes to
+his wife: "I arrived, dearest, this morning, and stay here all day. I
+shall be at Brest on the twenty-first. Everything will be on board on
+the twenty-sixth. My son has been here since yesterday for me to coach
+him and get him a uniform made, in which he will give thanks for his
+regiment at the same time that I take leave in my embroidered coat.
+Perhaps I shall leave debts behind. I wait impatiently for the bills.
+You have my will; I wish you would get it copied, and send it to me
+before I sail."
+
+Reaching Brest, the place of embarkation, he writes to his mother: "I
+have business on hand still. My health is good, and the passage will be
+a time of rest. I embrace you, and my dearest, and my daughters. Love to
+all the family. I shall write up to the last moment."
+
+No translation can give an idea of the rapid, abrupt, elliptical style
+of this familiar correspondence, where the meaning is sometimes
+suggested by a single word, unintelligible to any but those for whom it
+is written.
+
+At the end of March Montcalm, with all his following, was ready to
+embark; and three ships of the line, the "Léopard," the "Héros," and the
+"Illustre," fitted out as transports, were ready to receive the troops;
+while the General, with Lévis and Bourlamaque, were to take passage in
+the frigates "Licorne," "Sauvage," and "Sirène." "I like the Chevalier
+de Lévis," says Montcalm, "and I think he likes me." His first
+aide-de-camp, Bougainville, pleased him, if possible, still more. This
+young man, son of a notary, had begun life as an advocate in the
+Parliament of Paris, where his abilities and learning had already made
+him conspicuous, when he resigned the gown for the sword, and became a
+captain of dragoons. He was destined in later life to win laurels in
+another career, and to become one of the most illustrious of French
+navigators. Montcalm, himself a scholar, prized his varied talents and
+accomplishments, and soon learned to feel for him a strong personal
+regard.
+
+The troops destined for Canada were only two battalions, one belonging
+to the regiment of La Sarre, and the other to that of Royal Roussillon.
+Louis XV. and Pompadour sent a hundred thousand men to fight the battles
+of Austria, and could spare but twelve hundred to reinforce New France.
+These troops marched into Brest at early morning, breakfasted in the
+town, and went at once on board the transports, "with an incredible
+gayety," says Bougainville. "What a nation is ours! Happy he who
+commands it, and commands it worthily!" [363] Montcalm and he embarked
+in the "Licorne," and sailed on the third of April, leaving Lévis and
+Bourlamaque to follow a few days after. [364]
+
+[363] Journal de Bougainville. This is a fragment; his Journal proper
+begins a few weeks later.
+
+[364] Lévis à----, 5 Avril, 1756.
+
+The voyage was a rough one. "I have been fortunate," writes Montcalm to
+his wife, "in not being ill nor at all incommoded by the heavy gale we
+had in Holy Week. It was not so with those who were with me, especially
+M. Estève, my secretary, and Joseph, who suffered cruelly,--seventeen
+days without being able to take anything but water. The season was very
+early for such a hard voyage, and it was fortunate that the winter has
+been so mild. We had very favorable weather till Monday the twelfth; but
+since then till Saturday evening we had rough weather, with a gale that
+lasted ninety hours, and put us in real danger. The forecastle was
+always under water, and the waves broke twice over the quarter-deck.
+From the twenty-seventh of April to the evening of the fourth of May we
+had fogs, great cold, and an amazing quantity of icebergs. On the
+thirtieth, when luckily the fog lifted for a time, we counted sixteen of
+them. The day before, one drifted under the bowsprit, grazed it, and
+might have crushed us if the deck-officer had not called out quickly,
+Luff. After speaking of our troubles and sufferings, I must tell you of
+our pleasures, which were fishing for cod and eating it. The taste is
+exquisite. The head, tongue, and liver are morsels worthy of an epicure.
+Still, I would not advise anybody to make the voyage for their sake. My
+health is as good as it has been for a long time. I found it a good plan
+to eat little and take no supper; a little tea now and then, and plenty
+of lemonade. Nevertheless I have taken very little liking for the sea,
+and think that when I shall be so happy as to rejoin you I shall end my
+voyages there. I don't know when this letter will go. I shall send it by
+the first ship that returns to France, and keep on writing till then. It
+is pleasant, I know, to hear particulars about the people one loves, and
+I thought that my mother and you, my dearest and most beloved, would be
+glad to read all these dull details. We heard Mass on Easter Day. All
+the week before, it was impossible, because the ship rolled so that I
+could hardly keep my legs. If I had dared, I think I should have had
+myself lashed fast. I shall not soon forget that Holy Week."
+
+This letter was written on the eleventh of May, in the St. Lawrence,
+where the ship lay at anchor, ten leagues below Quebec, stopped by ice
+from proceeding farther. Montcalm made his way to the town by land, and
+soon after learned with great satisfaction that the other ships were
+safe in the river below. "I see," he writes again, "that I shall have
+plenty of work. Our campaign will soon begin. Everything is in motion.
+Don't expect details about our operations; generals never speak of
+movements till they are over. I can only tell you that the winter has
+been quiet enough, though the savages have made great havoc in
+Pennsylvania and Virginia, and carried off, according to their custom,
+men, women, and children. I beg you will have High Mass said at
+Montpellier or Vauvert to thank God for our safe arrival and ask for
+good success in future." [365]
+
+[365] These extracts are translated from copies of the original letters,
+in possession of the present Marquis de Montcalm.
+
+Vaudreuil, the governor-general, was at Montreal, and Montcalm sent a
+courier to inform him of his arrival. He soon went thither in person,
+and the two men met for the first time. The new general was not welcome
+to Vaudreuil, who had hoped to command the troops himself, and had
+represented to the Court that it was needless and inexpedient to send
+out a general officer from France. [366] The Court had not accepted his
+views; [367] and hence it was with more curiosity than satisfaction that
+he greeted the colleague who had been assigned him. He saw before him a
+man of small stature, with a lively countenance, a keen eye, and, in
+moments of animation, rapid, vehement utterance, and nervous
+gesticulation. Montcalm, we may suppose, regarded the Governor with no
+less attention. Pierre François Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil, who had
+governed Canada early in the century; and he himself had been governor
+of Louisiana. He had not the force of character which his position
+demanded, lacked decision in times of crisis; and though tenacious of
+authority, was more jealous in asserting than self-reliant in exercising
+it. One of his traits was a sensitive egotism, which made him forward to
+proclaim his own part in every success, and to throw on others the
+burden of every failure. He was facile by nature, and capable of being
+led by such as had skill and temper for the task. But the impetuous
+Montcalm was not of their number; and the fact that he was born in
+France would in itself have thrown obstacles in his way to the good
+graces of the Governor. Vaudreuil, Canadian by birth, loved the colony
+and its people, and distrusted Old France and all that came out of it.
+He had been bred, moreover, to the naval service; and, like other
+Canadian governors, his official correspondence was with the minister of
+marine, while that of Montcalm was with the minister of war. Even had
+Nature made him less suspicious, his relations with the General would
+have been critical. Montcalm commanded the regulars from France, whose
+very presence was in the eyes of Vaudreuil an evil, though a necessary
+one. Their chief was, it is true, subordinate to him in virtue of his
+office of governor; [368] yet it was clear that for the conduct of the
+war the trust of the Government was mainly in Montcalm; and the Minister
+of War had even suggested that he should have the immediate command, not
+only of the troops from France, but of the colony regulars and the
+militia. An order of the King to this effect was sent to Vaudreuil, with
+instructions to communicate it to Montcalm or withhold it, as he should
+think best. [369] He lost no time in replying that the General "ought to
+concern himself with nothing but the command of the troops from France;"
+and he returned the order to the minister who sent it. [370] The
+Governor and the General represented the two parties which were soon to
+divide Canada,--those of New France and of Old.
+
+[366] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 30 Oct. 1755.
+
+[367] Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, Fév. 1756.
+
+[368] Le Ministre à Vaudreuil, 15 Mars, 1756. Commission du Marquis de
+Montcalm. Mémoire du Roy pour servir d'Instruction au Marquis de
+Montcalm.
+
+[369] Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, 1756. Le Ministre à
+Vaudreuil, 15 Mars, 1756.
+
+[370] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 16 Juin, 1756. "Qu'il ne se mêle que du
+commandement des troupes de terre."
+
+A like antagonism was seen in the forces commanded by the two chiefs.
+These were of three kinds,--the troupes de terre, troops of the line, or
+regulars from France; the troupes de la marine, or colony regulars; and
+lastly the militia. The first consisted of the four battalions that had
+come over with Dieskau and the two that had come with Montcalm,
+comprising in all a little less than three thousand men. [371] Besides
+these, the battalions of Artois and Bourgogne, to the number of eleven
+hundred men, were in garrison at Louisbourg. All these troops wore a
+white uniform, faced with blue, red, yellow, or violet, [372] a black
+three-cornered hat, and gaiters, generally black, from the foot to the
+knee. The subaltern officers in the French service were very numerous,
+and were drawn chiefly from the class of lesser nobles. A well-informed
+French writer calls them "a generation of petits-maîtres, dissolute,
+frivolous, heedless, light-witted; but brave always, and ready to die
+with their soldiers, though not to suffer with them." [373] In fact the
+course of the war was to show plainly that in Europe the regiments of
+France were no longer what they had once been. It was not so with those
+who fought in America. Here, for enduring gallantry, officers and men
+alike deserve nothing but praise.
+
+[371] Of about twelve hundred who came with Montcalm, nearly three
+hundred were now in hospital. The four battalions that came with Dieskau
+are reported at the end of May to have sixteen hundred and fifty-three
+effective men. État de la Situation actuelle des Bataillons, appended to
+Montcalm's despatch of 12 June. Another document, Dêtail de ce qui s'est
+passé en Canada, Juin, 1755, jusqu'à Juin, 1756, sets the united
+effective strength of the battalions in Canada at twenty-six hundred and
+seventy-seven, which was increased by recruits which arrived from France
+about midsummer.
+
+[372] Except perhaps, the battalion of Béarn, which formerly wore, and
+possibly wore still, a uniform of light blue.
+
+[373] Susane, Ancienne Infanterie Française. In the atlas of this work
+are colored plates of the uniforms of all the regiments of foot.
+
+The troupes de la marine had for a long time formed the permanent
+military establishment of Canada. Though attached to the naval
+department, they served on land, and were employed as a police within
+the limits of the colony, or as garrisons of the outlying forts, where
+their officers busied themselves more with fur-trading than with their
+military duties. Thus they had become ill-disciplined and inefficient,
+till the hard hand of Duquesne restored them to order. They originally
+consisted of twenty-eight independent companies, increased in 1750 to
+thirty companies, at first of fifty, and afterwards of sixty-five men
+each, forming a total of nineteen hundred and fifty rank and file. In
+March, 1757, ten more companies were added. Their uniform was not unlike
+that of the troops attached to the War Department, being white, with
+black facings. They were enlisted for the most part in France; but when
+their term of service expired, and even before, in time of peace, they
+were encouraged to become settlers in the colony, as was also the case
+with their officers, of whom a great part were of European birth. Thus
+the relations of the troupes de la marine with the colony were close;
+and they formed a sort of connecting link between the troops of the line
+and the native militia. [374] Besides these colony regulars, there was a
+company of colonial artillery, consisting this year of seventy men, and
+replaced in 1757 by two companies of fifty men each.
+
+[374] On the troupes de la marine,--Mémoire pour servir d'Instruction à
+MM. Jonquière et Bigot, 30 Avril, 1749. Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des
+Ministres, 1750. Ibid., 1755. Ibid., 1757. Instruction pour Vaudreuil,
+22 Mars, 1755. Ordonnance pour l'Augmentation de Soldats dans les
+Compagnies de Canada, 14 Mars, 1755. Duquesne au Ministre, 26 Oct. 1753.
+Ibid., 30 Oct. 1753. Ibid., 29 Fév. 1754. Duquesne à Marin, 27 Août,
+1753. Atlas de Susane.
+
+All the effective male population of Canada, from fifteen years to
+sixty, was enrolled in the militia, and called into service at the will
+of the Governor. They received arms, clothing, equipment, and rations
+from the King, but no pay; and instead of tents they made themselves
+huts of bark or branches. The best of them were drawn from the upper
+parts of the colony, where habits of bushranging were still in full
+activity. Their fighting qualities were much like those of the Indians,
+whom they rivalled in endurance and in the arts of forest war. As
+bush-fighters they had few equals; they fought well behind earthworks,
+and were good at a surprise or sudden dash; but for regular battle on
+the open field they were of small account, being disorderly, and apt to
+break and take to cover at the moment of crisis. They had no idea of the
+great operations of war. At first they despised the regulars for their
+ignorance of woodcraft, and thought themselves able to defend the colony
+alone; while the regulars regarded them in turn with a contempt no less
+unjust. They were excessively given to gasconade, and every true
+Canadian boasted himself a match for three Englishmen at least. In 1750
+the militia of all ranks counted about thirteen thousand; and eight
+years later the number had increased to about fifteen thousand. [375]
+Until the last two years of the war, those employed in actual warfare
+were but few. Even in the critical year 1758 only about eleven hundred
+were called to arms, except for two or three weeks in summer; [376]
+though about four thousand were employed in transporting troops and
+supplies, for which service they received pay.
+
+[375] Récapitulation des Milices du Gouvernement de Canada, 1750.
+Dénombrement des Milices, 1758, 1759. On the militia, see also
+Bougainville in Margry, Rélations et Mémoires inédits, 60, and N. Y.
+Col. Docs., X. 680.
+
+[376] Montcalm au Ministre, 1 Sept. 1758.
+
+To the white fighting force of the colony are to be added the red men.
+The most trusty of them were the Mission Indians, living within or near
+the settled limits of Canada, chiefly the Hurons of Lorette, the
+Abenakis of St. Francis and Batiscan, the Iroquois of Caughnawaga and La
+Présentation, and the Iroquois and Algonkins at the Two Mountains on the
+Ottawa. Besides these, all the warriors of the west and north, from Lake
+Superior to the Ohio, and from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, were
+now at the beck of France. As to the Iroquois or Five Nations who still
+remained in their ancient seats within the present limits of New York,
+their power and pride had greatly fallen; and crowded as they were
+between the French and the English, they were in a state of vacillation,
+some leaning to one side, some to the other, and some to each in turn.
+As a whole, the best that France could expect from them was neutrality.
+
+Montcalm at Montreal had more visits than he liked from his red allies.
+"They are vilains messieurs," he informs his mother, "even when fresh
+from their toilet, at which they pass their lives. You would not believe
+it, but the men always carry to war, along with their tomahawk and gun,
+a mirror to daub their faces with various colors, and arrange feathers
+on their heads and rings in their ears and noses. They think it a great
+beauty to cut the rim of the ear and stretch it till it reaches the
+shoulder. Often they wear a laced coat, with no shirt at all. You would
+take them for so many masqueraders or devils. One needs the patience of
+an angel to get on with them. Ever since I have been here, I have had
+nothing but visits, harangues, and deputations of these gentry. The
+Iroquois ladies, who always take part in their government, came also,
+and did me the honor to bring me belts of wampum, which will oblige me
+to go to their village and sing the war-song. They are only a little way
+off. Yesterday we had eighty-three warriors here, who have gone out to
+fight. They make war with astounding cruelty, sparing neither men,
+women, nor children, and take off your scalp very neatly,--an operation
+which generally kills you.
+
+"Everything is horribly dear in this country; and I shall find it hard
+to make the two ends of the year meet, with the twenty-five thousand
+francs the King gives me. The Chevalier de Lévis did not join me till
+yesterday. His health is excellent. In a few days I shall send him to
+one camp, and M. de Bourlamaque to another; for we have three of them:
+one at Carillon, eighty leagues from here, towards the place where M. de
+Dieskau had his affair last year; another at Frontenac, sixty leagues;
+and the third at Niagara, a hundred and forty leagues. I don't know when
+or whither I shall go myself; that depends on the movements of the
+enemy. It seems to me that things move slowly in this new world; and I
+shall have to moderate my activity accordingly. Nothing but the King's
+service and the wish to make a career for my son could prevent me from
+thinking too much of my expatriation, my distance from you, and the dull
+existence here, which would be duller still if I did not manage to keep
+some little of my natural gayety."
+
+The military situation was somewhat perplexing. Iroquois spies had
+brought reports of great preparations on the part of the English. As
+neither party dared offend these wavering tribes, their warriors could
+pass with impunity from one to the other, and were paid by each for
+bringing information, not always trustworthy. They declared that the
+English were gathering in force to renew the attempt made by Johnson the
+year before against Crown Point and Ticonderoga, as well as that made by
+Shirley against forts Frontenac and Niagara. Vaudreuil had spared no
+effort to meet the double danger. Lotbinière, a Canadian engineer, had
+been busied during the winter in fortifying Ticonderoga, while Pouchot,
+a captain in the battalion of Béarn, had rebuilt Niagara, and two French
+engineers were at work in strengthening the defences of Frontenac. The
+Governor even hoped to take the offensive, anticipate the movements of
+the English, capture Oswego, and obtain the complete command of Lake
+Ontario. Early in the spring a blow had been struck which materially
+aided these schemes.
+
+The English had built two small forts to guard the Great Carrying Place
+on the route to Oswego. One of these, Fort Williams, was on the Mohawk;
+the other, Fort Bull, a mere collection of storehouses surrounded by a
+palisade, was four miles distant, on the bank of Wood Creek. Here a
+great quantity of stores and ammunition had imprudently been collected
+against the opening campaign. In February Vaudreuil sent Léry, a
+colony officer, with three hundred and sixty-two picked men, soldiers,
+Canadians, and Indians, to seize these two posts. Towards the end of
+March, after extreme hardship, they reached the road that connected
+them, and at half-past five in the morning captured twelve men going
+with wagons to Fort Bull. Learning from them the weakness of that place,
+they dashed forward to surprise it. The thirty provincials of Shirley's
+regiment who formed the garrison had barely time to shut the gate, while
+the assailants fired on them through the loopholes, of which they got
+possession in the tumult. Léry called on the defenders to yield; but
+they refused, and pelted the French for an hour with bullets and
+hand-grenades. The gate was at last beat down with axes, and they were
+summoned again; but again refused, and fired hotly through the opening.
+The French rushed in, shouting Vive le roi, and a frightful struggle
+followed. All the garrison were killed, except two or three who hid
+themselves till the slaughter was over; the fort was set on fire and
+blown to atoms by the explosion of the magazines; and Léry then
+withdrew, not venturing to attack Fort Williams. Johnson, warned by
+Indians of the approach of the French, had pushed up the Mohawk with
+reinforcements; but came too late. [377]
+
+[377] Bigot au Ministre, 12 Avril, 1756. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 1 Juin,
+1756. Ibid., 8 Juin, 1756. Journal de ce qui s'est passé en Canada
+depuis le Mois d'Octobre, 1755, jusqu'au Mois de Juin, 1756. Shirley to
+Fox, 7 May, 1756. Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly stated.
+Information of Captain John Vicars, of the Fiftieth (Shirley's)
+Regiment. Eastburn, Faithful Narrative. Entick, I. 471. The French
+accounts place the number of English at sixty or eighty.
+
+
+Vaudreuil, who always exaggerates any success in which he has had part,
+says that besides bombs, bullets, cannon-balls, and other munitions,
+forty-five thousand pounds of gunpowder were destroyed on this occasion.
+It is certain that damage enough was done to retard English operations
+in the direction of Oswego sufficiently to give the French time for
+securing all their posts on Lake Ontario. Before the end of June this
+was in good measure done. The battalion of Béarn lay encamped before the
+now strong fort of Niagara, and the battalions of Guienne and La Sarre,
+with a body of Canadians, guarded Frontenac against attack. Those of La
+Reine and Languedoc had been sent to Ticonderoga, while the Governor,
+with Montcalm and Lévis, still remained at Montreal watching the turn of
+events. [378] Hither, too, came the intendant François Bigot, the most
+accomplished knave in Canada, yet indispensable for his vigor and
+executive skill; Bougainville, who had disarmed the jealousy of
+Vaudreuil, and now stood high in his good graces; and the
+Adjutant-General, Montreuil, clearly a vain and pragmatic personage,
+who, having come to Canada with Dieskau the year before, thought it
+behooved him to give the General the advantage of his experience. "I
+like M. de Montcalm very much," he writes to the minister, "and will do
+the impossible to deserve his confidence. I have spoken to him in the
+same terms as to M. Dieskau; thus: 'Trust only the French regulars for
+an expedition, but use the Canadians and Indians to harass the enemy.
+Don't expose yourself; send me to carry your orders to points of
+danger.' The colony officers do not like those from France. The
+Canadians are independent, spiteful, lying, boastful; very good for
+skirmishing, very brave behind a tree, and very timid when not under
+cover. I think both sides will stand on the defensive. It does not seem
+to me that M. de Montcalm means to attack the enemy; and I think he is
+right. In this country a thousand men could stop three thousand." [379]
+
+[378] Correspondance de Montcalm, Vaudreuil, et Lévis.
+
+[379] Montreuil au Ministre, 12 Juin, 1756. The original is in cipher.
+
+"M. de Vaudreuil overwhelms me with civilities," Montcalm writes to the
+Minister of War. "I think that he is pleased with my conduct towards
+him, and that it persuades him there are general officers in France who
+can act under his orders without prejudice or ill-humor." [380] "I am on
+good terms with him," he says again; "but not in his confidence, which
+he never gives to anybody from France. His intentions are good, but he
+is slow and irresolute." [381]
+
+[380] Montcalm au Ministre, 12 Juin, 1756.
+
+[381] Ibid., 19 Juin, 1756. "Je suis bien avec luy, sans sa confiance,
+qu'il ne donne jamais à personne de la France." Erroneously rendered in
+N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 421.
+
+Indians presently brought word that ten thousand English were coming to
+attack Ticonderoga. A reinforcement of colony regulars was at once
+despatched to join the two battalions already there; a third battalion,
+Royal Roussillon, was sent after them. The militia were called out and
+ordered to follow with all speed, while both Montcalm and Lévis hastened
+to the supposed scene of danger. [382] They embarked in canoes on the
+Richelieu, coasted the shore of Lake Champlain, passed Fort Frederic or
+Crown Point, where all was activity and bustle, and reached Ticonderoga
+at the end of June. They found the fort, on which Lotbinière had been at
+work all winter, advanced towards completion. It stood on the crown of
+the promontory, and was a square with four bastions, a ditch, blown in
+some parts out of the solid rock, bomb-proofs, barracks of stone, and a
+system of exterior defences as yet only begun. The rampart consisted of
+two parallel walls ten feet apart, built of the trunks of trees, and
+held together by transverse logs dovetailed at both ends, the space
+between being filled with earth and gravel well packed. [383] Such was
+the first Fort Ticonderoga, or Carillon,--a structure quite distinct
+from the later fort of which the ruins still stand on the same spot. The
+forest had been hewn away for some distance around, and the tents of the
+regulars and huts of the Canadians had taken its place; innumerable bark
+canoes lay along the strand, and gangs of men toiled at the unfinished
+works.
+
+[382] Montcalm au Ministre, 26 Juin, 1756. Détail de ce qui s'est passé,
+Oct. 1755--Juin, 1756.
+
+[383] Lotbinière au Ministre, 31 Oct. 1756. Montcalm au Ministre, 20
+Juillet, 1756.
+
+Ticonderoga was now the most advanced position of the French, and Crown
+Point, which had before held that perilous honor, was in the second
+line. Lévis, to whom had been assigned the permanent command of this
+post of danger, set out on foot to explore the neighboring woods and
+mountains, and slept out several nights before he reappeared at the
+camp. "I do not think," says Montcalm, "that many high officers in
+Europe would have occasion to take such tramps as this. I cannot speak
+too well of him. Without being a man of brilliant parts, he has good
+experience, good sense, and a quick eye; and, though I had served with
+him before, I never should have thought that he had such promptness and
+efficiency. He has turned his campaigns to good account." [384] Lévis
+writes of his chief with equal warmth. "I do not know if the Marquis de
+Montcalm is pleased with me, but I am sure that I am very much so with
+him, and shall always be charmed to serve under his orders. It is not
+for me, Monseigneur, to speak to you of his merit and his talents. You
+know him better than anybody else; but I may have the honor of assuring
+you that he has pleased everybody in this colony, and manages affairs
+with the Indians extremely well." [385]
+
+[384] Montcalm au Ministre, 20 Juillet, 1756.
+
+[385] Lévis au Ministre, 17 Juillet, 1756.
+
+The danger from the English proved to be still remote, and there was
+ample leisure in the camp. Duchat, a young captain in the battalion of
+Languedoc, used it in writing to his father a long account of what he
+saw about him,--the forests full of game; the ducks, geese, and
+partridges; the prodigious flocks of wild pigeons that darkened
+the air, the bears, the beavers; and above all the Indians, their
+canoes, dress, ball-play, and dances. "We are making here," says the
+military prophet, "a place that history will not forget. The English
+colonies have ten times more people than ours; but these wretches have
+not the least knowledge of war, and if they go out to fight, they must
+abandon wives, children, and all that they possess. Not a week passes
+but the French send them a band of hairdressers, whom they would be very
+glad to dispense with. It is incredible what a quantity of scalps they
+bring us. In Virginia they have committed unheard-of cruelties, carried
+off families, burned a great many houses, and killed an infinity of
+people. These miserable English are in the extremity of distress, and
+repent too late the unjust war they began against us. It is a pleasure
+to make war in Canada. One is troubled neither with horses nor baggage;
+the King provides everything. But it must be confessed that if it costs
+no money, one pays for it in another way, by seeing nothing but pease
+and bacon on the mess-table. Luckily the lakes are full of fish, and
+both officers and soldiers have to turn fishermen." [386]
+
+[386] Relation de M. Duchat, Capitaine au Régiment de Languedoc, écrite
+au Camp de Carillon, 15 Juillet, 1756.
+
+Meanwhile, at the head of Lake George, the raw bands of ever-active New
+England were mustering for the fray.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+1756.
+
+OSWEGO.
+
+The new Campaign • Untimely Change of Commanders • Eclipse of Shirley •
+Earl of Loudon • Muster of Provincials • New England Levies • Winslow at
+Lake George • Johnson and the Five Nations • Bradstreet and his Boatmen
+• Fight on the Onondaga • Pestilence at Oswego • Loudon and the
+Provincials • New England Camps • Army Chaplains • A sudden Blow •
+Montcalm attacks Oswego • Its Fall.
+
+When, at the end of the last year, Shirley returned from his bootless
+Oswego campaign, he called a council of war at New York and laid before
+it his scheme for the next summer's operations. It was a comprehensive
+one: to master Lake Ontario by an overpowering naval force and seize the
+French forts upon it, Niagara, Frontenac, and Toronto; attack
+Ticonderoga and Crown Point on the one hand, and Fort Duquesne on the
+other, and at the same time perplex and divide the enemy by an inroad
+down the Chaudière upon the settlements about Quebec. [387] The council
+approved the scheme; but to execute it the provinces must raise at least
+sixteen thousand men. This they refused to do. Pennsylvania and Virginia
+would take no active part, and were content with defending themselves.
+The attack on Fort Duquesne was therefore abandoned, as was also the
+diversion towards Quebec. The New England colonies were discouraged by
+Johnson's failure to take Crown Point, doubtful of the military
+abilities of Shirley, and embarrassed by the debts of the last campaign;
+but when they learned that Parliament would grant a sum of money in
+partial compensation for their former sacrifices, [388] they plunged
+into new debts without hesitation, and raised more men than the General
+had asked; though, with their usual jealousy, they provided that their
+soldiers should be employed for no other purpose than the attack on
+Ticonderoga and Crown Point. Shirley chose John Winslow to command them,
+and gave him a commission to that effect; while he, to clinch his
+authority, asked and obtained supplementary commissions from every
+government that gave men to the expedition. [389] For the movement
+against the forts of Lake Ontario, which Shirley meant to command in
+person, he had the remains of his own and Pepperell's regiments, the two
+shattered battalions brought over by Braddock, the "Jersey Blues," four
+provincial companies from North Carolina, and the four King's companies
+of New York. His first care was to recruit their ranks and raise them to
+their full complement; which, when effected, would bring them up to the
+insufficient strength of about forty-four hundred men.
+
+[387] Minutes of Council of War held at New York, 12 and 13 Dec. 1755.
+Shirley to Robinson, 19 Dec. 1755. The Conduct of Major-General Shirley
+briefly stated. Review of Military Operations in North America.
+
+[388] Lords of Trade to Lords of the Treasury, 12 Feb. 1756. Fox to
+American Governors, 13 March, 1756. Shirley to Phipps, 15 June, 1756.
+The sum was £115,000, divided in proportion to the expense incurred by
+the several colonies; Massachusetts having £54,000, Connecticut £26,000,
+and New York £15,000, the rest being given to New Hampshire, Rhode
+Island, and New Jersey.
+
+[389] Letter and Order Books of General Winslow, 1756.
+
+While he was struggling with contradictions and cross purposes, a
+withering blow fell upon him; he learned that he was superseded in the
+command. The cabal formed against him, with Delancey at its head, had
+won over Sir Charles Hardy, the new governor of New York, and had
+painted Shirley's conduct in such colors that the Ministry removed him.
+It was essential for the campaign that a successor should be sent at
+once, to form plans on the spot and make preparations accordingly. The
+Ministry were in no such haste. It was presently announced that Colonel
+Daniel Webb would be sent to America, followed by General James
+Abercromby; who was to be followed in turn by the Earl of Loudon, the
+destined commander-in-chief. Shirley was to resign his command to Webb,
+Webb to Abercromby, and Abercromby to Loudon. [390] It chanced that the
+two former arrived in June at about the same time, while the Earl came
+in July; and meanwhile it devolved on Shirley to make ready for them.
+Unable to divine what their plans would be, he prepared the campaign in
+accordance with his own.
+
+[390] Fox to Shirley, 13 March, 1756. Ibid., 31 March, 1756. Order to
+Colonel Webb, 31 March, 1756. Order to Major-General Abercromby, 1
+April, 1756. Halifax to Shirley, 1 April, 1756. Shirley to Fox, 13 June,
+1756.
+
+His star, so bright a twelvemonth before, was now miserably dimmed. In
+both his public and private life he was the butt of adversity. He had
+lost two promising sons; he had made a mortifying failure as a soldier;
+and triumphant enemies were rejoicing in his fall. It is to the credit
+of his firmness and his zeal in the cause that he set himself to his
+task with as much vigor as if he, and not others, were to gather the
+fruits. His chief care was for his favorite enterprise in the direction
+of Lake Ontario. Making Albany his headquarters, he rebuilt the fort at
+the Great Carrying Place destroyed in March by the French, sent troops
+to guard the perilous route to Oswego, and gathered provisions and
+stores at the posts along the way.
+
+Meanwhile the New England men, strengthened by the levies of New York,
+were mustering at Albany for the attack of Crown Point. At the end of
+May they moved a short distance up the Hudson, and encamped at a place
+called Half-Moon, where the navigation was stopped by rapids. Here and
+at the posts above were gathered something more than five thousand men,
+as raw and untrained as those led by Johnson in the summer before. [391]
+The four New England colonies were much alike in their way of raising
+and equipping men, and the example of Massachusetts may serve for them
+all. The Assembly or "General Court" voted the required number, and
+chose a committee of war authorized to impress provisions, munitions,
+stores, clothing, tools, and other necessaries, for which fair prices
+were to be paid within six months. The Governor issued a proclamation
+calling for volunteers. If the full number did not appear within the
+time named, the colonels of militia were ordered to muster their
+regiments, and immediately draft out of them men enough to meet the
+need. A bounty of six dollars was offered this year to stimulate
+enlistment, and the pay of a private soldier was fixed at one pound six
+shillings a month, Massachusetts currency. If he brought a gun, he had
+an additional bounty of two dollars. A powder-horn, bullet-pouch,
+blanket, knapsack, and "wooden bottle," or canteen, were supplied by the
+province; and if he brought no gun of his own, a musket was given him,
+for which, as for the other articles, he was to account at the end of
+the campaign. In the next year it was announced that the soldier should
+receive, besides his pay, "a coat and soldier's hat." The coat was of
+coarse blue cloth, to which breeches of red or blue were afterwards
+added. Along with his rations, he was promised a gill of rum each day, a
+privilege of which he was extremely jealous, deeply resenting every
+abridgment of it. He was enlisted for the campaign, and could not be
+required to serve above a year at farthest.
+
+[391] Letter and Order Books of Winslow, 1756.
+
+The complement of a regiment was five hundred, divided into companies of
+fifty; and as the men and officers of each were drawn from the same
+neighborhood, they generally knew each other. The officers, though
+nominally appointed by the Assembly, were for the most part the virtual
+choice of the soldiers themselves, from whom they were often
+indistinguishable in character and social standing. Hence discipline was
+weak. The pay--or, as it was called, the wages--of a colonel was twelve
+pounds sixteen shillings, Massachusetts currency, a month; that of a
+captain, five pounds eight shillings,--an advance on the pay of the last
+year; and that of a chaplain, six pounds eight shillings. [392]
+Penalties were enacted against "irreligion, immorality, drunkenness,
+debauchery, and profaneness." The ordinary punishments were the wooden
+horse, irons, or, in bad cases, flogging.
+
+[392] Vote of General Court, 26 Feb. 1756.
+
+Much difficulty arose from the different rules adopted by the various
+colonies for the regulation of their soldiers. Nor was this the only
+source of trouble. Besides its war committee, the Assembly of each of
+the four New England colonies chose another committee "for clothing,
+arming, paying, victualling, and transporting" its troops. They were to
+go to the scene of operations, hire wagons, oxen, and horses, build
+boats and vessels, and charge themselves with the conveyance of all
+supplies belonging to their respective governments. They were to keep in
+correspondence with the committee of war at home, to whom they were
+responsible; and the officer commanding the contingent of their colony
+was required to furnish them with guards and escorts. Thus four
+independent committees were engaged in the work of transportation at the
+same time, over the same roads, for the same object. Each colony chose
+to keep the control of its property in its own hands. The inconveniences
+were obvious: "I wish to God," wrote Lord Loudon to Winslow, "you could
+persuade your people to go all one way." The committees themselves did
+not always find their task agreeable. One of their number, John Ashley,
+of Massachusetts, writes in dudgeon to Governor Phipps: "Sir, I am apt
+to think that things have been misrepresented to your Honor, or else I
+am certain I should not suffer in my character, and be styled a damned
+rascal, and ought to be put in irons, etc., when I am certain I have
+exerted myself to the utmost of my ability to expedite the business
+assigned me by the General Court." At length, late in the autumn, Loudon
+persuaded the colonies to forego this troublesome sort of independence,
+and turn over their stores to the commissary-general, receipts being
+duly given. [393]
+
+[393] The above particulars are gathered from the voluminous papers in
+the State House at Boston, Archives, Military, Vols. LXXV., LXXVI. These
+contain the military acts of the General Court, proclamations, reports
+of committees, and other papers relating to military affairs in 1755 and
+1756. The Letter and Order Books of Winslow, in the Library of the
+Massachusetts Historical Society, have supplied much concurrent matter.
+See also Colonial Records of R. I., V., and Provincial Papers of N. H.,
+VI.
+
+From Winslow's headquarters at Half-Moon a road led along the banks of
+the Hudson to Stillwater, whence there was water carriage to Saratoga.
+Here stores were again placed in wagons and carried several miles to
+Upper Falls; thence by boat to Fort Edward; and thence, fourteen miles
+across country, to Fort William Henry at Lake George, where the army was
+to embark for Ticonderoga. Each of the points of transit below Fort
+Edward was guarded by a stockade and two or more companies of
+provincials. They were much pestered by Indians, who now and then
+scalped a straggler, and escaped with their usual nimbleness. From time
+to time strong bands of Canadians and Indians approached by way of South
+Bay or Wood Creek, and threatened more serious mischief. It is
+surprising that some of the trains were not cut off, for the escorts
+were often reckless and disorderly to the last degree. Sometimes the
+invaders showed great audacity. Early in June Colonel Fitch at Albany
+scrawls a hasty note to Winslow: "Friday, 11 o'clock: Sir, about half an
+hour since, a party of near fifty French and Indians had the impudence
+to come down to the river opposite to this city and captivate two men;"
+and Winslow replies with equal quaintness: "We daily discover the
+Indians about us; but not yet have been so happy as to obtain any of
+them." [394]
+
+[394] Vaudreuil, in his despatch of 12 August, gives particulars of
+these raids, with an account of the scalps taken on each occasion. He
+thought the results disappointing.
+
+Colonel Jonathan Bagley commanded at Fort William Henry, where gangs of
+men were busied under his eye in building three sloops and making
+several hundred whaleboats to carry the army of Ticonderoga. The season
+was advancing fast, and Winslow urged him to hasten on the work; to
+which the humorous Bagley answered: "Shall leave no stone unturned;
+every wheel shall go that rum and human flesh can move." [395] A
+fortnight after he reports: "I must really confess I have almost wore
+the men out, poor dogs. Pray where are the committee, or what are they
+about?" He sent scouts to watch the enemy, with results not quite
+satisfactory. "There is a vast deal of news here; every party brings
+abundance, but all different." Again, a little later: "I constantly keep
+out small scouting parties to the eastward and westward of the lake, and
+make no discovery but the tracks of small parties who are plaguing us
+constantly; but what vexes me most, we can't catch one of the sons
+of----. I have sent out skulking parties some distance from the sentries
+in the night, to lie still in the bushes to intercept them; but the
+flies are so plenty, our people can't bear them." [396] Colonel David
+Wooster, at Fort Edward, was no more fortunate in his attempts to take
+satisfaction on his midnight visitors; and reports that he has not thus
+far been able "to give those villains a dressing." [397] The English,
+however, were fast learning the art of forest war, and the partisan
+chief, Captain Robert Rogers, began already to be famous. On the
+seventeenth of June he and his band lay hidden in the bushes within the
+outposts of Ticonderoga, and made a close survey of the fort and
+surrounding camps. [398] His report was not cheering. Winslow's
+so-called army had now grown to nearly seven thousand men; and these, it
+was plain, were not too many to drive the French from their stronghold.
+
+[395] Bagley to Winslow, 2 July, 1756.
+
+[396] Ibid., 15 July, 1756.
+
+[397] Wooster to Winslow, 2 June, 1756.
+
+[398] Report of Rogers, 19 June, 1756. Much abridged in his published
+Journals.
+
+While Winslow pursued his preparations, tried to settle disputes of rank
+among the colonels of the several colonies, and strove to bring order
+out of the little chaos of his command, Sir William Johnson was engaged
+in a work for which he was admirably fitted. This was the attaching of
+the Five Nations to the English interest. Along with his patent of
+baronetcy, which reached him about this time, he received, direct from
+the Crown, the commission of "Colonel, Agent, and Sole Superintendent of
+the Six Nations and other Northern Tribes." [399] Henceforth he was
+independent of governors and generals, and responsible to the Court
+alone. His task was a difficult one. The Five Nations would fain have
+remained neutral, and let the European rivals fight it out; but, on
+account of their local position, they could not. The exactions and lies
+of the Albany traders, the frauds of land-speculators, the contradictory
+action of the different provincial governments, joined to English
+weakness and mismanagement in the last war, all conspired to alienate
+them and to aid the efforts of the French agents, who cajoled and
+threatened them by turns. But for Johnson these intrigues would have
+prevailed. He had held a series of councils with them at Fort Johnson
+during the winter, and not only drew from them a promise to stand by the
+English, but persuaded all the confederated tribes, except the Cayugas,
+to consent that the English should build forts near their chief towns,
+under the pretext of protecting them from the French. [400]
+
+[399] Fox to Johnson, 13 March, 1756. Papers of Sir William Johnson.
+
+[400] Conferences between Sir William Johnson and the Indians, Dec.
+1755, to Feb. 1756, in N. Y. Col. Docs., VII. 44-74. Account of
+Conferences held and Treaties made between Sir William Johnson, Bart.,
+and the Indian Nations of North America (London, 1756).
+
+In June he went to Onondaga, well escorted, for the way was dangerous.
+This capital of the Confederacy was under a cloud. It had just lost one
+Red Head, its chief sachem; and first of all it behooved the baronet to
+condole their affliction. The ceremony was long, with compliments,
+lugubrious speeches, wampum-belts, the scalp of an enemy to replace the
+departed, and a final glass of rum for each of the assembled mourners.
+The conferences lasted a fortnight; and when Johnson took his leave, the
+tribes stood pledged to lift the hatchet for the English. [401]
+
+[401] Minutes of Councils of Onondaga, 19 June to 3 July, 1756, in N. Y.
+Col. Docs., VII. 134-150.
+
+When he returned to Fort Johnson a fever seized him, and he lay helpless
+for a time; then rose from his sick bed to meet another congregation of
+Indians. These were deputies of the Five Nations, with Mohegans from the
+Hudson, and Delawares and Shawanoes from the Susquehanna, whom he had
+persuaded to visit him in hope that he might induce them to cease from
+murdering the border settlers. All their tribesmen were in arms against
+the English; but he prevailed at last, and they accepted the war-belt at
+his hands. The Delawares complained that their old conquerors, the Five
+Nations, had forced them "to wear the petticoat," that is, to be counted
+not as warriors but as women. Johnson, in presence of all the Assembly,
+now took off the figurative garment, and pronounced them henceforth men.
+A grand war-dance followed. A hundred and fifty Mohawks, Oneidas,
+Onondagas, Delawares, Shawanoes, and Mohegans stamped, whooped, and
+yelled all night. [402] In spite of Piquet, the two Joncaires, and the
+rest of the French agents, Johnson had achieved a success. But would the
+Indians keep their word? It was more than doubtful. While some of them
+treated with him on the Mohawk, others treated with Vaudreuil at
+Montreal. [403] A display of military vigor on the English side, crowned
+by some signal victory, would alone make their alliance sure.
+
+[402] Minutes of Councils at Fort Johnson, 9 July to 12 July, in N. Y.
+Col. Docs., VII. 152-160.
+
+[403] Conferences between M. de Vaudreuil and the Five Nations, 28 July
+to 20 Aug., in N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 445-453.
+
+It was not the French only who thwarted the efforts of Johnson; for
+while he strove to make friends of the Delawares and Shawanoes, Governor
+Morris of Pennsylvania declared war against them, and Governor Belcher
+of New Jersey followed his example; though persuaded at last to hold his
+hand till the baronet had tried the virtue of pacific measures. [404]
+
+[404] Johnson to Lords of Trade, 28 May, 1756. Ibid., 17 July, 1756.
+Johnson to Shirley, 24 April, 1756. Colonial Records of Pa., VII. 75,
+88, 194.
+
+What Shirley longed for was the collecting of a body of Five Nation
+warriors at Oswego to aid him in his cherished enterprise against
+Niagara and Frontenac. The warriors had promised him to come; but there
+was small hope that they would do so. Meanwhile he was at Albany
+pursuing his preparations, posting his scanty force in the forts newly
+built on the Mohawk and the Great Carrying Place, and sending forward
+stores and provisions. Having no troops to spare for escorts, he
+invented a plan which, like everything he did, was bitterly criticised.
+He took into pay two thousand boatmen, gathered from all parts of the
+country, including many whalemen from the eastern coasts of New England,
+divided them into companies of fifty, armed each with a gun and a
+hatchet, and placed them under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel John
+Bradstreet. [405] Thus organized, they would, he hoped, require no
+escort. Bradstreet was a New England officer who had been a captain in
+the last war, somewhat dogged and self-opinioned, but brave, energetic,
+and well fitted for this kind of service.
+
+[405] Shirley to Fox, 7 May, 1756. Shirley to Abercromby, 27 June, 1756.
+London to Fox, 19 Aug. 1756.
+
+In May Vaudreuil sent Coulon de Villiers with eleven hundred soldiers,
+Canadians, and Indians, to harass Oswego and cut its communications
+with Albany. [406] Nevertheless Bradstreet safely conducted a convoy of
+provisions and military stores to the garrison; and on the third of July
+set out on his return with the empty boats. The party were pushing their
+way up the river in three divisions. The first of these, consisting of a
+hundred boats and three hundred men, with Bradstreet at their head, were
+about nine miles from Oswego, when, at three in the afternoon, they
+received a heavy volley from the forest on the east bank. It was fired
+by a part of Villiers' command, consisting, by English accounts, of
+about seven hundred men. A considerable number of the boatmen were
+killed or disabled, and the others made for the shelter of the western
+shore. Some prisoners were taken in the confusion; and if the French had
+been content to stop here, they might fairly have claimed a kind of
+victory: but, eager to push their advantage, they tried to cross under
+cover of an island just above. Bradstreet saw the movement, and landed
+on the island with six or eight followers, among whom was young Captain
+Schuyler, afterwards General Schuyler of the Revolution. Their fire kept
+the enemy in check till others joined them, to the number of about
+twenty. These a second and a third time beat back the French, who now
+gave over the attempt, and made for another ford at some distance above.
+Bradstreet saw their intention; and collecting two hundred and fifty
+men, was about to advance up the west bank to oppose them, when Dr.
+Kirkland, a surgeon, came to tell him that the second division of boats
+had come up, and that the men had landed. Bradstreet ordered them to
+stay where they were, and defend the lower crossing: then hastened
+forward; but when he reached the upper ford, the French had passed the
+river, and were ensconced in a pine-swamp near the shore. Here he
+attacked them; and both parties fired at each other from behind trees
+for an hour, with little effect. Bradstreet at length encouraged his men
+to make a rush at the enemy, who were put to flight and driven into the
+river, where many were shot or drowned as they tried to cross. Another
+party of the French had meanwhile passed by a ford still higher up to
+support their comrades; but the fight was over before they reached the
+spot, and they in their turn were set upon and driven back across the
+stream. Half an hour after, Captain Patten arrived from Onondaga with
+the grenadiers of Shirley's regiment; and late in the evening two
+hundred men came from Oswego to reinforce the victors. In the morning
+Bradstreet prepared to follow the French to their camp, twelve miles
+distant; but was prevented by a heavy rain which lasted all day. On the
+Monday following, he and his men reached Albany, bringing two prisoners,
+eighty French muskets, and many knapsacks picked up in the woods. He had
+lost between sixty and seventy killed, wounded, and taken. [407]
+
+[406] Détail de ce qui s'est passé en Canada, Oct. 1755--Juin, 1756.
+
+[407] Letter of J. Choate, Albany, 12 July, 1756, in Massachusetts
+Archives, LV. Three Letters from Albany, July, Aug. 1756, in Doc. Hist.
+of N. Y., I. 482. Review of Military Operations. Shirley to Fox, 26
+July, 1756. Abercromby to Sir Charles Hardy, 11 July, 1756. Niles, in
+Mass. His. Coll., Fourth Series, V. 417. Lossing, Life of Schuyler, I.
+131 (1860). Mante, 60. Bradstreet's conduct on this occasion afterwards
+gained for him the warm praises of Wolfe.
+
+This affair was trumpeted through Canada as a victory of the French.
+Their notices of it are discordant, though very brief. One of them says
+that Villiers had four hundred men. Another gives him five hundred, and
+a third eight hundred, against fifteen hundred English, of whom they
+killed eight hundred, or an Englishman apiece. A fourth writer boasts
+that six hundred Frenchmen killed nine hundred English. A fifth contents
+himself with four hundred; but thinks that forty more would have been
+slain if the Indians had not fired too soon. He says further that there
+were three hundred boats; and presently forgetting himself, adds that
+five hundred were taken or destroyed. A sixth announces a great capture
+of stores and provisions, though all the boats were empty. A seventh
+reports that the Canadians killed about three hundred, and would have
+killed more but for the bad quality of their tomahawks. An eighth, with
+rare modesty, puts the English loss at fifty or sixty. That of Villiers
+is given in every proportion of killed or wounded, from one up to ten.
+Thus was Canada roused to martial ardor, and taught to look for future
+triumphs cheaply bought. [408]
+
+[408] Nouvelles du Camp établi au Portage de Chouaguen, première
+Relation. Ibid., Séconde Relation, 10 Juillet, 1756. Bougainville,
+Journal, who gives the report as he heard it. Lettre du R. P. Cocquard,
+S. J., 1756. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 10 Juillet, 1756. Ursulines de
+Québec, II. 292. N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 434, 467, 477, 483. Some prisoners
+taken in the first attack were brought to Montreal, where their presence
+gave countenance to these fabrications.
+
+The success of Bradstreet silenced for a time the enemies of Shirley.
+His cares, however, redoubled. He was anxious for Oswego, as the two
+prisoners declared that the French meant to attack it, instead of
+waiting to be attacked from it. Nor was the news from that quarter
+reassuring. The engineer, Mackellar, wrote that the works were incapable
+of defence; and Colonel Mercer, the commandant, reported general
+discontent in the garrison. [409] Captain John Vicars, an invalid
+officer of Shirley's regiment, arrived at Albany with yet more
+deplorable accounts. He had passed the winter at Oswego, where he
+declared the dearth of food to have been such that several councils of
+war had been held on the question of abandoning the place from sheer
+starvation. More than half his regiment died of hunger or disease; and,
+in his own words, "had the poor fellows lived they must have eaten one
+another." Some of the men were lodged in barracks, though without beds,
+while many lay all winter in huts on the bare ground. Scurvy and
+dysentery made frightful havoc. "In January," says Vicars, "we were
+informed by the Indians that we were to be attacked. The garrison was
+then so weak that the strongest guard we proposed to mount was a
+subaltern and twenty men; but we were seldom able to mount more than
+sixteen or eighteen, and half of those were obliged to have sticks in
+their hands to support them. The men were so weak that the sentries
+often fell down on their posts, and lay there till the relief came and
+lifted them up." His own company of fifty was reduced to ten. The other
+regiment of the garrison, Pepperell's, or the fifty-first, was quartered
+at Fort Ontario, on the other side of the river; and being better
+sheltered, suffered less.
+
+[409] Mackellar to Shirley, June, 1756. Mercer to Shirley, 2 July, 1756.
+
+The account given by Vicars of the state of the defences was scarcely
+more flattering. He reported that the principal fort had no cannon on
+the side most exposed to attack. Two pieces had been mounted on the
+trading-house in the centre; but as the concussion shook down stones
+from the wall whenever they were fired, they had since been removed. The
+second work, called Fort Ontario, he had not seen since it was finished,
+having been too ill to cross the river. Of the third, called New Oswego,
+or "Fort Rascal," he testifies thus: "It never was finished, and there
+were no loopholes in the stockades; so that they could not fire out of
+the fort but by opening the gate and firing out of that." [410]
+
+[410] Information of Captain John Vicars, of the Fiftieth (Shirley's)
+Regiment, enclosed with a despatch of Lord Loudon. Vicars was a veteran
+British officer who left Oswego with Bradstreet on the third of July.
+Shirley to Loudon, 5 Sept. 1756.
+
+Through the spring and early summer Shirley was gathering recruits,
+often of the meanest quality, and sending them to Oswego to fill out the
+two emaciated regiments. The place must be defended at any cost. Its
+fall would ruin not only the enterprise against Niagara and Frontenac,
+but also that against Ticonderoga and Crown Point; since, having nothing
+more to fear on Lake Ontario, the French could unite their whole force
+on Lake Champlain, whether for defence or attack.
+
+Towards the end of June Abercromby and Webb arrived at Albany, bringing
+a reinforcement of nine hundred regulars, consisting of Otway's
+regiment, or a part of it, and a body of Highlanders. Shirley resigned
+his command, and Abercromby requested him to go to New York, wait there
+till Lord Loudon arrived, and lay before him the state of affairs. [411]
+Shirley waited till the twenty-third of July, when the Earl at length
+appeared. He was a rough Scotch lord, hot and irascible; and the
+communications of his predecessor, made, no doubt, in a manner somewhat
+pompous and self-satisfied, did not please him. "I got from
+Major-General Shirley," he says, "a few papers of very little use; only
+he insinuated to me that I would find everything prepared, and have
+nothing to do but to pull laurels; which I understand was his constant
+conversation before my arrival." [412]
+
+[411] Shirley to Fox, 4 July, 1756.
+
+[412] Loudon (to Fox?), 19 Aug. 1756.
+
+Loudon sailed up the Hudson in no placid mood. On reaching Albany he
+abandoned the attempt against Niagara and Frontenac; and had resolved to
+turn his whole force against Ticonderoga, when he was met by an obstacle
+that both perplexed and angered him. By a royal order lately issued, all
+general and field officers with provincial commissions were to take rank 
+only as eldest captains when serving in conjunction with regular troops.
+[413] Hence the whole provincial army, as Winslow observes, might be put
+under the command of any British major. [414] The announcement of this
+regulation naturally caused great discontent. The New England officers
+held a meeting, and voted with one voice that in their belief its
+enforcement would break up the provincial army and prevent the raising
+of another. Loudon, hearing of this, desired Winslow to meet him at
+Albany for a conference on the subject. Thither Winslow went with some
+of his chief officers. The Earl asked them to dinner, and there was much
+talk, with no satisfactory result; whereupon, somewhat chafed, he
+required Winslow to answer in writing, yes or no, whether the provincial
+officers would obey the commander-in-chief and act in conjunction with
+the regulars. Thus forced to choose between acquiescence and flat
+mutiny, they declared their submission to his orders, at the same time
+asking as a favor that they might be allowed to act independently; to
+which Loudon gave for the present an unwilling assent. Shirley, who, in
+spite of his removal from command, had the good of the service deeply at
+heart, was much troubled at this affair, and wrote strong letters to
+Winslow in the interest of harmony. [415]
+
+[413] Order concerning the Rank of Provincial General and Field Officers
+in North America. Given at our Court at Kensington, 12 May, 1756.
+
+[414] Winslow to Shirley, 21 Aug. 1756.
+
+[415] Correspondence of Loudon, Abercromby, and Shirley, July, Aug.
+1756. Record of Meeting of Provincial Officers, July, 1756. Letter and
+Order Books of Winslow.
+
+Loudon next proceeded to examine the state of the provincial forces, and
+sent Lieutenant-Colonel Burton, of the regulars, to observe and report
+upon it. Winslow by this time had made a forward movement, and was now
+at Lake George with nearly half his command, while the rest were at Fort
+Edward under Lyman, or in detachments at Saratoga and the other small
+posts below. Burton found Winslow's men encamped with their right on
+what are now the grounds of Fort William Henry Hotel, and their left
+extending southward between the mountain in their front and the marsh in
+their rear. "There are here," he reports, "about twenty-five hundred
+men, five hundred of them sick, the greatest part of them what they call
+poorly; they bury from five to eight daily, and officers in proportion;
+extremely indolent, and dirty to a degree." Then, in vernacular English,
+he describes the infectious condition of the fort, which was full of the
+sick. "Their camp," he proceeds, "is nastier than anything I could
+conceive; their----, kitchens, graves, and places for slaughtering
+cattle all mixed through their encampment; a great waste of provisions,
+the men having just what they please; no great command kept up. Colonel
+Gridley governs the general; not in the least alert; only one advanced
+guard of a subaltern and twenty-four men. The cannon and stores in great
+confusion." Of the camp at Fort Edward he gives a better account. "It is
+much cleaner than at Fort William Henry, but not sufficiently so to
+keep the men healthy; a much better command kept up here. General Lyman
+very ready to order out to work and to assist the engineers with any
+number of men they require, and keeps a succession of scouting-parties
+out towards Wood Creek and South Bay." [416]
+
+[416] Burton to Loudon, 27 Aug. 1756.
+
+The prejudice of the regular officer may have colored the picture, but
+it is certain that the sanitary condition of the provincial camps was
+extremely bad. "A grievous sickness among the troops," writes a
+Massachusetts surgeon at Fort Edward; "we bury five or six a day. Not
+more than two thirds of our army fit for duty. Long encampments are the
+bane of New England men." [417] Like all raw recruits, they did not know
+how to take care of themselves; and their officers had not the
+experience, knowledge, or habit of command to enforce sanitary rules.
+The same evils were found among the Canadians when kept long in one
+place. Those in the camp of Villiers are reported at this time as nearly
+all sick. [418]
+
+[417] Dr. Thomas Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, 28 Aug. 1756.
+
+[418] Bougainville, Journal.
+
+Another penman, very different from the military critic, was also on the
+spot, noting down every day what he saw and felt. This was John Graham,
+minister of Suffield, in Connecticut, and now chaplain of Lyman's
+regiment. His spirit, by nature far from buoyant, was depressed by
+bodily ailments, and still more by the extremely secular character of
+his present surroundings. It appears by his Diary that he left home
+"under great exercise of mind," and was detained at Albany for a time,
+being, as he says, taken with an ague-fit and a quinsy; but at length he
+reached the camp at Fort Edward, where deep despondency fell upon him.
+"Labor under great discouragements," says the Diary, under date of July
+twenty-eighth; "for find my business but mean in the esteem of many, and
+think there's not much for a chaplain to do." Again, Tuesday, August
+seventeenth: "Breakfasted this morning with the General. But a graceless
+meal; never a blessing asked, nor thanks given. At the evening sacrifice
+a more open scene of wickedness. The General and head officers, with
+some of the regular officers, in General Lyman's tent, within four rods
+of the place of public prayers. None came to prayers; but they fixed a
+table without the door of the tent, where a head colonel was posted to
+make punch in the sight of all, they within drinking, talking, and
+laughing during the whole of the service, to the disturbance and
+disaffection of most present. This was not only a bare neglect, but an
+open contempt, of the worship of God by the heads of this army. 'Twas
+but last Sabbath that General Lyman spent the time of divine service in
+the afternoon in his tent, drinking in company with Mr. Gordon, a
+regular officer. I have oft heard cursing and swearing in his presence
+by some provincial field-officers, but never heard a reproof nor so much
+as a check to them come from his mouth, though he never uses such
+language himself. Lord, what is man! Truly, the May-game of Fortune!
+Lord, make me know my duty, and what I ought to do!"
+
+That night his sleep was broken and his soul troubled by angry voices
+under his window, where one Colonel Glasier was berating, in unhallowed
+language, the captain of the guard; and here the chaplain's Journal
+abruptly ends. [419]
+
+[419] I owe to my friend George S. Hale, Esq., the opportunity of
+examining the autograph Journal; it has since been printed in the
+Magazine of American History for March, 1882.
+
+A brother minister, bearing no likeness to the worthy Graham, appeared
+on the same spot some time after. This was Chaplain William Crawford, of
+Worcester, who, having neglected to bring money to the war, suffered
+much annoyance, aggravated by what he thought a want of due
+consideration for his person and office. His indignation finds vent in a
+letter to his townsman, Timothy Paine, member of the General Court: "No
+man can reasonably expect that I can with any propriety discharge the
+duty of a chaplain when I have nothing either to eat or drink, nor any
+conveniency to write a line other than to sit down upon a stump and put
+a piece of paper upon my knee. As for Mr. Weld [another chaplain], he is
+easy and silent whatever treatment he meets with, and I suppose they
+thought to find me the same easy and ductile person; but may the wide
+yawning earth devour me first! The state of the camp is just such as one
+at home would guess it to be,--nothing but a hurry and confusion of vice
+and wickedness, with a stygian atmosphere to breathe in." [420] The vice
+and wickedness of which he complains appear to have consisted in a
+frequent infraction of the standing order against "Curseing and
+Swareing," as well as of that which required attendance on daily
+prayers, and enjoined "the people to appear in a decent manner, clean
+and shaved," at the two Sunday sermons. [421]
+
+[420] The autograph letter is in Massachusetts Archives, LVI. no. 142.
+The same volume contains a letter from Colonel Frye, of Massachusetts,
+in which he speaks of the forlorn condition in which Chaplain Weld
+reached the camp. Of Chaplain Crawford, he says that he came decently
+clothed, but without bed or blanket, till he, Frye, lent them to him,
+and got Captain Learned to take him into his tent. Chaplains usually had
+a separate tent, or shared that of the colonel.
+
+[421] Letter and Order Books of Winslow.
+
+At the beginning of August Winslow wrote to the committees of the
+several provinces: "It looks as if it won't be long before we are fit
+for a remove,"--that is, for an advance on Ticonderoga. On the twelfth
+Loudon sent Webb with the forty-fourth regiment and some of Bradstreet's
+boatmen to reinforce Oswego. [422] They had been ready for a month; but
+confusion and misunderstanding arising from the change of command had
+prevented their departure. [423] Yet the utmost anxiety had prevailed
+for the safety of that important post, and on the twenty-eighth Surgeon
+Thomas Williams wrote: "Whether Oswego is yet ours is uncertain. Would
+hope it is, as the reverse would be such a terrible shock as the country
+never felt, and may be a sad omen of what is coming upon poor sinful New
+England. Indeed we can't expect anything but to be severely chastened
+till we are humbled for our pride and haughtiness." [424]
+
+[422] Loudon (to Fox?), 19 Aug. 1756.
+
+[423] Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly stated. Shirley to
+Loudon, 4 Sept. 1756. Shirley to Fox, 16 Sept. 1756.
+
+[424] Thomas Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, 28 Aug. 1756.
+
+His foreboding proved true. Webb had scarcely reached the Great Carrying
+Place, when tidings of disaster fell upon him like a thunderbolt. The
+French had descended in force upon Oswego, taken it with all its
+garrison; and, as report ran, were advancing into the province, six
+thousand strong. Wood Creek had just been cleared, with great labor, of
+the trees that choked it. Webb ordered others to be felled and thrown
+into the stream to stop the progress of the enemy; then, with shameful
+precipitation, he burned the forts of the Carrying Place, and retreated
+down the Mohawk to German Flats. Loudon ordered Winslow to think no more
+of Ticonderoga, but to stay where he was and hold the French in check.
+All was astonishment and dismay at the sudden blow. "Oswego has changed
+masters, and I think we may justly fear that the whole of our country
+will soon follow, unless a merciful God prevent, and awake a sinful
+people to repentance and reformation." Thus wrote Dr. Thomas Williams to
+his wife from the camp at Fort Edward. "Such a shocking affair has never
+found a place in English annals," wrote the surgeon's young relative,
+Colonel William Williams. "The loss is beyond account; but the dishonor
+done His Majesty's arms is infinitely greater." [425] It remains to see
+how the catastrophe befell.
+
+[425] Colonel William Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, 30 Aug. 1756.
+
+Since Vaudreuil became chief of the colony he had nursed the plan of
+seizing Oswego, yet hesitated to attempt it. Montcalm declares that he
+confirmed the Governor's wavering purpose; but Montcalm himself had
+hesitated. In July, however, there came exaggerated reports that the
+English were moving upon Ticonderoga in greatly increased numbers; and
+both Vaudreuil and the General conceived that a feint against Oswego
+would draw off the strength of the assailants, and, if promptly and
+secretly executed, might even be turned successfully into a real attack.
+Vaudreuil thereupon recalled Montcalm from Ticonderoga. [426] Leaving
+the post in the keeping of Lévis and three thousand men, he embarked on
+Lake Champlain, rowed day and night, and reached Montreal on the
+nineteenth. Troops were arriving from Quebec, and Indians from the far
+west. A band of Menomonies from beyond Lake Michigan, naked, painted,
+plumed, greased, stamping, uttering sharp yelps, shaking feathered
+lances, brandishing tomahawks, danced the war-dance before the Governor,
+to the thumping of the Indian drum. Bougainville looked on astonished,
+and thought of the Pyrrhic dance of the Greeks.
+
+[426] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 12 Août, 1756. Montcalm à sa Femme, 20
+Juillet, 1756.
+
+Montcalm and he left Montreal on the twenty-first, and reached Fort
+Frontenac in eight days. Rigaud, brother of the Governor, had gone
+thither some time before, and crossed with seven hundred Canadians to
+the south side of the lake, where Villiers was encamped at Niaouré Bay,
+now Sackett's Harbor, with such of his detachment as war and disease had
+spared. Rigaud relieved him, and took command of the united bands. With
+their aid the engineer, Descombles, reconnoitred the English forts, and
+came back with the report that success was certain. [427] It was but a
+confirmation of what had already been learned from deserters and
+prisoners, who declared that the main fort was but a loopholed wall held
+by six or seven hundred men, ill fed, discontented, and mutinous. [428]
+Others said that they had been driven to desert by the want of good
+food, and that within a year twelve hundred men had died of disease at
+Oswego. [429]
+
+[427] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 4 Août, 1756. Vaudreuil à
+Bourlamaque,--Juin, 1756.
+
+[428] Bougainville, Journal.
+
+[429] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 10 Juillet, 1756. Résumé des Nouvelles du
+Canada, Sept. 1756.
+
+The battalions of La Sarre, Guienne, and Béarn, with the colony
+regulars, a body of Canadians, and about two hundred and fifty Indians,
+were destined for the enterprise. The whole force was a little above
+three thousand, abundantly supplied with artillery. La Sarre and Guienne
+were already at Fort Frontenac. Béarn was at Niagara, whence it arrived
+in a few days, much buffeted by the storms of Lake Ontario. On the
+fourth of August all was ready. Montcalm embarked at night with the
+first division, crossed in darkness to Wolf Island, lay there hidden all
+day, and embarking again in the evening, joined Rigaud at Niaouré Bay at
+seven o'clock in the morning of the sixth. The second division followed,
+with provisions, hospital train, and eighty artillery boats; and on the
+eighth all were united at the bay. On the ninth Rigaud, covered by the
+universal forest, marched in advance to protect the landing of the
+troops. Montcalm followed with the first division; and, coasting the
+shore in bateaux, landed at midnight of the tenth within half a league
+of the first English fort. Four cannon were planted in battery upon the
+strand, and the men bivouacked by their boats. So skilful were the
+assailants and so careless the assailed that the English knew nothing of
+their danger, till in the morning, a reconnoitring canoe discovered the
+invaders. Two armed vessels soon came to cannonade them; but their light
+guns were no match for the heavy artillery of the French, and they were
+forced to keep the offing.
+
+Descombles, the engineer, went before dawn to reconnoitre the fort, with
+several other officers and a party of Indians. While he was thus
+employed, one of these savages, hungry for scalps, took him in the gloom
+for an Englishman, and shot him dead. Captain Pouchot, of the battalion
+of Béarn, replaced him; and the attack was pushed vigorously. The
+Canadians and Indians, swarming through the forest, fired all day on the
+fort under cover of the trees. The second division came up with
+twenty-two more cannon; and at night the first parallel was marked out
+at a hundred and eighty yards from the rampart. Stumps were grubbed up,
+fallen trunks shoved aside, and a trench dug, sheltered by fascines,
+gabions, and a strong abattis.
+
+Fort Ontario, counted as the best of the three forts at Oswego, stood on
+a high plateau at the east or right side of the river where it entered
+the lake. It was in the shape of a star, and was formed of trunks of
+trees set upright in the ground, hewn flat on two sides, and closely
+fitted together,--an excellent defence against musketry or swivels, but
+worthless against cannon. The garrison, three hundred and seventy in
+all, were the remnant of Pepperell's regiment, joined to raw recruits
+lately sent up to fill the places of the sick and dead. They had eight
+small cannon and a mortar, with which on the next day, Friday, the
+thirteenth, they kept up a brisk fire till towards night; when, after
+growing more rapid for a time, it ceased, and the fort showed no sign of
+life. Not a cannon had yet opened on them from the trenches; but it was
+certain that with the French artillery once in action, their wooden
+rampart would be shivered to splinters. Hence it was that Colonel
+Mercer, commandant at Oswego, thinking it better to lose the fort than
+to lose both fort and garrison, signalled to them from across the river
+to abandon their position and join him on the other side. Boats were
+sent to bring them off; and they passed over unmolested, after
+spiking their cannon and firing off their ammunition or throwing it into
+the well.
+
+The fate of Oswego was now sealed. The principal work, called Old
+Oswego, or Fort Pepperell, stood at the mouth of the river on the west
+side, nearly opposite Fort Ontario, and less than five hundred yards
+distant from it. The trading-house, which formed the centre of the
+place, was built of rough stone laid in clay, and the wall which
+enclosed it was of the same materials; both would crumble in an instant
+at the touch of a twelve-pound shot. Towards the west and south they had
+been protected by an outer line of earthworks, mounted with cannon, and
+forming an entrenched camp; while the side towards Fort Ontario was left
+wholly exposed, in the rash confidence that this work, standing on the
+opposite heights, would guard against attack from that quarter. On a
+hill, a fourth of a mile beyond Old Oswego, stood the unfinished
+stockade called New Oswego, Fort George, or, by reason of its
+worthlessness, Fort Rascal. It had served as a cattle pen before the
+French appeared, but was now occupied by a hundred and fifty Jersey
+provincials. Old Oswego with its outwork was held by Shirley's regiment,
+chiefly invalids and raw recruits, to whom were now joined the garrison
+of Fort Ontario and a number of sailors, boatmen, and laborers.
+
+Montcalm lost no time. As soon as darkness set in he began a battery at
+the brink of the height on which stood the captured fort. His whole
+force toiled all night, digging, setting gabions, and dragging up
+cannon, some of which had been taken from Braddock. Before daybreak
+twenty heavy pieces had been brought to the spot, and nine were already
+in position. The work had been so rapid that the English imagined their
+enemies to number six thousand at least. The battery soon opened fire.
+Grape and round shot swept the intrenchment and crashed through the
+rotten masonry. The English, says a French officer, "were exposed to
+their shoe-buckles." Their artillery was pointed the wrong way, in
+expectation of an attack, not from the east, but from the west. They now
+made a shelter of pork-barrels, three high and three deep, planted
+cannon behind them, and returned the French fire with some effect.
+
+Early in the morning Montcalm had ordered Rigaud to cross the river with
+the Canadians and Indians. There was a ford three quarters of a league
+above the forts; [430] and here they passed over unopposed, the English
+not having discovered the movement. [431] The only danger was from the
+river. Some of the men were forced to swim, others waded to the waist,
+others to the neck; but they all crossed safely, and presently showed
+themselves at the edge of the woods, yelling and firing their guns, too
+far for much execution, but not too far to discourage the garrison.
+
+[430] Bougainville, Journal.
+
+[431] Pouchot, I. 76.
+
+The garrison were already disheartened. Colonel Mercer, the soul of the
+defence, had just been cut in two by a cannon-shot while directing the
+gunners. Up to this time the defenders had behaved with spirit; but
+despair now seized them, increased by the screams and entreaties of the
+women, of whom there were more than a hundred in the place. There was a
+council of officers, and then the white flag was raised. Bougainville
+went to propose terms of capitulation. "The cries, threats, and hideous
+howling of our Canadians and Indians," says Vaudreuil, "made them
+quickly decide." "This," observes the Reverend Father Claude Godefroy
+Cocquard, "reminds me of the fall of Jericho before the shouts of the
+Israelites." The English surrendered prisoners of war, to the number,
+according to the Governor, of sixteen hundred, [432] which included the
+sailors, laborers, and women. The Canadians and Indians broke through
+all restraint, and fell to plundering. There was an opening of
+rum-barrels and a scene of drunkenness, in which some of the prisoners
+had their share; while others tried to escape in the confusion, and were
+tomahawked by the excited savages. Many more would have been butchered,
+but for the efforts of Montcalm, who by unstinted promises succeeded in
+appeasing his ferocious allies, whom he dared not offend. "It will cost
+the King," he says, "eight or ten thousand livres in presents." [433]
+
+[432] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 20 Août, 1756. He elsewhere makes the
+number somewhat greater. That the garrison, exclusive of civilians, did
+not exceed at the utmost fourteen hundred, is shown by Shirley to
+Loudon, 5 Sept. 1756. Loudon had charged Shirley with leaving Oswego
+weakly garrisoned; and Shirley replies by alleging that the troops there
+were in the number as above. It was of course his interest to make them
+appear as numerous as possible. In the printed Conduct of Major-General
+Shirley briefly stated, they are put at only ten hundred and fifty.
+
+[433] Several English writers say, however, that fifteen or twenty young
+men were given up to the Indians to be adopted in place of warriors
+lately killed.
+
+The loss on both sides is variously given. By the most trustworthy
+accounts, that of the English did not reach fifty killed, and that of
+the French was still less. In the forts and vessels were found above a
+hundred pieces of artillery, most of them swivels and other light guns,
+with a large quantity of powder, shot, and shell. The victors burned the
+forts and the vessels on the stocks, destroyed such provisions and
+stores as they could not carry away, and made the place a desert. The
+priest Piquet, who had joined the expedition, planted amid the ruin a
+tall cross, graven with the words, In hoc signo vincunt; and near it was
+set a pole bearing the arms of France, with the inscription, Manibus
+date lilia plenis. Then the army decamped, loaded with prisoners and
+spoil, descended to Montreal, hung the captured flags in the churches,
+and sang Te Deum in honor of their triumph.
+
+It was the greatest that the French arms had yet achieved in America.
+The defeat of Braddock was an Indian victory; this last exploit was the
+result of bold enterprise and skilful tactics. With its laurels came its
+fruits. Hated Oswego had been laid in ashes, and the would-be
+assailants forced to a vain and hopeless defence. France had conquered
+the undisputed command of Lake Ontario, and her communications with the
+West were safe. A small garrison at Niagara and another at Frontenac
+would now hold those posts against any effort that the English could
+make this year; and the whole French force could concentrate at
+Ticonderoga, repel the threatened attack, and perhaps retort it by
+seizing Albany. If the English, on the other side, had lost a great
+material advantage, they had lost no less in honor. The news of the
+surrender was received with indignation in England and in the colonies.
+Yet the behaviour of the garrison was not so discreditable as it seemed.
+The position was indefensible, and they could have held out at best but
+a few days more. They yielded too soon; but unless Webb had come to
+their aid, which was not to be expected, they must have yielded at last.
+
+The French had scarcely gone, when two English scouts, Thomas Harris and
+James Conner, came with a party of Indians to the scene of desolation.
+The ground was strewn with broken casks and bread sodden with rain. The
+remains of burnt bateaux and whaleboats were scattered along the shore.
+The great stone trading-house in the old fort was a smoking ruin; Fort
+Rascal was still burning on the neighboring hill; Fort Ontario was a
+mass of ashes and charred logs, and by it stood two poles on which
+were written words which the visitors did not understand. They went back
+to Fort Johnson with their story; and Oswego reverted for a time to the
+bears, foxes, and wolves. [434]
+
+[434] On the capture of Oswego, the authorities examined have been very
+numerous, and only the best need be named. Livre d'Ordres, Campagne de
+1756, contains all orders from headquarters. Mémoire pour servir
+d'Instruction à M. le Marquis de Montcalm, 21 Juillet; 1756, signé
+Vaudreuil. Bougainville, Journal. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 15 Juin, 1756
+(designs against Oswego). Ibid., 13 Août, 1755. Ibid., 30 Août. Pouchot,
+I. 67-81. Relation de la Prise des Forts de Chouaguen. Bigot au
+Ministre, 3 Sept. 1756 Journal du Siége de Chouaguen. Précis des
+Événements, 1756. Montcalm au Ministre, 20 Juillet, 1756. Ibid., 28
+Août, 1756. Desandrouins à------, même date. Montcalm à sa Femme, 30
+Août. Translations of several of the above papers, along with others
+less important, will be found in N. Y. Col. Docs., X., and Doc. Hist. N.
+Y., I.
+
+State of Facts relating to the Loss of Oswego, in London Magazine for
+1757, p. 14. Correspondence of Shirley. Correspondence of Loudon.
+Littlehales to Loudon, 30 Aug. 1756. Hardy to Lords of Trade, 5 Sept.
+1756. Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly stated. Declaration of
+some Soldiers of Shirley's Regiment, in N. Y. Col. Docs., VII. 126.
+Letter from an officer present, in Boston Evening Post of 16 May, 1757.
+The published plans and drawings of Oswego at this time are very
+inexact.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+1756, 1757.
+
+PARTISAN WAR.
+
+Failure of Shirley's Plan • Causes • Loudon and Shirley • Close of the
+Campaign • The Western Border • Armstrong destroys Kittanning • The
+Scouts of Lake George • War Parties from Ticonderoga • Robert Rogers •
+The Rangers • Their Hardihood and Daring • Disputes as to Quarters of
+Troops • Expedition of Rogers • A Desperate Bush-fight • Enterprise of
+Vaudreuil • Rigaud attacks Fort William Henry.
+
+Shirley's grand scheme for cutting New France in twain had come to
+wreck. There was an element of boyishness in him. He made bold plans
+without weighing too closely his means of executing them. The year's
+campaign would in all likelihood have succeeded if he could have acted
+promptly; if he had had ready to his hand a well-trained and
+well-officered force, furnished with material of war and means of
+transportation, and prepared to move as soon as the streams and lakes of
+New York were open, while those of Canada were still sealed with ice.
+But timely action was out of his power. The army that should have moved
+in April was not ready to move till August. Of the nine discordant
+semi-republics whom he asked to join in the work, three or four refused,
+some of the others were lukewarm, and all were slow. Even Massachusetts,
+usually the foremost, failed to get all her men into the field till the
+season was nearly ended. Having no military establishment, the colonies
+were forced to improvise a new army for every campaign. Each of them
+watched its neighbors, or, jealous lest it should do more than its just
+share, waited for them to begin. Each popular assembly acted under the
+eye of a frugal constituency, who, having little money, were as chary of
+it as their descendants are lavish; and most of them were shaken by
+internal conflicts, more absorbing than the great question on which hung
+the fate of the continent. Only the four New England colonies were fully
+earnest for the war, and one, even of these, was ready to use the crisis
+as a means of extorting concessions from its Governor in return for
+grants of money and men. When the lagging contingents came together at
+last, under a commander whom none of them trusted, they were met by
+strategical difficulties which would have perplexed older soldiers and
+an abler general; for they were forced to act on the circumference of a
+vast semicircle, in a labyrinth of forests, without roads, and choked
+with every kind of obstruction.
+
+Opposed to them was a trained army, well organized and commanded,
+focused at Montreal, and moving for attack or defence on two radiating
+lines,--one towards Lake Ontario, and the other towards Lake
+Champlain,--supported by a martial peasantry, supplied from France with
+money and material, dependent on no popular vote, having no will but
+that of its chief, and ready on the instant to strike to right or left
+as the need required. It was a compact military absolutism confronting a
+heterogeneous group of industrial democracies, where the force of
+numbers was neutralized by diffusion and incoherence. A long and dismal
+apprenticeship waited them before they could hope for success; nor could
+they ever put forth their full strength without a radical change of
+political conditions and an awakened consciousness of common interests
+and a common cause. It was the sense of powerlessness arising from the
+want of union that, after the fall of Oswego, spread alarm through the
+northern and middle colonies, and drew these desponding words from
+William Livingston, of New Jersey: "The colonies are nearly exhausted,
+and their funds already anticipated by expensive unexecuted projects.
+Jealous are they of each other; some ill-constituted, others shaken with
+intestine divisions, and, if I may be allowed the expression,
+parsimonious even to prodigality. Our assemblies are diffident of their
+governors, governors despise their assemblies; and both mutually
+misrepresent each other to the Court of Great Britain." Military
+measures, he proceeds, demand secrecy and despatch; but when so many
+divided provinces must agree to join in them, secrecy and despatch are
+impossible. In conclusion he exclaims: "Canada must be
+demolished,--Delenda est Carthago,--or we are undone." [435] But Loudon
+was not Scipio, and cis-Atlantic Carthage was to stand for some time
+longer.
+
+[435] Review of Military Operations, 187, 189 (Dublin, 1757).
+
+The Earl, in search of a scapegoat for the loss of Oswego, naturally
+chose Shirley, attacked him savagely, told him that he was of no use in
+America, and ordered him to go home to England without delay. [436]
+Shirley, who was then in Boston, answered this indecency with dignity
+and effect. [437] The chief fault was with Loudon himself, whose late
+arrival in America had caused a change of command and of plans in the
+crisis of the campaign. Shirley well knew the weakness of Oswego; and in
+early spring had sent two engineers to make it defensible, with
+particular instructions to strengthen Fort Ontario. [438] But they,
+thinking that the chief danger lay on the west and south, turned all
+their attention thither, and neglected Ontario till it was too late.
+Shirley was about to reinforce Oswego with a strong body of troops when
+the arrival of Abercromby took the control out of his hands and caused
+ruinous delay. He cannot, however, be acquitted of mismanagement in
+failing to supply the place with wholesome provisions in the preceding
+autumn, before the streams were stopped with ice. Hence came the ravages
+of disease and famine which, before spring, reduced the garrison to a
+hundred and forty effective men. Yet there can be no doubt that the
+change of command was a blunder. This is the view of Franklin, who knew
+Shirley well, and thus speaks of him: "He would in my opinion, if
+continued in place, have made a much better campaign than that of
+Loudon, which was frivolous, expensive, and disgraceful to our nation
+beyond conception. For though Shirley was not bred a soldier, he was
+sensible and sagacious in himself, and attentive to good advice from
+others, capable of forming judicious plans, and quick and active in
+carrying them into execution." [439] He sailed for England in the
+autumn, disappointed and poor; the bull-headed Duke of Cumberland had
+been deeply prejudiced against him, and it was only after long waiting
+that this strenuous champion of British interests was rewarded in his
+old age with the petty government of the Bahamas.
+
+[436] Loudon to Shirley, 6 Sept. 1756.
+
+[437] The correspondence on both sides is before me, copied from the
+originals in the Public Record Office.
+
+[438] "The principal thing for which I sent Mr. Mackellar to Oswego was
+to strengthen Fort Ontario as much as he possibly could." Shirley to
+Loudon, 4 Sept. 1756.
+
+[439] Works of Franklin, I. 220.
+
+Loudon had now about ten thousand men at his command, though not all fit
+for duty. They were posted from Albany to Lake George. The Earl himself
+was at Fort Edward, while about three thousand of the provincials still
+lay, under Winslow, at the lake. Montcalm faced them at Ticonderoga,
+with five thousand three hundred regulars and Canadians, in a position
+where they could defy three times their number. [440] "The sons of
+Belial are too strong for me," jocosely wrote Winslow; [441] and he set
+himself to intrenching his camp; then had the forest cut down for the
+space of a mile from the lake to the mountains, so that the trees, lying
+in what he calls a "promiscuous manner," formed an almost impenetrable
+abatis. An escaped prisoner told him that the French were coming to
+visit him with fourteen thousand men; [442] but Montcalm thought no more
+of stirring than Loudon himself; and each stood watching the other, with
+the lake between them, till the season closed.
+
+[440] "Nous sommes tant à Carillon qu'aux postes avancés 5,300 hommes."
+Bougainville, Journal.
+
+[441] Winslow to Loudon, 29 Sept. 1756.
+
+[442] Examination of Sergeant James Archibald.
+
+Meanwhile the western borders were still ravaged by the tomahawk. New
+York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia all writhed under
+the infliction. Each had made a chain of blockhouses and wooden forts to
+cover its frontier, and manned them with disorderly bands, lawless, and
+almost beyond control. [443] The case was at the worst in Pennsylvania,
+where the tedious quarrelling of Governor and Assembly, joined to the
+doggedly pacific attitude of the Quakers, made vigorous defence
+impossible. Rewards were offered for prisoners and scalps, so bountiful
+that the hunting of men would have been a profitable vocation, but for
+the extreme wariness and agility of the game. [444] Some of the forts
+were well built stockades; others were almost worthless; but the
+enemy rarely molested even the feeblest of them, preferring to ravage
+the lonely and unprotected farms. There were two or three exceptions. A
+Virginian fort was attacked by a war-party under an officer named
+Douville, who was killed, and his followers were put to flight. [445]
+The assailants were more fortunate at a small stockade called Fort
+Granville, on the Juniata. A large body of French and Indians attacked
+it in August while most of the garrison were absent protecting the
+farmers at their harvest; they set it on fire, and, in spite of a most
+gallant resistance by the young lieutenant left in command, took it, and
+killed all but one of the defenders. [446]
+
+[443] In the Public Record Office, America and West Indies, LXXXII., is
+a manuscript map showing the positions of such of these posts as were
+north of Virginia. They are thirty-five in number, from the head of
+James River to a point west of Esopus, on the Hudson.
+
+[444] Colonial Records of Pa., VII. 76.
+
+[445] Washington to Morris,--April, 1756
+
+[446] Colonial Records of Pa., VII. 232, 242; Pennsylvania Archives, II.
+744.
+
+What sort of resistance the Pennsylvanian borderers would have made
+under political circumstances less adverse may be inferred from an
+exploit of Colonel John Armstrong, a settler of Cumberland. After the
+loss of Fort Granville the Governor of the province sent him with three
+hundred men to attack the Delaware town of Kittanning, a populous nest
+of savages on the Alleghany, between the two French posts of Duquesne
+and Venango. Here most of the war-parties were fitted out, and the place
+was full of stores and munitions furnished by the French. Here, too,
+lived the redoubted chief called Captain Jacobs, the terror of the
+English border. Armstrong set out from Fort Shirley, the farthest
+outpost, on the last of August, and, a week after, was within
+six miles of the Indian town. By rapid marching and rare good luck, his
+party had escaped discovery. It was ten o'clock at night, with a bright
+moon. The guides were perplexed, and knew neither the exact position of
+the place nor the paths that led to it. The adventurers threaded the
+forest in single file, over hills and through hollows, bewildered and
+anxious, stopping to watch and listen. At length they heard in the
+distance the beating of an Indian drum and the whooping of warriors in
+the war-dance. Guided by the sounds, they cautiously moved forward, till
+those in the front, scrambling down a rocky hill, found themselves on
+the banks of the Alleghany, about a hundred rods below Kittanning. The
+moon was near setting; but they could dimly see the town beyond a great
+intervening field of corn. "At that moment," says Armstrong, "an Indian
+whistled in a very singular manner, about thirty perches from our front,
+in the foot of the cornfield." He thought they were discovered; but one
+Baker, a soldier well versed in Indian ways, told him that it was only
+some village gallant calling to a young squaw. The party then crouched
+in the bushes, and kept silent. The moon sank behind the woods, and
+fires soon glimmered through the field, kindled to drive off mosquitoes
+by some of the Indians who, as the night was warm, had come out to sleep
+in the open air. The eastern sky began to redden with the approach of
+day. Many of the party, spent with a rough march of thirty miles, had
+fallen asleep. They were now cautiously roused; and Armstrong ordered
+nearly half of them to make their way along the ridge of a bushy hill
+that overlooked the town, till they came opposite to it, in order to
+place it between two fires. Twenty minutes were allowed them for the
+movement; but they lost their way in the dusk, and reached their station
+too late. When the time had expired, Armstrong gave the signal to those
+left with him, who dashed into the cornfield, shooting down the
+astonished savages or driving them into the village, where they turned
+and made desperate fight.
+
+It was a cluster of thirty log-cabins, the principal being that of the
+chief, Jacobs, which was loopholed for musketry, and became the centre
+of resistance. The fight was hot and stubborn. Armstrong ordered the
+town to be set on fire, which was done, though not without loss; for the
+Delawares at this time were commonly armed with rifles, and used them
+well. Armstrong himself was hit in the shoulder. As the flames rose and
+the smoke grew thick, a warrior in one of the houses sang his
+death-song, and a squaw in the same house was heard to cry and scream.
+Rough voices silenced her, and then the inmates burst out, but were
+instantly killed. The fire caught the house of Jacobs, who, trying to
+escape through an opening in the roof, was shot dead. Bands of Indians
+were gathering beyond the river, firing from the other bank, and even
+crossing to help their comrades; but the assailants held to their work
+till the whole place was destroyed. "During the burning of the houses,"
+says Armstrong, "we were agreeably entertained by the quick succession
+of charged guns, gradually firing off as reached by the fire; but much
+more so with the vast explosion of sundry bags and large kegs of
+gunpowder, wherewith almost every house abounded; the prisoners
+afterwards informing us that the Indians had frequently said they had a
+sufficient stock of ammunition for ten years' war with the English."
+
+These prisoners were eleven men, women, and children, captured in the
+border settlements, and now delivered by their countrymen. The day was
+far spent when the party withdrew, carrying their wounded on Indian
+horses, and moving perforce with extreme slowness, though expecting an
+attack every moment. None took place; and they reached the settlements
+at last, having bought their success with the loss of seventeen killed
+and thirteen wounded. [447] A medal was given to each officer, not by
+the Quaker-ridden Assembly, but by the city council of Philadelphia.
+
+[447] Report of Armstrong to Governor Denny, 14 Sept. 1756, in Colonial
+Records of Pa., VII. 257,--a modest yet very minute account. A List of
+the Names of the Persons killed, wounded, and missing in the late
+Expedition against the Kittanning. Hazard, Pennsylvania Register, I.
+366.
+
+The report of this affair made by Dumas, commandant at Fort Duquesne, is
+worth noting. He says that Attiqué, the French name of Kittanning, was
+attacked by "le Général Wachinton," with three or four hundred men on
+horseback; that the Indians gave way; but that five or six Frenchmen who
+were in the town held the English in check till the fugitives rallied;
+that Washington and his men then took to flight, and would have been
+pursued but for the loss of some barrels of gunpowder which chanced to
+explode during the action. Dumas adds that several large parties are now
+on the track of the enemy, and he hopes will cut them to pieces. He then
+asks for a supply of provisions and merchandise to replace those which
+the Indians of Attiqué had lost by a fire. [448] Like other officers of
+the day, he would admit nothing but successes in the department under
+his command.
+
+[448] Dumas à Vaudreuil, 9 Sept. 1756, cited in Bigot au Ministre, 6
+Oct. 1756, and in Bougainville, Journal.
+
+Vaudreuil wrote singular despatches at this time to the minister at
+Versailles. He takes credit to himself for the number of war-parties
+that his officers kept always at work, and fills page after page with
+details of the coups they had struck; how one brought in two English
+scalps, another three, another one, and another seven. He owns that they
+committed frightful cruelties, mutilating and sometimes burning their
+prisoners; but he expresses no regret, and probably felt none, since he
+declares that the object of this murderous warfare was to punish the
+English till they longed for peace. [449]
+
+[449] Dépêches de Vaudreuil, 1756.
+
+The waters and mountains of Lake George, and not the western borders,
+were the chief centre of partisan war. Ticonderoga was a hornet's nest,
+pouring out swarms of savages to infest the highways and byways of the
+wilderness. The English at Fort William Henry, having few Indians, could
+not retort in kind; but they kept their scouts and rangers in active
+movement. What they most coveted was prisoners, as sources of
+information. One Kennedy, a lieutenant of provincials, with five
+followers, white and red, made a march of rare audacity, passed all the
+French posts, took a scalp and two prisoners on the Richelieu, and
+burned a magazine of provisions between Montreal and St. John. The party
+were near famishing on the way back; and Kennedy was brought into Fort
+William Henry in a state of temporary insanity from starvation. [450]
+Other provincial officers, Peabody, Hazen, Waterbury, and Miller, won a
+certain distinction in this adventurous service, though few were so
+conspicuous as the blunt and sturdy Israel Putnam. Winslow writes in
+October that he has just returned from the best "scout" yet made, and
+that, being a man of strict truth, he may be entirely trusted. [451]
+Putnam had gone with six followers down Lake George in a whaleboat to a
+point on the east side, opposite the present village of Hague, hid the
+boat, crossed northeasterly to Lake Champlain, three miles from the
+French fort, climbed the mountain that overlooks it, and made a complete
+reconnoissance; then approached it, chased three Frenchmen, who escaped
+within the lines, climbed the mountain again, and moving westward along
+the ridge, made a minute survey of every outpost between the fort and
+Lake George. [452] These adventures were not always fortunate. On the
+nineteenth of September Captain Hodges and fifty men were ambushed a few
+miles from Fort William Henry by thrice their number of Canadians and
+Indians, and only six escaped. Thus the record stands in the Letter Book
+of Winslow. [453] By visiting the encampments of Ticonderoga, one may
+learn how the blow was struck.
+
+[450] Minute of Lieutenant Kennedy's Scout. Winslow to Loudon, 20 Sept.
+1756.
+
+[451] Winslow to Loudon, 16 Oct. 1756.
+
+[452] Report of a Scout to Ticonderoga, Oct. 1756, signed Israel Putnam.
+
+[453] Compare Massachusetts Archives, LXXVI. 81.
+
+After much persuasion, much feasting, and much consumption of tobacco
+and brandy, four hundred Indians, Christians from the Missions and
+heathen from the far west, were persuaded to go on a grand war-party
+with the Canadians. Of these last there were a hundred,--a wild crew,
+bedecked and bedaubed like their Indian companions. Perière, an officer
+of colony regulars, had nominal command of the whole; and among the
+leaders of the Canadians was the famous bushfighter, Marin. Bougainville
+was also of the party. In the evening of the sixteenth they all embarked
+in canoes at the French advance-post commanded by Contrecœur, near the
+present steamboat-landing, passed in the gloom under the bare steeps of
+Rogers Rock, paddled a few hours, landed on the west shore, and sent
+scouts to reconnoitre. These came back with their reports on the next
+day, and an Indian crier called the chiefs to council. Bougainville
+describes them as they stalked gravely to the place of meeting, wrapped
+in colored blankets, with lances in their hands. The accomplished young
+aide-de-camp studied his strange companions with an interest not unmixed
+with disgust. "Of all caprice," he says, "Indian caprice is the most
+capricious." They were insolent to the French, made rules for them which
+they did not observe themselves, and compelled the whole party to move
+when and whither they pleased. Hiding the canoes, and lying close in the
+forest by day, they all held their nocturnal course southward, by the
+lofty heights of Black Mountain, and among the islets of the Narrows,
+till the eighteenth. That night the Indian scouts reported that they had
+seen the fires of an encampment on the west shore; on which the whole
+party advanced to the attack, an hour before dawn, filing silently under
+the dark arches of the forest, the Indians nearly naked, and streaked
+with their war-paint of vermilion and soot. When they reached the spot,
+they found only the smouldering fires of a deserted bivouac. Then there
+was a consultation; ending, after much dispute, with the choice by the
+Indians of a hundred and ten of their most active warriors to attempt
+some stroke in the neighborhood of the English fort. Marin joined them
+with thirty Canadians, and they set out on their errand; while the rest
+encamped to await the result. At night the adventurers returned, raising
+the death-cry and firing their guns; somewhat depressed by losses they
+had suffered, but boasting that they had surprised fifty-three English,
+and killed or taken all but one. It was a modest and perhaps an
+involuntary exaggeration. "The very recital of the cruelties they
+committed on the battle-field is horrible," writes Bougainville. "The
+ferocity and insolence of these black-souled barbarians makes one
+shudder. It is an abominable kind of war. The air one breathes is
+contagious of insensibility and hardness." [454] This was but one of the
+many such parties sent out from Ticonderoga this year.
+
+[454] Bougainville, Journal.
+
+Early in September a band of New England rangers came to Winslow's camp,
+with three prisoners taken within the lines of Ticonderoga. Their
+captain was Robert Rogers, of New Hampshire,--a strong, well-knit
+figure, in dress and appearance more woodsman than soldier, with a
+clear, bold eye, and features that would have been good but for the
+ungainly proportions of the nose. [455] He had passed his boyhood in the
+rough surroundings of a frontier village. Growing to manhood, he engaged
+in some occupation which, he says, led him to frequent journeyings in
+the wilderness between the French and English settlements, and gave him
+a good knowledge of both. [456] It taught him also to speak a little
+French. He does not disclose the nature of this mysterious employment;
+but there can be little doubt that it was a smuggling trade with Canada.
+His character leaves much to be desired. He had been charged with
+forgery, or complicity in it, seems to have had no scruple in matters of
+business, and after the war was accused of treasonable dealings with the
+French and Spaniards in the west. [457] He was ambitious and violent,
+yet able in more ways than one, by no means uneducated, and so skilled
+in woodcraft, so energetic and resolute, that his services were
+invaluable. In recounting his own adventures, his style is direct,
+simple, without boasting, and to all appearance without exaggeration.
+During the past summer he had raised a band of men, chiefly New
+Hampshire borderers, and made a series of daring excursions which gave
+him a prominent place in this hardy by-play of war. In the spring of the
+present year he raised another company, and was commissioned as its
+captain, with his brother Richard as his first lieutenant, and the
+intrepid John Stark as his second. In July still another company was
+formed, and Richard Rogers was promoted to command it. Before the
+following spring there were seven such; and more were afterwards added,
+forming a battalion dispersed on various service, but all under the
+orders of Robert Rogers, with the rank of major. [458] These rangers
+wore a sort of woodland uniform, which varied in the different
+companies, and were armed with smooth-bore guns, loaded with buckshot,
+bullets, or sometimes both.
+
+[455] A large engraved portrait of him, nearly at full length, is before
+me, printed at London in 1776.
+
+[456] Rogers, Journals, Introduction (1765).
+
+[457] Provincial Papers of New Hampshire, VI. 364. Correspondence of
+Gage, 1766. N. Y. Col. Docs., VII. 990. Caleb Stark, Memoir and
+Correspondence of John Stark, 386.
+
+[458] Rogers, Journals. Report of the Adjutant-General of New Hampshire
+(1866), II. 158, 159.
+
+
+The best of them were commonly employed on Lake George; and nothing can
+surpass the adventurous hardihood of their lives. Summer and winter, day
+and night, were alike to them. Embarked in whaleboats or birch-canoes,
+they glided under the silent moon or in the languid glare of a
+breathless August day, when islands floated in dreamy haze, and the hot
+air was thick with odors of the pine; or in the bright October, when the
+jay screamed from the woods, squirrels gathered their winter hoard, and
+congregated blackbirds chattered farewell to their summer haunts; when
+gay mountains basked in light, maples dropped leaves of rustling gold,
+sumachs glowed like rubies under the dark green of the unchanging
+spruce, and mossed rocks with all their painted plumage lay double in
+the watery mirror: that festal evening of the year, when jocund Nature
+disrobes herself, to wake again refreshed in the joy of her undying
+spring. Or, in the tomb-like silence of the winter forest, with breath
+frozen on his beard, the ranger strode on snow-shoes over the spotless
+drifts; and, like Dürer's knight, a ghastly death stalked ever at his
+side. There were those among them for whom this stern life had a
+fascination that made all other existence tame.
+
+Rogers and his men had been in active movement since midwinter. In
+January they skated down Lake George, passed Ticonderoga, hid themselves
+by the forest-road between that post and Crown Point, intercepted two
+sledges loaded with provisions, and carried the drivers to Fort William
+Henry. In February they climbed a hill near Crown Point and made a plan
+of the works; then lay in ambush by the road from the fort to the
+neighboring village, captured a prisoner, burned houses and barns,
+killed fifty cattle, and returned without loss. At the end of the month
+they went again to Crown Point, burned more houses and barns, and
+reconnoitred Ticonderoga on the way back. Such excursions were repeated
+throughout the spring and summer. The reconnoissance of Ticonderoga and
+the catching of prisoners there for the sake of information were always
+capital objects. The valley, four miles in extent, that lay between the
+foot of Lake George and the French fort, was at this time guarded by
+four distinct outposts or fortified camps. Watched as it was at all
+points, and ranged incessantly by Indians in the employ of France,
+Rogers and his men knew every yard of the ground. On a morning in May he
+lay in ambush with eleven followers on a path between the fort and the
+nearest camp. A large body of soldiers passed; the rangers counted a
+hundred and eighteen, and lay close in their hiding-place. Soon after
+came a party of twenty-two. They fired on them, killed six, captured
+one, and escaped with him to Fort William Henry. In October Rogers was
+passing with twenty men in two whaleboats through the seeming solitude
+of the Narrows when a voice called to them out of the woods. It was that
+of Captain Shepherd, of the New Hampshire regiment, who had been
+captured two months before, and had lately made his escape. He told them
+that the French had the fullest information of the numbers and movements
+of the English; that letters often reached them from within the English
+lines; and that Lydius, a Dutch trader at Albany, was their principal
+correspondent. [459] Arriving at Ticonderoga, Rogers cautiously
+approached the fort, till, about noon, he saw a sentinel on the road
+leading thence to the woods. Followed by five of his men, he walked
+directly towards him. The man challenged, and Rogers answered in French.
+Perplexed for a moment, the soldier suffered him to approach; till,
+seeing his mistake, he called out in amazement, "Qui êtes vous?"
+"Rogers," was the answer; and the sentinel was seized, led in hot haste
+to the boats, and carried to the English fort, where he gave important
+information.
+
+[459] Letter and Order Books of Winslow. "One Lydiass ... whom we
+suspect for a French spy; he lives better than anybody, without any
+visible means, and his daughters have had often presents from Mr.
+Vaudreuil." Loudon (to Fox?), 19 Aug. 1756.
+
+An exploit of Rogers towards midsummer greatly perplexed the French. He
+embarked at the end of June with fifty men in five whaleboats, made
+light and strong, expressly for this service, rowed about ten miles down
+Lake George, landed on the east side, carried the boats six miles over a
+gorge of the mountains, launched them again in South Bay, and rowed down
+the narrow prolongation of Lake Champlain under cover of darkness. At
+dawn they were within six miles of Ticonderoga. They landed, hid their
+boats, and lay close all day. Embarking again in the evening, they rowed
+with muffled oars under the shadow of the eastern shore, and passed so
+close to the French fort that they heard the voices of the sentinels
+calling the watchword. In the morning they had left it five miles
+behind. Again they hid in the woods; and from their lurking-place saw
+bateaux passing, some northward, and some southward, along the narrow
+lake. Crown Point was ten or twelve miles farther on. They tried to pass
+it after nightfall, but the sky was too clear and the stars too bright;
+and as they lay hidden the next day, nearly a hundred boats passed
+before them on the way to Ticonderoga. Some other boats which appeared
+about noon landed near them, and they watched the soldiers at dinner,
+within a musket-shot of their lurking-place. The next night was more
+favorable. They embarked at nine in the evening, passed Crown Point
+unseen, and hid themselves as before, ten miles below. It was the
+seventh of July. Thirty boats and a schooner passed them, returning
+towards Canada. On the next night they rowed fifteen miles farther, and
+then sent men to reconnoitre, who reported a schooner at anchor about a
+mile off. They were preparing to board her, when two sloops appeared,
+coming up the lake at but a short distance from the land. They gave them
+a volley, and called on them to surrender; but the crews put off in
+boats and made for the opposite shore. They followed and seized them.
+Out of twelve men their fire had killed three and wounded two, one of
+whom, says Rogers in his report, "could not march, therefore we put an
+end to him, to prevent discovery." [460] They sank the vessels, which
+were laden with wine, brandy, and flour, hid their boats on the west
+shore, and returned on foot with their prisoners. [461]
+
+[460] Report of Rogers to Sir William Johnson, July, 1756. This incident
+is suppressed in the printed Journals, which merely say that the man
+"soon died."
+
+[461] Rogers, Journals, 20. Shirley to Fox, 26 July, 1756. "This
+afternoon Capt. Rogers came down with 4 scalps and 8 prisoners which he
+took on Lake Champlain, between 20 and 30 miles beyond Crown Point."
+Surgeon Williams to his Wife, 16 July, 1756.
+
+Some weeks after, Rogers returned to the place where he had left the
+boats, embarked in them, reconnoitred the lake nearly to St. John, hid
+them again eight miles north of Crown Point, took three prisoners near
+that post, and carried them to Fort William Henry. In the next month the
+French found several English boats in a small cove north of Crown Point.
+Bougainville propounds five different hypotheses to account for their
+being there; and exploring parties were sent out in the vain attempt to
+find some water passage by which they could have reached the spot
+without passing under the guns of two French forts. [462]
+
+[462] Bougainville, Journal.
+
+The French, on their side, still kept their war-parties in motion, and
+Vaudreuil faithfully chronicled in his despatches every English scalp
+they brought in. He believed in Indians, and sent them to Ticonderoga in
+numbers that were sometimes embarrassing. Even Pottawattamies from Lake
+Michigan were prowling about Winslow's camp and silently killing his
+sentinels with arrows, while their "medicine men" remained at
+Ticonderoga practising sorcery and divination to aid the warriors or
+learn how it fared with them. Bougainville writes in his Journal on the
+fifteenth of October: "Yesterday the old Pottawattamies who have stayed
+here 'made medicine' to get news of their brethren. The lodge trembled,
+the sorcerer sweated drops of blood, and the devil came at last and told
+him that the warriors would come back with scalps and prisoners. A
+sorcerer in the medicine lodge is exactly like the Pythoness on the
+tripod or the witch Canidia invoking the shades." The diviner was not
+wholly at fault. Three days after, the warriors came back with a
+prisoner. [463]
+
+[463] This kind of divination was practised by Algonkin tribes from the
+earliest times. See Pioneers of France in the New World, 315.
+
+Till November, the hostile forces continued to watch each other from the
+opposite ends of Lake George. Loudon repeated his orders to Winslow to
+keep the defensive, and wrote sarcastically to the Colonial Minister: "I
+think I shall be able to prevent the provincials doing anything very
+rash, without their having it in their power to talk in the language of
+this country that they could have taken all Canada if they had not been
+prevented by the King's servants." Winslow tried to console himself for
+the failure of the campaign, and wrote in his odd English to Shirley:
+"Am sorry that this year's performance has not succeeded as was
+intended; have only to say I pushed things to the utmost of my power to
+have been sooner in motion, which was the only thing that should have
+carried us to Crown Point; and though I am sensible that we are doing
+our duty in acting on the defensive, yet it makes no eclate [sic], and
+answers to little purpose in the eyes of my constituents."
+
+On the first of the month the French began to move off towards Canada,
+and before many days Ticonderoga was left in the keeping of five or six
+companies. [464] Winslow's men followed their example. Major Eyre, with
+four hundred regulars, took possession of Fort William Henry, and the
+provincials marched for home, their ranks thinned by camp diseases and
+small-pox. [465] In Canada the regulars were quartered on the
+inhabitants, who took the infliction as a matter of course. In the
+English provinces the question was not so simple. Most of the British
+troops were assigned to Philadelphia, New York, and Boston; and Loudon
+demanded free quarters for them, according to usage then prevailing in
+England during war. Nor was the demand in itself unreasonable, seeing
+that the troops were sent over to fight the battles of the colonies. In
+Philadelphia lodgings were given them in the public-houses, which,
+however, could not hold them all. A long dispute followed between the
+Governor, who seconded Loudon's demand, and the Assembly, during which
+about half the soldiers lay on straw in outhouses and sheds till near
+midwinter, many sickening, and some dying from exposure. Loudon grew
+furious, and threatened, if shelter were not provided, to send Webb with
+another regiment and billet the whole on the inhabitants; on which the
+Assembly yielded, and quarters were found. [466]
+
+[464] Bougainville, Journal. Malartic, Journal.
+
+[465] Letter and Order Books of Winslow. Winslow to Halifax, 30 Dec.
+1756.
+
+[466] Loudon to Denny, 28 Oct. 1756. Colonial Records of Pa., VII.
+358-380. Loudon to Pitt, 10 March, 1757. Notice of Colonel Bouquet, in
+Pennsylvania Magazine, III. 124. The Conduct of a Noble Commander in
+America impartially reviewed (1758).
+
+In New York the privates were quartered in barracks, but the officers
+were left to find lodging for themselves. Loudon demanded that provision
+should be made for them also. The city council hesitated, afraid of
+incensing the people if they complied. Cruger, the mayor, came to
+remonstrate. "God damn my blood!" replied the Earl; "if you do not
+billet my officers upon free quarters this day, I'll order here all the
+troops in North America, and billet them myself upon this city." Being
+no respecter of persons, at least in the provinces, he began with Oliver
+Delancey, brother of the late acting Governor, and sent six soldiers to
+lodge under his roof. Delancey swore at the unwelcome guests, on which
+Loudon sent him six more. A subscription was then raised among the
+citizens, and the required quarters were provided. [467] In Boston there
+was for the present less trouble. The troops were lodged in the barracks
+of Castle William, and furnished with blankets, cooking utensils, and
+other necessaries. [468]
+
+[467] Smith, Hist. of N. Y., Part II. 242. William Corry to Johnson, 15
+Jan., 1757, in Stone, Life of Sir William Johnson, II. 24, note. Loudon
+to Hardy, 21 Nov. 1756.
+
+[468] Massachusetts Archives, LXXVI. 153.
+
+Major Eyre and his soldiers, in their wilderness exile by the borders of
+Lake George, whiled the winter away with few other excitements than the
+evening howl of wolves from the frozen mountains, or some nocturnal
+savage shooting at a sentinel from behind a stump on the moonlit fields
+of snow. A livelier incident at last broke the monotony of their lives.
+In the middle of January Rogers came with his rangers from Fort Edward,
+bound on a scouting party towards Crown Point. They spent two days at
+Fort William Henry in making snow-shoes and other preparation, and set
+out on the seventeenth. Captain Spikeman was second in command, with
+Lieutenants Stark and Kennedy, several other subalterns, and two
+gentlemen volunteers enamoured of adventure. They marched down the
+frozen lake and encamped at the Narrows. Some of them, unaccustomed to
+snow-shoes, had become unfit for travel, and were sent back, thus
+reducing the number to seventy-four. In the morning they marched again,
+by icicled rocks and icebound waterfalls, mountains gray with naked
+woods and fir-trees bowed down with snow. On the nineteenth they reached
+the west shore, about four miles south of Rogers Rock, marched west of
+north eight miles, and bivouacked among the mountains. On the next
+morning they changed their course, marched east of north all day, passed
+Ticonderoga undiscovered, and stopped at night some five miles beyond
+it. The weather was changing, and rain was coming on. They scraped away
+the snow with their snow-shoes, piled it in a bank around them, made
+beds of spruce-boughs, built fires, and lay down to sleep, while the
+sentinels kept watch in the outer gloom. In the morning there was a
+drizzling rain, and the softened snow stuck to their snow-shoes. They
+marched eastward three miles through the dripping forest, till they
+reached the banks of Lake Champlain, near what is now called Five Mile
+Point, and presently saw a sledge, drawn by horses, moving on the ice
+from Ticonderoga towards Crown Point. Rogers sent Stark along the shore
+to the left to head it off, while he with another party, covered by the
+woods, moved in the opposite direction to stop its retreat. He soon saw
+eight or ten more sledges following the first, and sent a messenger to
+prevent Stark from showing himself too soon; but Stark was already on
+the ice. All the sledges turned back in hot haste. The rangers ran in
+pursuit and captured three of them, with seven men and six horses, while
+the rest escaped to Ticonderoga. The prisoners, being separately
+examined, told an ominous tale. There were three hundred and fifty
+regulars at Ticonderoga; two hundred Canadians and forty-five Indians
+had lately arrived there, and more Indians were expected that
+evening,--all destined to waylay the communications between the English
+forts, and all prepared to march at a moment's notice. The rangers were
+now in great peril. The fugitives would give warning of their presence,
+and the French and Indians, in overwhelming force, would no doubt cut
+off their retreat.
+
+Rogers at once ordered his men to return to their last night's
+encampment, rekindle the fires, and dry their guns, which were wet by
+the rain of the morning. Then they marched southward in single file
+through the snow-encumbered forest, Rogers and Kennedy in the front,
+Spikeman in the centre, and Stark in the rear. In this order they moved
+on over broken and difficult ground till two in the afternoon, when they
+came upon a valley, or hollow, scarcely a musket-shot wide, which ran
+across their line of march, and, like all the rest of the country, was
+buried in thick woods. The front of the line had descended the first
+hill, and was mounting that on the farther side, when the foremost men
+heard a low clicking sound, like the cocking of a great number of guns;
+and in an instant a furious volley blazed out of the bushes on the ridge
+above them. Kennedy was killed outright, as also was Gardner, one of the
+volunteers. Rogers was grazed in the head by a bullet, and others were
+disabled or hurt. The rest returned the fire, while a swarm of French
+and Indians rushed upon them from the ridge and the slopes on either
+hand, killing several more, Spikeman among the rest, and capturing
+others. The rangers fell back across the hollow and regained the hill
+they had just descended. Stark with the rear, who were at the top when
+the fray began, now kept the assailants in check by a brisk fire till
+their comrades joined them. Then the whole party, spreading themselves
+among the trees that covered the declivity, stubbornly held their ground
+and beat back the French in repeated attempts to dislodge them. As the
+assailants were more than two to one, what Rogers had most to dread was
+a movement to outflank him and get into his rear. This they tried twice,
+and were twice repulsed by a party held in reserve for the purpose. The
+fight lasted several hours, during which there was much talk between the
+combatants. The French called out that it was a pity so many brave men
+should be lost, that large reinforcements were expected every moment,
+and that the rangers would then be cut to pieces without mercy; whereas
+if they surrendered at once they should be treated with the utmost
+kindness. They called to Rogers by name, and expressed great esteem for
+him. Neither threats nor promises had any effect, and the firing went on
+till darkness stopped it. Towards evening Rogers was shot through the
+wrist; and one of the men, John Shute, used to tell in his old age how
+he saw another ranger trying to bind the captain's wound with the ribbon
+of his own queue.
+
+As Ticonderoga was but three miles off, it was destruction to stay where
+they were; and they withdrew under cover of night, reduced to
+forty-eight effective and six wounded men. Fourteen had been killed, and
+six captured. Those that were left reached Lake George in the morning,
+and Stark, with two followers, pushed on in advance to bring a sledge
+for the wounded. The rest made their way to the Narrows, where they
+encamped, and presently descried a small dark object on the ice far
+behind them. It proved to be one of their own number, Sergeant Joshua
+Martin, who had received a severe wound in the fight, and was left
+for dead; but by desperate efforts had followed on their tracks, and was
+now brought to camp in a state of exhaustion. He recovered, and lived to
+an advanced age. The sledge sent by Stark came in the morning, and the
+whole party soon reached the fort. Abercromby, on hearing of the affair,
+sent them a letter of thanks for gallant conduct.
+
+Rogers reckons the number of his assailants at about two hundred and
+fifty in all. Vaudreuil says that they consisted of eighty-nine regulars
+and ninety Canadians and Indians. With his usual boastful exaggeration,
+he declares that forty English were left dead on the field, and that
+only three reached Fort William Henry alive. He says that the fight was
+extremely hot and obstinate, and admits that the French lost
+thirty-seven killed and wounded. Rogers makes the number much greater.
+That it was considerable is certain, as Lusignan, commandant at
+Ticonderoga, wrote immediately for reinforcements. [469]
+
+[469] Rogers, Journals, 38-44. Caleb Stark, Memoir and Correspondence of
+John Stark, 18, 412. Return of Killed, Wounded, and Missing in the
+Action near Ticonderoga, Jan. 1757; all the names are here given. James
+Abercromby, aide-de-camp to his uncle, General Abercromby, wrote to
+Rogers from Albany: "You cannot imagine how all ranks of people here are
+pleased with your conduct and your men's behavior."
+
+The accounts of the French writers differ from each other, but agree in
+placing the English force at from seventy to eighty, and their own much
+higher. The principal report is that of Vaudreuil au Ministre, 19 Avril,
+1757 (his second letter of this date). Bougainville, Montcalm, Malartic,
+and Montreuil all speak of the affair, placing the English loss much
+higher than is shown by the returns. The story, repeated in most of the
+French narratives, that only three of the rangers reached Fort William
+Henry, seems to have arisen from the fact that Stark with two men went
+thither in advance of the rest. As regards the antecedents of the
+combat, the French and English accounts agree.
+
+The effects of his wound and an attack of small-pox kept Rogers quiet
+for a time. Meanwhile the winter dragged slowly away, and the ice of
+Lake George, cracking with change of temperature, uttered its strange
+cry of agony, heralding that dismal season when winter begins to relax
+its grip, but spring still holds aloof; when the sap stirs in the
+sugar-maples, but the buds refuse to swell, and even the catkins of the
+willows will not burst their brown integuments; when the forest is
+patched with snow, though on its sunny slopes one hears in the stillness
+the whisper of trickling waters that ooze from the half-thawed soil and
+saturated beds of fallen leaves; when clouds hang low on the darkened
+mountains, and cold mists entangle themselves in the tops of the pines;
+now a dull rain, now a sharp morning frost, and now a storm of snow
+powdering the waste, and wrapping it again in the pall of winter.
+
+In this cheerless season, on St. Patrick's Day, the seventeenth of
+March, the Irish soldiers who formed a part of the garrison of Fort
+William Henry were paying homage to their patron saint in libations of
+heretic rum, the product of New England stills; and it is said that John
+Stark's rangers forgot theological differences in their zeal to share
+the festivity. The story adds that they were restrained by their
+commander, and that their enforced sobriety proved the saving of the
+fort. This may be doubted; for without counting the English soldiers of
+the garrison who had no special call to be drunk that day, the fort was
+in no danger till twenty-four hours after, when the revellers had had
+time to rally from their pious carouse. Whether rangers or British
+soldiers, it is certain that watchmen were on the alert during the night
+between the eighteenth and nineteenth, and that towards one in the
+morning they heard a sound of axes far down the lake, followed by the
+faint glow of a distant fire. The inference was plain, that an enemy was
+there, and that the necessity of warming himself had overcome his
+caution. Then all was still for some two hours, when, listening in the
+pitchy darkness, the watchers heard the footsteps of a great body of men
+approaching on the ice, which at the time was bare of snow. The garrison
+were at their posts, and all the cannon on the side towards the lake
+vomited grape and round-shot in the direction of the sound, which
+thereafter was heard no more.
+
+Those who made it were a detachment, called by Vaudreuil an army, sent
+by him to seize the English fort. Shirley had planned a similar stroke
+against Ticonderoga a year before; but the provincial levies had come in
+so slowly, and the ice had broken up so soon, that the scheme was
+abandoned. Vaudreuil was more fortunate. The whole force, regulars,
+Canadians, and Indians, was ready to his hand. No pains were spared in
+equipping them. Overcoats, blankets, bearskins to sleep on, tarpaulins
+to sleep under, spare moccasons, spare mittens, kettles, axes, needles,
+awls, flint and steel, and many miscellaneous articles were provided, to
+be dragged by the men on light Indian sledges, along with provisions for
+twelve days. The cost of the expedition is set at a million francs,
+answering to more than as many dollars of the present time. To the
+disgust of the officers from France, the Governor named his brother
+Rigaud for the chief command; and before the end of February the whole
+party was on its march along the ice of Lake Champlain. They rested
+nearly a week at Ticonderoga, where no less than three hundred short
+scaling-ladders, so constructed that two or more could be joined in one,
+had been made for them; and here, too, they received a reinforcement,
+which raised their number to sixteen hundred. Then, marching three days
+along Lake George, they neared the fort on the evening of the
+eighteenth, and prepared for a general assault before daybreak.
+
+The garrison, including rangers, consisted of three hundred and
+forty-six effective men. [470] The fort was not strong, and a resolute
+assault by numbers so superior must, it seems, have overpowered the
+defenders; but the Canadians and Indians who composed most of the
+attacking force were not suited for such work; and, disappointed in his
+hope of a surprise, Rigaud withdrew them at daybreak, after trying in
+vain to burn the buildings outside. A few hours after, the whole body
+reappeared, filing off to surround the fort, on which they kept up a
+brisk but harmless fire of musketry. In the night they were heard again
+on the ice, approaching as if for an assault; and the cannon, firing
+towards the sound, again drove them back. There was silence for a while,
+till tongues of flame lighted up the gloom, and two sloops, ice-bound in
+the lake, and a large number of bateaux on the shore were seen to be on
+fire. A party sallied to save them; but it was too late. In the morning
+they were all consumed, and the enemy had vanished.
+
+[470] Strength of the Garrison of Fort William Henry when the Enemy came
+before it, enclosed in the letter of Major Eyre to Loudon, 26 March,
+1757. There were also one hundred and twenty-eight invalids.
+
+It was Sunday, the twentieth. Everything was quiet till noon, when the
+French filed out of the woods and marched across the ice in procession,
+ostentatiously carrying their scaling-ladders, and showing themselves to
+the best effect. They stopped at a safe distance, fronting towards the
+fort, and several of them advanced, waving a red flag. An officer with a
+few men went to meet them, and returned bringing Le Mercier, chief of
+the Canadian artillery, who, being led blindfold into the fort,
+announced himself as bearer of a message from Rigaud. He was conducted
+to the room of Major Eyre, where all the British officers were
+assembled; and, after mutual compliments, he invited them to give up the
+place peaceably, promising the most favorable terms, and threatening a
+general assault and massacre in case of refusal. Eyre said that he
+should defend himself to the last; and the envoy, again blindfolded, was
+led back to whence he came.
+
+The whole French force now advanced as if to storm the works, and the
+garrison prepared to receive them. Nothing came of it but a fusillade,
+to which the British made no reply. At night the French were heard
+advancing again, and each man nerved himself for the crisis. The real
+attack, however, was not against the fort, but against the buildings
+outside, which consisted of several storehouses, a hospital, a saw-mill,
+and the huts of the rangers, besides a sloop on the stocks and piles of
+planks and cord-wood. Covered by the night, the assailants crept up with
+fagots of resinous sticks, placed them against the farther side of the
+buildings, kindled them, and escaped before the flame rose; while the
+garrison, straining their ears in the thick darkness, fired wherever
+they heard a sound. Before morning all around them was in a blaze, and
+they had much ado to save the fort barracks from the shower of burning
+cinders. At ten o'clock the fires had subsided, and a thick fall of snow
+began, filling the air with a restless chaos of large moist flakes. This
+lasted all day and all the next night, till the ground and the ice were
+covered to a depth of three feet and more. The French lay close in their
+camps till a little before dawn on Tuesday morning, when twenty
+volunteers from the regulars made a bold attempt to burn the sloop on
+the stocks, with several storehouses and other structures, and several
+hundred scows and whaleboats which had thus far escaped. They were only
+in part successful; but they fired the sloop and some buildings near it,
+and stood far out on the ice watching the flaming vessel, a superb
+bonfire amid the wilderness of snow. The spectacle cost the volunteers a
+fourth of their number killed and wounded.
+
+On Wednesday morning the sun rose bright on a scene of wintry splendor,
+and the frozen lake was dotted with Rigaud's retreating followers
+toiling towards Canada on snow-shoes. Before they reached it many of
+them were blinded for a while by the insufferable glare, and their
+comrades led them homewards by the hand. [471]
+
+[471] Eyre to Loudon, 24 March, 1757. Ibid., 25 March, enclosed in
+Loudon's despatch of 25 April, 1757. Message of Rigaud to Major Eyre, 20
+March, 1757. Letter from Fort William Henry, 26 March, 1757, in Boston
+Gazette, No. 106, and Boston Evening Post, No. 1,128. Abstract of
+Letters from Albany, in Boston News Letter, No. 2,860. Caleb Stark,
+Memoir and Correspondence of John Stark, 22, a curious mixture of truth
+and error. Relation de la Campagne sur le Lac St. Sacrement pendant
+l'Hiver, 1757. Bougainville, Journal. Malartic, Journal. Montcalm au
+Ministre, 24 Avril, 1757. Montreuil au Ministre, 23 Avril, 1757.
+Montcalm à sa Mère, 1 Avril, 1757. Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
+
+The French loss in killed and wounded is set by Montcalm at eleven. That
+of the English was seven, slightly wounded, chiefly in sorties. They
+took three prisoners. Stark was touched by a bullet, for the only time
+in his adventurous life.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+1757.
+
+MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL.
+
+The Seat of War • Social Life at Montreal • Familiar Correspondence of
+Montcalm • His Employments • His Impressions of Canada • His
+Hospitalities • Misunderstandings with the Governor • Character of
+Vaudreuil • His Accusations • Frenchmen and Canadians • Foibles of
+Montcalm • The opening Campaign • Doubts and Suspense • London's Plan •
+His Character • Fatal Delays • Abortive Attempt against Louisbourg •
+Disaster to the British Fleet.
+
+Spring came at last, and the Dutch burghers of Albany heard, faint from
+the far height, the clamor of the wild-fowl, streaming in long files
+northward to their summer home. As the aërial travellers winged their
+way, the seat of war lay spread beneath them like a map. First the blue
+Hudson, slumbering among its forests, with the forts along its banks,
+Half-Moon, Stillwater, Saratoga, and the geometric lines and earthen
+mounds of Fort Edward. Then a broad belt of dingy evergreen; and beyond,
+released from wintry fetters, the glistening breast of Lake George, with
+Fort William Henry at its side, amid charred ruins and a desolation of
+prostrate forests. Hence the lake stretched northward, like some broad
+river, trenched between mountain ranges still leafless and gray. Then
+they looked down on Ticonderoga, with the flag of the Bourbons, like a
+flickering white speck, waving on its ramparts; and next on Crown Point
+with its tower of stone. Lake Champlain now spread before them, widening
+as they flew: on the left, the mountain wilderness of the Adirondacks,
+like a stormy sea congealed; on the right, the long procession of the
+Green Mountains; and, far beyond, on the dim verge of the eastern sky,
+the White Mountains throned in savage solitude. They passed over the
+bastioned square of Fort St. John, Fort Chambly guarding the rapids of
+the Richelieu, and the broad belt of the St. Lawrence, with Montreal
+seated on its bank. Here we leave them, to build their nests and hatch
+their brood among the fens of the lonely North.
+
+Montreal, the military heart of Canada, was in the past winter its
+social centre also, where were gathered conspicuous representatives both
+of Old France and of New; not men only, but women. It was a sparkling
+fragment of the reign of Louis XV. dropped into the American wilderness.
+Montcalm was here with his staff and his chief officers, now pondering
+schemes of war, and now turning in thought to his beloved Château of
+Candiac, his mother, children, and wife, to whom he sent letters with
+every opportunity. To his wife he writes: "Think of me affectionately;
+give love to my girls. I hope next year I may be with you all. I love
+you tenderly, dearest." He says that he has sent her a packet of
+marten-skins for a muff; "and another time I shall send some to our
+daughter; but I should like better to bring them myself." Of this eldest
+daughter he writes in reply to a letter of domestic news from Madame de
+Montcalm: "The new gown with blonde trimmings must be becoming, for she
+is pretty." Again, "There is not an hour in the day when I do not think
+of you, my mother and my children." He had the tastes of a country
+gentleman, and was eager to know all that was passing on his estate.
+Before leaving home he had set up a mill to grind olives for oil, and
+was well pleased to hear of its prosperity. "It seems to be a good
+thing, which pleases me very much. Bougainville and I talk a great deal
+about the oil-mill." Some time after, when the King sent him the coveted
+decoration of the cordon rouge, he informed Madame de Montcalm of the
+honor done him, and added: "But I think I am better pleased with what
+you tell me of the success of my oil-mill."
+
+To his mother he writes of his absorbing occupations, and says: "You can
+tell my dearest that I have no time to occupy myself with the ladies,
+even if I wished to." Nevertheless he now and then found leisure for
+some little solace in his banishment; for he writes to Bourlamaque, whom
+he had left at Quebec, after a visit which he had himself made there
+early in the winter: "I am glad you sometimes speak of me to the three
+ladies in the Rue du Parloir; and I am flattered by their remembrance,
+especially by that of one of them, in whom I find at certain moments too 
+much wit and too many charms for my tranquillity." These ladies of the
+Rue du Parloir are several times mentioned in his familiar
+correspondence with Bourlamaque.
+
+His station obliged him to maintain a high standard of living, to his
+great financial detriment, for Canadian prices were inordinate. "I must
+live creditably, and so I do; sixteen persons at table every day. Once a
+fortnight I dine with the Governor-General and with the Chevalier de
+Lévis, who lives well too. He has given three grand balls. As for me, up
+to Lent I gave, besides dinners, great suppers, with ladies, three times
+a week. They lasted till two in the morning; and then there was dancing,
+to which company came uninvited, but sure of a welcome from those who
+had been at supper. It is very expensive, not very amusing, and often
+tedious. At Quebec, where we spent a month, I gave receptions or
+parties, often at the Intendant's house. I like my gallant Chevalier de
+Lévis very much. Bourlamaque was a good choice; he is steady and cool,
+with good parts. Bougainville has talent, a warm head, and warm heart;
+he will ripen in time. Write to Madame Cornier that I like her husband;
+he is perfectly well, and as impatient for peace as I am. Love to my
+daughters, and all affection and respect to my mother. I live only in
+the hope of joining you all again. Nevertheless, Montreal is as good a
+place as Alais even in time of peace, and better now, because the
+Government is here; for the Marquis de Vaudreuil, like me, spent only a
+month at Quebec. As for Quebec, it is as good as the best cities of
+France, except ten or so. Clear sky, bright sun; neither spring nor
+autumn, only summer and winter. July, August, and September, hot as in
+Languedoc: winter insupportable; one must keep always indoors. The
+ladies spirituelles, galantes, dévotes. Gambling at Quebec, dancing and
+conversation at Montreal. My friends the Indians, who are often
+unbearable, and whom I treat with perfect tranquillity and patience, are
+fond of me. If I were not a sort of general, though very subordinate to
+the Governor, I could gossip about the plans of the campaign, which it
+is likely will begin on the tenth or fifteenth of May. I worked at the
+plan of the last affair [Rigaud's expedition to Fort William Henry],
+which might have turned out better, though good as it was. I wanted only
+eight hundred men. If I had had my way, Monsieur de Lévis or Monsieur de
+Bougainville would have had charge of it. However, the thing was all
+right, and in good hands. The Governor, who is extremely civil to me,
+gave it to his brother; he thought him more used to winter marches.
+Adieu, my heart; I adore and love you!"
+
+To meet his manifold social needs, he sends to his wife orders for
+prunes, olives, anchovies, muscat wine, capers, sausages, confectionery,
+cloth for liveries, and many other such items; also for scent-bags of
+two kinds, and perfumed pomatum for presents; closing in postscript with
+an injunction not to forget a dozen pint-bottles of English lavender.
+Some months after, he writes to Madame de Saint-Véran: "I have got
+everything that was sent me from Montpellier except the sausages. I have
+lost a third of what was sent from Bordeaux. The English captured it on
+board the ship called 'La Superbe;' and I have reason to fear that
+everything sent from Paris is lost on board 'La Liberté.' I am running
+into debt here. Pshaw! I must live. I do not worry myself. Best love to
+you, my mother."
+
+When Rigaud was about to march with his detachment against Fort William
+Henry, Montcalm went over to La Prairie to see them. "I reviewed them,"
+he writes to Bourlamaque, "and gave the officers a dinner, which, if
+anybody else had given it, I should have said was a grand affair. There
+were two tables, for thirty-six persons in all. On Wednesday there was
+an Assembly at Madame Varin's; on Friday the Chevalier de Lévis gave a
+ball. He invited sixty-five ladies, and got only thirty, with a great
+crowd of men. Rooms well lighted, excellent order, excellent service,
+plenty of refreshments of every sort all through the night; and the
+company stayed till seven in the morning. As for me, I went to bed
+early. I had had that day eight ladies at a supper given to Madame
+Varin. To-morrow I shall have half-a-dozen at another supper, given to I
+don't know whom, but incline to think it will be La Roche Beaucour. The
+gallant Chevalier is to give us still another ball."
+
+Lent put a check on these festivities. "To-morrow," he tells
+Bourlamaque, "I shall throw myself into devotion with might and main (à
+corps perdu). It will be easier for me to detach myself from the world
+and turn heavenward here at Montreal than it would be at Quebec." And,
+some time after, "Bougainville spent Monday delightfully at Isle Ste.
+Hélène, and Tuesday devoutly with the Sulpitian Fathers at the Mountain.
+I was there myself at four o'clock, and did them the civility to sup in
+their refectory at a quarter before six."
+
+In May there was a complete revival of social pleasures, and Montcalm
+wrote to Bourlamaque: "Madame de Beaubassin's supper was very gay. There
+were toasts to the Rue du Parloir and to the General. To-day I must give
+a dinner to Madame de Saint-Ours, which will be a little more serious.
+Péan is gone to establish himself at La Chine, and will come back with
+La Barolon, who goes thither with a husband of hers, bound to the Ohio
+with Villejoin and Louvigny. The Chevalier de Lévis amuses himself very
+much here. He and his friends spend all their time with Madame de
+Lenisse."
+
+Under these gayeties and gallantries there were bitter heart-burnings.
+Montcalm hints at some of them in a letter to Bourlamaque, written at
+the time of the expedition to Fort William Henry, which, in the words of
+Montcalm, who would have preferred another commander, the Governor had
+ordered to march "under the banners of brother Rigaud." "After he got my
+letter on Sunday evening," says the disappointed General, "Monsieur de
+Vaudreuil sent me his secretary with the instructions he had given his
+brother," which he had hitherto withheld. "This gave rise after dinner
+to a long conversation with him; and I hope for the good of the service
+that his future conduct will prove the truth of his words. I spoke to
+him with frankness and firmness of the necessity I was under of
+communicating to him my reflections; but I did not name any of the
+persons who, to gain his good graces, busy themselves with destroying
+his confidence in me. I told him that he would always find me disposed
+to aid in measures tending to our success, even should his views, which
+always ought to prevail, be different from mine; but that I dared
+flatter myself that he would henceforward communicate his plans to me
+sooner; for, though his knowledge of the country gave greater weight to
+his opinions, he might rest satisfied that I should second him in
+methods and details. This explanation passed off becomingly enough, and
+ended with a proposal to dine on a moose's nose [an estimed morsel] the
+day after to-morrow. I burn your letters, Monsieur, and I beg you to do
+the same with mine, after making a note of anything you may want to
+keep." But Bourlamaque kept all the letters, and bound them in a volume,
+which still exists. [472]
+
+[472] The preceding extracts are from Lettres de Montcalm à Madame de
+Saint-Véran, sa Mère, et à Madame de Montcalm, sa Femme, 1756, 1757
+(Papiers de Famille); and Lettres de Montcalm à Bourlamaque, 1757. See
+Appendix E.
+
+Montcalm was not at this time fully aware of the feeling of Vaudreuil
+towards him. The touchy egotism of the Governor and his jealous
+attachment to the colony led him to claim for himself and the Canadians
+the merit of every achievement and to deny it to the French troops and
+their general. Before the capture of Oswego was known, he wrote to the
+naval minister that Montcalm would never have dared attack that place if
+he had not encouraged him and answered his timid objections. [473] "I am
+confident that I shall reduce it," he adds; "my expedition is sure to
+succeed if Monsieur de Montcalm follows the directions I have given
+him." When the good news came he immediately wrote again, declaring that
+the victory was due to his brother Rigaud and the Canadians, who, he
+says, had been ill-used by the General, and not allowed either to enter
+the fort or share the plunder, any more than the Indians, who were so
+angry at the treatment they had met that he had great difficulty in
+appeasing them. He hints that the success was generally ascribed to him.
+"There has been a great deal of talk here; but I will not do myself the
+honor of repeating it to you, especially as it relates to myself. I know
+how to do violence to my self-love. The measures I took assured our
+victory, in spite of opposition. If I had been less vigilant and firm,
+Oswego would still be in the hands of the English. I cannot sufficiently
+congratulate myself on the zeal which my brother and the Canadians and
+Indians showed on this occasion; for without them my orders would have
+been given in vain. The hopes of His Britannic Majesty have vanished,
+and will hardly revive again; for I shall take care to crush them in the
+bud." [474]
+
+[473] Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 13 Août, 1756.
+
+[474] Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 1 Sept. 1756.
+
+The pronouns "I" and "my" recur with monotonous frequency in his
+correspondence. "I have laid waste all the British provinces." "By
+promptly uniting my forces at Carillon, I have kept General Loudon in
+check, though he had at his disposal an army of about twenty thousand
+men;" [475] and so without end, in all varieties of repetition. It is no
+less characteristic that he here assigns to his enemies double their
+actual force.
+
+[475] Ibid., 6 Nov. 1756.
+
+He has the faintest of praise for the troops from France. "They are
+generally good, but thus far they have not absolutely distinguished
+themselves. I do justice to the firmness they showed at Oswego; but it
+was only the colony troops, Canadians, and Indians who attacked the
+forts. Our artillery was directed by the Chevalier Le Mercier and M.
+Frémont [colony officers], and was served by our colony troops and our
+militia. The officers from France are more inclined to defence than
+attack. Far from spending the least thing here, they lay by their pay.
+They saved the money allowed them for refreshments, and had it in pocket
+at the end of the campaign. They get a profit, too, out of their
+provisions, by having certificates made under borrowed names, so that
+they can draw cash for them on their return. It is the same with the
+soldiers, who also sell their provisions to the King and get paid for
+them. In conjunction with M. Bigot, I labor to remedy all these abuses;
+and the rules we have established have saved the King a considerable
+expense. M. de Montcalm has complained very much of these rules." The
+Intendant Bigot, who here appears as a reformer, was the centre of a
+monstrous system of public fraud and robbery; while the charges against
+the French officers are unsupported. Vaudreuil, who never loses an
+opportunity of disparaging them, proceeds thus:--
+
+"The troops from France are not on very good terms with our Canadians.
+What can the soldiers think of them when they see their officers
+threaten them with sticks or swords? The Canadians are obliged to carry
+these gentry on their shoulders, through the cold water, over rocks that
+cut their feet; and if they make a false step they are abused. Can
+anything be harder? Finally, Monsieur de Montcalm is so quick-tempered
+that he goes to the length of striking the Canadians. How can he
+restrain his officers when he cannot restrain himself? Could any example
+be more contagious? This is the way our Canadians are treated. They
+deserve something better." He then enlarges on their zeal, hardihood,
+and bravery, and adds that nothing but their blind submission to his
+commands prevents many of them from showing resentment at the usage they
+had to endure. The Indians, he goes on to say, are not so gentle and
+yielding; and but for his brother Rigaud and himself, might have gone
+off in a rage. "After the campaign of Oswego they did not hesitate to
+tell me that they would go wherever I sent them, provided I did not put
+them under the orders of M. de Montcalm. They told me positively that
+they could not bear his quick temper. I shall always maintain the most
+perfect union and understanding with M. le Marquis de Montcalm, but I
+shall be forced to take measures which will assure to our Canadians and
+Indians treatment such as their zeal and services merit." [476]
+
+[476] Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 23 Oct. 1756. The above
+extracts are somewhat condensed in the translation. See the letter in
+Dussieux, 279.
+
+To the subject of his complaints Vaudreuil used a different language;
+for Montcalm says, after mentioning that he had had occasion to punish
+some of the Canadians at Oswego: "I must do Monsieur de Vaudreuil the
+justice to say that he approved my proceedings." He treated the General
+with the blandest politeness. "He is a good-natured man," continues
+Montcalm, "mild, with no character of his own, surrounded by people who
+try to destroy all his confidence in the general of the troops from
+France. I am praised excessively, in order to make him jealous, excite
+his Canadian prejudices, and prevent him from dealing with me frankly,
+or adopting my views when he can help it." [477] He elsewhere complains
+that Vaudreuil gave to both him and Lévis orders couched in such
+equivocal terms that he could throw the blame on them in case of
+reverse. [478] Montcalm liked the militia no better than the Governor
+liked the regulars. "I have used them with good effect, though not in
+places exposed to the enemy's fire. They know neither discipline nor
+subordination, and think themselves in all respects the first nation on
+earth." He is sure, however, that they like him: "I have gained the
+utmost confidence of the Canadians and Indians; and in the eyes of the
+former, when I travel or visit their camps, I have the air of a tribune
+of the people." [479] "The affection of the Indians for me is so strong
+that there are moments when it astonishes the Governor." [480] "The
+Indians are delighted with me," he says in another letter; "the
+Canadians are pleased with me; their officers esteem and fear me, and
+would be glad if the French troops and their general could be dispensed
+with; and so should I." [481] And he writes to his mother: "The part I
+have to play is unique: I am a general-in-chief subordinated; sometimes
+with everything to do, and sometimes nothing; I am esteemed, respected,
+beloved, envied, hated; I pass for proud, supple, stiff, yielding,
+polite, devout, gallant, etc.; and I long for peace." [482]
+
+[477] Montcalm au Ministre de la Guerre, 11 Juillet, 1757.
+
+[478] Montcalm au Ministre de la Guerre, 1 Nov. 1756.
+
+[479] Ibid., 18 Sept. 1757.
+
+[480] Ibid., 4 Nov. 1757.
+
+[481] Ibid., 28 Août, 1756.
+
+[482] Montcalm à Madame de Saint-Véran, 23 Sept. 1757.
+
+The letters of the Governor and those of the General, it will be seen,
+contradict each other flatly at several points. Montcalm is sustained by
+his friend Bougainville, who says that the Indians had a great liking
+for him, and that he "knew how to manage them as well as if he had been
+born in their wigwams." [483] And while Vaudreuil complains that the
+Canadians are ill-used by Montcalm, Bougainville declares that the
+regulars are ill-used by Vaudreuil. "One must be blind not to see that
+we are treated as the Spartans treated the Helots." Then he comments on
+the jealous reticence of the Governor. "The Marquis de Montcalm has not
+the honor of being consulted; and it is generally through public rumor
+that he first hears of Monsieur de Vaudreuil's military plans." He calls
+the Governor "a timid man, who can neither make a resolution nor keep
+one;" and he gives another trait of him, illustrating it, after his
+usual way, by a parallel from the classics: "When V. produces an idea he
+falls in love with it, as Pygmalion did with his statue. I can forgive
+Pygmalion, for what he produced was a masterpiece." [484]
+
+[483] Bougainville à Saint-Laurens, 19 Août, 1757.
+
+[484] Bougainville, Journal.
+
+The exceeding touchiness of the Governor was sorely tried by certain
+indiscretions on the part of the General, who in his rapid and vehement
+utterances sometimes forgot the rules of prudence. His anger, though not
+deep, was extremely impetuous; and it is said that his irritation
+against Vaudreuil sometimes found escape in the presence of servants and
+soldiers. [485] There was no lack of reporters, and the Governor was
+told everything. The breach widened apace, and Canada divided itself
+into two camps: that of Vaudreuil with the colony officers, civil and
+military, and that of Montcalm with the officers from France. The
+principal exception was the Chevalier de Lévis. This brave and able
+commander had an easy and adaptable nature, which made him a sort of
+connecting link between the two parties. "One should be on good terms
+with everybody," was a maxim which he sometimes expressed, and on which
+he shaped his conduct with notable success. The Intendant Bigot also, an
+adroit and accomplished person, had the skill to avoid breaking with
+either side.
+
+[485] Événements de la Guerre en Canada, 1759, 1760.
+
+But now the season of action was near, and domestic strife must give
+place to efforts against the common foe. "God or devil!" Montcalm wrote
+to Bourlamaque, "we must do something and risk a fight. If we succeed,
+we can, all three of us [you, Lévis, and I], ask for promotion. Burn
+this letter." The prospects, on the whole, were hopeful. The victory at
+Oswego had wrought marvels among the Indians, inspired the faithful,
+confirmed the wavering, and daunted the ill-disposed. The whole West was
+astir, ready to pour itself again in blood and fire against the English
+border; and even the Cherokees and Choctaws, old friends of the British
+colonies, seemed on the point of turning against them. [486] The Five
+Nations were half won for France. In November a large deputation of them
+came to renew the chain of friendship at Montreal. "I have laid Oswego
+in ashes," said Vaudreuil; "the English quail before me. Why do you
+nourish serpents in your bosom? They mean only to enslave you." The
+deputies trampled under foot the medals the English had given them, and
+promised the "Devourer of Villages," for so they styled the Governor,
+that they would never more lift the hatchet against his children. The
+chief difficulty was to get rid of them; for, being clothed and fed at
+the expense of the King, they were in no haste to take leave; and
+learning that New Year's Day was a time of visits, gifts, and
+health-drinking, they declared that they would stay to share its
+pleasures; which they did, to their own satisfaction and the annoyance
+of those who were forced to entertain them and their squaws. [487] An
+active siding with France was to be expected only from the western bands
+of the Confederacy. Neutrality alone could be hoped for from the others,
+who were too near the English safely to declare against them; while from
+one of the tribes, the Mohawks, even neutrality was doubtful.
+
+[486] Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 19 Avril, 1757.
+
+[487] Montcalm au Ministre de la Guerre, 24 Avril, 1757; Relation de
+l'Ambassade des Cinq Nations à Montreal, jointe à la lettre précédente.
+Procès-verbal de différentes Entrevues entre M. de Vaudreuil et les
+Députés des Nations sauvages du 13 au 30 Déc. 1756. Malartic, Journal.
+Montcalm à Madame de Saint-Véran, 1 Avril, 1757.
+
+Vaudreuil, while disliking the French regulars, felt that he could not
+dispense with them, and had asked for a reinforcement. His request was
+granted; and the Colonial Minister informed him that twenty-four hundred
+men had been ordered to Canada to strengthen the colony regulars and the
+battalions of Montcalm. [488] This, according to the estimate of the
+Minister, would raise the regular force in Canada to sixty-six hundred
+rank and file. [489] The announcement was followed by another, less
+agreeable. It was to the effect that a formidable squadron was fitting
+out in British ports. Was Quebec to be attacked, or Louisbourg?
+Louisbourg was beyond reach of succor from Canada; it must rely on its
+own strength and on help from France. But so long as Quebec was
+threatened, all the troops in the colony must be held ready to defend
+it, and the hope of attacking England in her own domains must be
+abandoned. Till these doubts were solved, nothing could be done; and
+hence great activity in catching prisoners for the sake of news. A few
+were brought in, but they knew no more of the matter than the French
+themselves; and Vaudreuil and Montcalm rested for a while in suspense.
+
+[488] Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, Mars, 1757.
+
+[489] Ministerial Minute on the Military Force in Canada, 1757, in N. Y.
+Col. Docs., X. 523.
+
+The truth, had they known it, would have gladdened their hearts. The
+English preparations were aimed at Louisbourg. In the autumn before,
+Loudon, prejudiced against all plans of his predecessor, Shirley,
+proposed to the Ministry a scheme of his own, involving a possible
+attack on Quebec, but with the reduction of Louisbourg as its immediate
+object,--an important object, no doubt, but one that had no direct
+bearing on the main question of controlling the interior of the
+continent. Pitt, then for a brief space at the head of the Government,
+accepted the suggestion, and set himself to executing it; but he was
+hampered by opposition, and early in April was forced to resign. Then,
+followed a contest of rival claimants to office; and the war against
+France was made subordinate to disputes of personal politics. Meanwhile
+one Florence Hensey, a spy at London, had informed the French Court that
+a great armament was fitting out for America, though he could not tell
+its precise destination. Without loss of time three French squadrons
+were sent across the Atlantic, with orders to rendezvous at Louisbourg,
+the conjectured point of attack.
+
+The English were as tardy as their enemies were prompt. Everything
+depended on speed; yet their fleet, under Admiral Holbourne, consisting
+of fifteen ships of the line and three frigates, with about five
+thousand troops on board, did not get to sea till the fifth of May, when
+it made sail for Halifax, where Loudon was to meet it with additional
+forces.
+
+Loudon had drawn off the best part of the troops from the northern
+frontier, and they were now at New York waiting for embarkation. That
+the design might be kept secret, he laid an embargo on colonial
+shipping,--a measure which exasperated the colonists without answering
+its purpose. Now ensued a long delay, during which the troops, the
+provincial levies, the transports destined to carry them, and the ships
+of war which were to serve as escort, all lay idle. In the interval
+Loudon showed great activity in writing despatches and other avocations
+more or less proper to a commander, being always busy, without,
+according to Franklin, accomplishing anything. One Innis, who had come
+with a message from the Governor of Pennsylvania, and had waited above a
+fortnight for the General's reply, remarked of him that he was like St.
+George on a tavern sign, always on horseback, and never riding on. [490]
+Yet nobody longed more than he to reach the rendezvous at Halifax. He
+was waiting for news of Holbourne, and he waited in vain. He knew only
+that a French fleet had been seen off the coast strong enough to
+overpower his escort and sink all his transports. [491] But the season
+was growing late; he must act quickly if he was to act at all. He and
+Sir Charles Hardy agreed between them that the risk must be run; and on
+the twentieth of June the whole force put to sea. They met no enemy, and
+entered Halifax harbor on the thirtieth. Holbourne and his fleet had not
+yet appeared; but his ships soon came straggling in, and before the
+tenth of July all were at anchor before the town. Then there was more
+delay. The troops, nearly twelve thousand in all, were landed, and weeks
+were spent in drilling them and planting vegetables for their
+refreshment. Sir Charles Hay was put under arrest for saying that the
+nation's money was spent in sham battles and raising cabbages. Some
+attempts were made to learn the state of Louisbourg; and Captain Gorham,
+of the rangers, who reconnoitred it from a fishing vessel, brought back
+an imperfect report, upon which, after some hesitation, it was resolved
+to proceed to the attack. The troops were embarked again, and all was
+ready, when, on the fourth of August, a sloop came from Newfoundland,
+bringing letters found on board a French vessel lately captured. From
+these it appeared that all three of the French squadrons were united in
+the harbor of Louisbourg, to the number of twenty-two ships of the line,
+besides several frigates, and that the garrison had been increased to a
+total force of seven thousand men, ensconced in the strongest fortress
+of the continent. So far as concerned the naval force, the account was
+true. La Motte, the French admiral, had with him a fleet carrying an
+aggregate of thirteen hundred and sixty cannon, anchored in a sheltered
+harbor under the guns of the town. Success was now hopeless, and the
+costly enterprise was at once abandoned. Loudon with his troops sailed
+back for New York, and Admiral Holbourne, who had been joined by four
+additional ships, steered for Louisbourg, in hopes that the French fleet
+would come out and fight him. He cruised off the port; but La Motte did
+not accept the challenge.
+
+[490] Works of Franklin, I. 219. Franklin intimates that while Loudon
+was constantly writing, he rarely sent off despatches. This is a
+mistake; there is abundance of them, often tediously long, in the Public
+Record Office.
+
+[491] Loudon to Pitt, 30 May, 1757. He had not learned Pitt's
+resignation.
+
+The elements declared for France. A September gale, of fury rare even on
+that tempestuous coast, burst upon the British fleet. "It blew a perfect
+hurricane," says the unfortunate Admiral, "and drove us right on shore."
+One ship was dashed on the rocks, two leagues from Louisbourg. A
+shifting of the wind in the nick of time saved the rest from total
+wreck. Nine were dismasted; others threw their cannon into the sea. Not
+one was left fit for immediate action; and had La Motte sailed out of
+Louisbourg, he would have had them all at his mercy.
+
+Delay, the source of most of the disasters that befell England and her
+colonies at this dismal epoch, was the ruin of the Louisbourg
+expedition. The greater part of La Motte's fleet reached its destination
+a full month before that of Holbourne. Had the reverse taken place, the
+fortress must have fallen. As it was, the ill-starred attempt, drawing
+off the British forces from the frontier, where they were needed most,
+did for France more than she could have done for herself, and gave
+Montcalm and Vaudreuil the opportunity to execute a scheme which they
+had nursed since the fall of Oswego. [492]
+
+[492] Despatches of Loudon, Feb. to Aug. 1757. Knox, Campaigns in North
+America, I. 6-28. Knox was in the expedition. Review of Mr. Pitt's
+Administration (London, 1763). The Conduct of a Noble Commander in
+America impartially reviewed (London, 1758). Beatson, Naval and Military
+Memoirs, II. 49-59. Answer to the Letter to two Great Men (London,
+1760). Entick, II. 168, 169. Holbourne to Loudon, 4 Aug. 1757. Holbourne
+to Pitt, 29 Sept. 1757. Ibid., 30 Sept. 1757. Holbourne to Pownall, 2
+Nov. 1757. Mante, 86, 97. Relation du Désastre arrivé à la Flotte
+Anglaise commandée par l'Amiral Holbourne. Chevalier Johnstone, Campaign
+of Louisbourg. London Magazine, 1757, 514. Gentleman's Magazine, 1757,
+463, 476. Ibid., 1758, 168-173.
+
+It has been said that Loudon was scared from his task by false reports
+of the strength of the French at Louisbourg. This was not the case. The
+Gazette de France, 621, says that La Motte had twenty-four ships of war.
+Bougainville says that as early as the ninth of June there were
+twenty-one ships of war, including five frigates, at Louisbourg. To this
+the list given by Knox closely answers.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+1757.
+
+FORT WILLIAM HENRY.
+
+Another Blow • The War-song • The Army at Ticonderoga • Indian Allies •
+The War-feast • Treatment of Prisoners • Cannibalism • Surprise and
+Slaughter • The War Council • March of Lévis • The Army embarks • Fort
+William Henry • Nocturnal Scene • Indian Funeral • Advance upon the Fort
+• General Webb • His Difficulties • His Weakness • The Siege begun •
+Conduct of the Indians • The Intercepted Letter • Desperate Position of
+the Besieged • Capitulation • Ferocity of the Indians • Mission of
+Bougainville • Murder of Wounded Men • A Scene of Terror • The Massacre
+• Efforts of Montcalm • The Fort burned.
+
+"I am going on the ninth to sing the war-song at the Lake of Two
+Mountains, and on the next day at Saut St. Louis,--a long, tiresome
+ceremony. On the twelfth I am off; and I count on having news to tell
+you by the end of this month or the beginning of next." Thus Montcalm
+wrote to his wife from Montreal early in July. All doubts had been
+solved. Prisoners taken on the Hudson and despatches from Versailles had
+made it certain that Loudon was bound to Louisbourg, carrying with him
+the best of the troops that had guarded the New York frontier. The time
+was come, not only to strike the English on Lake George, but perhaps to
+seize Fort Edward and carry terror to Albany itself. Only one difficulty
+remained, the want of provisions. Agents were sent to collect corn and
+bacon among the inhabitants; the curés and militia captains were ordered
+to aid in the work; and enough was presently found to feed twelve
+thousand men for a month. [493]
+
+[493] Vaudreuil, Lettres circulates aux Curés et aux Capitaines de
+Milice des Paroisses du Gouvernement de Montreal, 16 Juin, 1757.
+
+The emissaries of the Governor had been busy all winter among the tribes
+of the West and North; and more than a thousand savages, lured by
+prospect of gifts, scalps, and plunder, were now encamped at Montreal.
+Many of them had never visited a French settlement before. All were
+eager to see Montcalm, whose exploit in taking Oswego had inflamed their
+imagination; and one day, on a visit of ceremony, an orator from
+Michillimackinac addressed the General thus: "We wanted to see this
+famous man who tramples the English under his feet. We thought we should
+find him so tall that his head would be lost in the clouds. But you are
+a little man, my Father. It is when we look into your eyes that we see
+the greatness of the pine-tree and the fire of the eagle." [494]
+
+[494] Bougainville, Journal.
+
+It remained to muster the Mission Indians settled in or near the limits
+of the colony; and it was to this end that Montcalm went to sing the
+war-song with the converts of the Two Mountains. Rigaud, Bougainville,
+young Longueuil, and others were of the party; and when they landed, the
+Indians came down to the shore, their priests at their head, and greeted
+the General with a volley of musketry; then received him after dark in
+their grand council-lodge, where the circle of wild and savage visages,
+half seen in the dim light of a few candles, suggested to Bougainville a
+midnight conclave of wizards. He acted vicariously the chief part in the
+ceremony. "I sang the war-song in the name of M. de Montcalm, and was
+much applauded. It was nothing but these words: 'Let us trample the
+English under our feet,' chanted over and over again, in cadence with
+the movements of the savages." Then came the war-feast, against which
+occasion Montcalm had caused three oxen to be roasted. [495] On the next
+day the party went to Caughnawaga, or Saut St. Louis, where the ceremony
+was repeated; and Bougainville, who again sang the war-song in the name
+of his commander, was requited by adoption into the clan of the Turtle.
+Three more oxen were solemnly devoured, and with one voice the warriors
+took up the hatchet.
+
+[495] Bougainville describes a ceremony in the Mission Church of the Two
+Mountains in which warriors and squaws sang in the choir. Ninety-nine
+years after, in 1856, I was present at a similar ceremony on the same
+spot, and heard the descendants of the same warriors and squaws sing
+like their ancestors. Great changes have since taken place at this old
+mission.
+
+Meanwhile troops, Canadians and Indians, were moving by detachments up
+Lake Champlain. Fleets of bateaux and canoes followed each other day by
+day along the capricious lake, in calm or storm, sunshine or rain, till,
+towards the end of July, the whole force was gathered at Ticonderoga,
+the base of the intended movement. Bourlamaque had been there since May
+with the battalions of Béarn and Royal Roussillon, finishing the fort,
+sending out war-parties, and trying to discover the force and designs of
+the English at Fort William Henry.
+
+Ticonderoga is a high rocky promontory between Lake Champlain on the
+north and the mouth of the outlet of Lake George on the south. Near its
+extremity and close to the fort were still encamped the two battalions
+under Bourlamaque, while bateaux and canoes were passing incessantly up
+the river of the outlet. There were scarcely two miles of navigable
+water, at the end of which the stream fell foaming over a high ledge of
+rock that barred the way. Here the French were building a saw-mill; and
+a wide space had been cleared to form an encampment defended on all
+sides by an abattis, within which stood the tents of the battalions of
+La Reine, La Sarre, Languedoc, and Guienne, all commanded by Lévis.
+Above the cascade the stream circled through the forest in a series of
+beautiful rapids, and from the camp of Lévis a road a mile and a half
+long had been cut to the navigable water above. At the end of this road
+there was another fortified camp, formed of colony regulars, Canadians,
+and Indians, under Rigaud. It was scarcely a mile farther to Lake
+George, where on the western side there was an outpost, chiefly of
+Canadians and Indians; while advanced parties were stationed at Bald
+Mountain, now called Rogers Rock, and elsewhere on the lake, to watch
+the movements of the English. The various encampments just mentioned
+were ranged along a valley extending four miles from Lake Champlain to
+Lake George, and bordered by mountains wooded to the top.
+
+Here was gathered a martial population of eight thousand men, including
+the brightest civilization and the darkest barbarism: from the
+scholar-soldier Montcalm and his no less accomplished aide-de-camp; from
+Lévis, conspicuous for graces of person; from a throng of courtly young
+officers, who would have seemed out of place in that wilderness had they
+not done their work so well in it; from these to the foulest man-eating
+savage of the uttermost northwest.
+
+Of Indian allies there were nearly two thousand. One of their tribes,
+the Iowas, spoke a language which no interpreter understood; and they
+all bivouacked where they saw fit: for no man could control them. "I see
+no difference," says Bougainville, "in the dress, ornaments, dances, and
+songs of the various western nations. They go naked, excepting a strip
+of cloth passed through a belt, and paint themselves black, red, blue,
+and other colors. Their heads are shaved and adorned with bunches of
+feathers, and they wear rings of brass wire in their ears. They wear
+beaver-skin blankets, and carry lances, bows and arrows, and quivers
+made of the skins of beasts. For the rest they are straight, well made,
+and generally very tall. Their religion is brute paganism. I will say it
+once for all, one must be the slave of these savages, listen to them day
+and night, in council and in private, whenever the fancy takes them, or
+whenever a dream, a fit of the vapors, or their perpetual craving for
+brandy, gets possession of them; besides which they are always wanting
+something for their equipment, arms, or toilet, and the general of the
+army must give written orders for the smallest trifle,--an eternal,
+wearisome detail, of which one has no idea in Europe."
+
+It was not easy to keep them fed. Rations would be served to them for a
+week; they would consume them in three days, and come for more. On one
+occasion they took the matter into their own hands, and butchered and
+devoured eighteen head of cattle intended for the troops; nor did any
+officer dare oppose this "St. Bartholomew of the oxen," as Bougainville
+calls it. "Their paradise is to be drunk," says the young officer. Their
+paradise was rather a hell; for sometimes, when mad with brandy, they
+grappled and tore each other with their teeth like wolves. They were
+continually "making medicine," that is, consulting the Manitou, to whom
+they hung up offerings, sometimes a dead dog, and sometimes the
+belt-cloth which formed their only garment.
+
+The Mission Indians were better allies than these heathen of the west;
+and their priests, who followed them to the war, had great influence
+over them. They were armed with guns, which they well knew how to use.
+Their dress, though savage, was generally decent, and they were not
+cannibals; though in other respects they retained all their traditional
+ferocity and most of their traditional habits. They held frequent
+war-feasts, one of which is described by Roubaud, Jesuit missionary of
+the Abenakis of St. Francis, whose flock formed a part of the company
+present.
+
+"Imagine," says the father, "a great assembly of savages adorned with
+every ornament most suited to disfigure them in European eyes, painted
+with vermilion, white, green, yellow, and black made of soot and the
+scrapings of pots. A single savage face combines all these different
+colors, methodically laid on with the help of a little tallow, which
+serves for pomatum. The head is shaved except at the top, where there is
+a small tuft, to which are fastened feathers, a few beads of wampum, or
+some such trinket. Every part of the head has its ornament. Pendants
+hang from the nose and also from the ears, which are split in infancy
+and drawn down by weights till they flap at last against the shoulders.
+The rest of the equipment answers to this fantastic decoration: a shirt
+bedaubed with vermilion, wampum collars, silver bracelets, a large knife
+hanging on the breast, moose-skin moccasons, and a belt of various
+colors always absurdly combined. The sachems and war-chiefs are
+distinguished from the rest: the latter by a gorget, and the former by a
+medal, with the King's portrait on one side, and on the other Mars and
+Bellona joining hands, with the device, Virtues et Honor."
+
+Thus attired, the company sat in two lines facing each other, with
+kettles in the middle filled with meat chopped for distribution. To a
+dignified silence succeeded songs, sung by several chiefs in succession,
+and compared by the narrator to the howling of wolves. Then followed a
+speech from the chief orator, highly commended by Roubaud, who could not
+help admiring this effort of savage eloquence. "After the harangue," he
+continues, "they proceeded to nominate the chiefs who were to take
+command. As soon as one was named he rose and took the head of some
+animal that had been butchered for the feast. He raised it aloft so that
+all the company could see it, and cried: 'Behold the head of the enemy!'
+Applause and cries of joy rose from all parts of the assembly. The
+chief, with the head in his hand, passed down between the lines, singing
+his war-song, bragging of his exploits, taunting and defying the enemy,
+and glorifying himself beyond all measure. To hear his self-laudation in
+these moments of martial transport one would think him a conquering hero
+ready to sweep everything before him. As he passed in front of the other
+savages, they would respond by dull broken cries jerked up from the
+depths of their stomachs, and accompanied by movements of their bodies
+so odd that one must be well used to them to keep countenance. In the
+course of his song the chief would utter from time to time some
+grotesque witticism; then he would stop, as if pleased with himself, or
+rather to listen to the thousand confused cries of applause that greeted
+his ears. He kept up his martial promenade as long as he liked the
+sport; and when he had had enough, ended by flinging down the head of
+the animal with an air of contempt, to show that his warlike appetite
+craved meat of another sort." [496] Others followed with similar songs
+and pantomime, and the festival was closed at last by ladling out the
+meat from the kettles, and devouring it.
+
+[496] Lettre du Père ... (Roubaud), Missionnaire chez les Abnakis, 21
+Oct. 1757, in Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, VI. 189 (1810).
+
+Roubaud was one day near the fort, when he saw the shore lined with a
+thousand Indians, watching four or five English prisoners, who, with the
+war-party that had captured them, were approaching in a boat from the
+farther side of the water. Suddenly the whole savage crew broke away
+together and ran into the neighboring woods, whence they soon emerged,
+yelling diabolically, each armed with a club. The wretched prisoners
+were to be forced to "run the gauntlet," which would probably have
+killed them. They were saved by the chief who commanded the war-party,
+and who, on the persuasion of a French officer, claimed them as his own
+and forbade the game; upon which, according to rule in such cases, the
+rest abandoned it. On this same day the missionary met troops of Indians
+conducting several bands of English prisoners along the road that led
+through the forest from the camp of Lévis. Each of the captives was held
+by a cord made fast about the neck; and the sweat was starting from
+their brows in the extremity of their horror and distress. Roubaud's
+tent was at this time in the camp of the Ottawas. He presently saw a
+large number of them squatted about a fire, before which meat was
+roasting on sticks stuck in the ground; and, approaching, he saw that it
+was the flesh of an Englishman, other parts of which were boiling in a
+kettle, while near by sat eight or ten of the prisoners, forced to see
+their comrade devoured. The horror-stricken priest began to remonstrate;
+on which a young savage fiercely replied in broken French: "You have
+French taste; I have Indian. This is good meat for me;" and the feasters
+pressed him to share it.
+
+Bougainville says that this abomination could not be prevented; which
+only means that if force had been used to stop it, the Ottawas would
+have gone home in a rage. They were therefore left to finish their meal
+undisturbed. Having eaten one of their prisoners, they began to treat
+the rest with the utmost kindness, bringing them white bread, and
+attending to all their wants,--a seeming change of heart due to the fact
+that they were a valuable commodity, for which the owners hoped to get a
+good price at Montreal. Montcalm wished to send them thither at once, to
+which after long debate the Indians consented, demanding, however, a
+receipt in full, and bargaining that the captives should be supplied
+with shoes and blankets. [497]
+
+[497] Journal de l'Expédition contre le Fort George [William Henry] du
+12 Juillet au 16 Août, 1757. Bougainville, Journal. Lettre du P.
+Roubaud.
+
+These unfortunates belonged to a detachment of three hundred
+provincials, chiefly New Jersey men, sent from Fort William Henry under
+command of Colonel Parker to reconnoitre the French outposts. Montcalm's
+scouts discovered them; on which a band of Indians, considerably more
+numerous, went to meet them under a French partisan named Corbière, and
+ambushed themselves not far from Sabbath Day Point. Parker had rashly
+divided his force; and at daybreak of the twenty-sixth of July three of
+his boats fell into the snare, and were captured without a shot. Three
+others followed, in ignorance of what had happened, and shared the fate
+of the first. When the rest drew near, they were greeted by a deadly
+volley from the thickets, and a swarm of canoes darted out upon them.
+The men were seized with such a panic that some of them jumped into the
+water to escape, while the Indians leaped after them and speared them
+with their lances like fish. "Terrified," says Bougainville, "by the
+sight of these monsters, their agility, their firing, and their yells,
+they surrendered almost without resistance." About a hundred, however,
+made their escape. The rest were killed or captured, and three of the
+bodies were eaten on the spot. The journalist adds that the victory so
+elated the Indians that they became insupportable; "but here in the
+forests of America we can no more do without them than without cavalry
+on the plain." [498]
+
+[498] Bougainville, Journal. Malartic, Journal. Montcalm à Vaudreuil, 27
+Juillet, 1757. Webb to Loudon, 1 Aug. 1757. Webb to Delancey, 30 July,
+1757. Journal de l'Expédition contre le Fort George. London Magazine,
+1757, 457. Miles, French and Indian Wars. Boston Gazette, 15 Aug. 1757.
+
+Another success at about the same time did not tend to improve their
+manners. A hundred and fifty of them, along with a few Canadians under
+Marin, made a dash at Fort Edward, killed or drove in the pickets, and
+returned with thirty-two scalps and a prisoner. It was found, however,
+that the scalps were far from representing an equal number of heads, the
+Indians having learned the art of making two or three out of one by
+judicious division. [499]
+
+[499] This affair was much exaggerated at the time. I follow
+Bougainville, who had the facts from Marin. According to him, the
+thirty-two scalps represented eleven killed; which exactly answers to
+the English loss as stated by Colonel Frye in a letter from Fort Edward.
+
+Preparations were urged on with the utmost energy. Provisions, camp
+equipage, ammunition, cannon, and bateaux were dragged by gangs of men
+up the road from the camp of Lévis to the head of the rapids. The work
+went on through heat and rain, by day and night, till, at the end of
+July, all was done. Now, on the eve of departure, Montcalm, anxious for
+harmony among his red allies, called them to a grand council near the
+camp of Rigaud. Forty-one tribes and sub-tribes, Christian and heathen,
+from the east and from the west, were represented in it. Here were the
+mission savages,--Iroquois of Caughnawaga, Two Mountains, and La
+Présentation; Hurons of Lorette and Detroit; Nipissings of Lake
+Nipissing; Abenakis of St. Francis, Becancour, Missisqui, and the
+Penobscot; Algonkins of Three Rivers and Two Mountains; Micmacs and
+Malecites from Acadia: in all eight hundred chiefs and warriors. With
+these came the heathen of the west,--Ottawas of seven distinct bands;
+Ojibwas from Lake Superior, and Mississagas from the region of Lakes
+Erie and Huron; Pottawattamies and Menomonies from Lake Michigan; Sacs,
+Foxes, and Winnebagoes from Wisconsin; Miamis from the prairies of
+Illinois, and Iowas from the banks of the Des Moines: nine hundred and
+seventy-nine chiefs and warriors, men of the forests and men of the
+plains, hunters of the moose and hunters of the buffalo, bearers of
+steel hatchets and stone war-clubs, of French guns and of flint-headed
+arrows. All sat in silence, decked with ceremonial paint, scalp-locks,
+eagle plumes, or horns of buffalo; and the dark and wild assemblage was
+edged with white uniforms of officers from France, who came in numbers
+to the spectacle. Other officers were also here, all belonging to the
+colony. They had been appointed to the command of the Indian allies,
+over whom, however, they had little or no real authority. First among
+them was the bold and hardy Saint-Luc de la Corne, who was called
+general of the Indians; and under him were others, each assigned to some
+tribe or group of tribes,--the intrepid Marin; Charles Langlade, who had
+left his squaw wife at Michillimackinac to join the war; Niverville,
+Langis, La Plante, Hertel, Longueuil, Herbin, Lorimier, Sabrevois, and
+Fleurimont; men familiar from childhood with forests and savages.
+Each tribe had its interpreter, often as lawless as those with whom he
+had spent his life; and for the converted tribes there were three
+missionaries,--Piquet for the Iroquois, Mathevet for the Nipissings, who
+were half heathen, and Roubaud for the Abenakis. [500]
+
+[500] The above is chiefly from Tableau des Sauvages qui se trouvent à
+l'Armée du Marquis de Montcalm, le 28 Juillet, 1757. Forty-one tribes
+and sub-tribes are here named, some, however, represented by only three
+or four warriors. Besides those set down under the head of Christians,
+it is stated that a few of the Ottawas of Detroit and Michillimackinac
+still retained the faith.
+
+There was some complaint among the Indians because they were crowded
+upon by the officers who came as spectators. This difficulty being
+removed, the council opened, Montcalm having already explained his plans
+to the chiefs and told them the part he expected them to play.
+
+Pennahouel, chief of the Ottawas, and senior of all the Assembly, rose
+and said: "My father, I, who have counted more moons than any here,
+thank you for the good words you have spoken. I approve them. Nobody
+ever spoke better. It is the Manitou of War who inspires you."
+
+Kikensick, chief of the Nipissings, rose in behalf of the Christian
+Indians, and addressed the heathen of the west. "Brothers, we thank you
+for coming to help us defend our lands against the English. Our cause is
+good. The Master of Life is on our side. Can you doubt it, brothers,
+after the great blow you have just struck? It covers you with glory. The
+lake, red with the blood of Corlaer [the English] bears witness forever
+to your achievement. We too share your glory, and are proud of what you
+have done." Then, turning to Montcalm: "We are even more glad than you,
+my father, who have crossed the great water, not for your own sake, but
+to obey the great King and defend his children. He has bound us all
+together by the most solemn of ties. Let us take care that nothing shall
+separate us."
+
+The various interpreters, each in turn, having explained this speech to
+the Assembly, it was received with ejaculations of applause; and when
+they had ceased, Montcalm spoke as follows: "Children, I am delighted to
+see you all joined in this good work. So long as you remain one, the
+English cannot resist you. The great King has sent me to protect and
+defend you; but above all he has charged me to make you happy and
+unconquerable, by establishing among you the union which ought to
+prevail among brothers, children of one father, the great Onontio." Then
+he held out a prodigious wampum belt of six thousand beads: "Take this
+sacred pledge of his word. The union of the beads of which it is made is
+the sign of your united strength. By it I bind you all together, so that
+none of you can separate from the rest till the English are defeated and
+their fort destroyed."
+
+Pennahouel took up the belt and said: "Behold, brothers, a circle drawn
+around us by the great Onontio. Let none of us go out from it; for so
+long as we keep in it, the Master of Life will help all our
+undertakings." Other chiefs spoke to the same effect, and the council
+closed in perfect harmony. [501] Its various members bivouacked together
+at the camp by the lake, and by their carelessness soon set it on fire;
+whence the place became known as the Burned Camp. Those from the
+missions confessed their sins all day; while their heathen brothers hung
+an old coat and a pair of leggings on a pole as tribute to the Manitou.
+This greatly embarrassed the three priests, who were about to say Mass,
+but doubted whether they ought to say it in presence of a sacrifice to
+the devil. Hereupon they took counsel of Montcalm. "Better say it so
+than not at all," replied the military casuist. Brandy being prudently
+denied them, the allies grew restless; and the greater part paddled up
+the lake to a spot near the place where Parker had been defeated. Here
+they encamped to wait the arrival of the army, and amused themselves
+meantime with killing rattlesnakes, there being a populous "den" of
+those reptiles among the neighboring rocks.
+
+[501] Bougainville, Journal.
+
+Montcalm sent a circular letter to the regular officers, urging them to
+dispense for a while with luxuries, and even comforts. "We have but few
+bateaux, and these are so filled with stores that a large division of
+the army must go by land;" and he directed that everything not
+absolutely necessary should be left behind, and that a canvas shelter to
+every two officers should serve them for a tent, and a bearskin for a
+bed. "Yet I do not forbid a mattress," he adds. "Age and infirmities
+may make it necessary to some; but I shall not have one myself, and make
+no doubt that all who can will willingly imitate me." [502]
+
+[502] Circulaire du Marquis de Montcalm, 25 Juillet, 1757.
+
+The bateaux lay ready by the shore, but could not carry the whole force;
+and Lévis received orders to march by the side of the lake with
+twenty-five hundred men, Canadians, regulars, and Iroquois. He set out
+at daybreak of the thirtieth of July, his men carrying nothing but their
+knapsacks, blankets, and weapons. Guided by the unerring Indians, they
+climbed the steep gorge at the side of Rogers Rock, gained the valley
+beyond, and marched southward along a Mohawk trail which threaded the
+forest in a course parallel to the lake. The way was of the roughest;
+many straggled from the line, and two officers completely broke down.
+The first destination of the party was the mouth of Ganouskie Bay, now
+called Northwest Bay, where they were to wait for Montcalm, and kindle
+three fires as a signal that they had reached the rendezvous. [503]
+
+[503] Guerre du Canada, par le Chevalier de Lévis. This manuscript of
+Lévis is largely in the nature of a journal.
+
+Montcalm left a detachment to hold Ticonderoga; and then, on the first
+of August, at two in the afternoon, he embarked at the Burned Camp with
+all his remaining force. Including those with Lévis, the expedition
+counted about seven thousand six hundred men, of whom more than sixteen
+hundred were Indians. [504] At five in the afternoon they reached the
+place where the Indians, having finished their rattlesnake hunt, were
+smoking their pipes and waiting for the army. The red warriors embarked,
+and joined the French flotilla; and now, as evening drew near, was seen
+one of those wild pageantries of war which Lake George has often
+witnessed. A restless multitude of birch canoes, filled with painted
+savages, glided by shores and islands, like troops of swimming
+water-fowl. Two hundred and fifty bateaux came next, moved by sail and
+oar, some bearing the Canadian militia, and some the battalions of Old
+France in trim and gay attire: first, La Reine and Languedoc; then the
+colony regulars; then La Sarre and Guienne; then the Canadian brigade of
+Courtemanche; then the cannon and mortars, each on a platform sustained
+by two bateaux lashed side by side, and rowed by the militia of
+Saint-Ours; then the battalions of Béarn and Royal Roussillon; then the
+Canadians of Gaspé, with the provision-bateaux and the field-hospital;
+and, lastly, a rear guard of regulars closed the line. So, under the
+flush of sunset, they held their course along the romantic lake, to play
+their part in the historic drama that lends a stern enchantment to its
+fascinating scenery. They passed the Narrows in mist and darkness; and
+when, a little before dawn, they rounded the high promontory of Tongue
+Mountain, they saw, far on the right, three fiery sparks shining through
+the gloom. These were the signal-fires of Lévis, to tell them that he
+had reached the appointed spot. [505]
+
+[504] État de l'Armée Française devant le Fort George, autrement
+Guillaume-Henri, le 3 Août, 1757. Tableau des Sauvages qui se trouvent à
+l'Armée du Marquis de Montcalm, le 28 Juillet, 1757. This gives a total
+of 1,799 Indians, of whom some afterwards left the army. État de l'Armée
+du Roi en Canada, sur le Lac St. Sacrement et dans les Camps de
+Carillon, le 29 Juillet, 1757. This gives a total of 8,019 men, of whom
+about four hundred were left in garrison at Ticonderoga.
+
+[505] The site of the present village of Bolton.
+
+Lévis had arrived the evening before, after his hard march through the
+sultry midsummer forest. His men had now rested for a night, and at ten
+in the morning he marched again. Montcalm followed at noon, and coasted
+the western shore, till, towards evening, he found Lévis waiting for him
+by the margin of a small bay not far from the English fort, though
+hidden from it by a projecting point of land. Canoes and bateaux were
+drawn up on the beach, and the united forces made their bivouac
+together.
+
+The earthen mounds of Fort William Henry still stand by the brink of
+Lake George; and seated at the sunset of an August day under the pines
+that cover them, one gazes on a scene of soft and soothing beauty, where
+dreamy waters reflect the glories of the mountains and the sky. As it is
+to-day, so it was then; all breathed repose and peace. The splash of
+some leaping trout, or the dipping wing of a passing swallow, alone
+disturbed the summer calm of that unruffled mirror.
+
+About ten o'clock at night two boats set out from the fort to
+reconnoitre. They were passing a point of land on their left, two miles
+or more down the lake, when the men on board descried through the gloom
+a strange object against the bank; and they rowed towards it to learn
+what it might be. It was an awning over the bateaux that carried Roubaud
+and his brother missionaries. As the rash oarsmen drew near, the
+bleating of a sheep in one of the French provision-boats warned them of
+danger; and turning, they pulled for their lives towards the eastern
+shore. Instantly more than a thousand Indians threw themselves into
+their canoes and dashed in hot pursuit, making the lake and the
+mountains ring with the din of their war-whoops. The fugitives had
+nearly reached land when their pursuers opened fire. They replied; shot
+one Indian dead, and wounded another; then snatched their oars again,
+and gained the beach. But the whole savage crew was upon them. Several
+were killed, three were taken, and the rest escaped in the dark
+woods. [506] The prisoners were brought before Montcalm, and gave him
+valuable information of the strength and position of the English. [507]
+
+[506] Lettre du Père Roubaud, 21 Oct. 1757. Roubaud, who saw the whole,
+says that twelve hundred Indians joined the chase, and that their yells
+were terrific.
+
+[507] The remains of Fort William Henry are now--1882--crowded between a
+hotel and the wharf and station of a railway. While I write, a scheme is
+on foot to level the whole for other railway structures. When I first
+knew the place the ground was in much the same state as in the time of
+Montcalm.
+
+The Indian who was killed was a noted chief of the Nipissings; and his
+tribesmen howled in grief for their bereavement. They painted his face
+with vermilion, tied feathers in his hair, hung pendants in his ears and
+nose, clad him in a resplendent war-dress, put silver bracelets on his
+arms, hung a gorget on his breast with a flame colored ribbon, and
+seated him in state on the top of a hillock, with his lance in his hand,
+his gun in the hollow of his arm, his tomahawk in his belt, and his
+kettle by his side. Then they all crouched about him in lugubrious
+silence. A funeral harangue followed; and next a song and solemn dance
+to the booming of the Indian drum. In the gray of the morning they
+buried him as he sat, and placed food in the grave for his journey to
+the land of souls. [508]
+
+[508] Lettre du Père Roubaud.
+
+As the sun rose above the eastern mountains the French camp was all
+astir. The column of Lévis, with Indians to lead the way, moved through
+the forest towards the fort, and Montcalm followed with the main body;
+then the artillery boats rounded the point that had hid them from the
+sight of the English, saluting them as they did so with musketry and
+cannon; while a host of savages put out upon the lake, ranged their
+canoes abreast in a line from shore to shore, and advanced slowly, with
+measured paddle-strokes and yells of defiance.
+
+The position of the enemy was full in sight before them. At the head of
+the lake, towards the right, stood the fort, close to the edge of the
+water. On its left was a marsh; then the rough piece of ground where
+Johnson had encamped two years before; then a low, flat, rocky hill,
+crowned with an entrenched camp; and, lastly, on the extreme left,
+another marsh. Far around the fort and up the slopes of the western
+mountain the forest had been cut down and burned, and the ground was
+cumbered with blackened stumps and charred carcasses and limbs of fallen
+trees, strewn in savage disorder one upon another. [509] This was the
+work of Winslow in the autumn before. Distant shouts and war-cries, the
+clatter of musketry, white puffs of smoke in the dismal clearing and
+along the scorched edge of the bordering forest, told that Lévis'
+Indians were skirmishing with parties of the English, who had gone out
+to save the cattle roaming in the neighborhood, and burn some
+out-buildings that would have favored the besiegers. Others were taking
+down the tents that stood on a plateau near the foot of the mountain on
+the right, and moving them to the entrenchment on the hill. The garrison
+sallied from the fort to support their comrades, and for a time the
+firing was hot.
+
+[509] Précis des Événements de la Campagne de 1757 en la Nouvelle
+France.
+
+Fort William Henry was an irregular bastioned square, formed by
+embankments of gravel surmounted by a rampart of heavy logs, laid in
+tiers crossed one upon another, the interstices filled with earth. The
+lake protected it on the north, the marsh on the east, and ditches with
+chevaux-de-frise on the south and west. Seventeen cannon, great and
+small, besides several mortars and swivels, were mounted upon it; [510]
+and a brave Scotch veteran, Lieutenant-Colonel Monro, of the
+thirty-fifth regiment, was in command.
+
+[510] État des Effets et Munitions de Guerre qui se sont trouvés au Fort
+Guillaume-Henri. There were six more guns in the entrenched camp.
+
+General Webb lay fourteen miles distant at Fort Edward, with twenty-six
+hundred men, chiefly provincials. On the twenty-fifth of July he had
+made a visit to Fort William Henry, examined the place, given some
+orders, and returned on the twenty-ninth. He then wrote to the Governor
+of New York, telling him that the French were certainly coming, begging
+him to send up the militia, and saying: "I am determined to march to
+Fort William Henry with the whole army under my command as soon as I
+shall hear of the farther approach of the enemy." Instead of doing so he
+waited three days, and then sent up a detachment of two hundred regulars
+under Lieutenant-Colonel Young, and eight hundred Massachusetts men
+under Colonel Frye. This raised the force at the lake to two thousand
+and two hundred, including sailors and mechanics, and reduced that of
+Webb to sixteen hundred, besides half as many more distributed at Albany
+and the intervening forts. [511] If, according to his spirited
+intention, he should go to the rescue of Monro, he must leave some of
+his troops behind him to protect the lower posts from a possible French
+inroad by way of South Bay. Thus his power of aiding Monro was slight,
+so rashly had Loudon, intent on Louisburg, left this frontier open to
+attack. The defect, however, was as much in Webb himself as in his
+resources. His conduct in the past year had raised doubts of his
+personal courage; and this was the moment for answering them. Great as
+was the disparity of numbers, the emergency would have justified an
+attempt to save Monro at any risk. That officer sent him a hasty note,
+written at nine o'clock on the morning of the third, telling him that
+the French were in sight on the lake; and, in the next night, three
+rangers came to Fort Edward, bringing another short note, dated at six
+in the evening, announcing that the firing had begun, and closing with
+the words: "I believe you will think it proper to send a reinforcement
+as soon as possible." Now, if ever, was the time to move, before the
+fort was invested and access cut off. But Webb lay quiet, sending
+expresses to New England for help which could not possibly arrive in
+time. On the next night another note came from Monro to say that the
+French were upon him in great numbers, well supplied with artillery, but
+that the garrison were all in good spirits. "I make no doubt," wrote the
+hard-pressed officer, "that you will soon send us a reinforcement;" and
+again on the same day: "We are very certain that a part of the enemy
+have got between you and us upon the high road, and would therefore be
+glad (if it meets with your approbation) the whole army was marched."
+[512] But Webb gave no sign. [513]
+
+[511] Frye, Journal of the Attack of Fort William Henry. Webb to Loudon,
+1 Aug. 1757. Ibid., 5 Aug. 1757.
+
+[512] Copy of four Letters from Lieutenant-Colonel Monro to
+Major-General Webb, enclosed in the General's Letter of the fifth of
+August to the Earl of Loudon.
+
+[513] "The number of troops remaining under my Command at this place
+[Fort Edward], excluding the Posts on Hudson's River, amounts to but
+sixteen hundred men fit for duty, with which Army, so much inferior to
+that of the enemy, I did not think it prudent to pursue my first
+intentions of Marching to their Assistance." Webb to Loudon, 5 Aug.
+1757.
+
+When the skirmishing around the fort was over, La Corne, with a body of
+Indians, occupied the road that led to Fort Edward, and Lévis encamped
+hard by to support him, while Montcalm proceeded to examine the ground
+and settle his plan of attack. He made his way to the rear of the
+entrenched camp and reconnoitred it, hoping to carry it by assault; but
+it had a breastwork of stones and logs, and he thought the attempt too
+hazardous. The ground where he stood was that where Dieskau had been
+defeated; and as the fate of his predecessor was not of flattering
+augury, he resolved to besiege the fort in form.
+
+He chose for the site of his operations the ground now covered by the
+village of Caldwell. A little to the north of it was a ravine, beyond
+which he formed his main camp, while Lévis occupied a tract of dry
+ground beside the marsh, whence he could easily move to intercept
+succors from Fort Edward on the one hand, or repel a sortie from Fort
+William Henry on the other. A brook ran down the ravine and entered the
+lake at a small cove protected from the fire of the fort by a point of
+land; and at this place, still called Artillery Cove, Montcalm prepared
+to debark his cannon and mortars.
+
+Having made his preparations, he sent Fontbrune, one of his
+aides-de-camp, with a letter to Monro. "I owe it to humanity," he wrote,
+"to summon you to surrender. At present I can restrain the savages, and
+make them observe the terms of a capitulation, as I might not have power
+to do under other circumstances; and an obstinate defence on your part
+could only retard the capture of the place a few days, and endanger an
+unfortunate garrison which cannot be relieved, in consequence of the
+dispositions I have made. I demand a decisive answer within an hour."
+Monro replied that he and his soldiers would defend themselves to the
+last. While the flags of truce were flying, the Indians swarmed over the
+fields before the fort; and when they learned the result, an Abenaki
+chief shouted in broken French: "You won't surrender, eh! Fire away
+then, and fight your best; for if I catch you, you shall get no
+quarter." Monro emphasized his refusal by a general discharge of his
+cannon.
+
+The trenches were opened on the night of the fourth,--a task of extreme
+difficulty, as the ground was covered by a profusion of half-burned
+stumps, roots, branches, and fallen trunks. Eight hundred men toiled
+till daylight with pick, spade, and axe, while the cannon from the fort
+flashed through the darkness, and grape and round-shot whistled and
+screamed over their heads. Some of the English balls reached the camp
+beyond the ravine, and disturbed the slumbers of the officers off duty,
+as they lay wrapped in their blankets and bear-skins. Before daybreak
+the first parallel was made; a battery was nearly finished on the left,
+and another was begun on the right. The men now worked under cover, safe
+in their burrows; one gang relieved another, and the work went on all
+day.
+
+The Indians were far from doing what was expected of them. Instead of
+scouting in the direction of Fort Edward to learn the movements of the
+enemy and prevent surprise, they loitered about the camp and in the
+trenches, or amused themselves by firing at the fort from behind stumps
+and logs. Some, in imitation of the French, dug little trenches for
+themselves, in which they wormed their way towards the rampart, and now
+and then picked off an artillery-man, not without loss on their own
+side. On the afternoon of the fifth, Montcalm invited them to a council,
+gave them belts of wampum, and mildly remonstrated with them. "Why
+expose yourselves without necessity? I grieve bitterly over the losses
+that you have met, for the least among you is precious to me. No doubt
+it is a good thing to annoy the English; but that is not the main point.
+You ought to inform me of everything the enemy is doing, and always keep
+parties on the road between the two forts." And he gently hinted that
+their place was not in his camp, but in that of Lévis, where
+missionaries were provided for such of them as were Christians, and food
+and ammunition for them all. They promised, with excellent docility, to
+do everything he wished, but added that there was something on their
+hearts. Being encouraged to relieve themselves of the burden, they
+complained that they had not been consulted as to the management of the
+siege, but were expected to obey orders like slaves. "We know more about
+fighting in the woods than you," said their orator; "ask our advice, and
+you will be the better for it." [514]
+
+[514] Bougainville, Journal.
+
+Montcalm assured them that if they had been neglected, it was only
+through the hurry and confusion of the time; expressed high appreciation
+of their talents for bush-fighting, promised them ample satisfaction,
+and ended by telling them that in the morning they should hear the big
+guns. This greatly pleased them, for they were extremely impatient for
+the artillery to begin. About sunrise the battery of the left opened
+with eight heavy cannon and a mortar, joined, on the next morning, by
+the battery of the right, with eleven pieces more. The fort replied with
+spirit. The cannon thundered all day, and from a hundred peaks and crags
+the astonished wilderness roared back the sound. The Indians were
+delighted. They wanted to point the guns; and to humor them, they were
+now and then allowed to do so. Others lay behind logs and fallen trees,
+and yelled their satisfaction when they saw the splinters fly from the
+wooden rampart.
+
+Day after day the weary roar of the distant cannonade fell on the ears
+of Webb in his camp at Fort Edward. "I have not yet received the least
+reinforcement," he writes to Loudon; "this is the disagreeable situation
+we are at present in. The fort, by the heavy firing we hear from the
+lake, is still in our possession; but I fear it cannot long hold out
+against so warm a cannonading if I am not reinforced by a sufficient
+number of militia to march to their relief." The militia were coming;
+but it was impossible that many could reach him in less than a week.
+Those from New York alone were within call, and two thousand of them
+arrived soon after he sent Loudon the above letter. Then, by stripping
+all the forts below, he could bring together forty-five hundred men;
+while several French deserters assured him that Montcalm had nearly
+twelve thousand. To advance to the relief of Monro with a force so
+inferior, through a defile of rocks, forests, and mountains, made by
+nature for ambuscades,--and this too with troops who had neither the
+steadiness of regulars nor the bush-fighting skill of Indians,--was an
+enterprise for firmer nerve than his.
+
+He had already warned Monro to expect no help from him. At midnight of
+the fourth, Captain Bartman, his aide-de-camp, wrote: "The General has
+ordered me to acquaint you he does not think it prudent to attempt a
+junction or to assist you till reinforced by the militia of the
+colonies, for the immediate march of which repeated expresses have been
+sent." The letter then declared that the French were in complete
+possession of the road between the two forts, that a prisoner just
+brought in reported their force in men and cannon to be very great, and
+that, unless the militia came soon, Monro had better make what terms he
+could with the enemy. [515]
+
+[515] Frye, in his Journal, gives the letter in full. A spurious
+translation of it is appended to a piece called Jugement impartial sur
+les Opérations militaires en Canada.
+
+The chance was small that this letter would reach its destination; and
+in fact the bearer was killed by La Corne's Indians, who, in stripping
+the body, found the hidden paper, and carried it to the General.
+Montcalm kept it several days, till the English rampart was half
+battered down; and then, after saluting his enemy with a volley from all
+his cannon, he sent it with a graceful compliment to Monro. It was
+Bougainville who carried it, preceded by a drummer and a flag. He was
+met at the foot of the glacis, blindfolded, and led through the fort and
+along the edge of the lake to the entrenched camp, where Monro was at
+the time. "He returned many thanks," writes the emissary in his Diary,
+"for the courtesy of our nation, and protested his joy at having to do
+with so generous an enemy. This was his answer to the Marquis de
+Montcalm. Then they led me back, always with eyes blinded; and our
+batteries began to fire again as soon as we thought that the English
+grenadiers who escorted me had had time to re-enter the fort. I hope
+General Webb's letter may induce the English to surrender the sooner."
+[516]
+
+[516] Bougainville, Journal. Bougainville au Ministre, 19 Août, 1757.
+
+By this time the sappers had worked their way to the angle of the lake,
+where they were stopped by a marshy hollow, beyond which was a tract of
+high ground, reaching to the fort and serving as the garden of the
+garrison. [517] Logs and fascines in large quantities were thrown into
+the hollow, and hurdles were laid over them to form a causeway for the
+cannon. Then the sap was continued up the acclivity beyond, a trench was
+opened in the garden, and a battery begun, not two hundred and fifty
+yards from the fort. The Indians, in great number, crawled forward among
+the beans, maize, and cabbages, and lay there ensconced. On the night of
+the seventh, two men came out of the fort, apparently to reconnoitre,
+with a view to a sortie, when they were greeted by a general volley and
+a burst of yells which echoed among the mountains; followed by
+responsive whoops pealing through the darkness from the various camps
+and lurking-places of the savage warriors far and near.
+
+[517] Now (1882) the site of Fort William Henry Hotel, with its grounds.
+The hollow is partly filled by the main road of Caldwell.
+
+The position of the besieged was now deplorable. More than three hundred
+of them had been killed and wounded; small-pox was raging in the fort;
+the place was a focus of infection, and the casemates were crowded with
+the sick. A sortie from the entrenched camp and another from the fort
+had been repulsed with loss. All their large cannon and mortars had been
+burst, or disabled by shot; only seven small pieces were left fit for
+service; [518] and the whole of Montcalm's thirty-one cannon and fifteen
+mortars and howitzers would soon open fire, while the walls were already
+breached, and an assault was imminent. Through the night of the eighth
+they fired briskly from all their remaining pieces. In the morning the
+officers held a council, and all agreed to surrender if honorable terms
+could be had. A white flag was raised, a drum was beat, and
+Lieutenant-Colonel Young, mounted on horseback, for a shot in the foot
+had disabled him from walking, went, followed by a few soldiers, to the
+tent of Montcalm.
+
+[518] Frye, Journal.
+
+It was agreed that the English troops should march out with the honors
+of war, and be escorted to Fort Edward by a detachment of French troops;
+that they should not serve for eighteen months; and that all French
+prisoners captured in America since the war began should be given up
+within three months. The stores, munitions, and artillery were to be the
+prize of the victors, except one field-piece, which the garrison were to
+retain in recognition of their brave defence.
+
+Before signing the capitulation Montcalm called the Indian chiefs to
+council, and asked them to consent to the conditions, and promise to
+restrain their young warriors from any disorder. They approved
+everything and promised everything. The garrison then evacuated the
+fort, and marched to join their comrades in the entrenched camp, which
+was included in the surrender. No sooner were they gone than a crowd of
+Indians clambered through the embrasures in search of rum and plunder.
+All the sick men unable to leave their beds were instantly butchered.
+[519] "I was witness of this spectacle," says the missionary Roubaud; "I
+saw one of these barbarians come out of the casemates with a human head
+in his hand, from which the blood ran in streams, and which he paraded
+as if he had got the finest prize in the world." There was little left
+to plunder; and the Indians, joined by the more lawless of the
+Canadians, turned their attention to the entrenched camp, where all the
+English were now collected.
+
+[519] Attestation of William Arbuthnot, Captain in Frye's Regiment.
+
+The French guard stationed there could not or would not keep out the
+rabble. By the advice of Montcalm the English stove their rum-barrels;
+but the Indians were drunk already with homicidal rage, and the glitter
+of their vicious eyes told of the devil within. They roamed among the
+tents, intrusive, insolent, their visages besmirched with war-paint;
+grinning like fiends as they handled, in anticipation of the knife, the
+long hair of cowering women, of whom, as well as of children, there were
+many in the camp, all crazed with fright. Since the last war the New
+England border population had regarded Indians with a mixture of
+detestation and horror. Their mysterious warfare of ambush and surprise,
+their midnight onslaughts, their butcheries, their burnings, and all
+their nameless atrocities, had been for years the theme of fireside
+story; and the dread they excited was deepened by the distrust and
+dejection of the time. The confusion in the camp lasted through the
+afternoon. "The Indians," says Bougainville, "wanted to plunder the
+chests of the English; the latter resisted; and there was fear that
+serious disorder would ensue. The Marquis de Montcalm ran thither
+immediately, and used every means to restore tranquillity: prayers,
+threats, caresses, interposition of the officers and interpreters who
+have some influence over these savages." [520] "We shall be but too
+happy if we can prevent a massacre. Detestable position! of which nobody
+who has not been in it can have any idea, and which makes victory itself
+a sorrow to the victors. The Marquis spared no efforts to prevent the
+rapacity of the savages and, I must say it, of certain persons
+associated with them, from resulting in something worse than plunder. At
+last, at nine o'clock in the evening, order seemed restored. The Marquis
+even induced the Indians to promise that, besides the escort agreed upon
+in the capitulation, two chiefs for each tribe should accompany the
+English on their way to Fort Edward." [521] He also ordered La Corne and
+the other Canadian officers attached to the Indians to see that no
+violence took place. He might well have done more. In view of the
+disorders of the afternoon, it would not have been too much if he had
+ordered the whole body of regular troops, whom alone he could trust for
+the purpose, to hold themselves ready to move to the spot in case of
+outbreak, and shelter their defeated foes behind a hedge of bayonets.
+
+[520] Bougainville au Ministre, 19 Août, 1757.
+
+[521] Bougainville, Journal.
+
+Bougainville was not to see what ensued; for Montcalm now sent him to
+Montreal, as a special messenger to carry news of the victory. He
+embarked at ten o'clock. Returning daylight found him far down the lake;
+and as he looked on its still bosom flecked with mists, and its quiet
+mountains sleeping under the flush of dawn, there was nothing in the
+wild tranquillity of the scene to suggest the tragedy which even then
+was beginning on the shore he had left behind.
+
+The English in their camp had passed a troubled night, agitated by
+strange rumors. In the morning something like a panic seized them; for
+they distrusted not the Indians only, but the Canadians. In their haste
+to be gone they got together at daybreak, before the escort of three
+hundred regulars had arrived. They had their muskets, but no ammunition;
+and few or none of the provincials had bayonets. Early as it was, the
+Indians were on the alert; and, indeed, since midnight great numbers of
+them had been prowling about the skirts of the camp, showing, says
+Colonel Frye, "more than usual malice in their looks." Seventeen wounded
+men of his regiment lay in huts, unable to join the march. In the
+preceding afternoon Miles Whitworth, the regimental surgeon, had passed
+them over to the care of a French surgeon, according to an agreement
+made at the time of the surrender; but, the Frenchman being absent, the
+other remained with them attending to their wants. The French surgeon
+had caused special sentinels to be posted for their protection. These
+were now removed, at the moment when they were needed most; upon which,
+about five o'clock in the morning, the Indians entered the huts, dragged
+out the inmates, and tomahawked and scalped them all, before the eyes of
+Whitworth, and in presence of La Corne and other Canadian officers, as
+well as of a French guard stationed within forty feet of the spot; and,
+declares the surgeon under oath, "none, either officer or soldier,
+protected the said wounded men." [522] The opportune butchery relieved
+them of a troublesome burden.
+
+[522] Affidavit of Miles Whitworth. See Appendix F.
+
+A scene of plundering now began. The escort had by this time arrived,
+and Monro complained to the officers that the capitulation was broken;
+but got no other answer than advice to give up the baggage to the
+Indians in order to appease them. To this the English at length agreed;
+but it only increased the excitement of the mob. They demanded rum; and
+some of the soldiers, afraid to refuse, gave it to them from their
+canteens, thus adding fuel to the flame. When, after much difficulty,
+the column at last got out of the camp and began to move along the road
+that crossed the rough plain between the entrenchment and the forest,
+the Indians crowded upon them, impeded their march, snatched caps,
+coats, and weapons from men and officers, tomahawked those that
+resisted, and, seizing upon shrieking women and children, dragged them
+off or murdered them on the spot. It is said that some of the
+interpreters secretly fomented the disorder. [523] Suddenly there rose
+the screech of the war-whoop. At this signal of butchery, which was
+given by Abenaki Christians from the mission of the Penobscot, [524] a
+mob of savages rushed upon the New Hampshire men at the rear of the
+column, and killed or dragged away eighty of them. [525] A frightful
+tumult ensued, when Montcalm, Lévis, Bourlamaque, and many other French
+officers, who had hastened from their camp on the first news of
+disturbance, threw themselves among the Indians, and by promises and
+threats tried to allay their frenzy. "Kill me, but spare the English who
+are under my protection," exclaimed Montcalm. He took from one of them a
+young officer whom the savage had seized; upon which several other
+Indians immediately tomahawked their prisoners, lest they too should be
+taken from them. One writer says that a French grenadier was killed and
+two wounded in attempting to restore order; but the statement is
+doubtful. The English seemed paralyzed, and fortunately did not attempt
+a resistance, which, without ammunition as they were, would have ended
+in a general massacre. Their broken column straggled forward in wild
+disorder, amid the din of whoops and shrieks, till they reached the
+French advance-guard, which consisted of Canadians; and here they
+demanded protection from the officers, who refused to give it, telling
+them that they must take to the woods and shift for themselves. Frye was
+seized by a number of Indians, who, brandishing spears and tomahawks,
+threatened him with death and tore off his clothing, leaving nothing but
+breeches, shoes, and shirt. Repelled by the officers of the guard, he
+made for the woods. A Connecticut soldier who was present says of him
+that he leaped upon an Indian who stood in his way, disarmed and killed
+him, and then escaped; but Frye himself does not mention the incident.
+Captain Burke, also of the Massachusetts regiment, was stripped, after a
+violent struggle, of all his clothes; then broke loose, gained the
+woods, spent the night shivering in the thick grass of a marsh, and on
+the next day reached Fort Edward. Jonathan Carver, a provincial
+volunteer, declares that, when the tumult was at its height, he saw
+officers of the French army walking about at a little distance and
+talking with seeming unconcern. Three or four Indians seized him,
+brandished their tomahawks over his head, and tore off most of his
+clothes, while he vainly claimed protection from a sentinel, who called
+him an English dog, and violently pushed him back among his tormentors.
+Two of them were dragging him towards the neighboring swamp, when an
+English officer, stripped of everything but his scarlet breeches, ran
+by. One of Carver's captors sprang upon him, but was thrown to the
+ground; whereupon the other went to the aid of his comrade and drove his
+tomahawk into the back of the Englishman. As Carver turned to run, an
+English boy, about twelve years old, clung to him and begged for help.
+They ran on together for a moment, when the boy was seized, dragged from
+his protector, and, as Carver judged by his shrieks, was murdered. He
+himself escaped to the forest, and after three days of famine reached
+Fort Edward.
+
+[523] This is stated by Pouchot and Bougainville; the latter of whom
+confirms the testimony of the English witnesses, that Canadian officers
+present did nothing to check the Indians.
+
+[524] See note, end of chapter.
+
+[525] Belknap, History of New Hampshire, says that eighty were killed.
+Governor Wentworth, writing immediately after the event, says "killed or
+captivated."
+
+The bonds of discipline seem for the time to have been completely
+broken; for while Montcalm and his chief officers used every effort to
+restore order, even at the risk of their lives, many other officers,
+chiefly of the militia, failed atrociously to do their duty. How many
+English were killed it is impossible to tell with exactness. Roubaud
+says that he saw forty or fifty corpses scattered about the field. Lévis
+says fifty; which does not include the sick and wounded before murdered
+in the camp and fort. It is certain that six or seven hundred persons
+were carried off, stripped, and otherwise maltreated. Montcalm succeeded
+in recovering more than four hundred of them in the course of the day;
+and many of the French officers did what they could to relieve their
+wants by buying back from their captors the clothing that had been torn
+from them. Many of the fugitives had taken refuge in the fort, whither
+Monro himself had gone to demand protection for his followers; and here
+Roubaud presently found a crowd of half-frenzied women, crying in
+anguish for husbands and children. All the refugees and redeemed
+prisoners were afterwards conducted to the entrenched camp, where food
+and shelter were provided for them and a strong guard set for their
+protection until the fifteenth, when they were sent under an escort to
+Fort Edward. Here cannon had been fired at intervals to guide those who
+had fled to the woods, whence they came dropping in from day to day,
+half dead with famine.
+
+On the morning after the massacre the Indians decamped in a body and set
+out for Montreal, carrying with them their plunder and some two hundred
+prisoners, who, it is said, could not be got out of their hands. The
+soldiers were set to the work of demolishing the English fort; and the
+task occupied several days. The barracks were torn down, and the huge
+pine-logs of the rampart thrown into a heap. The dead bodies that filled
+the casemates were added to the mass, and fire was set to the whole. The
+mighty funeral pyre blazed all night. Then, on the sixteenth, the army
+reimbarked. The din of ten thousand combatants, the rage, the terror,
+the agony, were gone; and no living thing was left but the wolves that
+gathered from the mountains to feast upon the dead. [526]
+
+[526] The foregoing chapter rests largely on evidence never before
+brought to light, including the minute Journal of Bougainville,--a
+document which can hardly be commended too much,--the correspondence of
+Webb, a letter of Colonel Frye, written just after the massacre, and a
+journal of the siege, sent by him to Governor Pownall as his official
+report. Extracts from these, as well as from the affidavit of Dr.
+Whitworth, which is also new evidence, are given in Appendix F.
+
+The Diary of Malartic and the correspondence of Montcalm, Lévis,
+Vaudreuil, and Bigot, also throw light on the campaign, as well as
+numerous reports of the siege, official and semi-official. The long
+letter of the Jesuit Roubaud, printed anonymously in the Lettres
+Édifiantes et Curieuses, gives a remarkably vivid account of what he
+saw. He was an intelligent person, who may be trusted where he has no
+motive for lying. Curious particulars about him will be found in a paper
+called, The deplorable Case of Mr. Roubaud, printed in the Historical
+Magazine, Second Series, VIII. 282. Compare Verreau, Report on Canadian
+Archives, 1874.
+
+Impressions of the massacre at Fort William Henry have hitherto been
+derived chiefly from the narrative of Captain Jonathan Carver, in his
+Travels. He has discredited himself by his exaggeration of the number
+killed; but his account of what he himself saw tallies with that of the
+other witnesses. He is outdone in exaggeration by an anonymous French
+writer of the time, who seems rather pleased at the occurrence, and
+affirms that all the English were killed except seven hundred, these
+last being captured, so that none escaped (Nouvelles du Canada envoyées
+de Montréal, Août, 1757). Carver puts killed and captured together at
+fifteen hundred. Vaudreuil, who always makes light of Indian
+barbarities, goes to the other extreme, and avers that no more than five
+or six were killed. Lévis and Roubaud, who saw everything, and were
+certain not to exaggerate the number, give the most trustworthy evidence
+on this point. The capitulation, having been broken by the allies of
+France, was declared void by the British Government.
+
+The Signal of Butchery. Montcalm, Bougainville, and several others say
+that the massacre was begun by the Abenakis of Panaouski. Father Martin,
+in quoting the letter in which Montcalm makes this statement, inserts
+the word idolâtres, which is not in the original. Dussieux and
+O'Callaghan give the passage correctly. This Abenaki band, ancestors of
+the present Penobscots, were no idolaters, but had been converted more
+than half a century. In the official list of the Indian allies they are
+set down among the Christians. Roubaud, who had charge of them during
+the expedition, speaks of these and other converts with singular candor:
+"Vous avez dû vous apercevoir ... que nos sauvages, pour être Chrétiens,
+n'en sont pas plus irrépréhensibles dans leur conduite."
+
+END OF VOL. I.
+
+
+
+Montcalm and Wolfe
+
+by Francis Parkman
+
+France and England
+in North America
+
+A Series
+of Historical Narratives
+
+Part Seventh.
+
+BOSTON:
+LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
+1885.
+
+
+Copyright, 1884,
+by Francis Parkman.
+
+
+University Press:
+John Wilson and Son, Cambridge.
+
+
+
+Montcalm and Wolfe
+Vol. II.
+
+by Francis Parkman
+
+sixth edition.
+
+BOSTON:
+LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
+1885.
+
+
+Copyright, 1884,
+by Francis Parkman.
+
+
+Contents - Vol 2.
+
+Montcalm and Wolfe: Volume 2
+
+Contents of Volume I.
+
+CHAPTER XVI. 1757, 1758.
+
+A WINTER OF DISCONTENT.
+
+Boasts of Loudon • A Mutinous Militia • Panic • Accusations of Vaudreuil
+• His Weakness • Indian Barbarities • Destruction of German Flats •
+Discontent of Montcalm • Festivities at Montreal • Montcalm's Relations
+with the Governor • Famine • Riots • Mutiny • Winter at Ticonderoga • A
+desperate Bush-fight • Defeat of the Rangers • Adventures of Roche and
+Pringle.
+
+CHAPTER XVII. 1753-1760.
+
+BIGOT.
+
+His Life and Character • Canadian Society • Official Festivities • A
+Party of Pleasure • Hospitalities of Bigot • Desperate Gambling •
+Château Bigot • Canadian Ladies • Cadet • La Friponne • Official
+Rascality • Methods of Peculation • Cruel Frauds on the Acadians •
+Military Corruption • Péan • Love and Knavery • Varin and his Partners •
+Vaudreuil and the Peculators • He defends Bigot; praises Cadet and Péan
+• Canadian Finances • Peril of Bigot • Threats of the Minister •
+Evidence of Montcalm • Impending Ruin of the Confederates.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. 1757, 1758.
+
+PITT.
+
+Frederic of Prussia • The Coalition against him • His desperate Position
+• Rossbach • Leuthen • Reverses of England • Weakness of the Ministry •
+A Change • Pitt and Newcastle • Character of Pitt • Sources of his Power
+• His Aims • Louis XV • Pompadour • She controls the Court, and directs
+the War • Gloomy Prospects of England • Disasters • The New Ministry •
+Inspiring Influence of Pitt • The Tide turns • British Victories •
+Pitt's Plans for America • Louisbourg, Ticonderoga, Duquesne • New
+Commanders • Naval Battles.
+
+CHAPTER XIX. 1758.
+
+LOUISBOURG.
+
+Condition of the Fortress • Arrival of the English • Gallantry of Wolfe
+• The English Camp • The Siege begun • Progress of the Besiegers •
+Sallies of the French • Madame Drucour • Courtesies of War • French
+Ships destroyed • Conflagration • Fury of the Bombardment • Exploit of
+English Sailors • The End near • The White Flag • Surrender • Reception
+of the News in England and America • Wolfe not satisfied • His Letters
+to Amherst • He destroys Gaspé • Returns to England.
+
+CHAPTER XX. 1758.
+
+TICONDEROGA.
+
+Activity of the Provinces • Sacrifices of Massachusetts • The Army at
+Lake George • Proposed Incursion of Lévis • Perplexities of Montcalm •
+His Plan of Defence • Camp of Abercromby • His Character • Lord Howe •
+His Popularity • Embarkation of Abercromby • Advance down Lake George •
+Landing • Forest Skirmish • Death of Howe • Its Effects • Position of
+the French • The Lines of Ticonderoga • Blunders of Abercromby • The
+Assault • A Frightful Scene • Incidents of the Battle • British Repulse
+• Panic • Retreat • Triumph of Montcalm.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI. 1758.
+
+FORT FRONTENAC.
+
+The Routed Army • Indignation at Abercromby • John Cleaveland and his
+Brother Chaplains • Regulars and Provincials • Provincial Surgeons •
+French Raids • Rogers defeats Marin • Adventures of Putnam • Expedition
+of Bradstreet • Capture of Fort Frontenac.
+
+CHAPTER XXII. 1758.
+
+FORT DUQUESNE.
+
+Dinwiddie and Washington • Brigadier Forbes • His Army • Conflicting
+Views • Difficulties • Illness of Forbes • His Sufferings • His
+Fortitude • His Difference with Washington • Sir John Sinclair •
+Troublesome Allies • Scouting Parties • Boasts of Vaudreuil • Forbes and
+the Indians • Mission of Christian Frederic Post • Council of Peace •
+Second Mission of Post • Defeat of Grant • Distress of Forbes • Dark
+Prospects • Advance of the Army • Capture of the French Fort • The Slain
+of Braddock's Field • Death of Forbes.
+
+CHAPTER XXIII. 1758, 1759.
+
+THE BRINK OF RUIN.
+
+Jealousy of Vaudreuil • He asks for Montcalm's Recall • His Discomfiture
+• Scene at the Governor's House • Disgust of Montcalm • The Canadians
+Despondent • Devices to encourage them • Gasconade of the Governor •
+Deplorable State of the Colony • Mission of Bougainville • Duplicity of
+Vaudreuil • Bougainville at Versailles • Substantial Aid refused to
+Canada • A Matrimonial Treaty • Return of Bougainville • Montcalm
+abandoned by the Court • His Plans of Defence • Sad News from Candiac •
+Promises of Vaudreuil.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV. 1758, 1759.
+
+WOLFE.
+
+The Exiles of Fort Cumberland • Relief • The Voyage to Louisbourg • The
+British Fleet • Expedition against Quebec • Early Life of Wolfe • His
+Character • His Letters to his Parents • His Domestic Qualities •
+Appointed to command the Expedition • Sails for America.
+
+CHAPTER XXV. 1759.
+
+WOLFE AT QUEBEC.
+
+French Preparation • Muster of Forces • Gasconade of Vaudreuil • Plan of
+Defence • Strength of Montcalm • Advance of Wolfe • British Sailors •
+Landing of the English • Difficulties before them • Storm • Fireships •
+Confidence of French Commanders • Wolfe occupies Point Levi • A Futile
+Night Attack • Quebec bombarded • Wolfe at the Montmorenci • Skirmishes
+• Danger of the English Position • Effects of the Bombardment •
+Desertion of Canadians • The English above Quebec • Severities of Wolfe
+• Another Attempt to burn the Fleet • Desperate Enterprise of Wolfe •
+The Heights of Montmorenci • Repulse of the English.
+
+CHAPTER XXVI. 1759.
+
+AMHERST. NIAGARA.
+
+Amherst on Lake George • Capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point • Delays
+of Amherst • Niagara Expedition • La Corne attacks Oswego • His Repulse
+• Niagara besieged • Aubry comes to its Relief • Battle • Rout of the
+French • The Fort taken • Isle-aux-Noix • Amherst advances to attack it
+• Storm • The Enterprise abandoned • Rogers attacks St. Francis •
+Destroys the Town • Sufferings of the Rangers.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII. 1759.
+
+THE HEIGHTS OF ABRAHAM.
+
+Elation of the French • Despondency of Wolfe • The Parishes laid waste •
+Operations above Quebec • Illness of Wolfe • A New Plan of Attack •
+Faint Hope of Success • Wolfe's Last Despatch • Confidence of Vaudreuil
+• Last Letters of Montcalm • French Vigilance • British Squadron at
+Cap-Rouge • Last Orders of Wolfe • Embarkation • Descent of the St.
+Lawrence • The Heights scaled • The British Line • Last Night of
+Montcalm • The Alarm • March of French Troops • The Battle • The Rout •
+The Pursuit • Fall of Wolfe and of Montcalm.
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII. 1759.
+
+FALL OF QUEBEC.
+
+After the Battle • Canadians resist the Pursuit • Arrival of Vaudreuil •
+Scene in the Redoubt • Panic • Movements of the Victors • Vaudreuil's
+Council of War • Precipitate Retreat of the French Army • Last Hours of
+Montcalm • His Death and Burial • Quebec abandoned to its Fate • Despair
+of the Garrison • Lévis joins the Army • Attempts to relieve the Town •
+Surrender • The British occupy Quebec • Slanders of Vaudreuil •
+Reception in England of the News of Wolfe's Victory and Death •
+Prediction of Jonathan Mayhew.
+
+CHAPTER XXIX. 1759, 1760.
+
+SAINTE-FOY.
+
+Quebec after the Siege • Captain Knox and the Nuns • Escape of French
+Ships • Winter at Quebec • Threats of Lévis • Attacks • Skirmishes •
+Feat of the Rangers • State of the Garrison • The French prepare to
+retake Quebec • Advance of Lévis • The Alarm • Sortie of the English •
+Rash Determination of Murray • Battle of Ste.-Foy • Retreat of the
+English • Lévis besieges Quebec • Spirit of the Garrison • Peril of
+their Situation • Relief • Quebec saved • Retreat of Lévis • The News in
+England.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX. 1760.
+
+FALL OF CANADA.
+
+Desperate Situation • Efforts of Vaudreuil and Lévis • Plans of Amherst
+• A Triple Attack • Advance of Murray • Advance of Haviland • Advance of
+Amherst • Capitulation of Montreal • Protest of Lévis • Injustice of
+Louis XV. • Joy in the British Colonies • Character of the War.
+
+CHAPTER XXXI. 1758-1763.
+
+THE PEACE OF PARIS.
+
+Exodus of Canadian Leaders • Wreck of the "Auguste" • Trial of Bigot and
+his Confederates • Frederic of Prussia • His Triumphs • His Reverses •
+His Peril • His Fortitude • Death of George II. • Change of Policy •
+Choiseul • His Overtures of Peace • The Family Compact • Fall of Pitt •
+Death of the Czarina • Frederic saved • War with Spain • Capture of
+Havana • Negotiations • Terms of Peace • Shall Canada be restored? •
+Speech of Pitt • The Treaty signed • End of the Seven Years War.
+
+CHAPTER XXXII. 1763-1884.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+Results of the War • Germany • France • England • Canada • The British
+Provinces.
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+1757, 1758.
+
+A WINTER OF DISCONTENT.
+
+Boasts of Loudon • A Mutinous Militia • Panic • Accusations of Vaudreuil
+• His Weakness • Indian Barbarities • Destruction of German Flats •
+Discontent of Montcalm • Festivities at Montreal • Montcalm's Relations
+with the Governor • Famine • Riots • Mutiny • Winter at Ticonderoga • A
+desperate Bush-fight • Defeat of the Rangers • Adventures of Roche and
+Pringle.
+
+Loudon, on his way back from Halifax, was at sea off the coast of Nova
+Scotia when a despatch-boat from Governor Pownall of Massachusetts
+startled him with news that Fort William Henry was attacked; and a few
+days after he learned by another boat that the fort was taken and the
+capitulation "inhumanly and villanously broken." On this he sent Webb
+orders to hold the enemy in check without risking a battle till he
+should himself arrive. "I am on the way," these were his words, "with a
+force sufficient to turn the scale, with God's assistance; and then I
+hope we shall teach the French to comply with the laws of nature and
+humanity. For although I abhor barbarity, the knowledge I have of Mr.
+Vaudreuil's behavior when in Louisiana, from his own letters in my
+possession, and the murders committed at Oswego and now at Fort William
+Henry, will oblige me to make those gentlemen sick of such inhuman
+villany whenever it is in my power." He reached New York on the last day
+of August, and heard that the French had withdrawn. He nevertheless sent
+his troops up the Hudson, thinking, he says, that he might still attack
+Ticonderoga; a wild scheme, which he soon abandoned, if he ever
+seriously entertained it. [527]
+
+[527] Loudon to Webb, 20 Aug. 1757. London to Holdernesse, Oct. 1757.
+Loudon to Pownall, 16 [18?] Aug. 1757. A passage in this last letter, in
+which Loudon says that he shall, if prevented by head-winds from getting
+into New York, disembark the troops on Long Island, is perverted by that
+ardent partisan, William Smith, the historian of New York, into the
+absurd declaration "that he should encamp on Long Island for the defence
+of the continent."
+
+Webb had remained at Fort Edward in mortal dread of attack. Johnson had
+joined him with a band of Mohawks; and on the day when Fort William
+Henry surrendered there had been some talk of attempting to throw
+succors into it by night. Then came the news of its capture; and now,
+when it was too late, tumultuous mobs of militia came pouring in from
+the neighboring provinces. In a few days thousands of them were
+bivouacked on the fields about Fort Edward, doing nothing, disgusted and
+mutinous, declaring that they were ready to fight, but not to lie still
+without tents, blankets, or kettles. Webb writes on the fourteenth that
+most of those from New York had deserted, threatening to kill their
+officers if they tried to stop them. Delancey ordered them to be fired
+upon. A sergeant was shot, others were put in arrest, and all was
+disorder till the seventeenth; when Webb, learning that the French were
+gone, sent them back to their homes. [528]
+
+[528] Delancey to [Holdernesse?], 24 Aug. 1757.
+
+Close on the fall of Fort William Henry came crazy rumors of disaster,
+running like wildfire through the colonies. The number and ferocity of
+the enemy were grossly exaggerated; there was a cry that they would
+seize Albany and New York itself; [529] while it was reported that Webb,
+as much frightened as the rest, was for retreating to the Highlands of
+the Hudson. [530] This was the day after the capitulation, when a part
+only of the militia had yet appeared. If Montcalm had seized the moment,
+and marched that afternoon to Fort Edward, it is not impossible that in
+the confusion he might have carried it by a coup-de-main.
+
+[529] Captain Christie to Governor Wentworth, 11 Aug. 1757. Ibid., to
+Governor Pownall, same date.
+
+[530] Smith, Hist. N.Y., Part II. 254.
+
+Here was an opportunity for Vaudreuil, and he did not fail to use it.
+Jealous of his rival's exploit, he spared no pains to tarnish it;
+complaining that Montcalm had stopped half way on the road to success,
+and, instead of following his instructions, had contented himself with
+one victory when he should have gained two. But the Governor had
+enjoined upon him as a matter of the last necessity that the Canadians
+should be at their homes before September to gather the crops, and he
+would have been the first to complain had the injunction been
+disregarded. To besiege Fort Edward was impossible, as Montcalm had no
+means of transporting cannon thither; and to attack Webb without them
+was a risk which he had not the rashness to incur.
+
+It was Bougainville who first brought Vaudreuil the news of the success
+on Lake George. A day or two after his arrival, the Indians, who had
+left the army after the massacre, appeared at Montreal, bringing about
+two hundred English prisoners. The Governor rebuked them for breaking
+the capitulation, on which the heathen savages of the West declared that
+it was not their fault, but that of the converted Indians, who, in fact,
+had first raised the war-whoop. Some of the prisoners were presently
+bought from them at the price of two kegs of brandy each; and the
+inevitable consequences followed.
+
+"I thought," writes Bougainville, "that the Governor would have told
+them they should have neither provisions nor presents till all the
+English were given up; that he himself would have gone to their huts and
+taken the prisoners from them; and that the inhabitants would be
+forbidden, under the severest penalties, from selling or giving them
+brandy. I saw the contrary; and my soul shuddered at the sights my eyes
+beheld. On the fifteenth, at two o'clock, in the presence of the whole
+town, they killed one of the prisoners, put him into the kettle, and
+forced his wretched countrymen to eat of him." The Intendant Bigot, the
+friend of the Governor, confirms this story; and another French writer
+says that they "compelled mothers to eat the flesh of their children."
+[531] Bigot declares that guns, canoes, and other presents were given to
+the Western tribes before they left Montreal; and he adds, "they must be
+sent home satisfied at any cost." Such were the pains taken to preserve
+allies who were useful chiefly through the terror inspired by their
+diabolical cruelties. This time their ferocity cost them dear. They had
+dug up and scalped the corpses in the graveyard of Fort William Henry,
+many of which were remains of victims of the small-pox; and the savages
+caught the disease, which is said to have made great havoc among them.
+[532]
+
+[531] "En chemin faisant et même en entrant à Montréal ils les ont
+mangés et fait manger aux autres prisonniers." Bigot au Ministre, 24
+Août, 1757.
+
+"Des sauvages ont fait manger aux mères la chair de leurs enfants."
+Jugement impartial sur les Opérations militaires en Canada. A French
+diary kept in Canada at this time, and captured at sea, is cited by
+Hutchinson as containing similar statements.
+
+[532] One of these corpses was that of Richard Rogers, brother of the
+noted partisan Robert Rogers. He had died of small-pox some time before.
+Rogers, Journals, 55, note.
+
+Vaudreuil, in reporting what he calls "my capture of Fort William
+Henry," takes great credit to himself for his "generous procedures"
+towards the English prisoners; alluding, it seems, to his having bought
+some of them from the Indians with the brandy which was sure to cause
+the murder of others. [533] His obsequiousness to his red allies did not
+cease with permitting them to kill and devour before his eyes those whom
+he was bound in honor and duty to protect. "He let them do what they
+pleased," says a French contemporary; "they were seen roaming about
+Montreal, knife in hand, threatening everybody, and often insulting
+those they met. When complaint was made, he said nothing. Far from it;
+instead of reproaching them, he loaded them with gifts, in the belief
+that their cruelty would then relent." [534]
+
+[533] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 15 Sept. 1757.
+
+[534] Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
+
+Nevertheless, in about a fortnight all, or nearly all, the surviving
+prisoners were bought out of their clutches; and then, after a final
+distribution of presents and a grand debauch at La Chine, the whole
+savage rout paddled for their villages.
+
+The campaign closed in November with a partisan exploit on the Mohawk.
+Here, at a place called German Flats, on the farthest frontier, there
+was a thriving settlement of German peasants from the Palatinate, who
+were so ill-disposed towards the English that Vaudreuil had had good
+hope of stirring them to revolt, while at the same time persuading their
+neighbors, the Oneida Indians, to take part with France. [535] As his
+measures to this end failed, he resolved to attack them. Therefore, at
+three o'clock in the morning of the twelfth of November, three hundred
+colony troops, Canadians and Indians, under an officer named Belêtre,
+wakened the unhappy peasants by a burst of yells, and attacked the small
+picket forts which they had built as places of refuge. These were taken
+one by one and set on fire. The sixty dwellings of the settlement, with
+their barns and outhouses, were all burned, forty or fifty of the
+inhabitants were killed, and about three times that number, chiefly
+women and children, were made prisoners, including Johan Jost Petrie,
+the magistrate of the place. Fort Herkimer was not far off, with a
+garrison of two hundred men under Captain Townshend, who at the first
+alarm sent out a detachment too weak to arrest the havoc; while Belêtre,
+unable to carry off his booty, set on his followers to the work of
+destruction, killed a great number of hogs, sheep, cattle, and horses,
+and then made a hasty retreat. Lord Howe, pushing up the river from
+Schenectady with troops and militia, found nothing but an abandoned
+slaughter-field. Vaudreuil reported the affair to the Court, and summed
+up the results with pompous egotism: "I have ruined the plans of the
+English; I have disposed the Five Nations to attack them; I have carried
+consternation and terror into all those parts." [536]
+
+[535] Dépêches de Vaudreuil, 1757.
+
+[536] Loudon to Pitt, 14 Feb. 1758. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 12 Fév. 1758.
+Ibid., 28 Nov. 1758. Bougainville, Journal. Summary of M. de Belêtre's
+Campaign, in N.Y. Col. Docs., X. 672. Extravagant reports of the havoc
+made were sent to France. It was pretended that three thousand cattle,
+three thousand sheep (Vaudreuil says four thousand), and from five
+hundred to fifteen hundred horses were destroyed, with other personal
+property to the amount of 1,500,000 livres. These official falsehoods
+are contradicted in a letter from Quebec, Daine au Maréchal de
+Belleisle, 19 Mai, 1758. Lévis says that the whole population of the
+settlement, men, women, and children, was not above three hundred.
+
+Montcalm, his summer work over, went to Montreal; and thence in
+September to Quebec, a place more to his liking. "Come as soon as you
+can," he wrote to Bourlamaque, "and I will tell a certain fair lady how
+eager you are." Even Quebec was no paradise for him; and he writes again
+to the same friend: "My heart and my stomach are both ill at ease, the
+latter being the worse." To his wife he says: "The price of everything
+is rising. I am ruining myself; I owe the treasurer twelve thousand
+francs. I long for peace and for you. In spite of the public distress,
+we have balls and furious gambling." In February he returned to Montreal
+in a sleigh on the ice of the St. Lawrence,--a mode of travelling which
+he describes as cold but delicious. Montreal pleased him less than ever,
+especially as he was not in favor at what he calls the Court, meaning
+the circle of the Governor-General. "I find this place so amusing," he
+writes ironically to Bourlamaque, "that I wish Holy Week could be
+lengthened, to give me a pretext for neither making nor receiving
+visits, staying at home, and dining there almost alone. Burn all my
+letters, as I do yours." And in the next week: "Lent and devotion have
+upset my stomach and given me a cold; which does not prevent me from
+having the Governor-General at dinner to-day to end his lenten fast,
+according to custom here." Two days after he announces: "To-day a grand
+dinner at Martel's; twenty-three persons, all big-wigs (les grosses
+perruques); no ladies. We still have got to undergo those of Péan,
+Deschambault, and the Chevalier de Lévis. I spend almost every evening
+in my chamber, the place I like best, and where I am least bored."
+
+With the opening spring there were changes in the modes of amusement.
+Picnics began, Vaudreuil and his wife being often of the party, as too
+was Lévis. The Governor also made visits of compliment at the houses of
+the seigniorial proprietors along the river; "very much," says Montcalm,
+as "Henri IV. did to the bourgeois notables of Paris. I live as usual,
+fencing in the morning, dining, and passing the evening at home or at
+the Governor's. Péan has gone up to La Chine to spend six days with the
+reigning sultana [Péan's wife, mistress of Bigot]. As for me, my ennui
+increases. I don't know what to do, or say, or read, or where to go; and
+I think that at the end of the next campaign I shall ask bluntly,
+blindly, for my recall, only because I am bored." [537]
+
+[537] Montcalm à Bourlamaque, 22 Mai, 1758.
+
+His relations with Vaudreuil were a constant annoyance to him,
+notwithstanding the mask of mutual civility. "I never," he tells his
+mother, "ask for a place in the colony troops for anybody. You need not
+be an Œdipus to guess this riddle. Here are four lines from Corneille:--
+
+   "'Mon crime véritable est d'avoir aujourd'hui
+    Plus de nom que ... [Vaudreuil], plus de vertus que lui,
+    Et c'est de là que part cette secrète haine
+    Que le temps ne rendra que plus forte et plus pleine.'
+
+Nevertheless I live here on good terms with everybody, and do my best to
+serve the King. If they could but do without me; if they could but
+spring some trap on me, or if I should happen to meet with some check!"
+
+Vaudreuil meanwhile had written to the Court in high praise of Lévis,
+hinting that he, and not Montcalm, ought to have the chief command.
+[538]
+
+[538] Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 16 Sept. 1757. Ibid., au
+Ministre de la Guerre, même date.
+
+Under the hollow gayeties of the ruling class lay a great public
+distress, which broke at last into riot. Towards midwinter no flour was
+to be had in Montreal; and both soldiers and people were required to
+accept a reduced ration, partly of horse-flesh. A mob gathered before
+the Governor's house, and a deputation of women beset him, crying out
+that the horse was the friend of man, and that religion forbade him to
+be eaten. In reply he threatened them with imprisonment and hanging; but
+with little effect, and the crowd dispersed, only to stir up the
+soldiers quartered in the houses of the town. The colony regulars,
+ill-disciplined at the best, broke into mutiny, and excited the
+battalion of Béarn to join them. Vaudreuil was helpless; Montcalm was in
+Quebec; and the task of dealing with the mutineers fell upon Lévis, who
+proved equal to the crisis, took a high tone, threatened death to the
+first soldier who should refuse horse-flesh, assured them at the same
+time that he ate it every day himself, and by a characteristic mingling
+of authority and tact, quelled the storm. [539]
+
+[539] Bougainville, Journal. Montcalm à Mirepoix, 20 Avril, 1758. Lévis,
+Journal de la Guerre du Canada.
+
+The prospects of the next campaign began to open. Captain Pouchot had
+written from Niagara that three thousand savages were waiting to
+be let loose against the English borders. "What a scourge!" exclaims
+Bougainville. "Humanity groans at being forced to use such monsters.
+What can be done against an invisible enemy, who strikes and vanishes,
+swift as the lightning? It is the destroying angel." Captain Hebecourt
+kept watch and ward at Ticonderoga, begirt with snow and ice, and much
+plagued by English rangers, who sometimes got into the ditch itself.
+[540] This was to reconnoitre the place in preparation for a winter
+attack which Loudon had planned, but which, like the rest of his
+schemes, fell to the ground. [541] Towards midwinter a band of these
+intruders captured two soldiers and butchered some fifteen cattle close
+to the fort, leaving tied to the horns of one of them a note addressed
+to the commandant in these terms: "I am obliged to you, sir, for the
+rest you have allowed me to take and the fresh meat you have sent me. I
+shall take good care of my prisoners. My compliments to the Marquis of
+Montcalm." Signed, Rogers. [542]
+
+[540] Montcalm à Bourlamaque, 28 Mars, 1758.
+
+[541] Loudon to Pitt, 14 Feb. 1758.
+
+[542] Journal de ce qui s'est passé en Canada, 1757, 1758. Compare
+Rogers, Journals, 72-75.
+
+A few weeks later Hebecourt had his revenge. About the middle of March a
+report came to Montreal that a large party of rangers had been cut to
+pieces a few miles from Ticonderoga, and that Rogers himself was among
+the slain. This last announcement proved false; but the rangers had
+suffered a crushing defeat. Colonel Haviland, commanding at Fort Edward,
+sent a hundred and eighty of them, men and officers, on a scouting party
+towards Ticonderoga; and Captain Pringle and Lieutenant Roche, of the
+twenty-seventh regiment, joined them as volunteers, no doubt through a
+love of hardy adventure, which was destined to be fully satisfied.
+Rogers commanded the whole. They passed down Lake George on the ice
+under cover of night, and then, as they neared the French outposts,
+pursued their way by land behind Rogers Rock and the other mountains of
+the western shore. On the preceding day, the twelfth of March, Hebecourt
+had received a reinforcement of two hundred Mission Indians and a body
+of Canadians. The Indians had no sooner arrived than, though nominally
+Christians, they consulted the spirits, by whom they were told that the
+English were coming. On this they sent out scouts, who came back
+breathless, declaring that they had found a great number of snow-shoe
+tracks. The superhuman warning being thus confirmed, the whole body of
+Indians, joined by a band of Canadians and a number of volunteers from
+the regulars, set out to meet the approaching enemy, and took their way
+up the valley of Trout Brook, a mountain gorge that opens from the west
+upon the valley of Ticonderoga.
+
+Towards three o'clock on the afternoon of that day Rogers had reached a
+point nearly west of the mountain that bears his name. The rough and
+rocky ground was buried four feet in snow, and all around stood the gray
+trunks of the forest, bearing aloft their skeleton arms and tangled
+intricacy of leafless twigs. Close on the right was a steep hill, and at
+a little distance on the left was the brook, lost under ice and snow. A
+scout from the front told Rogers that a party of Indians was approaching
+along the bed of the frozen stream, on which he ordered his men to halt,
+face to that side, and advance cautiously. The Indians soon appeared,
+and received a fire that killed some of them and drove back the rest in
+confusion.
+
+Not suspecting that they were but an advance-guard, about half the
+rangers dashed in pursuit, and were soon met by the whole body of the
+enemy. The woods rang with yells and musketry. In a few minutes some
+fifty of the pursuers were shot down, and the rest driven back in
+disorder upon their comrades. Rogers formed them all on the slope of the
+hill; and here they fought till sunset with stubborn desperation, twice
+repulsing the overwhelming numbers of the assailants, and thwarting all
+their efforts to gain the heights in the rear. The combatants were often
+not twenty yards apart, and sometimes they were mixed together. At
+length a large body of Indians succeeded in turning the right flank of
+the rangers. Lieutenant Phillips and a few men were sent by Rogers to
+oppose the movement; but they quickly found themselves surrounded, and
+after a brave defence surrendered on a pledge of good treatment. Rogers
+now advised the volunteers, Pringle and Roche, to escape while there was
+time, and offered them a sergeant as guide; but they gallantly resolved
+to stand by him. Eight officers and more than a hundred rangers lay dead
+and wounded in the snow. Evening was near and the forest was darkening
+fast, when the few survivors broke and fled. Rogers with about twenty
+followers escaped up the mountain; and gathering others about him, made
+a running fight against the Indian pursuers, reached Lake George, not
+without fresh losses, and after two days of misery regained Fort Edward
+with the remnant of his band. The enemy on their part suffered heavily,
+the chief loss falling on the Indians; who, to revenge themselves,
+murdered all the wounded and nearly all the prisoners, and tying
+Lieutenant Phillips and his men to trees, hacked them to pieces.
+
+Captain Pringle and Lieutenant Roche had become separated from the other
+fugitives; and, ignorant of woodcraft, they wandered by moonlight amid
+the desolation of rocks and snow, till early in the night they met a man
+whom they knew as a servant of Rogers, and who said that he could guide
+them to Fort Edward. One of them had lost his snow-shoes in the fight;
+and, crouching over a miserable fire of broken sticks, they worked till
+morning to make a kind of substitute with forked branches, twigs, and a
+few leather strings. They had no hatchet to cut firewood, no blankets,
+no overcoats, and no food except part of a Bologna sausage and a little
+ginger which Pringle had brought with him. There was no game; not even a
+squirrel was astir; and their chief sustenance was juniper-berries and
+the inner bark of trees. But their worst calamity was the helplessness
+of their guide. His brain wandered; and while always insisting that he
+knew the country well, he led them during four days hither and thither
+among a labyrinth of nameless mountains, clambering over rocks, wading
+through snowdrifts, struggling among fallen trees, till on the fifth day
+they saw with despair that they had circled back to their own
+starting-point. On the next morning, when they were on the ice of Lake
+George, not far from Rogers Rock, a blinding storm of sleet and snow
+drove in their faces. Spent as they were, it was death to stop; and
+bending their heads against the blast, they fought their way forward,
+now on the ice, and now in the adjacent forest, till in the afternoon
+the storm ceased, and they found themselves on the bank of an unknown
+stream. It was the outlet of the lake; for they had wandered into the
+valley of Ticonderoga, and were not three miles from the French fort. In
+crossing the torrent Pringle lost his gun, and was near losing his life.
+All three of the party were drenched to the skin; and, becoming now for
+the first time aware of where they were, they resolved on yielding
+themselves prisoners to save their lives. Night, however, again found
+them in the forest. Their guide became delirious, saw visions of Indians
+all around, and, murmuring incoherently, straggled off a little way,
+seated himself in the snow, and was soon dead. The two officers,
+themselves but half alive, walked all night round a tree to keep the
+blood in motion. In the morning, again toiling on, they presently saw
+the fort across the intervening snowfields, and approached it, waving a
+white handkerchief. Several French officers dashed towards them at full
+speed, and reached them in time to save them from the clutches of the
+Indians, whose camps were near at hand. They were kindly treated,
+recovered from the effects of their frightful ordeal, and were
+afterwards exchanged. Pringle lived to old age, and died in 1800, senior
+major-general of the British army. [543]
+
+[543] Rogers, two days after reaching Fort Edward, made a detailed
+report of the fight, which was printed in the New Hampshire Gazette and
+other provincial papers. It is substantially incorporated in his
+published Journals, which also contain a long letter from Pringle to
+Colonel Haviland, dated at Carillon (Ticonderoga), 28 March, and giving
+an excellent account of his and Roche's adventures. It was sent by a
+flag of truce, which soon after arrived from Fort Edward with a letter
+for Vaudreuil. The French accounts of the fight are Hebecourt à
+[Vaudreuil?], 15 Mars, 1758. Montcalm au Ministre de la Guerre, 10
+Avril, 1758. Doreil à Belleisle, 30 Avril, 1758. Bougainville, Journal.
+Relation de l'Affaire de Roger, 19 Mars, 1758. Autre Relation, même
+date. Lévis, Journal. According to Lévis, the French force consisted of
+250 Indians and Canadians, and a number of officers, cadets, and
+soldiers. Roger puts it at 700. Most of the French writers put the force
+of the rangers, correctly, at about 180. Rogers reports his loss at 125.
+None of the wounded seem to have escaped, being either murdered after
+the fight, or killed by exposure in the woods. The Indians brought in
+144 scalps, having no doubt divided some of them, after their ingenious
+custom. Rogers threw off his overcoat during the fight, and it was found
+on the field, with his commission in the pocket; whence the report of
+his death. There is an unsupported tradition that he escaped by sliding
+on his snow-shoes down a precipice of Rogers Rock.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+1753-1760.
+
+BIGOT.
+
+His Life and Character • Canadian Society • Official Festivities • A
+Party of Pleasure • Hospitalities of Bigot • Desperate Gambling •
+Château Bigot • Canadian Ladies • Cadet • La Friponne • Official
+Rascality • Methods of Peculation • Cruel Frauds on the Acadians •
+Military Corruption • Péan • Love and Knavery • Varin and his Partners •
+Vaudreuil and the Peculators • He defends Bigot; praises Cadet and Péan
+• Canadian Finances • Peril of Bigot • Threats of the Minister •
+Evidence of Montcalm • Impending Ruin of the Confederates.
+
+At this stormy epoch of Canadian history the sinister figure of the
+Intendant Bigot moves conspicuous on the scene. Not that he was
+answerable for all the manifold corruption that infected the colony, for
+much of it was rife before his time, and had a vitality of its own; but
+his office and character made him the centre of it, and, more than any
+other man, he marshalled and organized the forces of knavery.
+
+In the dual government of Canada the Governor represented the King and
+commanded the troops; while the Intendant was charged with trade,
+finance, justice, and all other departments of civil administration.
+[544] In former times the two functionaries usually quarrelled; but
+between Vaudreuil and Bigot there was perfect harmony.
+
+[544] See Old Régime in Canada.
+
+François Bigot, in the words of his biographer, was "born in the bosom
+of the magistracy," both his father and his grandfather having held
+honorable positions in the parliament of Bordeaux. [545] In appearance
+he was not prepossessing, though his ugly, pimpled face was joined with
+easy and agreeable manners. In spite of indifferent health, he was
+untiring both in pleasure and in work, a skilful man of business, of
+great official experience, energetic, good-natured, free-handed, ready
+to oblige his friends and aid them in their needs at the expense of the
+King, his master; fond of social enjoyments, lavish in hospitality.
+
+[545] Procès de Bigot, Cadet, et autres, Mémoire pour Messire François
+Bigot, accusé, contre Monsieur le Procureur-Général du Roi, accusateur.
+
+A year or two before the war began, the engineer Franquet was sent from
+France to strengthen Louisbourg and inspect the defences of Canada. He
+kept a copious journal, full of curious observation, and affording
+bright glimpses not only of the social life of the Intendant, but of
+Canadian society in the upper or official class. Thus, among various
+matters of the kind, he gives us the following. Bigot, who was in
+Quebec, had occasion to go to Montreal to meet the Governor; and this
+official journey was turned into a pleasure excursion, of which the King
+paid all the costs. Those favored with invitations, a privilege highly
+prized, were Franquet, with seven or eight military officers and a
+corresponding number of ladies, including the wife of Major Péan, of
+whom Bigot was enamoured. A chief steward, cooks, servants, and other
+attendants, followed the party. The guests had been requested to send
+their portmanteaus to the Intendant's Palace six days before, that they
+might be sent forward on sledges along with bedding, table service,
+cooking utensils, and numberless articles of comfort and luxury. Orders
+were given to the inhabitants along the way, on pain of imprisonment, to
+level the snowdrifts and beat the road smooth with ox-teams, as also to
+provide relays of horses. It is true that they were well paid for this
+last service; so well that the hire of a horse to Montreal and back
+again would cost the King the entire value of the animal. On the eighth
+of February the party met at the palace; and after a grand dinner set
+out upon their journey in twenty or more sleighs, some with two guests
+and a driver, and the rest with servants and attendants. The procession
+passed at full trot along St. Vallier street amid the shouts of an
+admiring crowd, stopped towards night at Pointe-aux-Trembles, where each
+looked for lodging; and then they all met and supped with the Intendant.
+The militia captain of the place was ordered to have fresh horses ready
+at seven in the morning, when Bigot regaled his friends with tea,
+coffee, and chocolate, after which they set out again, drove to
+Cap-Santé, and stopped two hours at the house of the militia captain to
+breakfast and warm themselves. In the afternoon they reached Ste.
+Anne-de-la-Pérade, when Bigot gave them a supper at the house in
+which he lodged, and they spent the evening at cards.
+
+The next morning brought them to Three Rivers, where Madame Marin,
+Franquet's travelling companion, wanted to stop to see her sister, the
+wife of Rigaud, who was then governor of the place. Madame de Rigaud,
+being ill, received her visitors in bed, and ordered an ample dinner to
+be provided for them; after which they returned to her chamber for
+coffee and conversation. Then they all set out again, saluted by the
+cannon of the fort.
+
+Their next stopping-place was Isle-au-Castor, where, being seated at
+cards before supper, they were agreeably surprised by the appearance of
+the Governor, who had come down from Montreal to meet them with four
+officers, Duchesnaye, Marin, Le Mercier, and Péan. Many were the
+embraces and compliments; and in the morning they all journeyed on
+together, stopping towards night at the largest house they could find,
+where their servants took away the partitions to make room, and they sat
+down to a supper, followed by the inevitable game of cards. On the next
+night they reached Montreal and were lodged at the intendency, the
+official residence of the hospitable Bigot. The succeeding day was spent
+in visiting persons of eminence and consideration, among whom are to be
+noted the names, soon to become notorious, of Varin, naval commissary,
+Martel, King's storekeeper, Antoine Penisseault, and François Maurin. A
+succession of festivities followed, including the benediction of three
+flags for a band of militia on their way to the Ohio. All persons of
+quality in Montreal were invited on this occasion, and the Governor gave
+them a dinner and a supper. Bigot, however, outdid him in the plenitude
+of his hospitality, since, in the week before Lent, forty guests supped
+every evening at his table, and dances, masquerades, and cards consumed
+the night. [546]
+
+[546] Franquet, Journal.
+
+His chief abode was at Quebec, in the capacious but somewhat ugly
+building known as the Intendant's Palace. Here it was his custom during
+the war to entertain twenty persons at dinner every day; and there was
+also a hall for dancing, with a gallery to which the citizens were
+admitted as spectators. [547] The bounteous Intendant provided a
+separate dancing-hall for the populace; and, though at the same time he
+plundered and ruined them, his gracious demeanor long kept him a place
+in their hearts. Gambling was the chief feature of his entertainments,
+and the stakes grew deeper as the war went on. He played desperately
+himself, and early in 1758 lost two hundred and four thousand francs,--a
+loss which he well knew how to repair. Besides his official residence on
+the banks of the St. Charles, he had a country house about five miles
+distant, a massive old stone building in the woods at the foot of the
+mountain of Charlebourg; its ruins are now known as Château Bigot. In
+its day it was called the Hermitage; though the uses to which it was
+applied savored nothing of asceticism. Tradition connects it and its
+owner with a romantic, but more than doubtful, story of love, jealousy,
+and murder.
+
+[547] De Gaspé, Mémoires, 119.
+
+The chief Canadian families were so social in their habits and so
+connected by intermarriage that, along with the French civil and
+military officers of the colonial establishment, they formed a society
+whose members all knew each other, like the corresponding class in
+Virginia. There was among them a social facility and ease rare in
+democratic communities; and in the ladies of Quebec and Montreal were
+often seen graces which visitors from France were astonished to find at
+the edge of a wilderness. Yet this small though lively society had
+anomalies which grew more obtrusive towards the close of the war.
+Knavery makes strange companions; and at the tables of high civil
+officials and colony officers of rank sat guests as boorish in manners
+as they were worthless in character.
+
+Foremost among these was Joseph Cadet, son of a butcher at Quebec, who
+at thirteen went to sea as a pilot's boy, then kept the cows of an
+inhabitant of Charlebourg, and at last took up his father's trade and
+prospered in it. [548] In 1756 Bigot got him appointed
+commissary-general, and made a contract with him which flung wide open
+the doors of peculation. In the next two years Cadet and his associates,
+Péan, Maurin, Corpron, and Penisseault, sold to the King, for about
+twenty-three million francs, provisions which cost them eleven millions,
+leaving a net profit of about twelve millions. It was not legally proved
+that the Intendant shared Cadet's gains; but there is no reasonable
+doubt that he did so. Bigot's chief profits rose, however, from other
+sources. It was his business to see that the King's storehouses for the
+supply of troops, militia, and Indians were kept well stocked. To this
+end he and Bréard, naval comptroller at Quebec, made a partnership with
+the commercial house of Gradis and Son at Bordeaux. He next told the
+Colonial Minister that there were stores enough already in Canada to
+last three years, and that it would be more to the advantage of the King
+to buy them in the colony than to take the risk of sending them from
+France. [549] Gradis and Son then shipped them to Canada in large
+quantities, while Bréard or his agent declared at the custom-house that
+they belonged to the King, and so escaped the payment of duties. They
+were then, as occasion rose, sold to the King at a huge profit, always
+under fictitious names. Often they were sold to some favored merchant or
+speculator, who sold them in turn to Bigot's confederate, the King's
+storekeeper; and sometimes they passed through several successive hands,
+till the price rose to double or triple the first cost, the Intendant
+and his partners sharing the gains with friends and allies. They would
+let nobody else sell to the King; and thus a grinding monopoly was
+established, to the great profit of those who held it. [550]
+
+[548] Procès de Bigot, Cadet, et autres, Mémoire pour Messire François
+Bigot. Compare Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
+
+[549] Bigot au Ministre, 8 Oct. 1749.
+
+[550] Procés de Bigot, Cadet, et autres. Mémoire sur les Fraudes
+commises dans la Colonie. Compare Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
+
+Under the name of a trader named Claverie, Bigot, some time before the
+war, set up a warehouse on land belonging to the King and not far from
+his own palace. Here the goods shipped from Bordeaux were collected, to
+be sold in retail to the citizens, and in wholesale to favored merchants
+and the King. This establishment was popularly known as La Friponne, or
+The Cheat. There was another Friponne at Montreal, which was leagued
+with that of Quebec, and received goods from it.
+
+Bigot and his accomplices invented many other profitable frauds. Thus he
+was charged with the disposal of the large quantity of furs belonging to
+his master, which it was his duty to sell at public auction, after due
+notice, to the highest bidder. Instead of this, he sold them privately
+at a low price to his own confederates. It was also his duty to provide
+transportation for troops, artillery, provisions, and stores, in which
+he made good profit by letting to the King, at high prices, boats or
+vessels which he had himself bought or hired for the purpose. [551]
+
+[551] Jugement rendu souverainement dans l'Affaire du Canada.
+
+Yet these and other illicit gains still left him but the second place as
+public plunderer. Cadet, the commissary-general, reaped an ampler
+harvest, and became the richest man in the colony. One of the operations
+of this scoundrel, accomplished with the help of Bigot, consisted in
+buying for six hundred thousand francs a quantity of stores belonging to
+the King, and then selling them back to him for one million four hundred
+thousand. [552] It was further shown on his trial that in 1759 he
+received 1,614,354 francs for stores furnished at the post of Miramichi,
+while the value of those actually furnished was but 889,544 francs; thus
+giving him a fraudulent profit of more than seven hundred and
+twenty-four thousand. [553] Cadet's chief resource was the falsification
+of accounts. The service of the King in Canada was fenced about by rigid
+formalities. When supplies were wanted at any of the military posts, the
+commandant made a requisition specifying their nature and quantity,
+while, before pay could be drawn for them, the King's storekeeper, the
+local commissary, and the inspector must set their names as vouchers to
+the list, and finally Bigot must sign it. [554] But precautions were
+useless where all were leagued to rob the King. It appeared on Cadet's
+trial that by gifts of wine, brandy, or money he had bribed the
+officers, both civil and military, at all the principal forts to attest
+the truth of accounts in which the supplies furnished by him were set at
+more than twice their true amount. Of the many frauds charged against
+him there was one peculiarly odious. Large numbers of refugee Acadians
+were to be supplied with rations to keep them alive. Instead of
+wholesome food, mouldered and unsalable salt cod was sent them, and paid
+for by the King at inordinate prices. [555] It was but one of many
+heartless outrages practised by Canadian officials on this unhappy
+people.
+
+[552] Procès de Bigot, Cadet, et autres, Requête du Procureur-Général,
+19 Dec. 1761.
+
+[553] Procès de Bigot, Cadet, et autres, Mémoire pour Messire François
+Bigot.
+
+[554] Mémoire sur le Canada (Archives Nationales).
+
+[555] Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
+
+Cadet told the Intendant that the inhabitants were hoarding their grain,
+and got an order from him requiring them to sell it at a low fixed
+price, on pain of having it seized. Thus nearly the whole fell into his
+hands. Famine ensued; and he then sold it at a great profit, partly to
+the King, and partly to its first owners. Another of his devices was to
+sell provisions to the King which, being sent to the outlying forts,
+were falsely reported as consumed; on which he sold them to the King a
+second time. Not without reason does a writer of the time exclaim: "This
+is the land of abuses, ignorance, prejudice, and all that is monstrous
+in government. Peculation, monopoly, and plunder have become a
+bottomless abyss." [556]
+
+[556] Considérations sur l'État présent du Canada.
+
+The command of a fort brought such opportunities of making money that,
+according to Bougainville, the mere prospect of appointment to it for
+the usual term of three years was thought enough for a young man to
+marry upon. It was a favor in the gift of the Governor, who was accused
+of sharing the profits. These came partly from the fur-trade, and still
+more from frauds of various kinds. For example, a requisition was made
+for supplies as gifts to the Indians in order to keep them friendly or
+send them on the war-path; and their number was put many times above the
+truth in order to get more goods, which the commandant and his
+confederates then bartered for furs on their own account, instead of
+giving them as presents. "And," says a contemporary, addressing the
+Colonial Minister, "those who treat the savages so basely are officers
+of the King, depositaries of his authority, ministers of that Great
+Onontio whom they call their father." [557] At the post of Green Bay,
+the partisan officer Marin, and Rigaud, the Governor's brother, made in
+a short time a profit of three hundred and twelve thousand francs. [558]
+"Why is it," asks Bougainville, "that of all which the King sends to the
+Indians two thirds are stolen, and the rest sold to them instead of
+being given?" [559]
+
+[557] Considérations sur l'État présent du Canada.
+
+[558] Mémoire sur les Fraudes commises dans la Colonie. Bougainville,
+Mémoire sur l'État de la Nouvelle France.
+
+[559] Bougainville, Journal.
+
+The transportation of military stores gave another opportunity of
+plunder. The contractor would procure from the Governor or the local
+commandant an order requiring the inhabitants to serve him as boatmen,
+drivers, or porters, under a promise of exemption that year from duty as
+soldiers. This saved him his chief item of expense, and the profits of
+his contract rose in proportion.
+
+A contagion of knavery ran through the official life of the colony; and
+to resist it demanded no common share of moral robustness. The officers
+of the troops of the line were not much within its influence; but those
+of the militia and colony regulars, whether of French or Canadian birth,
+shared the corruption of the civil service. Seventeen of them, including
+six chevaliers of St. Louis and eight commandants of forts, were
+afterwards arraigned for fraud and malversation, though some of the
+number were acquitted. Bougainville gives the names of four other
+Canadian officers as honorable exceptions to the general
+demoralization,--Benoît, Repentigny, Lainé, and Le Borgne; "not enough,"
+he observes, "to save Sodom."
+
+Conspicuous among these military thieves was Major Péan, whose qualities
+as a soldier have been questioned, but who nevertheless had shown almost
+as much vigor in serving the King during the Ohio campaign of 1753 as he
+afterwards displayed effrontery in cheating him. "Le petit Péan" had
+married a young wife, Mademoiselle Desméloizes, Canadian like himself,
+well born, and famed for beauty, vivacity, and wit. Bigot, who was near
+sixty, became her accepted lover; and the fortune of Péan was made. His
+first success seems to have taken him by surprise. He had bought as a
+speculation a large quantity of grain, with money of the King lent him
+by the Intendant. Bigot, officially omnipotent, then issued an order
+raising the commodity to a price far above that paid by Péan, who thus
+made a profit of fifty thousand crowns. [560] A few years later his
+wealth was estimated at from two to four million francs. Madame Péan
+became a power in Canada, the dispenser of favors and offices; and all
+who sought opportunity to rob the King hastened to pay her their court.
+Péan, jilted by his own wife, made prosperous love to the wife of his
+partner, Penisseault; who, though the daughter of a Montreal tradesman,
+had the air of a woman of rank, and presided with dignity and grace at a
+hospitable board where were gathered the clerks of Cadet and other
+lesser lights of the administrative hierarchy. It was often honored by
+the presence of the Chevalier de Lévis, who, captivated by the charms of
+the hostess, condescended to a society which his friends condemned as
+unworthy of his station. He succeeded Péan in the graces of Madame
+Penisseault, and after the war took her with him to France; while the
+aggrieved husband found consolation in the wives of the small
+functionaries under his orders. [561]
+
+[560] Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. Mémoire sur les Fraudes, etc.
+Compare Pouchot, I. 8.
+
+[561] Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
+
+Another prominent name on the roll of knavery was that of Varin,
+commissary of marine, and Bigot's deputy at Montreal, a Frenchman of low
+degree, small in stature, sharp witted, indefatigable, conceited,
+arrogant, headstrong, capricious, and dissolute. Worthless as he was, he
+found a place in the Court circle of the Governor, and aspired to
+supplant Bigot in the intendancy. To this end, as well as to save
+himself from justice, he had the fatuity to turn informer and lay bare
+the sins of his confederates, though forced at the same time to betray
+his own. Among his comrades and allies may be mentioned Deschenaux, son
+of a shoemaker at Quebec, and secretary to the Intendant; Martel, King's
+storekeeper at Montreal; the humpback Maurin, who is not to be
+confounded with the partisan officer Marin; and Corpron, a clerk whom
+several tradesmen had dismissed for rascality, but who was now in the
+confidence of Cadet, to whom he made himself useful, and in whose
+service he grew rich.
+
+Canada was the prey of official jackals,--true lion's providers, since
+they helped to prepare a way for the imperial beast, who, roused at last
+from his lethargy, was gathering his strength to seize her for his own.
+Honesty could not be expected from a body of men clothed with arbitrary
+and ill-defined powers, ruling with absolute sway an unfortunate people
+who had no voice in their own destinies, and answerable only to an
+apathetic master three thousand miles away. Nor did the Canadian Church,
+though supreme, check the corruptions that sprang up and flourished
+under its eye. The Governor himself was charged with sharing the
+plunder; and though he was acquitted on his trial, it is certain that
+Bigot had him well in hand, that he was intimate with the chief robbers,
+and that they found help in his weak compliances and wilful blindness.
+He put his stepson, Le Verrier, in command at Michillimackinac, where,
+by fraud and the connivance of his stepfather, the young man made a
+fortune. [562] When the Colonial Minister berated the Intendant for
+maladministration, Vaudreuil became his advocate, and wrote thus in his
+defence: "I cannot conceal from you, Monseigneur, how deeply M. Bigot
+feels the suspicions expressed in your letters to him. He does not
+deserve them, I am sure. He is full of zeal for the service of the King;
+but as he is rich, or passes as such, and as he has merit, the
+ill-disposed are jealous, and insinuate that he has prospered at the
+expense of His Majesty. I am certain that it is not true, and that
+nobody is a better citizen than he, or has the King's interest more at
+heart." [563] For Cadet, the butcher's son, the Governor asked a patent
+of nobility as a reward for his services. [564] When Péan went to France
+in 1758, Vaudreuil wrote to the Colonial Minister: "I have great
+confidence in him. He knows the colony and its needs. You can trust all
+he says. He will explain everything in the best manner. I shall be
+extremely sensible to any kindness you may show him, and hope that when
+you know him you will like him as much as I do." [565]
+
+[562] Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
+
+[563] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 15 Oct. 1759.
+
+[564] Ibid., 7 Nov. 1759.
+
+[565] Ibid., 6 Août, 1758.
+
+Administrative corruption was not the only bane of Canada. Her financial
+condition was desperate. The ordinary circulating medium consisted of
+what was known as card money, and amounted to only a million of francs.
+This being insufficient, Bigot, like his predecessor Hocquart, issued
+promissory notes on his own authority, and made them legal tender. They
+were for sums from one franc to a hundred, and were called ordonnances.
+Their issue was blamed at Versailles as an encroachment on the royal
+prerogative, though they were recognized by the Ministry in view of the
+necessity of the case. Every autumn those who held them to any
+considerable amount might bring them to the colonial treasurer, who gave
+in return bills of exchange on the royal treasury in France. At first
+these bills were promptly paid; then delays took place, and the notes
+depreciated; till in 1759 the Ministry, aghast at the amount, refused
+payment, and the utmost dismay and confusion followed. [566]
+
+[566] Réflexions sommaires sur le Commerce qui s'est fait en Canada.
+État présent du Canada. Compare Stevenson, Card Money of Canada, in
+Transactions of the Historical Society of Quebec, 1873-1875.
+
+The vast jarring, discordant mechanism of corruption grew
+incontrollable; it seized upon Bigot, and dragged him, despite himself,
+into perils which his prudence would have shunned. He was becoming a
+victim to the rapacity of his own confederates, whom he dared not offend
+by refusing his connivance and his signature of frauds which became more
+and more recklessly audacious. He asked leave to retire from office, in
+the hope that his successor would bear the brunt of the ministerial
+displeasure. Péan had withdrawn already, and with the fruits of his
+plunder bought land in France, where he thought himself safe. But though
+the Intendant had long been an object of distrust, and had often been
+warned to mend his ways, [567] yet such was his energy, his executive
+power, and his fertility of resource, that in the crisis of the war it
+was hard to dispense with him. Neither his abilities, however, nor his
+strong connections in France, nor an ally whom he had secured in the
+bureau of the Colonial Minister himself, could avail him much longer;
+and the letters from Versailles became appalling in rebuke and menace.
+
+[567] Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, 1751-1758.
+
+"The ship 'Britannia,'" wrote the Minister, Berryer, "laden with goods
+such as are wanted in the colony, was captured by a privateer from
+St.-Malo, and brought into Quebec. You sold the whole cargo for eight
+hundred thousand francs. The purchasers made a profit of two millions.
+You bought back a part for the King at one million, or two hundred
+thousand more than the price for which you sold the whole. With conduct
+like this it is no wonder that the expenses of the colony become
+insupportable. The amount of your drafts on the treasury is frightful.
+The fortunes of your subordinates throw suspicion on your
+administration." And in another letter on the same day: "How could it
+happen that the small-pox among the Indians cost the King a million
+francs? What does this expense mean? Who is answerable for it? Is it the
+officers who command the posts, or is it the storekeepers? You give me
+no particulars. What has become of the immense quantity of provisions
+sent to Canada last year? I am forced to conclude that the King's stores
+are set down as consumed from the moment they arrive, and then sold to
+His Majesty at exorbitant prices. Thus the King buys stores in France,
+and then buys them again in Canada. I no longer wonder at the immense
+fortunes made in the colony." [568] Some months later the Minister
+writes: "You pay bills without examination, and then find an error in
+your accounts of three million six hundred thousand francs. In the
+letters from Canada I see nothing but incessant speculation in
+provisions and goods, which are sold to the King for ten times more than
+they cost in France. For the last time, I exhort you to give these
+things your serious attention, for they will not escape from mine."
+[569]
+
+[568] Le Ministre à Bigot, 19 Jan. 1759.
+
+[569] Ibid., 29 Août, 1759.
+
+"I write, Monsieur, to answer your last two letters, in which you tell
+me that instead of sixteen millions, your drafts on the treasury for
+1758 will reach twenty-four millions, and that this year they will rise
+to from thirty-one to thirty-three millions. It seems, then, that there
+are no bounds to the expenses of Canada. They double almost every year,
+while you seem to give yourself no concern except to get them paid. Do
+you suppose that I can advise the King to approve such an
+administration? or do you think that you can take the immense sum of
+thirty-three millions out of the royal treasury by merely assuring me
+that you have signed drafts for it? This, too, for expenses incurred
+irregularly, often needlessly, always wastefully; which make the fortune
+of everybody who has the least hand in them, and about which you know so
+little that after reporting them at sixteen millions, you find two
+months after that they will reach twenty-four. You are accused of having
+given the furnishing of provisions to one man, who, under the name of
+commissary-general, has set what prices he pleased; of buying for the
+King at second or third hand what you might have got from the producer
+at half the price; of having in this and other ways made the fortunes of
+persons connected with you; and of living in splendor in the midst of a
+public misery, which all the letters from the colony agree in ascribing
+to bad administration, and in charging M. de Vaudreuil with weakness in
+not preventing." [570]
+
+[570] Le Ministre à Bigotû, 29 Août, 1759 (second letter of this date).
+
+These drastic utterances seem to have been partly due to a letter
+written by Montcalm in cipher to the Maréchal de Belleisle, then
+minister of war. It painted the deplorable condition of Canada, and
+exposed without reserve the peculations and robberies of those intrusted
+with its interests. "It seems," said the General, "as if they were all
+hastening to make their fortunes before the loss of the colony; which
+many of them perhaps desire as a veil to their conduct." He gives among
+other cases that of Le Mercier, chief of Canadian artillery, who had
+come to Canada as a private soldier twenty years before, and had so
+prospered on fraudulent contracts that he would soon be worth nearly a
+million. "I have often," continues Montcalm, "spoken of these
+expenditures to M. de Vaudreuil and M. Bigot; and each throws the blame
+on the other." [571] And yet at the same time Vaudreuil was assuring the
+Minister that Bigot was without blame.
+
+[571] Montcalm au Ministre de la Guerre, Lettre confidentielle, 12
+Avril, 1759.
+
+Some two months before Montcalm wrote this letter, the Minister,
+Berryer, sent a despatch to the Governor and Intendant which filled them
+with ire and mortification. It ordered them to do nothing without
+consulting the general of the French regulars, not only in matters of
+war, but in all matters of administration touching the defence and
+preservation of the colony. A plainer proof of confidence on one hand
+and distrust on the other could not have been given. [572]
+
+[572] Le Ministre à Vaudreuil et Bigot, 20 Fév. 1759.
+
+One Querdisien-Tremais was sent from Bordeaux as an agent of Government
+to make investigation. He played the part of detective, wormed himself
+into the secrets of the confederates, and after six months of patient
+inquisition traced out four distinct combinations for public plunder.
+Explicit orders were now given to Bigot, who, seeing no other escape,
+broke with Cadet, and made him disgorge two millions of stolen money.
+The Commissary-General and his partners became so terrified that they
+afterwards gave up nearly seven millions more. [573] Stormy events
+followed, and the culprits found shelter for a time amid the tumults of
+war. Peculation did not cease, but a day of reckoning was at hand.
+
+[573] Procès de Bigot, Cadet, et autres, Mémoire pour François Bigot,
+3me partie.
+
+Note.--The printed documents of the trial of Bigot and the other
+peculators include the defence of Bigot, of which the first part
+occupies 303 quarto pages, and the second part 764. Among the other
+papers are the arguments for Péan, Varin, Saint-Blin, Boishébert,
+Martel, Joncaire-Chabert and several more, along with the elaborate
+Jugement rendu, the Requêtes du Procureur-Général, the Réponse aux
+Mémoires de M. Bigot et du Sieur Péan, etc., forming together five
+quarto volumes, all of which I have carefully examined. These are in the
+Library of Harvard University. There is another set, also of five
+volumes, in the Library of the Historical Society of Quebec, containing
+most of the papers just mentioned, and, bound with them, various others
+in manuscript, among which are documents in defence of Vaudreuil
+(printed in part), Estèbe, Corpron, Penisseault, Maurin, and Bréard. I
+have examined this collection also. The manuscript Ordres du Roy et
+Dépêches des Ministres, 1751-1760, as well as the letters of Vaudreuil,
+Bougainville, Daine, Doreil, and Montcalm throw much light on the
+maladministration of the time; as do many contemporary documents,
+notably those entitled Mémoire sur les Fraudes commises dans la Colonie,
+État présent du Canada, and Mémoire sur le Canada (Archives Nationales).
+The remarkable anonymous work printed by the Historical Society of
+Quebec under the title Mémoires sur le Canada depuis 1749 jusqu'à 1760,
+is full of curious matter concerning Bigot and his associates which
+squares well with other evidence. This is the source from which Smith,
+in his History of Canada (Quebec, 1815), drew most of his information on
+the subject. A manuscript which seems to be the original draft of this
+valuable document was preserved at the Bastile, and, with other papers,
+was thrown into the street when that castle was destroyed. They were
+gathered up, and afterwards bought by a Russian named Dubrowski, who
+carried them to St. Petersburg. Lord Dufferin, when minister there,
+procured a copy of the manuscript in question, which is now in the
+keeping of Abbé H. Verreau at Montreal, to whose kindness I owe the
+opportunity of examining it. In substance it differs little from the
+printed work, though the language and the arrangement often vary from
+it. The author, whoever he may have been, was deeply versed in Canadian
+affairs of the time, and though often caustic, is generally trustworthy.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+1757, 1758.
+
+PITT.
+
+Frederic of Prussia • The Coalition against him • His desperate Position
+• Rossbach • Leuthen • Reverses of England • Weakness of the Ministry •
+A Change • Pitt and Newcastle • Character of Pitt • Sources of his Power
+• His Aims • Louis XV. • Pompadour • She controls the Court, and directs
+the War • Gloomy Prospects of England • Disasters • The New Ministry •
+Inspiring Influence of Pitt • The Tide turns • British Victories •
+Pitt's Plans for America • Louisbourg, Ticonderoga, Duquesne • New
+Commanders • Naval Battles.
+
+The war kindled in the American forest was now raging in full
+conflagration among the kingdoms of Europe; and in the midst stood
+Frederic of Prussia, a veritable fire-king. He had learned through
+secret agents that he was to be attacked, and that the wrath of Maria
+Theresa with her two allies, Pompadour and the Empress of Russia, was
+soon to wreak itself upon him. With his usual prompt audacity he
+anticipated his enemies, marched into Saxony, and began the Continental
+war. His position seemed desperate. England, sundered from Austria, her
+old ally, had made common cause with him; but he had no other friend
+worth the counting. France, Russia, Austria, Sweden, Saxony, the
+collective Germanic Empire, and most of the smaller German States had
+joined hands for his ruin, eager to crush him and divide the spoil,
+parcelling out his dominions among themselves in advance by solemn
+mutual compact. Against the five millions of Prussia were arrayed
+populations of more than a hundred million. The little kingdom was open
+on all sides to attack, and her enemies were spurred on by the bitterest
+animosity. It was thought that one campaign would end the war. The war
+lasted seven years, and Prussia came out of it triumphant. Such a
+warrior as her indomitable king Europe has rarely seen. If the Seven
+Years War made the maritime and colonial greatness of England, it also
+raised Prussia to the rank of a first-class Power.
+
+Frederic began with a victory, routing the Austrians in one of the
+fiercest of recorded conflicts, the battle of Prague. Then in his turn
+he was beaten at Kolin. All seemed lost. The hosts of the coalition were
+rolling in upon him like a deluge. Surrounded by enemies, in the jaws of
+destruction, hoping for little but to die in battle, this strange hero
+solaced himself with an exhaustless effusion of bad verses, sometimes
+mournful, sometimes cynical, sometimes indignant, and sometimes
+breathing a dauntless resolution; till, when his hour came, he threw
+down his pen to achieve those feats of arms which stamp him one of the
+foremost soldiers of the world.
+
+The French and Imperialists, in overwhelming force, thought to crush him
+at Rossbach. He put them to shameful rout; and then, instead of bonfires
+and Te Deums, mocked at them in doggerel rhymes of amazing indecency.
+While he was beating the French, the Austrians took Silesia from him. He
+marched to recover it, found them strongly posted at Leuthen, eighty
+thousand men against thirty thousand, and without hesitation resolved to
+attack them. Never was he more heroic than on the eve of this, his
+crowning triumph. "The hour is at hand," he said to his generals. "I
+mean, in spite of the rules of military art, to attack Prince Karl's
+army, which is nearly thrice our own. This risk I must run, or all is
+lost. We must beat him or die, all of us, before his batteries." He
+burst unawares upon the Austrian right, and rolled their whole host
+together, corps upon corps, in a tumult of irretrievable ruin.
+
+While her great ally was reaping a full harvest of laurels, England,
+dragged into the Continental war because that apple of discord, Hanover,
+belonged to her King, found little but humiliation. Minorca was wrested
+from her, and the Ministry had an innocent man shot to avert from
+themselves the popular indignation; while the same Ministry, scared by a
+phantom of invasion, brought over German troops to defend British soil.
+But now an event took place pregnant with glorious consequence. The
+reins of power fell into the hands of William Pitt. He had already held
+them for a brief space, forced into office at the end of 1756 by popular
+clamor, in spite of the Whig leaders and against the wishes of the King.
+But the place was untenable. Newcastle's Parliament would not support
+him; the Duke of Cumberland opposed him; the King hated him; and in
+April, 1757, he was dismissed. Then ensued eleven weeks of bickering and
+dispute, during which, in the midst of a great war, England was left
+without a government. It became clear that none was possible without
+Pitt; and none with him could be permanent and strong unless joined with
+those influences which had thus far controlled the majorities of
+Parliament. Therefore an extraordinary union was brought about; Lord
+Chesterfield acting as go-between to reconcile the ill-assorted pair.
+One of them brought to the alliance the confidence and support of the
+people; the other, Court management, borough interest, and parliamentary
+connections. Newcastle was made First Lord of the Treasury, and Pitt,
+the old enemy who had repeatedly browbeat and ridiculed him, became
+Secretary of State, with the lead of the House of Commons and full
+control of the war and foreign affairs. It was a partnership of magpie
+and eagle. The dirty work of government, intrigue, bribery, and all the
+patronage that did not affect the war, fell to the share of the old
+politician. If Pitt could appoint generals, admirals, and ambassadors,
+Newcastle was welcome to the rest. "I will borrow the Duke's majorities
+to carry on the government," said the new secretary; and with the
+audacious self-confidence that was one of his traits, he told the Duke
+of Devonshire, "I am sure that I can save this country, and that nobody
+else can." England hailed with one acclaim the undaunted leader who
+asked for no reward but the honor of serving her. The hour had found the
+man. For the next four years this imposing figure towers supreme in
+British history.
+
+He had glaring faults, some of them of a sort not to have been expected
+in him. Vanity, the common weakness of small minds, was the most
+disfiguring foible of this great one. He had not the simplicity which
+becomes greatness so well. He could give himself theatrical airs, strike
+attitudes, and dart stage lightnings from his eyes; yet he was
+formidable even in his affectations. Behind his great intellectual
+powers lay a burning enthusiasm, a force of passion and fierce intensity
+of will, that gave redoubled impetus to the fiery shafts of his
+eloquence; and the haughty and masterful nature of the man had its share
+in the ascendency which he long held over Parliament. He would blast the
+labored argument of an adversary by a look of scorn or a contemptuous
+wave of the hand.
+
+The Great Commoner was not a man of the people in the popular sense of
+that hackneyed phrase. Though himself poor, being a younger son, he came
+of a rich and influential family; he was patrician at heart; both his
+faults and his virtues, his proud incorruptibility and passionate,
+domineering patriotism, bore the patrician stamp. Yet he loved liberty
+and he loved the people, because they were the English people. The
+effusive humanitarianism of to-day had no part in him, and the democracy
+of to-day would detest him. Yet to the middle-class England of his own
+time, that unenfranchised England which had little representation in
+Parliament, he was a voice, an inspiration, and a tower of strength. He
+would not flatter the people; but, turning with contempt from the tricks
+and devices of official politics, he threw himself with a confidence
+that never wavered on their patriotism and public spirit. They answered
+him with a boundless trust, asked but to follow his lead, gave him
+without stint their money and their blood, loved him for his domestic
+virtues and his disinterestedness, believed him even in his
+self-contradiction, and idolized him even in his bursts of arrogant
+passion. It was he who waked England from her lethargy, shook off the
+spell that Newcastle and his fellow-enchanters had cast over her, and
+taught her to know herself again. A heart that beat in unison with all
+that was British found responsive throbs in every corner of the vast
+empire that through him was to become more vast. With the instinct of
+his fervid patriotism he would join all its far-extended members into
+one, not by vain assertions of parliamentary supremacy, but by bonds of
+sympathy and ties of a common freedom and a common cause.
+
+The passion for power and glory subdued in him all the sordid parts of
+humanity, and he made the power and glory of England one with his own.
+He could change front through resentment or through policy; but in
+whatever path he moved, his objects were the same: not to curb the power
+of France in America, but to annihilate it; crush her navy, cripple her
+foreign trade, ruin her in India, in Africa, and wherever else, east or
+west, she had found foothold; gain for England the mastery of the seas,
+open to her the great highways of the globe, make her supreme in
+commerce and colonization; and while limiting the activities of her
+rival to the European continent, give to her the whole world for a
+sphere.
+
+To this British Roman was opposed the pampered Sardanapalus of
+Versailles, with the silken favorite who by calculated adultery had
+bought the power to ruin France. The Marquise de Pompadour, who began
+life as Jeanne Poisson,--Jane Fish,--daughter of the head clerk of a
+banking house, who then became wife of a rich financier, and then, as
+mistress of the King, rose to a pinnacle of gilded ignominy, chose this
+time to turn out of office the two ministers who had shown most ability
+and force,--Argenson, head of the department of war, and Machault, head
+of the marine and colonies; the one because he was not subservient to
+her will, and the other because he had unwittingly touched the self-love
+of her royal paramour. She aspired to a share in the conduct of the war,
+and not only made and unmade ministers and generals, but discussed
+campaigns and battles with them, while they listened to her prating with
+a show of obsequious respect, since to lose her favor was to risk losing
+all. A few months later, when blows fell heavy and fast, she turned a
+deaf ear to representations of financial straits and military disasters,
+played the heroine, affected a greatness of soul superior to misfortune,
+and in her perfumed boudoir varied her tiresome graces by posing as a
+Roman matron. In fact she never wavered in her spite against Frederic,
+and her fortitude was perfect in bearing the sufferings of others and
+defying dangers that could not touch her.
+
+When Pitt took office it was not over France, but over England that the
+clouds hung dense and black. Her prospects were of the gloomiest.
+"Whoever is in or whoever is out," wrote Chesterfield, "I am sure we are
+undone both at home and abroad: at home by our increasing debt and
+expenses; abroad by our ill-luck and incapacity. We are no longer a
+nation." And his despondency was shared by many at the beginning of the
+most triumphant Administration in British history. The shuffling
+weakness of his predecessors had left Pitt a heritage of tribulation.
+From America came news of Loudon's manifold failures; from Germany that
+of the miscarriage of the Duke of Cumberland, who, at the head of an
+army of Germans in British pay, had been forced to sign the convention
+of Kloster-Zeven, by which he promised to disband them. To these
+disasters was added a third, of which the new Government alone had to
+bear the burden. At the end of summer Pitt sent a great expedition to
+attack Rochefort; the military and naval commanders disagreed, and the
+consequence was failure. There was no light except from far-off India,
+where Clive won the great victory of Plassey, avenged the Black Hole of
+Calcutta, and prepared the ruin of the French power and the undisputed
+ascendency of England.
+
+If the English had small cause as yet to rejoice in their own successes,
+they found comfort in those of their Prussian allies. The rout of the
+French at Rossbach and of the Austrians at Leuthen spread joy through
+their island. More than this, they felt that they had found at last a
+leader after their own heart; and the consciousness regenerated them.
+For the paltering imbecility of the old Ministry they had the
+unconquerable courage, the iron purpose, the unwavering faith, the
+inextinguishable hope, of the new one. "England has long been in labor,"
+said Frederic of Prussia, "and at last she has brought forth a man." It
+was not only that instead of weak commanders Pitt gave her strong ones;
+the same men who had served her feebly under the blight of the Newcastle
+Administration served her manfully and well under his robust impulsion.
+"Nobody ever entered his closet," said Colonel Barré, "who did not come
+out of it a braver man." That inspiration was felt wherever the British
+flag waved. Zeal awakened with the assurance that conspicuous merit was
+sure of its reward, and that no officer who did his duty would now be
+made a sacrifice, like Admiral Byng, to appease public indignation at
+ministerial failures. As Nature, languishing in chill vapors and dull
+smothering fogs, revives at the touch of the sun, so did England spring
+into fresh life under the kindling influence of one great man.
+
+With the opening of the year 1758 her course of Continental victories
+began. The Duke of Cumberland, the King's son, was recalled in disgrace,
+and a general of another stamp, Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, was
+placed in command of the Germans in British pay, with the contingent of
+English troops now added to them. The French, too, changed commanders.
+The Duke of Richelieu, a dissolute old beau, returned to Paris to spend
+in heartless gallantries the wealth he had gained by plunder; and a
+young soldier-churchman, the Comte de Clermont, took his place. Prince
+Ferdinand pushed him hard with an inferior force, drove him out of
+Hanover, and captured eleven thousand of his soldiers. Clermont was
+recalled, and was succeeded by Contades, another incapable. One of his
+subordinates won for him the battle of Lutterberg; but the generalship
+of Ferdinand made it a barren victory, and the campaign remained a
+success for the English. They made descents on the French coasts,
+captured St.-Servan, a suburb of St.-Malo, and burned three ships of the
+line, twenty-four privateers, and sixty merchantmen; then entered
+Cherbourg, destroyed the forts, carried off or spiked the cannon, and
+burned twenty-seven vessels,--a success partially offset by a failure on
+the coast of Brittany, where they were repulsed with some loss. In
+Africa they drove the French from the Guinea coast, and seized their
+establishment at Senegal.
+
+It was towards America that Pitt turned his heartiest efforts. His first
+aim was to take Louisbourg, as a step towards taking Quebec; then
+Ticonderoga, that thorn in the side of the northern colonies; and lastly
+Fort Duquesne, the Key of the Great West. He recalled Loudon, for whom
+he had a fierce contempt; but there were influences which he could not
+disregard, and Major-General Abercromby, who was next in order of rank,
+an indifferent soldier, though a veteran in years, was allowed to
+succeed him, and lead in person the attack on Ticonderoga. [574] Pitt
+hoped that Brigadier Lord Howe, an admirable officer, who was joined
+with Abercromby, would be the real commander, and make amends for all
+shortcomings of his chief. To command the Louisbourg expedition, Colonel
+Jeffrey Amherst was recalled from the German war, and made at one leap a
+major-general. [575] He was energetic and resolute, somewhat cautious
+and slow, but with a bulldog tenacity of grip. Under him were three
+brigadiers, Whitmore, Lawrence, and Wolfe, of whom the youngest is the
+most noteworthy. In the luckless Rochefort expedition, Colonel James
+Wolfe was conspicuous by a dashing gallantry that did not escape the eye
+of Pitt, always on the watch for men to do his work. The young officer
+was ardent, headlong, void of fear, often rash, almost fanatical in his
+devotion to military duty, and reckless of life when the glory of
+England or his own was at stake. The third expedition, that against Fort
+Duquesne, was given to Brigadier John Forbes, whose qualities well
+fitted him for the task.
+
+[574] Order, War Office, 19 Dec. 1757.
+
+[575] Pitt to Abercromby, 27 Jan. 1758. Instructions for our Trusty and
+Well-beloved Jeffrey Amherst, Esq., Major-General of our Forces in North
+America, 3 March, 1758.
+
+During his first short term of office, Pitt had given a new species of
+troops to the British army. These were the Scotch Highlanders, who had
+risen against the House of Hanover in 1745, and would rise against it
+again should France accomplish her favorite scheme of throwing a force
+into Scotland to excite another insurrection for the Stuarts. But they
+would be useful to fight the French abroad, though dangerous as their
+possible allies at home; and two regiments of them were now ordered to
+America.
+
+Delay had been the ruin of the last year's attempt against Louisbourg.
+This time preparation was urged on apace; and before the end of winter
+two fleets had put to sea: one, under Admiral Boscawen, was destined for
+Louisbourg; while the other, under Admiral Osborn, sailed for the
+Mediterranean to intercept the French fleet of Admiral La Clue, who was
+about to sail from Toulon for America. Osborn, cruising between the
+coasts of Spain and Africa, barred the way to the Straits of Gibraltar,
+and kept his enemy imprisoned. La Clue made no attempt to force a
+passage; but several combats of detached ships took place, one of which
+is too remarkable to pass unnoticed. Captain Gardiner of the "Monmouth,"
+a ship of four hundred and seventy men and sixty-four guns, engaged the
+French ship "Foudroyant," carrying a thousand men and eighty-four guns
+of heavier metal than those of the Englishman. Gardiner had lately been
+reproved by Anson, First Lord of the Admiralty, for some alleged
+misconduct or shortcoming, and he thought of nothing but retrieving his
+honor. "We must take her," he said to his crew as the "Foudroyant" hove
+in sight. "She looks more than a match for us, but I will not quit her
+while this ship can swim or I have a soul left alive;" and the sailors
+answered with cheers. The fight was long and furious. Gardiner was
+killed by a musket shot, begging his first lieutenant with his dying
+breath not to haul down his flag. The lieutenant nailed it to the mast.
+At length the "Foudroyant" ceased from thundering, struck her colors,
+and was carried a prize to England. [576]
+
+[576] Entick, III. 56-60.
+
+The typical British naval officer of that time was a rugged sea-dog, a
+tough and stubborn fighter, though no more so than the politer
+generations that followed, at home on the quarter-deck, but no ornament
+to the drawing-room, by reason of what his contemporary, Entick, the
+strenuous chronicler of the war, calls, not unapprovingly, "the ferocity
+of his manners." While Osborn held La Clue imprisoned at Toulon, Sir
+Edward Hawke, worthy leader of such men, sailed with seven ships of the
+line and three frigates to intercept a French squadron from Rochefort
+convoying a fleet of transports with troops for America. The French
+ships cut their cables and ran for the shore, where most of them
+stranded in the mud, and some threw cannon and munitions overboard to
+float themselves. The expedition was broken up. Of the many ships fitted
+out this year for the succor of Canada and Louisbourg, comparatively few
+reached their destination, and these for the most part singly or by twos
+and threes.
+
+Meanwhile Admiral Boscawen with his fleet bore away for Halifax, the
+place of rendezvous, and Amherst, in the ship "Dublin," followed in his
+wake.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+1758.
+
+LOUISBOURG.
+
+Condition of the Fortress • Arrival of the English • Gallantry of Wolfe
+• The English Camp • The Siege begun • Progress of the Besiegers •
+Sallies of the French • Madame Drucour • Courtesies of War • French
+Ships destroyed • Conflagration • Fury of the Bombardment • Exploit of
+English Sailors • The End near • The White Flag • Surrender • Reception
+of the News in England and America • Wolfe not satisfied • His Letters
+to Amherst • He destroys Gaspé • Returns to England.
+
+The stormy coast of Cape Breton is indented by a small land-locked bay,
+between which and the ocean lies a tongue of land dotted with a few
+grazing sheep, and intersected by rows of stone that mark more or less
+distinctly the lines of what once were streets. Green mounds and
+embankments of earth enclose the whole space, and beneath the highest of
+them yawn arches and caverns of ancient masonry. This grassy solitude
+was once the "Dunkirk of America;" the vaulted caverns where the sheep
+find shelter from the rain were casemates where terrified women sought
+refuge from storms of shot and shell, and the shapeless green mounds
+were citadel, bastion, rampart, and glacis. Here stood Louisbourg; and
+not all the efforts of its conquerors, nor all the havoc of succeeding
+times, have availed to efface it. Men in hundreds toiled for months with
+lever, spade, and gunpowder in the work of destruction, and for more
+than a century it has served as a stone quarry; but the remains of its
+vast defences still tell their tale of human valor and human woe.
+
+Stand on the mounds that were once the King's Bastion. The glistening
+sea spreads eastward three thousand miles, and its waves meet their
+first rebuff against this iron coast. Lighthouse Point is white with
+foam; jets of spray spout from the rocks of Goat Island; mist curls in
+clouds from the seething surf that lashes the crags of Black Point, and
+the sea boils like a caldron among the reefs by the harbor's mouth; but
+on the calm water within, the small fishing vessels rest tranquil at
+their moorings. Beyond lies a hamlet of fishermen by the edge of the
+water, and a few scattered dwellings dot the rough hills, bristled with
+stunted firs, that gird the quiet basin; while close at hand, within the
+precinct of the vanished fortress, stand two small farmhouses. All else
+is a solitude of ocean, rock, marsh, and forest. [577]
+
+[577] Louisbourg is described as I saw it ten days before writing the
+above, after an easterly gale.
+
+At the beginning of June, 1758, the place wore another aspect. Since the
+peace of Aix-la-Chapelle vast sums had been spent in repairing and
+strengthening it; and Louisbourg was the strongest fortress in French or
+British America. Nevertheless it had its weaknesses. The original plan
+of the works had not been fully carried out; and owing, it is said, to
+the bad quality of the mortar, the masonry of the ramparts was in so
+poor a condition that it had been replaced in some parts with fascines.
+The circuit of the fortifications was more than a mile and a half, and
+the town contained about four thousand inhabitants. The best buildings
+in it were the convent, the hospital, the King's storehouses, and the
+chapel and governor's quarters, which were under the same roof. Of the
+private houses, only seven or eight were of stone, the rest being humble
+wooden structures, suited to a population of fishermen. The garrison
+consisted of the battalions of Artois, Bourgogne, Cambis, and
+Volontaires Étrangers, with two companies of artillery and twenty-four
+of colony troops from Canada,--in all three thousand and eighty regular
+troops, besides officers; [578] and to these were added a body of armed
+inhabitants and a band of Indians. In the harbor were five ships of the
+line and seven frigates, carrying in all five hundred and forty-four
+guns and about three thousand men. [579] Two hundred and nineteen cannon
+and seventeen mortars were mounted on the walls and outworks. [579] Of
+these last the most important were the Grand Battery on the shore of the
+harbor opposite its mouth, and the Island Battery on the rocky islet at
+its entrance.
+
+[578] Journal du Siége de Louisbourg. Twenty-nine hundred regulars were
+able to bear arms when the siege began. Houllière, Commandant des
+Troupes, au Ministre, 6 Août, 1758.
+
+[579] Le Prudent, 74 guns; Entreprenant, 74; Capricieux, 64; Célèbre,
+64; Bienfaisant, 64; Apollon, 50; Chèvre, 22; Biche, 18; Fidèle, 22;
+Écho, 26; Aréthuse, 36; Comète, 30. The Bizarre, 64, sailed for France
+on the eighth of June, and was followed by the Comète.
+
+[580] État d'Artillerie, appended to the Journal of Drucour. There were
+also forty-four cannon in reserve.
+
+The strongest front of the works was on the land side, along the base of
+the peninsular triangle on which the town stood. This front, about
+twelve hundred yards in extent, reached from the sea on the left to the
+harbor on the right, and consisted of four bastions with their
+connecting curtains, the Princess's, the Queen's, the King's, and the
+Dauphin's. The King's Bastion formed part of the citadel. The glacis
+before it sloped down to an extensive marsh, which, with an adjacent
+pond, completely protected this part of the line. On the right, however,
+towards the harbor, the ground was high enough to offer advantages to an
+enemy, as was also the case, to a less degree, on the left, towards the
+sea. The best defence of Louisbourg was the craggy shore, that, for
+leagues on either hand, was accessible only at a few points, and even
+there with difficulty. All these points were vigilantly watched.
+
+There had been signs of the enemy from the first opening of spring. In
+the intervals of fog, rain, and snow-squalls, sails were seen hovering
+on the distant sea; and during the latter part of May a squadron of nine
+ships cruised off the mouth of the harbor, appearing and disappearing,
+sometimes driven away by gales, sometimes lost in fogs, and sometimes
+approaching to within cannon-shot of the batteries. Their object was to
+blockade the port,--in which they failed; for French ships had come in
+at intervals, till, as we have seen, twelve of them lay safe anchored in
+the harbor, with more than a year's supply of provisions for the
+garrison.
+
+At length, on the first of June, the southeastern horizon was white with
+a cloud of canvas. The long-expected crisis was come. Drucour, the
+governor, sent two thousand regulars, with about a thousand militia and
+Indians, to guard the various landing-places; and the rest, aided by the
+sailors, remained to hold the town. [581]
+
+[581] Rapport de Grucour. Journal du Siége.
+
+At the end of May Admiral Boscawen was at Halifax with twenty-three
+ships of the line, eighteen frigates and fire-ships, and a fleet of
+transports, on board of which were eleven thousand and six hundred
+soldiers, all regulars, except five hundred provincial rangers. [582]
+Amherst had not yet arrived, and on the twenty-eighth, Boscawen, in
+pursuance of his orders and to prevent loss of time, put to sea without
+him; but scarcely had the fleet sailed out of Halifax, when they met the
+ship that bore the expected general. Amherst took command of the troops;
+and the expedition held its way till the second of June, when they saw
+the rocky shore-line of Cape Breton, and descried the masts of the
+French squadron in the harbor of Louisbourg.
+
+[582] Of this force, according to Mante, only 9,900 were fit for duty.
+The table printed by Knox (I. 127) shows a total of 11,112, besides
+officers, artillery, and rangers. The Authentic Account of the Reduction
+of Louisbourg, by a Spectator, puts the force at 11,326 men, besides
+officers. Entick makes the whole 11,936.
+
+Boscawen sailed into Gabarus Bay. The sea was rough; but in the
+afternoon Amherst, Lawrence, and Wolfe, with a number of naval officers,
+reconnoitred the shore in boats, coasting it for miles, and approaching
+it as near as the French batteries would permit. The rocks were white
+with surf, and every accessible point was strongly guarded. Boscawen saw
+little chance of success. He sent for his captains, and consulted them
+separately. They thought, like him, that it would be rash to attempt a
+landing, and proposed a council of war. One of them alone, an old sea
+officer named Ferguson, advised his commander to take the responsibility
+himself, hold no council, and make the attempt at every risk. Boscawen
+took his advice, and declared that he would not leave Gabarus Bay till
+he had fulfilled his instructions and set the troops on shore. [583]
+
+[583] Entick, III. 224.
+
+West of Louisbourg there were three accessible places, Freshwater Cove,
+four miles from the town, and Flat Point, and White Point, which were
+nearer, the last being within a mile of the fortifications. East of the
+town there was an inlet called Lorambec, also available for landing. In
+order to distract the attention of the enemy, it was resolved to
+threaten all these places, and to form the troops into three divisions,
+two of which, under Lawrence and Whitmore, were to advance towards Flat
+Point and White Point, while a detached regiment was to make a feint at
+Lorambec. Wolfe, with the third division, was to make the real attack
+and try to force a landing at Freshwater Cove, which, as it proved, was
+the most strongly defended of all. When on shore Wolfe was an habitual
+invalid, and when at sea every heave of the ship made him wretched; but
+his ardor was unquenchable. Before leaving England he wrote to a friend:
+"Being of the profession of arms, I would seek all occasions to serve;
+and therefore have thrown myself in the way of the American war, though
+I know that the very passage threatens my life, and that my constitution
+must be utterly ruined and undone."
+
+On the next day, the third, the surf was so high that nothing could be
+attempted. On the fourth there was a thick fog and a gale. The frigate
+"Trent" struck on a rock, and some of the transports were near being
+stranded. On the fifth there was another fog and a raging surf. On the
+sixth there was fog, with rain in the morning and better weather towards
+noon, whereupon the signal was made and the troops entered the boats;
+but the sea rose again, and they were ordered back to the ships. On the
+seventh more fog and more surf till night, when the sea grew calmer, and
+orders were given for another attempt. At two in the morning of the
+eighth the troops were in the boats again. At daybreak the frigates of
+the squadron, anchoring before each point of real or pretended attack,
+opened a fierce cannonade on the French intrenchments; and, a quarter of
+an hour after, the three divisions rowed towards the shore. That of the
+left, under Wolfe, consisted of four companies of grenadiers, with the
+light infantry and New England rangers, followed and supported by
+Fraser's Highlanders and eight more companies of grenadiers. They pulled
+for Freshwater Cove. Here there was a crescent-shaped beach, a quarter
+of a mile long, with rocks at each end. On the shore above, about a
+thousand Frenchmen, under Lieutenant-Colonel de Saint-Julien, lay behind
+entrenchments covered in front by spruce and fir trees, felled and laid
+on the ground with the tops outward. [584] Eight cannon and swivels were
+planted to sweep every part of the beach and its approaches, and these
+pieces were masked by young evergreens stuck in the ground before them.
+
+[584] Drucour reports 985 soldiers as stationed here under Saint-Julien;
+there were also some Indians. Freshwater Cove, otherwise Kennington
+Cove, was called La Cormorandière by the French.
+
+The English were allowed to come within close range unmolested. Then the
+batteries opened, and a deadly storm of grape and musketry was poured
+upon the boats. It was clear in an instant that to advance farther would
+be destruction; and Wolfe waved his hand as a signal to sheer off. At
+some distance on the right, and little exposed to the fire, were three
+boats of light infantry under Lieutenants Hopkins and Brown and Ensign
+Grant; who, mistaking the signal or wilfully misinterpreting it, made
+directly for the shore before them. It was a few rods east of the beach;
+a craggy coast and a strand strewn with rocks and lashed with breakers,
+but sheltered from the cannon by a small projecting point. The three
+officers leaped ashore, followed by their men. Wolfe saw the movement,
+and hastened to support it. The boat of Major Scott, who commanded the
+light infantry and rangers, next came up, and was stove in an instant;
+but Scott gained the shore, climbed the crags, and found himself with
+ten men in front of some seventy French and Indians. Half his followers
+were killed and wounded, and three bullets were shot through his
+clothes; but with admirable gallantry he held his ground till others
+came to his aid. [585] The remaining boats now reached the landing. Many
+were stove among the rocks, and others were overset; some of the men
+were dragged back by the surf and drowned; some lost their muskets, and
+were drenched to the skin: but the greater part got safe ashore. Among
+the foremost was seen the tall, attenuated form of Brigadier Wolfe,
+armed with nothing but a cane, as he leaped into the surf and climbed
+the crags with his soldiers. As they reached the top they formed in
+compact order, and attacked and carried with the bayonet the nearest
+French battery, a few rods distant. The division of Lawrence soon came
+up; and as the attention of the enemy was now distracted, they made
+their landing with little opposition at the farther end of the beach,
+whither they were followed by Amherst himself. The French, attacked on
+right and left, and fearing, with good reason, that they would be cut
+off from the town, abandoned all their cannon and fled into the woods.
+About seventy of them were captured and fifty killed. The rest, circling
+among the hills and around the marshes, made their way to Louisbourg,
+and those at the intermediate posts joined their flight. The English
+followed through a matted growth of firs till they reached the cleared
+ground; when the cannon, opening on them from the ramparts, stopped the
+pursuit. The first move of the great game was played and won. [586]
+
+[585] Pichon, Mémoires du Cap-Breton, 284.
+
+[586] Journal of Amherst, in Mante, 117. Amherst to Pitt, 11 June, 1758.
+Authentic Account of the Reduction of Louisbourg, by a Spectator, 11.
+General Orders of Amherst, 3-7 June, 1759. Letter from an Officer, in
+Knox, I. 191; Entick, III. 225. The French accounts generally agree in
+essentials with the English. The English lost one hundred and nine,
+killed, wounded, and drowned.
+
+Amherst made his camp just beyond range of the French cannon, and Flat
+Point Cove was chosen as the landing-place of guns and stores. Clearing
+the ground, making roads, and pitching tents filled the rest of the day.
+At night there was a glare of flames from the direction of the town. The
+French had abandoned the Grand Battery after setting fire to the
+buildings in it and to the houses and fish-stages along the shore of the
+harbor. During the following days stores were landed as fast as the surf
+would permit: but the task was so difficult that from first to last more
+than a hundred boats were stove in accomplishing it; and such was the
+violence of the waves that none of the siege-guns could be got ashore
+till the eighteenth. The camp extended two miles along a stream that
+flowed down to the Cove among the low, woody hills that curved around
+the town and harbor. Redoubts were made to protect its front, and
+blockhouses to guard its left and rear from the bands of Acadians known
+to be hovering in the woods.
+
+Wolfe, with twelve hundred men, made his way six or seven miles round
+the harbor, took possession of the battery at Lighthouse Point which the
+French had abandoned, planted guns and mortars, and opened fire on the
+Island Battery that guarded the entrance. Other guns were placed at
+different points along the shore, and soon opened on the French ships.
+The ships and batteries replied. The artillery fight raged night and
+day; till on the twenty-fifth the island guns were dismounted and
+silenced. Wolfe then strengthened his posts, secured his communications,
+and returned to the main army in front of the town.
+
+Amherst had reconnoitred the ground and chosen a hillock at the edge of
+the marsh, less than half a mile from the ramparts, as the point for
+opening his trenches. A road with an epaulement to protect it must first
+be made to the spot; and as the way was over a tract of deep mud covered
+with water-weeds and moss, the labor was prodigious. A thousand men
+worked at it day and night under the fire of the town and ships.
+
+When the French looked landward from their ramparts they could see
+scarcely a sign of the impending storm. Behind them Wolfe's cannon were
+playing busily from Lighthouse Point and the heights around the harbor;
+but, before them, the broad flat marsh and the low hills seemed almost a
+solitude. Two miles distant, they could descry some of the English
+tents; but the greater part were hidden by the inequalities of the
+ground. On the right, a prolongation of the harbor reached nearly half a 
+mile beyond the town, ending in a small lagoon formed by a projecting
+sandbar, and known as the Barachois. Near this bar lay moored the little
+frigate "Aréthuse," under a gallant officer named Vauquelin. Her
+position was a perilous one; but so long as she could maintain it she
+could sweep with her fire the ground before the works, and seriously
+impede the operations of the enemy. The other naval captains were less
+venturous; and when the English landed, they wanted to leave the harbor
+and save their ships. Drucour insisted that they should stay to aid the
+defence, and they complied; but soon left their moorings and anchored as
+close as possible under the guns of the town, in order to escape the
+fire of Wolfe's batteries. Hence there was great murmuring among the
+military officers, who would have had them engage the hostile guns at
+short range. The frigate "Écho," under cover of a fog, had been sent to
+Quebec for aid; but she was chased and captured; and, a day or two
+after, the French saw her pass the mouth of the harbor with an English
+flag at her mast-head.
+
+When Wolfe had silenced the Island Battery, a new and imminent danger
+threatened Louisbourg. Boscawen might enter the harbor, overpower the
+French naval force, and cannonade the town on its weakest side.
+Therefore Drucour resolved to sink four large ships at the entrance; and
+on a dark and foggy night this was successfully accomplished. Two more
+vessels were afterwards sunk, and the harbor was then thought safe.
+
+The English had at last finished their preparations, and were urging on
+the siege with determined vigor. The landward view was a solitude no
+longer. They could be seen in multitudes piling earth and fascines
+beyond the hillock at the edge of the marsh. On the twenty-fifth they
+occupied the hillock itself, and fortified themselves there under a
+shower of bombs. Then they threw up earth on the right, and pushed their
+approaches towards the Barachois, in spite of a hot fire from the
+frigate "Aréthuse." Next they appeared on the left towards the sea about
+a third of a mile from the Princess's Bastion. It was Wolfe, with a
+strong detachment, throwing up a redoubt and opening an entrenchment.
+Late on the night of the ninth of July six hundred French troops sallied
+to interrupt the work. The English grenadiers in the trenches fought
+stubbornly with bayonet and sword, but were forced back to the second
+line, where a desperate conflict in the dark took place; and after
+severe loss on both sides the French were driven back. Some days before,
+there had been another sortie on the opposite side, near the Barachois,
+resulting in a repulse of the French and the seizure by Wolfe of a more
+advanced position.
+
+Various courtesies were exchanged between the two commanders. Drucour,
+on occasion of a flag of truce, wrote to Amherst that there was a
+surgeon of uncommon skill in Louisbourg, whose services were at the
+command of any English officer who might need them. Amherst on his part
+sent to his enemy letters and messages from wounded Frenchmen in his
+hands, adding his compliments to Madame Drucour, with an expression of
+regret for the disquiet to which she was exposed, begging her at the
+same time to accept a gift of pineapples from the West Indies. She
+returned his courtesy by sending him a basket of wine; after which
+amenities the cannon roared again. Madame Drucour was a woman of heroic
+spirit. Every day she was on the ramparts, where her presence roused the
+soldiers to enthusiasm; and every day with her own hand she fired three
+cannon to encourage them.
+
+The English lines grew closer and closer, and their fire more and more
+destructive. Desgouttes, the naval commander, withdrew the "Aréthuse"
+from her exposed position, where her fire had greatly annoyed the
+besiegers. The shot-holes in her sides were plugged up, and in the dark
+night of the fourteenth of July she was towed through the obstructions
+in the mouth of the harbor, and sent to France to report the situation
+of Louisbourg. More fortunate than her predecessor, she escaped the
+English in a fog. Only five vessels now remained afloat in the harbor,
+and these were feebly manned, as the greater part of their officers and
+crews had come ashore, to the number of two thousand, lodging under
+tents in the town, amid the scarcely suppressed murmurs of the army
+officers.
+
+On the eighth of July news came that the partisan Boishébert was
+approaching with four hundred Acadians, Canadians, and Micmacs to attack
+the English outposts and detachments. He did little or nothing, however,
+besides capturing a few stragglers. On the sixteenth, early in the
+evening, a party of English, led by Wolfe, dashed forward, drove off a
+band of French volunteers, seized a rising ground called
+Hauteur-de-la-Potence, or Gallows Hill, and began to entrench themselves
+scarcely three hundred yards from the Dauphin's Bastion. The town opened
+on them furiously with grape-shot; but in the intervals of the firing
+the sound of their picks and spades could plainly be heard. In the
+morning they were seen throwing up earth like moles as they burrowed
+their way forward; and on the twenty-first they opened another parallel,
+within two hundred yards of the rampart. Still their sappers pushed on.
+Every day they had more guns in position, and on right and left their
+fire grew hotter. Their pickets made a lodgment along the foot of the
+glacis, and fired up the slope at the French in the covered way.
+
+The twenty-first was a memorable day. In the afternoon a bomb fell on
+the ship "Célèbre" and set her on fire. An explosion followed. The few
+men on board could not save her, and she drifted from her moorings. The
+wind blew the flames into the rigging of the "Entreprenant," and then
+into that of the "Capricieux." At night all three were in full blaze;
+for when the fire broke out the English batteries turned on them a
+tempest of shot and shell to prevent it from being extinguished. The
+glare of the triple conflagration lighted up the town, the trenches, the
+harbor, and the surrounding hills, while the burning ships shot off
+their guns at random as they slowly drifted westward, and grounded at
+last near the Barachois. In the morning they were consumed to the
+water's edge; and of all the squadron the "Prudent" and the
+"Bienfaisant" alone were left.
+
+In the citadel, of which the King's Bastion formed the front, there was
+a large oblong stone building containing the chapel, lodgings for men
+and officers, and at the southern end the quarters of the Governor. On
+the morning after the burning of the ships a shell fell through the roof
+among a party of soldiers in the chamber below, burst, and set the place
+on fire. In half an hour the chapel and all the northern part of the
+building were in flames; and no sooner did the smoke rise above the
+bastion than the English threw into it a steady shower of missiles. Yet
+soldiers, sailors, and inhabitants hastened to the spot, and labored
+desperately to check the fire. They saved the end occupied by Drucour
+and his wife, but all the rest was destroyed. Under the adjacent rampart
+were the casemates, one of which was crowded with wounded officers, and
+the rest with women and children seeking shelter in these subterranean
+dens. Before the entrances there was a long barrier of timber to protect
+them from exploding shells; and as the wind blew the flames towards it,
+there was danger that it would take fire and suffocate those within.
+They rushed out, crazed with fright, and ran hither and thither with
+outcries and shrieks amid the storm of iron.
+
+In the neighboring Queen's Bastion was a large range of barracks built
+of wood by the New England troops after their capture of the fortress in
+1745. So flimsy and combustible was it that the French writers call it a
+"house of cards" and "a paper of matches." Here were lodged the greater
+part of the garrison: but such was the danger of fire, that they were
+now ordered to leave it; and they accordingly lay in the streets or
+along the foot of the ramparts, under shelters of timber which gave some
+little protection against bombs. The order was well timed; for on the
+night after the fire in the King's Bastion, a shell filled with
+combustibles set this building also in flames. A fearful scene ensued.
+All the English batteries opened upon it. The roar of mortars and
+cannon, the rushing and screaming of round-shot and grape, the hissing
+of fuses and the explosion of grenades and bombs mingled with a storm of
+musketry from the covered way and trenches; while, by the glare of the
+conflagration, the English regiments were seen drawn up in battle array,
+before the ramparts, as if preparing for an assault.
+
+Two days after, at one o'clock in the morning, a burst of loud cheers
+was heard in the distance, followed by confused cries and the noise of
+musketry, which lasted but a moment. Six hundred English sailors had
+silently rowed into the harbor and seized the two remaining ships, the
+"Prudent" and the "Bienfaisant." After the first hubbub all was silent
+for half an hour. Then a light glowed through the thick fog that covered
+the water. The "Prudent" was burning. Being aground with the low tide,
+her captors had set her on fire, allowing the men on board to escape to
+the town in her boats. The flames soon wrapped her from stem to stern;
+and as the broad glare pierced the illumined mists, the English sailors,
+reckless of shot and shell, towed her companion-ship, with all on board,
+to a safe anchorage under Wolfe's batteries.
+
+The position of the besieged was deplorable. Nearly a fourth of their
+number were in the hospitals; while the rest, exhausted with incessant
+toil, could find no place to snatch an hour of sleep; "and yet," says an
+officer, "they still show ardor." "To-day," he again says, on the
+twenty-fourth, "the fire of the place is so weak that it is more like
+funeral guns than a defence." On the front of the town only four cannon
+could fire at all. The rest were either dismounted or silenced by the
+musketry from the trenches. The masonry of the ramparts had been shaken
+by the concussion of their own guns; and now, in the Dauphin's and
+King's bastions, the English shot brought it down in masses. The
+trenches had been pushed so close on the rising grounds at the right
+that a great part of the covered way was enfiladed, while a battery on a
+hill across the harbor swept the whole front with a flank fire. Amherst
+had ordered the gunners to spare the houses of the town; but, according
+to French accounts, the order had little effect, for shot and shell fell
+everywhere. "There is not a house in the place," says the Diary just
+quoted, "that has not felt the effects of this formidable artillery.
+From yesterday morning till seven o'clock this evening we reckon that a
+thousand or twelve hundred bombs, great and small, have been thrown into
+the town, accompanied all the time by the fire of forty pieces of
+cannon, served with an activity not often seen. The hospital and the
+houses around it, which also serve as hospitals, are attacked with
+cannon and mortar. The surgeon trembles as he amputates a limb amid
+cries of Gare la bombe! and leaves his patient in the midst of the
+operation, lest he should share his fate. The sick and wounded,
+stretched on mattresses, utter cries of pain, which do not cease till a
+shot or the bursting of a shell ends them." [587] On the twenty-sixth
+the last cannon was silenced in front of the town, and the English
+batteries had made a breach which seemed practicable for assault.
+
+[587] Early in the siege Drucour wrote to Amherst asking that the
+hospitals should be exempt from fire. Amherst answered that shot and
+shell might fall on any part of so small a town, but promised to insure
+the sick and wounded from molestation if Drucour would send them either
+to the island at the mouth of the harbor, or to any of the ships, if
+anchored apart from the rest. The offer was declined, for reasons not
+stated. Drucour gives the correspondence in his Diary.
+
+On the day before, Drucour, with his chief officers and the engineer,
+Franquet, had made the tour of the covered way, and examined the state
+of the defences. All but Franquet were for offering to capitulate. Early
+on the next morning a council of war was held, at which were present
+Drucour, Franquet, Desgouttes, naval commander, Houllière, commander of
+the regulars, and the several chiefs of battalions. Franquet presented a
+memorial setting forth the state of the fortifications. As it was he who
+had reconstructed and repaired them, he was anxious to show the quality
+of his work in the best light possible; and therefore, in the view of
+his auditors, he understated the effects of the English fire. Hence an
+altercation arose, ending in a unanimous decision to ask for terms.
+Accordingly, at ten o'clock, a white flag was displayed over the breach
+in the Dauphin's Bastion, and an officer named Loppinot was sent out
+with offers to capitulate. The answer was prompt and stern: the garrison
+must surrender as prisoners of war; a definite reply must be given
+within an hour; in case of refusal the place will be attacked by land
+and sea. [588]
+
+[588] Mante and other English writers give the text of this reply.
+
+Great was the emotion in the council; and one of its members,
+D'Anthonay, lieutenant-colonel of the battalion of Volontaires
+Étrangers, was sent to propose less rigorous terms. Amherst would not
+speak with him; and jointly with Boscawen despatched this note to the
+Governor:--
+
+Sir,--We have just received the reply which it has pleased your
+Excellency to make as to the conditions of the capitulation offered you.
+We shall not change in the least our views regarding them. It depends on
+your Excellency to accept them or not; and you will have the goodness to
+give your answer, yes or no, within half an hour.
+
+We have the honor to be, etc.,
+
+E. Boscawen.
+J. Amherst. [589]
+
+Drucour answered as follows:--
+
+Gentlemen,--To reply to your Excellencies in as few words as possible, I
+have the honor to repeat that my position also remains the same, and
+that I persist in my first resolution.
+
+I have the honor to be, etc.,
+
+The Chevalier de Drucour.
+
+[589] Translated from the Journal of Drucour.
+
+In other words, he refused the English terms, and declared his purpose
+to abide the assault. Loppinot was sent back to the English camp with
+this note of defiance. He was no sooner gone than Prévost, the
+intendant, an officer of functions purely civil, brought the Governor a
+memorial which, with or without the knowledge of the military
+authorities, he had drawn up in anticipation of the emergency. "The
+violent resolution which the council continues to hold," said this
+document, "obliges me, for the good of the state, the preservation of
+the King's subjects, and the averting of horrors shocking to humanity,
+to lay before your eyes the consequences that may ensue. What will
+become of the four thousand souls who compose the families of this town,
+of the thousand or twelve hundred sick in the hospitals, and the
+officers and crews of our unfortunate ships? They will be delivered over
+to carnage and the rage of an unbridled soldiery, eager for plunder, and
+impelled to deeds of horror by pretended resentment at what has formerly
+happened in Canada. Thus they will all be destroyed, and the memory of
+their fate will live forever in our colonies.... It remains, Monsieur,"
+continues the paper, "to remind you that the councils you have held thus
+far have been composed of none but military officers. I am not surprised
+at their views. The glory of the King's arm and the honor of their
+several corps have inspired them. You and I alone are charged with the
+administration of the colony and the care of the King's subjects who
+compose it. These gentlemen, therefore, have had no regard for them.
+They think only of themselves and their soldiers, whose business it is
+to encounter the utmost extremity of peril. It is at the prayer of an
+intimidated people that I lay before you the considerations specified in
+this memorial."
+
+"In view of these considerations," writes Drucour, "joined to the
+impossibility of resisting an assault, M. le Chevalier de Courserac
+undertook in my behalf to run after the bearer of my answer to the
+English commander and bring it back." It is evident that the bearer of
+the note had been in no hurry to deliver it, for he had scarcely got
+beyond the fortifications when Courserac overtook and stopped him.
+D'Anthonay, with Duvivier, major of the battalion of Artois, and
+Loppinot, the first messenger, was then sent to the English camp,
+empowered to accept the terms imposed. An English spectator thus
+describes their arrival: "A lieutenant-colonel came running out of the
+garrison, making signs at a distance, and bawling out as loud as he
+could, 'We accept! We accept!' He was followed by two others; and they
+were all conducted to General Amherst's headquarters." [590] At eleven
+o'clock at night they returned with the articles of capitulation and the
+following letter:--
+
+Sir,--We have the honor to send your Excellency the articles of
+capitulation signed.
+
+Lieutenant-Colonel D'Anthonay has not failed to speak in behalf of the
+inhabitants of the town; and it is nowise our intention to distress
+them, but to give them all the aid in our power.
+
+Your Excellency will have the goodness to sign a duplicate of the
+articles and send it to us.
+
+It only remains to assure your Excellency that we shall with great
+pleasure seize every opportunity to convince your Excellency that we are
+with the most perfect consideration,
+
+Sir, your Excellency's most obedient servants,
+
+E. Boscawen.
+J. Amherst.
+
+[590] Authentic Account of the Siege of Louisbourg, by a Spectator.
+
+The articles stipulated that the garrison should be sent to England,
+prisoners of war, in British ships; that all artillery, arms, munitions,
+and stores, both in Louisbourg and elsewhere on the Island of Cape
+Breton, as well as on Isle St.-Jean, now Prince Edward's Island, should
+be given up intact; that the gate of the Dauphin's Bastion should be
+delivered to the British troops at eight o'clock in the morning; and
+that the garrison should lay down their arms at noon. The victors,
+on their part, promised to give the French sick and wounded the same
+care as their own, and to protect private property from pillage.
+
+Drucour signed the paper at midnight, and in the morning a body of
+grenadiers took possession of the Dauphin's Gate. The rude soldiery
+poured in, swarthy with wind and sun, and begrimed with smoke and dust;
+the garrison, drawn up on the esplanade, flung down their muskets and
+marched from the ground with tears of rage; the cross of St. George
+floated over the shattered rampart; and Louisbourg, with the two great
+islands that depended on it, passed to the British Crown. Guards were
+posted, a stern discipline was enforced, and perfect order maintained.
+The conquerors and the conquered exchanged greetings, and the English
+general was lavish of courtesies to the brave lady who had aided the
+defence so well. "Every favor she asked was granted," says a Frenchman
+present.
+
+Drucour and his garrison had made a gallant defence. It had been his aim
+to prolong the siege till it should be too late for Amherst to
+co-operate with Abercromby in an attack on Canada; and in this, at
+least, he succeeded.
+
+Five thousand six hundred and thirty-seven officers, soldiers, and
+sailors were prisoners in the hands of the victors. Eighteen mortars and
+two hundred and twenty-one cannon were found in the town, along with a
+great quantity of arms, munitions, and stores. [591] At the middle of
+August such of the prisoners as were not disabled by wounds or sickness
+were embarked for England, and the merchants and inhabitants were sent
+to France. Brigadier Whitmore, as governor of Louisbourg, remained with
+four regiments to hold guard over the desolation they had made.
+
+[591] Account of the Guns, Mortars, Shot, Shell, etc., found in the Town
+of Louisbourg upon its Surrender this day, signed Jeffrey Amherst, 27
+July, 1758.
+
+The fall of the French stronghold was hailed in England with noisy
+rapture. Addresses of congratulation to the King poured in from all the
+cities of the kingdom, and the captured flags were hung in St. Paul's
+amid the roar of cannon and the shouts of the populace. The provinces
+shared these rejoicings. Sermons of thanksgiving resounded from
+countless New England pulpits. At Newport there were fireworks and
+illuminations; and, adds the pious reporter, "We have reason to believe
+that Christians will make wise and religious improvement of so signal a
+favor of Divine Providence." At Philadelphia a like display was seen,
+with music and universal ringing of bells. At Boston "a stately bonfire
+like a pyramid was kindled on the top of Fort Hill, which made a lofty
+and prodigious blaze;" though here certain jealous patriots protested
+against celebrating a victory won by British regulars, and not by New
+England men. At New York there was a grand official dinner at the
+Province Arms in Broadway, where every loyal toast was echoed by the
+cannon of Fort George; and illuminations and fireworks closed the day.
+[592] In the camp of Abercromby at Lake George, Chaplain Cleaveland, of
+Bagley's Massachusetts regiment, wrote: "The General put out orders that
+the breastwork should be lined with troops, and to fire three rounds for
+joy, and give thanks to God in a religious way." [593] But nowhere did
+the tidings find a warmer welcome than in the small detached forts
+scattered through the solitudes of Nova Scotia, where the military
+exiles, restless from inaction, listened with greedy ears for every word
+from the great world whence they were banished. So slow were their
+communications with it that the fall of Louisbourg was known in England
+before it had reached them all. Captain John Knox, then in garrison at
+Annapolis, tells how it was greeted there more than five weeks after the
+event. It was the sixth of September. A sloop from Boston was seen
+coming up the bay. Soldiers and officers ran down to the wharf to ask
+for news. "Every soul," says Knox, "was impatient, yet shy of asking; at
+length, the vessel being come near enough to be spoken to, I called out,
+'What news from Louisbourg?' To which the master simply replied, and
+with some gravity, 'Nothing strange.' This answer, which was so coldly
+delivered, threw us all into great consternation, and we looked at each
+other without being able to speak; some of us even turned away with an
+intent to return to the fort. At length one of our soldiers, not yet
+satisfied, called out with some warmth: 'Damn you, Pumpkin, isn't
+Louisbourg taken yet?' The poor New England man then answered: 'Taken,
+yes, above a month ago, and I have been there since; but if you have
+never heard it before, I have got a good parcel of letters for you now.'
+If our apprehensions were great at first, words are insufficient to
+express our transports at this speech, the latter part of which we
+hardly waited for; but instantly all hats flew off, and we made the
+neighboring woods resound with our cheers and huzzas for almost half an
+hour. The master of the sloop was amazed beyond expression, and declared
+he thought we had heard of the success of our arms eastward before, and
+had sought to banter him." [594] At night there was a grand bonfire and
+universal festivity in the fort and village.
+
+[592] These particulars are from the provincial newspapers.
+
+[593] Cleaveland, Journal.
+
+[594] Knox, Historical Journal, I. 158.
+
+Amherst proceeded to complete his conquest by the subjection of all the
+adjacent possessions of France. Major Dalling was sent to occupy Port
+Espagnol, now Sydney. Colonel Monckton was despatched to the Bay of
+Fundy and the River St. John with an order "to destroy the vermin who
+are settled there." [595] Lord Rollo, with the thirty-fifth regiment and
+two battalions of the sixtieth, received the submission of Isle
+St.-Jean, and tried to remove the inhabitants,--with small success; for
+out of more than four thousand he could catch but seven hundred. [595]
+
+[595] Orders of Amherst to Wolfe, 15 Aug. 1758; Ibid. to Monckton, 24
+Aug. 1758; Report of Monckton, 12 Nov. 1758.
+
+[596] Villejouin, commandant à l'Isle St.-Jean, au Ministre, 8 Sept.
+1758.
+
+The ardent and indomitable Wolfe had been the life of the siege.
+Wherever there was need of a quick eye, a prompt decision, and a bold
+dash, there his lank figure was always in the front. Yet he was only
+half pleased with what had been done. The capture of Louisbourg, he
+thought, should be but the prelude of greater conquests; and he had
+hoped that the fleet and army would sail up the St. Lawrence and attack
+Quebec. Impetuous and impatient by nature, and irritable with disease,
+he chafed at the delay that followed the capitulation, and wrote to his
+father a few days after it: "We are gathering strawberries and other
+wild fruits of the country, with a seeming indifference about what is
+doing in other parts of the world. Our army, however, on the continent
+wants our help." Growing more anxious, he sent Amherst a note to ask his
+intentions; and the General replied, "What I most wish to do is to go to
+Quebec. I have proposed it to the Admiral, and yesterday he seemed to
+think it impracticable." On which Wolfe wrote again: "If the Admiral
+will not carry us to Quebec, reinforcements should certainly be sent to
+the continent without losing a moment. This damned French garrison take
+up our time and attention, which might be better bestowed. The
+transports are ready, and a small convoy would carry a brigade to
+Boston or New York. With the rest of the troops we might make an
+offensive and destructive war in the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of St.
+Lawrence. I beg pardon for this freedom, but I cannot look coolly upon
+the bloody inroads of those hell-hounds, the Canadians; and if nothing
+further is to be done, I must desire leave to quit the army."
+
+Amherst answered that though he had meant at first to go to Quebec with
+the whole army, late events on the continent made it impossible; and
+that he now thought it best to go with five or six regiments to the aid
+of Abercromby. He asked Wolfe to continue to communicate his views to
+him, and would not hear for a moment of his leaving the army; adding, "I
+know nothing that can tend more to His Majesty's service than your
+assisting in it." Wolfe again wrote to his commander, with whom he was
+on terms of friendship: "An offensive, daring kind of war will awe the
+Indians and ruin the French. Blockhouses and a trembling defensive
+encourage the meanest scoundrels to attack us. If you will attempt to
+cut up New France by the roots, I will come with pleasure to assist."
+
+Amherst, with such speed as his deliberate nature would permit, sailed
+with six regiments for Boston to reinforce Abercromby at Lake George,
+while Wolfe set out on an errand but little to his liking. He had orders
+to proceed to Gaspé, Miramichi, and other settlements on the Gulf of St.
+Lawrence, destroy them, and disperse their inhabitants; a measure of
+needless and unpardonable rigor, which, while detesting it, he executed
+with characteristic thoroughness. "Sir Charles Hardy and I," he wrote to
+his father, "are preparing to rob the fishermen of their nets and burn
+their huts. When that great exploit is at an end, I return to
+Louisbourg, and thence to England." Having finished the work, he wrote
+to Amherst: "Your orders were carried into execution. We have done a
+great deal of mischief, and spread the terror of His Majesty's arms
+through the Gulf, but have added nothing to the reputation of them." The
+destruction of property was great; yet, as Knox writes, "he would not
+suffer the least barbarity to be committed upon the persons of the
+wretched inhabitants." [597]
+
+[597] "Les Anglais ont très-bien traités les prisonniers qu'ils ont
+faits dans cette partie" [Gaspé, etc]. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 4 Nov.
+1758.
+
+He returned to Louisbourg, and sailed for England to recruit his
+shattered health for greater conflicts.
+
+Note.--Four long and minute French diaries of the siege of Louisbourg
+are before me. The first, that of Drucour, covers a hundred and six
+folio pages, and contains his correspondence with Amherst, Boscawen, and
+Desgouttes. The second is that of the naval captain Tourville, commander
+of the ship "Capricieux," and covers fifty pages. The third is by an
+officer of the garrison whose name does not appear. The fourth, of about
+a hundred pages, is by another officer of the garrison, and is also
+anonymous. It is an excellent record of what passed each day, and of the
+changing conditions, moral and physical, of the besieged. These four
+Journals, though clearly independent of each other, agree in nearly all
+essential particulars. I have also numerous letters from the principal
+officers, military, naval, and civil, engaged in the defence,--Drucour,
+Desgouttes, Houllière, Beaussier, Marolles, Tourville, Courserac,
+Franquet, Villejouin, Prévost, and Querdisien. These, with various other
+documents relating to the siege, were copied from the originals in the
+Archives de la Marine. Among printed authorities on the French side may
+be mentioned Pichon, Lettres et Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire du
+Cap-Breton, and the Campaign of Louisbourg, by the Chevalier Johnstone,
+a Scotch Jacobite serving under Drucour.
+
+The chief authorities on the English side are the official Journal of
+Amherst, printed in the London Magazine and in other contemporary
+periodicals, and also in Mante, History of the Late War; five letters
+from Amherst to Pitt, written during the siege (Public Record Office);
+an excellent private Journal called An Authentic Account of the
+Reduction of Louisbourg, by a Spectator, parts of which have been copied
+verbatim by Entick without acknowledgement; the admirable Journal of
+Captain John Knox, which contains numerous letters and orders relating
+to the siege; and the correspondence of Wolfe contained in his Life by
+Wright. Before me is the Diary of a captain or subaltern in the army of
+Amherst at Louisbourg, found in the garret of an old house at Windsor,
+Nova Scotia, on an estate belonging in 1760 to Chief Justice Deschamps.
+I owe the use of it to the kindness of George Wiggins, Esq., of Windsor,
+N. S. Mante gives an excellent plan of the siege operations, and another
+will be found in Jefferys, Natural and Civil History of French Dominions
+in North America.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+1758.
+
+TICONDEROGA.
+
+Activity of the Provinces • Sacrifices of Massachusetts • The Army at
+Lake George • Proposed Incursion of Lévis • Perplexities of Montcalm •
+His Plan of Defence • Camp of Abercromby • His Character • Lord Howe •
+His Popularity • Embarkation of Abercromby • Advance down Lake George •
+Landing • Forest Skirmish • Death of Howe • Its Effects • Position of
+the French • The Lines of Ticonderoga • Blunders of Abercromby • The
+Assault • A Frightful Scene • Incidents of the Battle • British Repulse
+• Panic • Retreat • Triumph of Montcalm.
+
+In the last year London called on the colonists for four thousand men.
+This year Pitt asked them for twenty thousand, and promised that the
+King would supply arms, ammunition, tents, and provisions, leaving to
+the provinces only the raising, clothing, and pay of their soldiers; and
+he added the assurance that Parliament would be asked to make some
+compensation even for these. [598] Thus encouraged, cheered by the
+removal of Loudon, and animated by the unwonted vigor of British
+military preparation, the several provincial assemblies voted men in
+abundance, though the usual vexatious delays took place in raising,
+equipping, and sending them to the field.
+
+[598] Pitt to the Colonial Governors, 30 Dec. 1757.
+
+In this connection, an able English writer has brought against the
+colonies, and especially against Massachusetts, charges which deserve
+attention. Viscount Bury says: "Of all the colonies, Massachusetts was
+the first which discovered the designs of the French and remonstrated
+against their aggressions; of all the colonies she most zealously
+promoted measures of union for the common defence, and made the greatest
+exertions in furtherance of her views." But he adds that there is a
+reverse to the picture, and that "this colony, so high-spirited, so
+warlike, and apparently so loyal, would never move hand or foot in her
+own defence till certain of repayment by the mother country." [599] The
+groundlessness of this charge is shown by abundant proofs, one of which
+will be enough. The Englishman Pownall, who had succeeded Shirley as
+royal governor of the province, made this year a report of its condition
+to Pitt. Massachusetts, he says, "has been the frontier and advanced
+guard of all the colonies against the enemy in Canada," and has always
+taken the lead in military affairs. In the three past years she has
+spent on the expeditions of Johnson, Winslow, and Loudon £242,356,
+besides about £45,000 a year to support the provincial government, at
+the same time maintaining a number of forts and garrisons, keeping up
+scouting-parties, and building, equipping, and manning a ship of twenty
+guns for the service of the King. In the first two months of the present
+year, 1758, she made a further military outlay of £172,239. Of all these
+sums she has received from Parliament a reimbursement of only £70,117,
+and hence she is deep in debt; yet, in addition, she has this year
+raised, paid, maintained, and clothed seven thousand soldiers placed
+under the command of General Abercromby, besides above twenty-five
+hundred more serving the King by land or sea; amounting in all to about
+one in four of her able-bodied men.
+
+[599] Bury, Exodus of the Western Nations, II., 250, 251.
+
+Massachusetts was extremely poor by the standards of the present day,
+living by fishing, farming, and a trade sorely hampered by the British
+navigation laws. Her contributions of money and men were not ordained by
+an absolute king, but made by the voluntary act of a free people.
+Pownall goes on to say that her present war-debt, due within three
+years, is 366,698 pounds sterling, and that to meet it she has imposed
+on herself taxes amounting, in the town of Boston, to thirteen shillings
+and twopence to every pound of income from real and personal estate;
+that her people are in distress, that she is anxious to continue her
+efforts in the public cause, but that without some further reimbursement
+she is exhausted and helpless. [600] Yet in the next year she incurred a
+new and heavy debt. In 1760 Parliament repaid her £59,575. [601] Far
+from being fully reimbursed, the end of the war found her on the brink
+of bankruptcy. Connecticut made equal sacrifices in the common
+cause,--highly to her honor, for she was little exposed to danger, being
+covered by the neighboring provinces; while impoverished New Hampshire
+put one in three of her able-bodied men into the field. [602]
+
+[600] Pownall to Pitt, 30 Sept. 1758 (Public Record Office, America and
+West Indies, LXXI.). "The province of Massachusetts Bay has exerted
+itself with great zeal and at vast expense for the public service."
+Registers of Privy Council, 26 July, 1757.
+
+[601] Bollan, Agent of Massachusetts, to Speaker of Assembly, 20 March,
+1760. It was her share of £200,000 granted to all the colonies in the
+proportion of their respective efforts.
+
+[602] Address to His Majesty from the Governor, Council, and Assembly of
+New Hampshire, Jan. 1759.
+
+In June the combined British and provincial force which Abercromby was
+to lead against Ticonderoga was gathered at the head of Lake George;
+while Montcalm lay at its outlet around the walls of the French
+stronghold, with an army not one fourth so numerous. Vaudreuil had
+devised a plan for saving Ticonderoga by a diversion into the valley of
+the Mohawk under Lévis, Rigaud, and Longueuil, with sixteen hundred men,
+who were to be joined by as many Indians. The English forts of that
+region were to be attacked, Schenectady threatened, and the Five Nations
+compelled to declare for France. [603] Thus, as the Governor gave out,
+the English would be forced to cease from aggression, leave Montcalm in
+peace, and think only of defending themselves. [604] "This," writes
+Bougainville on the fifteenth of June, "is what M. de Vaudreuil thinks
+will happen, because he never doubts anything. Ticonderoga, which is the
+point really threatened, is abandoned without support to the troops of
+the line and their general. It would even be wished that they might meet
+a reverse, if the consequences to the colony would not be too
+disastrous."
+
+[603] Lévis au Ministre, 17 Juin, 1758. Doreil au Ministre, 16 Juin,
+1758. Montcalm à sa Femme, 18 Avril, 1758.
+
+[604] Correspondance de Vaudreuil, 1758. Livre d'Ordres, Juin, 1758.
+
+The proposed movement promised, no doubt, great advantages; but it was
+not destined to take effect. Some rangers taken on Lake George by a
+partisan officer named Langy declared with pardonable exaggeration that
+twenty-five or thirty thousand men would attack Ticonderoga in less than
+a fortnight. Vaudreuil saw himself forced to abandon his Mohawk
+expedition, and to order Lévis and his followers, who had not yet left
+Montreal, to reinforce Montcalm. [605] Why they did not go at once is
+not clear. The Governor declares that there were not boats enough. From
+whatever cause, there was a long delay, and Montcalm was left to defend
+himself as he could.
+
+[605] Bigot au Ministre, 21 Juillet, 1758.
+
+He hesitated whether he should not fall back to Crown Point. The
+engineer, Lotbinière, opposed the plan, as did also Le Mercier. [606] It
+was but a choice of difficulties, and he stayed at Ticonderoga. His
+troops were disposed as they had been in the summer before; one
+battalion, that of Berry, being left near the fort, while the main body,
+under Montcalm himself, was encamped by the saw-mill at the Falls, and
+the rest, under Bourlamaque, occupied the head of the portage, with a
+small advanced force at the landing-place on Lake George. It remained to
+determine at which of these points he should concentrate them and make
+his stand against the English. Ruin threatened him in any case; each
+position had its fatal weakness or its peculiar danger, and his best
+hope was in the ignorance or blundering of his enemy. He seems to have
+been several days in a state of indecision.
+
+[606] N.Y. Col. Docs., X. 893. Lotbinière's relative, Vaudreuil,
+confirms the statement. Montcalm had not, as has been said, begun
+already to fall back.
+
+In the afternoon of the fifth of July the partisan Langy, who had again
+gone out to reconnoitre towards the head of Lake George, came back in
+haste with the report that the English were embarked in great force.
+Montcalm sent a canoe down Lake Champlain to hasten Lévis to his aid,
+and ordered the battalion of Berry to begin a breastwork and abattis on
+the high ground in front of the fort. That they were not begun before
+shows that he was in doubt as to his plan of defence; and that his whole
+army was not now set to work at them shows that his doubt was still
+unsolved.
+
+It was nearly a month since Abercromby had begun his camp at the head of
+Lake George. Here, on the ground where Johnson had beaten Dieskau, where
+Montcalm had planted his batteries, and Monro vainly defended the wooden
+ramparts of Fort William Henry, were now assembled more than fifteen
+thousand men; and the shores, the foot of the mountains, and the broken
+plains between them were studded thick with tents. Of regulars there
+were six thousand three hundred and sixty-seven, officers and soldiers,
+and of provincials nine thousand and thirty-four. [607] To the New
+England levies, or at least to their chaplains, the expedition seemed a
+crusade against the abomination of Babylon; and they discoursed in their 
+sermons of Moses sending forth Joshua against Amalek. Abercromby, raised
+to his place by political influence, was little but the nominal
+commander. "A heavy man," said Wolfe in a letter to his father; "an aged
+gentleman, infirm in body and mind," wrote William Parkman, a boy of
+seventeen, who carried a musket in a Massachusetts regiment, and kept in
+his knapsack a dingy little note-book, in which he jotted down what
+passed each day. [608] The age of the aged gentleman was fifty-two.
+
+[607] Abercromby to Pitt, 12 July, 1758.
+
+[608] Great-uncle of the writer, and son of the Rev. Ebenezer Parkman, a
+graduate of Harvard, and minister of Westborough, Mass.
+
+Pitt meant that the actual command of the army should be in the hands of
+Brigadier Lord Howe, [609] and he was in fact its real chief; "the
+noblest Englishman that has appeared in my time, and the best soldier in
+the British army," says Wolfe. [610] And he elsewhere speaks of him as
+"that great man." Abercromby testifies to the universal respect and love
+with which officers and men regarded him, and Pitt calls him "a
+character of ancient times; a complete model of military virtue." [611]
+High as this praise is, it seems to have been deserved. The young
+nobleman, who was then in his thirty-fourth year, had the qualities of a
+leader of men. The army felt him, from general to drummer-boy. He was
+its soul; and while breathing into it his own energy and ardor, and
+bracing it by stringent discipline, he broke through the traditions of
+the service and gave it new shapes to suit the time and place. During
+the past year he had studied the art of forest warfare, and joined
+Rogers and his rangers in their scouting-parties, sharing all their
+hardships and making himself one of them. Perhaps the reforms that he
+introduced were fruits of this rough self-imposed schooling. He made
+officers and men throw off all useless incumbrances, cut their hair
+close, wear leggings to protect them from briers, brown the barrels of
+their muskets, and carry in their knapsacks thirty pounds of meal, which
+they cooked for themselves; so that, according to an admiring Frenchman,
+they could live a month without their supply-trains. [612] "You would
+laugh to see the droll figure we all make," writes an officer. "Regulars
+as well as provincials have cut their coats so as scarcely to reach
+their waists. No officer or private is allowed to carry more than one
+blanket and a bearskin. A small portmanteau is allowed each officer. No
+women follow the camp to wash our linen. Lord Howe has already shown an
+example by going to the brook and washing his own." [613]
+
+[609] Chesterfield, Letters, IV. 260 (ed. Mahon).
+
+[610] Wolfe to his Father, 7 Aug. 1758, in Wright, 450.
+
+[611] Pitt to Grenville, 22 Aug. 1758, in Grenville Papers, I. 262.
+
+[612] Pouchot, Dernière Guerre de l'Amérique, I. 140.
+
+[613] Letter from Camp, 12 June, 1758, in Boston Evening Post. Another,
+in Boston News Letter, contains similar statements.
+
+Here, as in all things, he shared the lot of the soldier, and required
+his officers to share it. A story is told of him that before the army
+embarked he invited some of them to dinner in his tent, where they found
+no seats but logs, and no carpet but bearskins. A servant presently
+placed on the ground a large dish of pork and peas, on which his
+lordship took from his pocket a sheath containing a knife and fork and
+began to cut the meat. The guests looked on in some embarrassment; upon
+which he said: "Is it possible, gentlemen, that you have come on this
+campaign without providing yourselves with what is necessary?" And he
+gave each of them a sheath, with a knife and fork, like his own.
+
+Yet this Lycurgus of the camp, as a contemporary calls him, is described
+as a man of social accomplishments rare even in his rank. He made
+himself greatly beloved by the provincial officers, with many of whom he
+was on terms of intimacy, and he did what he could to break down the
+barriers between the colonial soldiers and the British regulars. When he
+was at Albany, sharing with other high officers the kindly hospitalities
+of Mrs. Schuyler, he so won the heart of that excellent matron that she
+loved him like a son; and, though not given to such effusion, embraced
+him with tears on the morning when he left her to lead his division to
+the lake. [614] In Westminster Abbey may be seen the tablet on which
+Massachusetts pays grateful tribute to his virtues, and commemorates
+"the affection her officers and soldiers bore to his command."
+
+[614] Mrs. Grant, Memoirs of an American Lady, 226 (ed. 1876).
+
+On the evening of the fourth of July, baggage, stores, and ammunition
+were all on board the boats, and the whole army embarked on the morning
+of the fifth. The arrangements were perfect. Each corps marched without
+confusion to its appointed station on the beach, and the sun was
+scarcely above the ridge of French Mountain when all were afloat. A
+spectator watching them from the shore says that when the fleet was
+three miles on its way, the surface of the lake at that distance was
+completely hidden from sight. [615] There were nine hundred bateaux, a
+hundred and thirty-five whaleboats, and a large number of heavy
+flatboats carrying the artillery. The whole advanced in three divisions,
+the regulars in the centre, and the provincials on the flanks. Each
+corps had its flags and its music. The day was fair and men and officers
+were in the highest spirits.
+
+[615] Letter from Lake George, in Boston News Letter.
+
+Before ten o'clock they began to enter the Narrows; and the boats of the
+three divisions extended themselves into long files as the mountains
+closed on either hand upon the contracted lake. From front to rear the
+line was six miles long. The spectacle was superb: the brightness of the
+summer day; the romantic beauty of the scenery; the sheen and sparkle of
+those crystal waters; the countless islets, tufted with pine, birch, and
+fir; the bordering mountains, with their green summits and sunny crags;
+the flash of oars and glitter of weapons; the banners, the varied
+uniforms, and the notes of bugle, trumpet, bagpipe, and drum, answered
+and prolonged by a hundred woodland echoes. "I never beheld so
+delightful a prospect," wrote a wounded officer at Albany a fortnight
+after.
+
+Rogers with the rangers, and Gage with the light infantry, led the way
+in whaleboats, followed by Bradstreet with his corps of boatmen, armed
+and drilled as soldiers. Then came the main body. The central column of
+regulars was commanded by Lord Howe, his own regiment, the fifty-fifth,
+in the van, followed by the Royal Americans, the twenty-seventh,
+forty-fourth, forty-sixth, and eightieth infantry, and the Highlanders
+of the forty-second, with their major, Duncan Campbell of Inverawe,
+silent and gloomy amid the general cheer, for his soul was dark with
+foreshadowings of death. [616] With this central column came what are
+described as two floating castles, which were no doubt batteries to
+cover the landing of the troops. On the right hand and the left were the
+provincials, uniformed in blue, regiment after regiment, from
+Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.
+Behind them all came the bateaux, loaded with stores and baggage, and
+the heavy flatboats that carried the artillery, while a rear-guard of
+provincials and regulars closed the long procession. [617]
+
+[616] See Appendix G.
+
+[617] Letter from Lake George, in Boston News Letter. Even Rogers, the
+ranger, speaks of the beauty of the scene.
+
+At five in the afternoon they reached Sabbath-Day Point, twenty-five
+miles down the lake, where they stopped till late in the evening,
+waiting for the baggage and artillery, which had lagged behind; and here
+Lord Howe, lying on a bearskin by the side of the ranger, John Stark,
+questioned him as to the position of Ticonderoga and its best points of
+approach. At about eleven o'clock they set out again, and at daybreak
+entered what was then called the Second Narrows; that is to say, the
+contraction of the lake where it approaches its outlet. Close on their
+left, ruddy in the warm sunrise, rose the vast bare face of Rogers Rock,
+whence a French advanced party, under Langy and an officer named
+Trepezec, was watching their movements. Lord Howe, with Rogers and
+Bradstreet, went in whaleboats to reconnoitre the landing. At the place
+which the French called the Burnt Camp, where Montcalm had embarked the
+summer before, they saw a detachment of the enemy too weak to oppose
+them. Their men landed and drove them off. At noon the whole army was on
+shore. Rogers, with a party of rangers, was ordered forward to
+reconnoitre, and the troops were formed for the march.
+
+From this part of the shore [618] a plain covered with forest stretched
+northwestward half a mile or more to the mountains behind which lay the
+valley of Trout Brook. On this plain the army began its march in four
+columns, with the intention of passing round the western bank of the
+river of the outlet, since the bridge over it had been destroyed.
+Rogers, with the provincial regiments of Fitch and Lyman, led the way,
+at some distance before the rest. The forest was extremely dense and
+heavy, and so obstructed with undergrowth that it was impossible to see
+more than a few yards in any direction, while the ground was encumbered
+with fallen trees in every stage of decay. The ranks were broken, and
+the men struggled on as they could in dampness and shade, under a canopy
+of boughs that the sun could scarcely pierce. The difficulty increased
+when, after advancing about a mile, they came upon undulating and broken
+ground. They were now not far from the upper rapids of the outlet. The
+guides became bewildered in the maze of trunks and boughs; the marching
+columns were confused, and fell in one upon the other. They were in the
+strange situation of an army lost in the woods.
+
+[618] Between the old and new steamboat-landings, and parts adjacent.
+
+The advanced party of French under Langy and Trepezec, about three
+hundred and fifty in all, regulars and Canadians, had tried to retreat;
+but before they could do so, the whole English army had passed them,
+landed, and placed itself between them and their countrymen. They had no
+resource but to take to the woods. They seem to have climbed the steep
+gorge at the side of Rogers Rock and followed the Indian path that led
+to the valley of Trout Brook, thinking to descend it, and, by circling
+along the outskirts of the valley of Ticonderoga, reach Montcalm's camp
+at the saw-mill. Langy was used to bushranging; but he too became
+perplexed in the blind intricacies of the forest. Towards the close of
+the day he and his men had come out from the valley of Trout Brook, and
+were near the junction of that stream with the river of the outlet, in a
+state of some anxiety, for they could see nothing but brown trunks and
+green boughs. Could any of them have climbed one of the great pines that
+here and there reared their shaggy spires high above the surrounding
+forest, they would have discovered where they were, but would have
+gained not the faintest knowledge of the enemy. Out of the woods on the
+right they would have seen a smoke rising from the burning huts of the
+French camp at the head of the portage, which Bourlamaque had set on
+fire and abandoned. At a mile or more in front, the saw-mill at the
+Falls might perhaps have been descried, and, by glimpses between the
+trees, the tents of the neighboring camp where Montcalm still lay with
+his main force. All the rest seemed lonely as the grave; mountain and
+valley lay wrapped in primeval woods, and none could have dreamed that,
+not far distant, an army was groping its way, buried in foliage; no
+rumbling of wagons and artillery trains, for none were there; all silent
+but the cawing of some crow flapping his black wings over the sea of
+tree-tops.
+
+Lord Howe, with Major Israel Putnam and two hundred rangers, was at the
+head of the principal column, which was a little in advance of the three
+others. Suddenly the challenge, Qui vive! rang sharply from the thickets
+in front. Français! was the reply. Langy's men were not deceived; they
+fired out of the bushes. The shots were returned; a hot skirmish
+followed; and Lord Howe dropped dead, shot through the breast. All was
+confusion. The dull, vicious reports of musketry in thick woods, at
+first few and scattering, then in fierce and rapid volleys, reached the
+troops behind. They could hear, but see nothing. Already harassed and
+perplexed, they became perturbed. For all they knew, Montcalm's whole
+army was upon them. Nothing prevented a panic but the steadiness of the
+rangers, who maintained the fight alone till the rest came back to their
+senses. Rogers, with his reconnoitring party, and the regiments of Fitch
+and Lyman, were at no great distance in front. They all turned on
+hearing the musketry, and thus the French were caught between two fires.
+They fought with desperation. About fifty of them at length escaped; a
+hundred and forty-eight were captured, and the rest killed or drowned in
+trying to cross the rapids. The loss of the English was small in
+numbers, but immeasurable in the death of Howe. "The fall of this noble
+and brave officer," says Rogers, "seemed to produce an almost general
+languor and consternation through the whole army." "In Lord Howe,"
+writes another contemporary, Major Thomas Mante, "the soul of General
+Abercromby's army seemed to expire. From the unhappy moment the General
+was deprived of his advice, neither order nor discipline was observed,
+and a strange kind of infatuation usurped the place of resolution." The
+death of one man was the ruin of fifteen thousand.
+
+The evil news was despatched to Albany, and in two or three days the
+messenger who bore it passed the house of Mrs. Schuyler on the meadows
+above the town. "In the afternoon," says her biographer, "a man was seen
+coming from the north galloping violently without his hat. Pedrom, as he
+was familiarly called, Colonel Schuyler's only surviving brother, was
+with her, and ran instantly to inquire, well knowing that he rode
+express. The man galloped on, crying out that Lord Howe was killed. The
+mind of our good aunt had been so engrossed by her anxiety and fears for
+the event impending, and so impressed with the merit and magnanimity of
+her favorite hero, that her wonted firmness sank under the stroke, and
+she broke out into bitter lamentations. This had such an effect on her
+friends and domestics that shrieks and sobs of anguish echoed through
+every part of the house."
+
+The effect of the loss was seen at once. The army was needlessly kept
+under arms all night in the forest, and in the morning was ordered back
+to the landing whence it came. [619] Towards noon, however, Bradstreet
+was sent with a detachment of regulars and provincials to take
+possession of the saw-mill at the Falls, which Montcalm had abandoned
+the evening before. Bradstreet rebuilt the bridges destroyed by the
+retiring enemy, and sent word to his commander that the way was open; on
+which Abercromby again put his army in motion, reached the Falls late in
+the afternoon, and occupied the deserted encampment of the French.
+
+[619] Abercromby to Pitt, 12 July, 1758.
+
+Montcalm with his main force had held this position at the Falls through
+most of the preceding day, doubtful, it seems, to the last whether he
+should not make his final stand there. Bourlamaque was for doing so; but
+two old officers, Bernès and Montguy, pointed out the danger that the
+English would occupy the neighboring heights; [620] whereupon Montcalm
+at length resolved to fall back. The camp was broken up at five o'clock.
+Some of the troops embarked in bateaux, while others marched a mile and
+a half along the forest road, passed the place where the battalion of
+Berry was still at work on the breastwork begun in the morning, and made
+their bivouac a little farther on, upon the cleared ground that
+surrounded the fort.
+
+[620] Pouchot, I. 145.
+
+The peninsula of Ticonderoga consists of a rocky plateau, with low
+grounds on each side, bordering Lake Champlain on the one hand, and the
+outlet of Lake George on the other. The fort stood near the end of the
+peninsula, which points towards the southeast. Thence, as one goes
+westward, the ground declines a little, and then slowly rises, till,
+about half a mile from the fort, it reaches its greatest elevation, and
+begins still more gradually to decline again. Thus a ridge is formed
+across the plateau between the steep declivities that sink to the low
+grounds on right and left. Some weeks before, a French officer named
+Hugues had suggested the defence of this ridge by means of an abattis.
+[621] Montcalm approved his plan; and now, at the eleventh hour, he
+resolved to make his stand here. The two engineers, Pontleroy and
+Desandrouin, had already traced the outline of the works, and the
+soldiers of the battalion of Berry had made some progress in
+constructing them. At dawn of the seventh, while Abercromby, fortunately
+for his enemy, was drawing his troops back to the landing-place, the
+whole French army fell to their task. The regimental colors were planted
+along the line, and the officers, stripped to the shirt, took axe in
+hand and labored with their men. The trees that covered the ground were
+hewn down by thousands, the tops lopped off, and the trunks piled one
+upon another to form a massive breastwork. The line followed the top of
+the ridge, along which it zig-zagged in such a manner that the whole
+front could be swept by flank-fires of musketry and grape. Abercromby
+describes the wall of logs as between eight and nine feet high; [622] in
+which case there must have been a rude banquette, or platform to fire
+from, on the inner side. It was certainly so high that nothing could be
+seen over it but the crowns of the soldiers' hats. The upper tier was
+formed of single logs, in which notches were cut to serve as loopholes;
+and in some places sods and bags of sand were piled along the top, with
+narrow spaces to fire through. [623] From the central part of the line
+the ground sloped away like a natural glacis; while at the sides, and
+especially on the left, it was undulating and broken. Over this whole
+space, to the distance of a musket-shot from the works, the forest was
+cut down, and the trees left lying where they fell among the stumps,
+with tops turned outwards, forming one vast abattis, which, as a
+Massachusetts officer says, looked like a forest laid flat by a
+hurricane. [624] But the most formidable obstruction was immediately
+along the front of the breastwork, where the ground was covered with
+heavy boughs, overlapping and interlaced, with sharpened points
+bristling into the face of the assailant like the quills of a porcupine.
+As these works were all of wood, no vestige of them remains. The
+earthworks now shown to tourists as the lines of Montcalm are of later
+construction; and though on the same ground, are not on the same plan.
+[625]
+
+[621] N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 708.
+
+[622] Abercromby to Barrington, 12 July, 1758. "At least eight feet
+high." Rogers, Journals, 116.
+
+[623] A Swiss officer of the Royal Americans, writing on the 14th, says
+that there were two, and in some parts three, rows of loopholes. See the
+letter in Pennsylvania Archives, III. 472.
+
+[624] Colonel Oliver Partridge to his Wife, 12 July, 1758.
+
+[625] A new line of works was begun four days after the battle, to
+replace the log breastwork. Malartic, Journal. Travaux faits à Carillon,
+1758.
+
+Here, then, was a position which, if attacked in front with musketry
+alone, might be called impregnable. But would Abercromby so attack it?
+He had several alternatives. He might attempt the flank and rear of his
+enemy by way of the low grounds on the right and left of the plateau, a
+movement which the precautions of Montcalm had made difficult, but not
+impossible. Or, instead of leaving his artillery idle on the strand
+of Lake George, he might bring it to the front and batter the
+breastwork, which, though impervious to musketry, was worthless against
+heavy cannon. Or he might do what Burgoyne did with success a score of
+years later, and plant a battery on the heights of Rattlesnake Hill, now
+called Mount Defiance, which commanded the position of the French, and
+whence the inside of their breastwork could be scoured with round-shot
+from end to end. Or, while threatening the French front with a part of
+his army, he could march the rest a short distance through the woods on
+his left to the road which led from Ticonderoga to Crown Point, and
+which would soon have brought him to the place called Five-Mile Point,
+where Lake Champlain narrows to the width of an easy rifle-shot, and
+where a battery of field-pieces would have cut off all Montcalm's
+supplies and closed his only way of retreat. As the French were
+provisioned for but eight days, their position would thus have been
+desperate. They plainly saw the danger; and Doreil declares that had the
+movement been made, their whole army must have surrendered. [626]
+Montcalm had done what he could; but the danger of his position was
+inevitable and extreme. His hope lay in Abercromby; and it was a hope
+well founded. The action of the English general answered the utmost
+wishes of his enemy.
+
+[626] Doreil au Ministre, 28 Juillet, 1758. The Chevalier Johnstone
+thought that Montcalm was saved by Abercromby's ignorance of the ground.
+A Dialogue in Hades (Quebec Historical Society).
+
+Abercromby had been told by his prisoners that Montcalm had six thousand
+men, and that three thousand more were expected every hour. Therefore he
+was in haste to attack before these succors could arrive. As was the
+general, so was the army. "I believe," writes an officer, "we were one
+and all infatuated by a notion of carrying every obstacle by a mere coup
+de mousqueterie." [627] Leadership perished with Lord Howe, and nothing
+was left but blind, headlong valor.
+
+[627] See the letter in Knox, I. 148.
+
+Clerk, chief engineer, was sent to reconnoitre the French works from
+Mount Defiance; and came back with the report that, to judge from what
+he could see, they might be carried by assault. Then, without waiting to
+bring up his cannon, Abercromby prepared to storm the lines.
+
+The French finished their breastwork and abattis on the evening of the
+seventh, encamped behind them, slung their kettles, and rested after
+their heavy toil. Lévis had not yet appeared; but at twilight one of his
+officers, Captain Pouchot, arrived with three hundred regulars, and
+announced that his commander would come before morning with a hundred
+more. The reinforcement, though small, was welcome, and Lévis was a host
+in himself. Pouchot was told that the army was half a mile off. Thither
+he repaired, made his report to Montcalm, and looked with amazement at
+the prodigious amount of work accomplished in one day. [628] Lévis
+himself arrived in the course of the night, and approved the arrangement
+of the troops. They lay behind their lines till daybreak; then the drums
+beat, and they formed in order of battle. [629] The battalions of La
+Sarre and Languedoc were posted on the left, under Bourlamaque, the
+first battalion of Berry with that of Royal Roussillon in the centre,
+under Montcalm, and those of La Reine, Béarn, and Guienne on the right,
+under Lévis. A detachment of volunteers occupied the low grounds between
+the breastwork and the outlet of Lake George; while, at the foot of the
+declivity on the side towards Lake Champlain, were stationed four
+hundred and fifty colony regulars and Canadians, behind an abattis which
+they had made for themselves; and as they were covered by the cannon of
+the fort, there was some hope that they would check any flank movement
+which the English might attempt on that side. Their posts being thus
+assigned, the men fell to work again to strengthen their defences.
+Including those who came with Lévis, the total force of effective
+soldiers was now thirty-six hundred. [630]
+
+[628] Pouchot, I. 137.
+
+[629] Livre d'Ordres, Disposition de Défense des Retranchements, 8
+Juillet, 1758.
+
+[630] Montcalm, Relation de la Victoire remportée à Carillon, 8 Juillet,
+1758. Vaudreuil puts the number at 4,760, besides officers, which
+includes the garrison and laborers at the fort. Vaudreuil au Ministre,
+28 Juillet, 1758.
+
+Soon after nine o'clock a distant and harmless fire of small-arms began
+on the slopes of Mount Defiance. It came from a party of Indians who had
+just arrived with Sir William Johnson, and who, after amusing themselves
+in this manner for a time, remained for the rest of the day safe
+spectators of the fight. The soldiers worked undisturbed till noon, when
+volleys of musketry were heard from the forest in front. It was the
+English light troops driving in the French pickets. A cannon was fired
+as a signal to drop tools and form for battle. The white uniforms lined
+the breastwork in a triple row, with the grenadiers behind them as a
+reserve, and the second battalion of Berry watching the flanks and rear.
+
+Meanwhile the English army had moved forward from its camp by the
+saw-mill. First came the rangers, the light infantry, and Bradstreet's
+armed boatmen, who, emerging into the open space, began a spattering
+fire. Some of the provincial troops followed, extending from left to
+right, and opening fire in turn; then the regulars, who had formed in
+columns of attack under cover of the forest, advanced their solid red
+masses into the sunlight, and passing through the intervals between the
+provincial regiments, pushed forward to the assault. Across the rough
+ground, with its maze of fallen trees whose leaves hung withering in the
+July sun, they could see the top of the breastwork, but not the men
+behind it; when, in an instant, all the line was obscured by a gush of
+smoke, a crash of exploding firearms tore the air, and grapeshot and
+musket-balls swept the whole space like a tempest; "a damnable fire,"
+says an officer who heard them screaming about his ears. The English had
+been ordered to carry the works with the bayonet; but their ranks were
+broken by the obstructions through which they struggled in vain to force
+their way, and they soon began to fire in turn. The storm raged in full
+fury for an hour. The assailants pushed close to the breastwork; but
+there they were stopped by the bristling mass of sharpened branches,
+which they could not pass under the murderous cross-fires that swept
+them from front and flank. At length they fell back, exclaiming that the
+works were impregnable. Abercromby, who was at the saw-mill, a mile and
+a half in the rear, sent order to attack again, and again they came on
+as before.
+
+The scene was frightful: masses of infuriated men who could not go
+forward and would not go back; straining for an enemy they could not
+reach, and firing on an enemy they could not see; caught in the
+entanglement of fallen trees; tripped by briers, stumbling over logs,
+tearing through boughs; shouting, yelling, cursing, and pelted all the
+while with bullets that killed them by scores, stretched them on the
+ground, or hung them on jagged branches in strange attitudes of death.
+The provincials supported the regulars with spirit, and some of them
+forced their way to the foot of the wooden wall.
+
+The French fought with the intrepid gayety of their nation, and shouts
+of Vive le Roi! and Vive notre Général! mingled with the din of
+musketry. Montcalm, with his coat off, for the day was hot, directed the
+defence of the centre, and repaired to any part of the line where the
+danger for the time seemed greatest. He is warm in praise of
+his enemy, and declares that between one and seven o'clock they attacked
+him six successive times. Early in the action Abercromby tried to turn
+the French left by sending twenty bateaux, filled with troops, down the
+outlet of Lake George. They were met by the fire of the volunteers
+stationed to defend the low grounds on that side, and, still advancing,
+came within range of the cannon of the fort, which sank two of them and
+drove back the rest.
+
+A curious incident happened during one of the attacks. De Bassignac, a
+captain in the battalion of Royal Roussillon, tied his handkerchief to
+the end of a musket and waved it over the breastwork in defiance. The
+English mistook it for a sign of surrender, and came forward with all
+possible speed, holding their muskets crossed over their heads in both
+hands, and crying Quarter. The French made the same mistake; and
+thinking that their enemies were giving themselves up as prisoners,
+ceased firing, and mounted on the top of the breastwork to receive them.
+Captain Pouchot, astonished, as he says, to see them perched there,
+looked out to learn the cause, and saw that the enemy meant anything but
+surrender. Whereupon he shouted with all his might: "Tirez! Tirez! Ne
+voyez-vous pas que ces gens-là vont vous enlever?" The soldiers, still
+standing on the breastwork, instantly gave the English a volley, which
+killed some of them, and sent back the rest discomfited. [631]
+
+[631] Pouchot, I. 153. Both Niles and Entick mention the incident.
+
+This was set to the account of Gallic treachery. "Another deceit the
+enemy put upon us," says a military letter-writer: "they raised their
+hats above the breastwork, which our people fired at; they, having
+loopholes to fire through, and being covered by the sods, we did them
+little damage, except shooting their hats to pieces." [632] In one of
+the last assaults a soldier of the Rhode Island regiment, William Smith,
+managed to get through all obstructions and ensconce himself close under
+the breastwork, where in the confusion he remained for a time unnoticed,
+improving his advantages meanwhile by shooting several Frenchmen. Being
+at length observed, a soldier fired vertically down upon him and wounded
+him severely, but not enough to prevent his springing up, striking at
+one of his enemies over the top of the wall, and braining him with his
+hatchet. A British officer who saw the feat, and was struck by the
+reckless daring of the man, ordered two regulars to bring him off;
+which, covered by a brisk fire of musketry, they succeeded in doing. A
+letter from the camp two or three weeks later reports him as in a fair
+way to recover, being, says the writer, much braced and invigorated by
+his anger against the French, on whom he was swearing to have his
+revenge. [633]
+
+[632] Letter from Saratoga, 12 July, 1758, in New Hampshire Gazette.
+Compare Pennsylvania Archives, III. 474.
+
+[633] Letter from Lake George, 26 July, 1758, in Boston Gazette. The
+story is given, without much variation, in several other letters.
+
+Toward five o'clock two English columns joined in a most determined
+assault on the extreme right of the French, defended by the battalions
+of Guienne and Béarn. The danger for a time was imminent. Montcalm
+hastened to the spot with the reserves. The assailants hewed their way
+to the foot of the breastwork; and though again and again repulsed, they
+again and again renewed the attack. The Highlanders fought with stubborn
+and unconquerable fury. "Even those who were mortally wounded," writes
+one of their lieutenants, "cried to their companions not to lose a
+thought upon them, but to follow their officers and mind the honor of
+their country. Their ardor was such that it was difficult to bring them
+off." [634] Their major, Campbell of Inverawe, found his foreboding
+true. He received a mortal shot, and his clansmen bore him from the
+field. Twenty-five of their officers were killed or wounded, and half
+the men fell under the deadly fire that poured from the loopholes.
+Captain John Campbell and a few followers tore their way through the
+abattis, climbed the breastwork, leaped down among the French, and were
+bayoneted there. [635]
+
+[634] Letter of Lieutenant William Grant, in Maclachlan's Highlands, II.
+340 (ed. 1875).
+
+[635] Ibid., II. 339.
+
+As the colony troops and Canadians on the low ground were left
+undisturbed, Lévis sent them an order to make a sortie and attack the
+left flank of the charging columns. They accordingly posted themselves
+among the trees along the declivity, and fired upwards at the enemy, who
+presently shifted their position to the right, out of the line of shot.
+The assault still continued, but in vain; and at six there was another
+effort, equally fruitless. From this time till half-past seven a
+lingering fight was kept up by the rangers and other provincials, firing
+from the edge of the woods and from behind the stumps, bushes, and
+fallen trees in front of the lines. Its only objects were to cover their
+comrades, who were collecting and bringing off the wounded, and to
+protect the retreat of the regulars, who fell back in disorder to the
+Falls. As twilight came on, the last combatant withdrew, and none were
+left but the dead. Abercromby had lost in killed, wounded, and missing,
+nineteen hundred and forty-four officers and men. [636] The loss of the
+French, not counting that of Langy's detachment, was three hundred and
+seventy-seven. Bourlamaque was dangerously wounded; Bougainville
+slightly; and the hat of Lévis was twice shot through. [637]
+
+[636] See Appendix G.
+
+[637] Lévis au Ministre, 13 Juillet, 1758
+
+Montcalm, with a mighty load lifted from his soul, passed along the
+lines, and gave the tired soldiers the thanks they nobly deserved. Beer,
+wine, and food were served out to them, and they bivouacked for the
+night on the level ground between the breastwork and the fort. The enemy
+had met a terrible rebuff; yet the danger was not over. Abercromby still
+had more than thirteen thousand men, and he might renew the attack with
+cannon. But, on the morning of the ninth, a band of volunteers who had
+gone out to watch him brought back the report that he was in full
+retreat. The saw-mill at the Falls was on fire, and the last English
+soldier was gone. On the morning of the tenth, Lévis, with a strong
+detachment, followed the road to the landing-place, and found signs that
+a panic had overtaken the defeated troops. They had left behind several
+hundred barrels of provisions and a large quantity of baggage; while in
+a marshy place that they had crossed was found a considerable number of
+their shoes, which had stuck in the mud, and which they had not stopped
+to recover. They had embarked on the morning after the battle, and
+retreated to the head of the lake in a disorder and dejection wofully
+contrasted with the pomp of their advance. A gallant army was sacrificed
+by the blunders of its chief.
+
+Montcalm announced his victory to his wife in a strain of exaggeration
+that marks the exaltation of his mind. "Without Indians, almost without
+Canadians or colony troops,--I had only four hundred,--alone with Lévis
+and Bourlamaque and the troops of the line, thirty-one hundred fighting
+men, I have beaten an army of twenty-five thousand. They repassed the
+lake precipitately, with a loss of at least five thousand. This glorious
+day does infinite honor to the valor of our battalions. I have no time
+to write more. I am well, my dearest, and I embrace you." And he wrote
+to his friend Doreil: "The army, the too-small army of the King, has
+beaten the enemy. What a day for France! If I had had two hundred
+Indians to send out at the head of a thousand picked men under the
+Chevalier de Lévis, not many would have escaped. Ah, my dear Doreil,
+what soldiers are ours! I never saw the like. Why were they not at
+Louisbourg?"
+
+On the morrow of his victory he caused a great cross to be planted on
+the battle-field, inscribed with these lines, composed by the
+soldier-scholar himself,--
+
+"Quid dux? quid miles? quid strata ingentia ligna?
+ En Signum! en victor! Deus hîc, Deus ipse triumphat."
+
+"Soldier and chief and rampart's strength are nought;
+ Behold the conquering Cross! 'T is God the triumph wrought." [638]
+
+[638] Along with the above paraphrase I may give that of Montcalm
+himself, which was also inscribed on the cross:--
+
+   "Chrétien! ce ne fut point Montcalm et la prudence,
+       Ces arbres renversés, ces héros, leurs exploits,
+    Qui des Anglais confus ont brisé l'espérance;
+       C'est le bras de ton Dieu, vainqueur sur cette croix."
+
+In the same letter in which Montcalm sent these lines to his mother he
+says: "Je vous envoie, pour vous amuser, deux chansons sur le combat du
+8 Juillet, dont l'une est en style des poissardes de Paris." One of
+these songs, which were written by soldiers after the battle, begins,--
+
+   "Je chante des François
+    La valeur et la gloire,
+    Qui toujours sur l'Anglois
+    Remportent la victoire.
+    Ce sont des héros,
+    Tous nos généraux,
+    Et Montcalm et Lévis,
+    Et Bourlamaque aussi.
+
+   "Mars, qui les engendra   
+    Pour l'honneur de la France,
+    D'abord les anima
+    De sa haute vaillance,
+    Et les transporta
+    Dans le Canada,
+    Où l'on voit les François
+    Culbuter les Anglois."
+
+The other effusion of the military muse is in a different strain, "en
+style des poissardes de Paris." The following is a specimen, given
+literatim:--
+
+   "L'aumônier fit l'exhortation,
+    Puis il donnit l'absolution;
+    Aisément cela se peut croire.
+    Enfants, dit-il, animez-vous!
+    L'bon Dieu, sa mère, tout est pour vous.
+S--é! j'sommes catholiques. Les Anglois sont des hérétiques.
+
+"Ce sont des chiens; à coups d'pieds, a coups d'poings faut leur casser
+la gueule et la mâchoire."
+
+   "Soldats, officiers, généraux,
+    Chacun en ce jour fut héros.
+    Aisément cela se peut croire.
+    Montcalm, comme défunt Annibal,
+    S'montroit soldat et général.
+S--é! sil y avoit quelqu'un qui ne l'aimit point!"
+
+"Je veux être un chien; à coups d'pieds, a coups d'poings, j'lui
+cass'rai la gueule et la mâchoire."
+
+This is an allusion to Vaudreuil. On the battle of Ticonderoga, see
+Appendix G.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+1758.
+
+FORT FRONTENAC.
+
+The Routed Army • Indignation at Abercromby • John Cleaveland and his
+Brother Chaplains • Regulars and Provincials • Provincial Surgeons •
+French Raids • Rogers defeats Marin • Adventures of Putnam • Expedition
+of Bradstreet • Capture of Fort Frontenac.
+
+The rashness of Abercromby before the fight was matched by his
+poltroonery after it. Such was his terror that on the evening of his
+defeat he sent an order to Colonel Cummings, commanding at Fort William
+Henry, to send all the sick and wounded and all the heavy artillery to
+New York without delay. [639] He himself followed so closely upon this
+disgraceful missive that Cummings had no time to obey it.
+
+[639] Cunningham, aide-de-camp of Abercromby, to Cummings, 8 July, 1758.
+
+The defeated and humbled troops proceeded to reoccupy the ground they
+had left a few days before in the flush of confidence and pride; and
+young Colonel Williams, of Massachusetts, lost no time in sending the
+miserable story to his uncle Israel. His letter, which is dated "Lake
+George (sorrowful situation), July ye 11th," ends thus: "I have told
+facts; you may put the epithets upon them. In one word, what with
+fatigue, want of sleep, exercise of mind, and leaving the place we went
+to capture, the best part of the army is unhinged. I have told enough to
+make you sick, if the relation acts on you as the facts have on me."
+
+In the routed army was the sturdy John Cleaveland, minister of Ipswich,
+and now chaplain of Bagley's Massachusetts regiment, who regarded the
+retreat with a disgust that was shared by many others. "This day," he
+writes in his Diary, at the head of Lake George, two days after the
+battle, "wherever I went I found people, officers and soldiers,
+astonished that we left the French ground, and commenting on the strange
+conduct in coming off." From this time forth the provincials called
+their commander Mrs. Nabbycromby. [640] He thought of nothing but
+fortifying himself. "Towards evening," continues the chaplain, "the
+General, with his Rehoboam counsellors, came over to line out a fort on
+the rocky hill where our breastwork was last year. Now we begin to think
+strongly that the grand expedition against Canada is laid aside, and a
+foundation made totally to impoverish our country." The whole army was
+soon intrenched. The chaplain of Bagley's, with his brother Ebenezer,
+chaplain of another regiment, one day walked round the camp and
+carefully inspected it. The tour proved satisfactory to the militant
+divines, and John Cleaveland reported to his wife: "We have built an
+extraordinary good breastwork, sufficient to defend ourselves against
+twenty thousand of the enemy, though at present we have not above a
+third part of that number fit for duty." Many of the troops had been
+sent to the Mohawk, and others to the Hudson.
+
+[640] Trumbull, Hist. Connecticut, II. 392. "Nabby" (Abigail) was then a
+common female name in New England.
+
+In the regiment of which Cleaveland was chaplain there was a young
+surgeon from Danvers, Dr. Caleb Rea, who also kept a copious diary, and,
+being of a serious turn, listened with edification to the prayers and
+exhortations to which the yeoman soldiery were daily summoned. In his
+zeal, he made an inquest among them for singers, and chose the most
+melodious to form a regimental choir, "the better to carry on the daily
+service of singing psalms;" insomuch that the New England camp was vocal
+with rustic harmony, sincere, if somewhat nasal. These seemly
+observances were not inconsistent with a certain amount of disorder
+among the more turbulent spirits, who, removed from the repressive
+influence of tight-laced village communities, sometimes indulged in
+conduct which grieved the conscientious surgeon. The rural New England
+of that time, with its narrowness, its prejudices, its oddities, its
+combative energy, and rugged, unconquerable strength, is among the
+things of the past, or lingers in remote corners where the whistle of
+the locomotive is never heard. It has spread itself in swarming millions
+over half a continent, changing with changing conditions; and even the
+part of it that clings to the ancestral hive has transformed and
+continues to transform itself.
+
+The provincials were happy in their chaplains, among whom there reigned
+a marvellous harmony, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and
+Congregationalists meeting twice a week to hold prayer-meetings
+together. "A rare instance indeed," says Dr. Rea, "and perhaps scarce
+ever was an army blessed with such a set of chaplains before." On one
+occasion, just before the fatal expedition, nine of them, after prayers
+and breakfast, went together to call upon the General. "He treated us
+very kindly," says the chaplain of Bagley's, "and told us that he hoped
+we would teach the people to do their duty and be courageous; and told
+us a story of a chaplain in Germany, where he was, who just before the
+action told the soldiers he had not time to say much, and therefore
+should only say: 'Be courageous; for no cowards go to heaven.' The
+General treated us to a bowl of punch and a bottle of wine, and then we
+took our leave of him." [641]
+
+[641] For the use of the Diary of Chaplain Cleaveland, as well as of his
+letters to his wife, I am indebted to the kindness of Miss Abby E.
+Cleaveland, his descendant.
+
+When Cleaveland and the more gifted among his brethren preached of a
+Sunday, officers and men of the regulars, no less than the provincials,
+came to listen; yet that pious Sabbatarian, Dr. Rea, saw much to afflict
+his conscience. "Sad, sad it is to see how the Sabbath is profaned in
+the camp," above all by "the horrid custom of swearing, more especially
+among the regulars; and I can't but charge our defeat on this sin."
+
+It would have been well had the harmony that prevailed among the
+chaplains found its counterpart among the men of the sword; but between
+the British regular officers and those of the provinces there was
+anything but an equal brotherhood. It is true that Pitt, in the spirit
+of conciliation which he always showed towards the colonies, had
+procured a change in the regulations concerning the relative rank of
+British and provincial officers, thus putting them in a position much
+nearer equality; but this, while appeasing the provincials, seems to
+have annoyed the others. Till the campaign was nearly over, not a single
+provincial colonel had been asked to join in a council of war; and,
+complains Cleaveland, "they know no more of what is to be done than a
+sergeant, till the orders come out." Of the British officers, the
+greater part had seen but little active service. Most of them were men
+of family, exceedingly prejudiced and insular, whose knowledge of the
+world was limited to certain classes of their own countrymen, and who
+looked down on all others, whether domestic or foreign. Towards the
+provincials their attitude was one of tranquil superiority, though its
+tranquillity was occasionally disturbed by what they regarded as absurd
+pretension on the part of the colony officers. One of them gave vent to
+his feelings in an article in the London Chronicle, in which he advanced
+the very reasonable proposition that "a farmer is not to be taken from
+the plough and made an officer in a day;" and he was answered
+wrathfully, at great length, in the Boston Evening Post, by a writer
+signing himself "A New England Man." The provincial officers, on the
+other hand, and especially those of New England, being no less narrow
+and prejudiced, filled with a sensitive pride and a jealous local
+patriotism, and bred up in a lofty appreciation of the merits and
+importance of their country, regarded British superciliousness with a
+resentment which their strong love for England could not overcome. This
+feeling was far from being confined to the officers. A provincial
+regiment stationed at Half-Moon, on the Hudson, thought itself affronted
+by Captain Cruikshank, a regular officer; and the men were so incensed
+that nearly half of them went off in a body. The deportment of British
+officers in the Seven Years War no doubt had some part in hastening on
+the Revolution.
+
+What with levelling Montcalm's siege works, planting palisades, and
+grubbing up stumps in their bungling and laborious way, the regulars
+found abundant occupation. Discipline was stiff and peremptory. The
+wooden horse and the whipping-post were conspicuous objects in the camp,
+and often in use. Caleb Rea, being tender-hearted, never went to see the
+lash laid on; for, as he quaintly observes, "the cries were satisfactory
+to me, without the sight of the strokes." He and the rest of the doctors
+found active exercise for such skill as they had, since fever and
+dysentery were making scarcely less havoc than the bullets at
+Ticonderoga. This came from the bad state of the camps and unwholesome
+food. The provincial surgeons seem to have been very little impressed
+with the importance of sanitary regulations, and to have thought it
+their business not to prevent disease, but only to cure it. The one
+grand essential in their eyes was a well-stocked medicine-chest, rich in
+exhaustless stores of rhubarb, ipecacuanha, and calomel. Even this
+sometimes failed. Colonel Williams reports "the sick destitute of
+everything proper for them; medicine-chest empty; nothing but their
+dirty blankets for beds; Dr. Ashley dead, Dr. Wright gone home, low
+enough; Bille worn off his legs,--such is our case. I have near a
+hundred sick. Lost a sergeant and a private last night." [642] Chaplain
+Cleaveland himself, though strong of frame, did not escape; but he found
+solace in his trouble from the congenial society of a brother chaplain,
+Mr. Emerson, of New Hampshire, "a right-down hearty Christian minister,
+of savory conversation," who came to see him in his tent, breakfasted
+with him, and joined him in prayer. Being somewhat better, he one day
+thought to recreate himself with the apostolic occupation of fishing.
+The sport was poor; the fish bit slowly; and as he lay in his boat,
+still languid with his malady, he had leisure to reflect on the
+contrasted works of Providence and man,--the bright lake basking amid
+its mountains, a dream of wilderness beauty, and the swarms of harsh
+humanity on the shore beside him, with their passions, discords, and
+miseries. But it was with the strong meat of Calvinistic theology, and
+not with reveries like these, that he was accustomed to nourish his
+military flock.
+
+[642] Colonel William Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, 4 Sept. 1758.
+
+While at one end of the lake the force of Abercromby was diminished by
+detachments and disease, that of Montcalm at the other was so increased
+by reinforcements that a forward movement on his part seemed possible.
+He contented himself, however, with strengthening the fort,
+reconstructing the lines that he had defended so well, and sending out
+frequent war-parties by way of Wood Creek and South Bay, to harass
+Abercromby's communications with Fort Edward. These parties, some of
+which consisted of several hundred men, were generally more or less
+successful; and one of them, under La Corne, surprised and destroyed a
+large wagon train escorted by forty soldiers. When Abercromby heard of
+it, he ordered Rogers, with a strong detachment of provincials, light
+infantry, and rangers, to go down the lake in boats, cross the mountains
+to the narrow waters of Lake Champlain, and cut off the enemy. But
+though Rogers set out at two in the morning, the French retreated so
+fast that he arrived too late. As he was on his way back, he was met by
+a messenger from the General with orders to intercept other French
+parties reported to be hovering about Fort Edward. On this he retraced
+his steps, marched through the forest to where Whitehall now stands, and
+thence made his way up Wood Creek to old Fort Anne, a relic of former
+wars, abandoned and falling to decay. Here, on the neglected "clearing"
+that surrounded the ruin, his followers encamped. They counted seven
+hundred in all, and consisted of about eighty rangers, a body of
+Connecticut men under Major Putnam, and a small regular force, chiefly
+light infantry, under Captain Dalzell, the brave officer who was
+afterwards killed by Pontiac's warriors at Detroit.
+
+Up to this time Rogers had observed his usual caution, commanding
+silence on the march, and forbidding fires at night; but, seeing no
+signs of an enemy, he forgot himself; and on the following morning, the
+eighth of August, he and Lieutenant Irwin, of the light infantry, amused
+themselves by firing at a mark on a wager. The shots reached the ears of
+four hundred and fifty French and Indians under the famous partisan
+Marin, who at once took steps to reconnoitre and ambuscade his rash
+enemy. For nearly a mile from the old fort the forest had formerly been
+cut down and burned; and Nature had now begun to reassert herself,
+covering the open tract with a dense growth of bushes and saplings
+almost impervious to anything but a wild-cat, had it not been traversed
+by a narrow Indian path. Along this path the men were forced to march in
+single file. At about seven o'clock, when the two marksmen had decided
+their bet, and before the heavy dew of the night was dried upon the
+bushes, the party slung their packs and set out. Putnam was in the front
+with his Connecticut men; Dalzell followed with the regulars; and
+Rogers, with his rangers, brought up the rear of the long and slender
+line. Putnam himself led the way, shouldering through the bushes, gun in
+hand; and just as the bluff yeoman emerged from them to enter the
+forest-growth beyond, the air was rent with yells, the thickets before
+him were filled with Indians, and one of them, a Caughnawaga chief,
+sprang upon him, hatchet in hand. He had time to cock his gun and snap
+it at the breast of his assailant; but it missed fire, and he was
+instantly seized and dragged back into the forest, as were also a
+lieutenant named Tracy and three private men. Then the firing began. The
+French and Indians, lying across the path in a semicircle, had the
+advantage of position and surprise. The Connecticut men fell back among
+the bushes in disorder; but soon rallied, and held the enemy in check
+while Dalzell and Rogers--the latter of whom was nearly a mile
+behind--were struggling through briers and thickets to their aid. So
+close was the brushwood that it was full half an hour before they could
+get their followers ranged in some kind of order in front of the enemy;
+and even then each man was forced to fight for himself as best he could.
+Humphreys, the biographer of Putnam, blames Rogers severely for not
+coming at once to the aid of the Connecticut men; but two of their
+captains declare that he came with all possible speed; while a regular
+officer present highly praised him to Abercromby for cool and
+officer-like conduct. [643] As a man his deserts were small; as a
+bushfighter he was beyond reproach.
+
+[643] Letter from the Camp at Lake George, 5 Sept. 1758, signed by
+Captains Maynard and Giddings, and printed in the Boston Weekly
+Advertiser. "Rogers deserves much to be commended." Abercromby to Pitt,
+19 Aug. 1758.
+
+Another officer recounts from hearsay the remarkable conduct of an
+Indian, who sprang into the midst of the English and killed two of them
+with his hatchet; then mounted on a log and defied them all. One of the
+regulars tried to knock him down with the butt of his musket; but though
+the blow made him bleed, he did not fall, and would have killed his
+assailant if Rogers had not shot him dead. [644] The firing lasted about
+two hours. At length some of the Canadians gave way, and the rest of the
+French and Indians followed. [645] They broke into small parties to
+elude pursuit, and reuniting towards evening, made their bivouac on a
+spot surrounded by impervious swamps.
+
+[644] Thomas Barnsley to Bouquet, 7 Sept. 1758.
+
+[645] Doreil au Ministre, 31 Août, 1757.
+
+Rogers remained on the field and buried all his own dead, forty-nine in
+number. Then he resumed his march to Fort Edward, carrying the wounded
+on litters of branches till the next day, when he met a detachment
+coming with wagons to his relief. A party sent out soon after for the
+purpose reported that they had found and buried more than a hundred
+French and Indians. From this time forward the war-parties from
+Ticonderoga greatly relented in their activity.
+
+The adventures of the captured Putnam were sufficiently remarkable. The
+Indians, after dragging him to the rear, lashed him fast to a tree so
+that he could not move a limb, and a young savage amused himself by
+throwing a hatchet at his head, striking it into the wood as close as
+possible to the mark without hitting it. A French petty officer then
+thrust the muzzle of his gun violently against the prisoner's body,
+pretended to fire it at him, and at last struck him in the face with the
+butt; after which dastardly proceeding he left him. The French and
+Indians being forced after a time to fall back, Putnam found himself
+between the combatants and exposed to bullets from both sides; but the
+enemy, partially recovering the ground they had lost, unbound him, and
+led him to a safe distance from the fight. When the retreat began, the
+Indians hurried him along with them, stripped of coat, waistcoat, shoes,
+and stockings, his back burdened with as many packs of the wounded as
+could be piled upon it, and his wrists bound so tightly together that
+the pain became intense. In his torment he begged them to kill him; on
+which a French officer who was near persuaded them to untie his hands
+and take off some of the packs, and the chief who had captured him gave
+him a pair of moccasons to protect his lacerated feet. When they
+encamped at night, they prepared to burn him alive, stripped him naked,
+tied him to a tree, and gathered dry wood to pile about him. A sudden
+shower of rain interrupted their pastime; but when it was over they
+began again, and surrounded him with a circle of brushwood which they
+set on fire. As they were yelling and dancing their delight at the
+contortions with which he tried to avoid the rising flames, Marin,
+hearing what was going forward, broke through the crowd, and with a
+courageous humanity not too common among Canadian officers, dashed aside
+the burning brush, untied the prisoner, and angrily upbraided his
+tormentors. He then restored him to the chief who had captured him, and
+whose right of property in his prize the others had failed to respect.
+The Caughnawaga treated him at first with kindness; but, with the help
+of his tribesmen, took effectual means to prevent his escape, by laying
+him on his back, stretching his arms and legs in the form of a St.
+Andrew's cross, and binding the wrists and ankles fast to the stems of
+young trees. This was a mode of securing prisoners in vogue among
+Indians from immemorial time; but, not satisfied with it, they placed
+brushwood upon his body, and then laid across it the long slender stems
+of saplings, on the ends of which several warriors lay down to sleep, so
+that the slightest movement on his part would rouse them. Thus he passed
+a night of misery, which did not prevent him from thinking of the
+ludicrous figure he made in the hands of the tawny Philistines.
+
+On the next night, after a painful march, he reached Ticonderoga, where
+he was questioned by Montcalm, and afterwards sent to Montreal in charge
+of a French officer, who showed him the utmost kindness. On arriving,
+wofully tattered, bruised, scorched, and torn, he found a friend in
+Colonel Schuyler, himself a prisoner on parole, who helped him in his
+need, and through whose good offices the future major-general of the
+Continental Army was included in the next exchange of prisoners. [646]
+
+[646] On Putnam's adventures, Humphreys, 57 (1818). He had the story
+from Putnam himself, and seems to give it with substantial correctness,
+though his account of the battle is at several points erroneous. The
+"Molang" of his account is Marin. On the battle, besides authorities
+already cited, Recollections of Thomson Maxwell, a soldier present
+(Essex Institute, VII. 97). Rogers, Journals, 117. Letter from camp in
+Boston Gazette, no. 117. Another in New Hampshire Gazette, no. 104.
+Gentleman's Magazine, 1758, p. 498. Malartic, Journal du Régiment de
+Béarn. Lévis, Journal de la Guerre en Canada. The French notices of the
+affair are few and brief. They admit a defeat, but exaggerate the force
+and the losses of the English, and underrate their own. Malartic,
+however, says that Marin set out with four hundred men, and was soon
+after joined by an additional number of Indians; which nearly answers to
+the best English accounts.
+
+The petty victory over Marin was followed by a more substantial success.
+Early in September Abercromby's melancholy camp was cheered with the
+tidings that the important French post of Fort Frontenac, which
+controlled Lake Ontario, which had baffled Shirley in his attempt
+against Niagara, and given Montcalm the means of conquering Oswego, had
+fallen into British hands. "This is a glorious piece of news, and may
+God have all the glory of the same!" writes Chaplain Cleaveland in his
+Diary. Lieutenant-Colonel Bradstreet had planned the stroke long before,
+and proposed it first to Loudon, and then to Abercromby. Loudon accepted
+it; but his successor received it coldly, though Lord Howe was warm in
+its favor. At length, under the pressure of a council of war, Abercromby
+consented that the attempt should be made, and gave Bradstreet three
+thousand men, nearly all provincials. With these he made his way, up the
+Mohawk and down the Onondaga, to the lonely and dismal spot where Oswego
+had once stood. By dint of much persuasion a few Oneidas joined him;
+though, like most of the Five Nations, they had been nearly lost to the
+English through the effects of the defeat at Ticonderoga. On the
+twenty-second of August his fleet of whaleboats and bateaux pushed out
+on Lake Ontario; and, three days after, landed near the French fort. On
+the night of the twenty-sixth Bradstreet made a lodgment within less
+than two hundred yards of it; and early in the morning De Noyan, the
+commandant, surrendered himself and his followers, numbering a hundred
+and ten soldiers and laborers, prisoners of war. With them were taken
+nine armed vessels, carrying from eight to eighteen guns, and forming
+the whole French naval force on Lake Ontario. The crews escaped. An
+enormous quantity of provisions, naval stores, munitions, and Indian
+goods intended for the supply of the western posts fell into the hands
+of the English, who kept what they could carry off, and burned the rest.
+In the fort were found sixty cannon and sixteen mortars, which the
+victors used to batter down the walls; and then, reserving a few of the
+best, knocked off the trunnions of the others. The Oneidas were bent on
+scalping some of the prisoners. Bradstreet forbade it. They begged that
+he would do as the French did,--turn his back and shut his eyes; but he
+forced them to abstain from all violence, and consoled them by a lion's
+share of the plunder. In accordance with the orders of Abercromby, the
+fort was dismantled, and all the buildings in or around it burned, as
+were also the vessels, except the two largest, which were reserved to
+carry off some of the captured goods. Then, with boats deeply laden, the
+detachment returned to Oswego; where, after unloading and burning the
+two vessels, they proceeded towards Albany, leaving a thousand of their
+number at the new fort which Brigadier Stanwix was building at the Great
+Carrying Place of the Mohawk.
+
+Next to Louisbourg, this was the heaviest blow that the French had yet
+received. Their command of Lake Ontario was gone. New France was cut in
+two; and unless the severed parts could speedily reunite, all the posts
+of the interior would be in imminent jeopardy. If Bradstreet had been
+followed by another body of men to reoccupy and rebuild Oswego, thus
+recovering a harbor on Lake Ontario, all the captured French vessels
+could have been brought thither, and the command of this inland sea
+assured at once. Even as it was, the advantages were immense. A host of
+savage warriors, thus far inclined to France or wavering between the two
+belligerents, stood henceforth neutral, or gave themselves to England;
+while Fort Duquesne, deprived of the supplies on which it depended,
+could make but faint resistance to its advancing enemy.
+
+Amherst, with five regiments from Louisbourg, came, early in October, to
+join Abercromby at Lake George, and the two commanders discussed the
+question of again attacking Ticonderoga. Both thought the season too
+late. A fortnight after, a deserter brought news that Montcalm was
+breaking up his camp. Abercromby followed his example. The opposing
+armies filed off each to its winter quarters, and only a few scouting
+parties kept alive the embers of war on the waters and mountains of Lake
+George.
+
+Meanwhile Brigadier Forbes was climbing the Alleghanies, hewing his way
+through the forests of western Pennsylvania, and toiling inch by inch
+towards his goal of Fort Duquesne. [647]
+
+[647] On the capture of Fort Frontenac, Bradstreet to Abercromby, 31
+Aug. 1758. Impartial Account of Lieutenant-Colonel Bradstreet's
+Expedition, by a Volunteer in the Expedition (London, 1759). Letter from
+a New York officer to his colonel, in Boston Gazette, no. 182. Several
+letters from persons in the expedition, in Boston Evening Post, no.
+1,203, New Hampshire Gazette, no. 104, and Boston News Letter, no.
+2,932. Abercromby to Pitt, 25 Nov. 1758. Lieutenant Macauley to Horatio
+Gates, 30 Aug. 1758. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 30 Oct. 1758. Pouchot, I.
+162. Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+1758.
+
+FORT DUQUESNE.
+
+Dinwiddie and Washington • Brigadier Forbes • His Army • Conflicting
+Views • Difficulties • Illness of Forbes • His Sufferings • His
+Fortitude • His Difference with Washington • Sir John Sinclair •
+Troublesome Allies • Scouting Parties • Boasts of Vaudreuil • Forbes and
+the Indians • Mission of Christian Frederic Post • Council of Peace •
+Second Mission of Post • Defeat of Grant • Distress of Forbes • Dark
+Prospects • Advance of the Army • Capture of the French Fort • The Slain
+of Braddock's Field • Death of Forbes.
+
+During the last year Loudon, filled with vain schemes against
+Louisbourg, had left the French scalping-parties to their work of havoc
+on the western borders. In Virginia Washington still toiled at his
+hopeless task of defending with a single regiment a forest frontier of
+more than three hundred miles; and in Pennsylvania the Assembly thought
+more of quarrelling with their governor than of protecting the tormented
+settlers. Fort Duquesne, the source of all the evil, was left
+undisturbed. In vain Washington urged the futility of defensive war, and
+the necessity of attacking the enemy in his stronghold. His position,
+trying at the best, was made more so by the behavior of Dinwiddie. That
+crusty Scotchman had conceived a dislike to him, and sometimes treated
+him in a manner that must have been unspeakably galling to the proud and
+passionate young man, who nevertheless, unconquerable in his sense of
+public duty, curbed himself to patience, or the semblance of it.
+
+Dinwiddie was now gone, and a new governor had taken his place. The
+conduct of the war, too, had changed, and in the plans of Pitt the
+capture of Fort Duquesne held an important place. Brigadier John Forbes
+was charged with it. He was a Scotch veteran, forty-eight years of age,
+who had begun life as a student of medicine, and who ended it as an able
+and faithful soldier. Though a well-bred man of the world, his tastes
+were simple; he detested ceremony, and dealt frankly and plainly with
+the colonists, who both respected and liked him. In April he was in
+Philadelphia waiting for his army, which as yet had no existence; for
+the provincials were not enlisted, and an expected battalion of
+Highlanders had not arrived. It was the end of June before they were all
+on the march; and meanwhile the General was attacked with a painful and
+dangerous malady, which would have totally disabled a less resolute man.
+
+His force consisted of provincials from Pennsylvania, Virginia,
+Maryland, and North Carolina, with twelve hundred Highlanders of
+Montgomery's regiment and a detachment of Royal Americans, amounting in
+all, with wagoners and camp followers, to between six and seven thousand
+men. The Royal American regiment was a new corps raised, in the
+colonies, largely from among the Germans of Pennsylvania. Its officers
+were from Europe; and conspicuous among them was Lieutenant-Colonel
+Henry Bouquet, a brave and accomplished Swiss, who commanded one of the
+four battalions of which the regiment was composed. Early in July he was
+encamped with the advance-guard at the hamlet of Raystown, now the town
+of Bedford, among the eastern heights of the Alleghanies. Here his tents
+were pitched in an opening of the forest by the banks of a small stream;
+and Virginians in hunting-shirts, Highlanders in kilt and plaid, and
+Royal Americans in regulation scarlet, labored at throwing up
+intrenchments and palisades, while around stood the silent mountains in
+their mantles of green.
+
+Now rose the question whether the army should proceed in a direct course
+to Fort Duquesne, hewing a new road through the forest, or march
+thirty-four miles to Fort Cumberland, and thence follow the road made by
+Braddock. It was the interest of Pennsylvania that Forbes should choose
+the former route, and of Virginia that he should choose the latter. The
+Old Dominion did not wish to see a highway cut for her rival to those
+rich lands of the Ohio which she called her own. Washington, who was
+then at Fort Cumberland with a part of his regiment, was earnest for the
+old road; and in an interview with Bouquet midway between that place and
+Raystown, he spared no effort to bring him to the same opinion. But the
+quartermaster-general, Sir John Sinclair, who was supposed to know the
+country, had advised the Pennsylvania route; and both Bouquet and Forbes
+were resolved to take it. It was shorter, and when once made would
+furnish readier and more abundant supplies of food and forage; but to
+make it would consume a vast amount of time and labor. Washington
+foretold the ruin of the expedition unless it took Braddock's road.
+Ardent Virginian as he was, there is no cause to believe that his
+decision was based on any but military reasons; but Forbes thought
+otherwise, and found great fault with him. Bouquet did him more justice.
+"Colonel Washington," he writes to the General, "is filled with a
+sincere zeal to aid the expedition, and is ready to march with equal
+activity by whatever way you choose."
+
+The fate of Braddock had impressed itself on all the army, and inspired
+a caution that was but too much needed; since, except Washington's men
+and a few others among the provincials, the whole, from general to
+drummer-boy, were total strangers to that insidious warfare of the
+forest in which their enemies, red and white, had no rival. Instead of
+marching, like Braddock, at one stretch for Fort Duquesne, burdened with
+a long and cumbrous baggage-train, it was the plan of Forbes to push on
+by slow stages, establishing fortified magazines as he went, and at
+last, when within easy distance of the fort, to advance upon it with all
+his force, as little impeded as possible with wagons and pack-horses. He
+bore no likeness to his predecessor, except in determined resolution,
+and he did not hesitate to embrace military heresies which would have
+driven Braddock to fury. To Bouquet, in whom he placed a well-merited
+trust, he wrote, "I have been long in your opinion of equipping numbers
+of our men like the savages, and I fancy Colonel Burd, of Virginia, has
+most of his best people equipped in that manner. In this country we must
+learn the art of war from enemy Indians, or anybody else who has seen it
+carried on here."
+
+His provincials displeased him, not without reason; for the greater part
+were but the crudest material for an army, unruly, and recalcitrant to
+discipline. Some of them came to the rendezvous at Carlisle with old
+province muskets, the locks tied on with a string; others brought
+fowling-pieces of their own, and others carried nothing but
+walking-sticks; while many had never fired a gun in their lives. [648]
+Forbes reported to Pitt that their officers, except a few in the higher
+ranks, were "an extremely bad collection of broken inn-keepers,
+horse-jockeys, and Indian traders;" nor is he more flattering towards
+the men, though as to some of them he afterwards changed his mind. [649]
+
+[648] Correspondence of Forbes and Bouquet, July, August, 1758.
+
+[649] Forbes to Pitt, 6 Sept. 1758.
+
+While Bouquet was with the advance at Raystown, Forbes was still in
+Philadelphia, trying to bring the army into shape, and collecting
+provisions, horses, and wagons; much vexed meantime by the Assembly,
+whose tedious disputes about taxing the proprietaries greatly obstructed
+the service. "No sergeant or quartermaster of a regiment," he says, "is
+obliged to look into more details than I am; and if I did not see to
+everything myself, we should never get out of this town." July had
+begun before he could reach the frontier village of Carlisle, where he
+found everything in confusion. After restoring some order, he wrote to
+Bouquet: "I have been and still am but poorly, with a cursed flux, but
+shall move day after to-morrow." He was doomed to disappointment; and it
+was not till the ninth of August that he sent another letter from the
+same place to the same military friend. "I am now able to write after
+three weeks of a most violent and tormenting distemper, which, thank
+God, seems now much abated as to pain, but has left me as weak as a
+new-born infant. However, I hope to have strength enough to set out from
+this place on Friday next." The disease was an inflammation of the
+stomach and other vital organs; and when he should have been in bed,
+with complete repose of body and mind, he was racked continually with
+the toils and worries of a most arduous campaign.
+
+He left Carlisle on the eleventh, carried on a kind of litter made of a
+hurdle slung between two horses; and two days later he wrote from
+Shippensburg: "My journey here from Carlisle raised my disorder and
+pains to so intolerable a degree that I was obliged to stop, and may not
+get away for a day or two." Again, on the eighteenth: "I am better, and
+partly free from the excruciating pain I suffered; but still so weak
+that I can scarce bear motion." He lay helpless at Shippensburg till
+September was well advanced. On the second he says: "I really cannot
+describe how I have suffered both in body and mind of late, and the
+relapses have been worse as the disappointment was greater;" and on the
+fourth, still writing to Bouquet, who in the camp at Raystown was
+struggling with many tribulations: "I am sorry you have met with so many
+cross accidents to vex you, and have such a parcel of scoundrels as the
+provincials to work with; mais le vin est tiré, and you must drop a
+little of the gentleman and treat them as they deserve. Seal and send
+off the enclosed despatch to Sir John by some sure hand. He is a very
+odd man, and I am sorry it has been my fate to have any concern with
+him. I am afraid our army will not admit of division, lest one half meet
+with a check; therefore I would consult Colonel Washington, though
+perhaps not follow his advice, as his behavior about the roads was
+noways like a soldier. I thank my good cousin for his letter, and have
+only to say that I have all my life been subject to err; but I now
+reform, as I go to bed at eight at night, if able to sit up so late."
+
+Nobody can read the letters of Washington at this time without feeling
+that the imputations of Forbes were unjust, and that here, as elsewhere,
+his ruling motive was the public good. [650] Forbes himself, seeing the
+rugged and difficult nature of the country, began to doubt whether after
+all he had not better have chosen the old road of Braddock. He soon had
+an interview with its chief advocates, the two Virginia colonels,
+Washington and Burd, and reported the result to Bouquet, adding: "I told
+them that, whatever they thought, I had acted on the best information to
+be had, and could safely say for myself, and believed I might answer for
+you, that the good of the service was all we had at heart, not valuing
+provincial interests, jealousies, or suspicions one single twopence." It
+must be owned that, considering the slow and sure mode of advance which
+he had wisely adopted, the old soldier was probably right in his choice;
+since before the army could reach Fort Duquesne, the autumnal floods
+would have made the Youghiogany and the Monongahela impassable.
+
+[650] Besides the printed letters, there is an autograph collection of
+his correspondence with Bouquet in 1758 (forming vol. 21,641, Additional
+Manuscripts, British Museum). Copies of the whole are before me.
+
+The Sir John mentioned by Forbes was the quartermaster-general, Sir John
+Sinclair, who had gone forward with Virginians and other troops from the
+camp of Bouquet to make the road over the main range of the Alleghanies,
+whence he sent back the following memorandum of his requirements:
+"Pickaxes, crows, and shovels; likewise more whiskey. Send me the
+newspapers, and tell my black to send me a candlestick and half a loaf
+of sugar." He was extremely inefficient; and Forbes, out of all patience
+with him, wrote confidentially to Bouquet that his only talent was for
+throwing everything into confusion. Yet he found fault with everybody
+else, and would discharge volleys of oaths at all who met his
+disapproval. From this cause or some other, Lieutenant-Colonel Stephen,
+of the Virginians, told him that he would break his sword rather than be
+longer under his orders. "As I had not sufficient strength," says
+Sinclair, "to take him by the neck from among his own men, I was obliged
+to let him have his own way, that I might not be the occasion of
+bloodshed." He succeeded at last in arresting him, and Major Lewis, of
+the same regiment, took his place.
+
+The aid of Indians as scouts and skirmishers was of the last importance
+to an army so weak in the arts of woodcraft, and efforts were made to
+engage the services of the friendly Cherokees and Catawbas, many of whom
+came to the camp, where their caprice, insolence, and rapacity tried to
+the utmost the patience of the commanders. That of Sir John Sinclair had
+already been overcome by his dealings with the provincial authorities;
+and he wrote in good French, at the tail of a letter to the Swiss
+colonel: "Adieu, my dear Bouquet. The greatest curse that our Lord can
+pronounce against the worst of sinners is to give them business to do
+with provincial commissioners and friendly Indians." A band of sixty
+warriors told Colonel Burd that they would join the army on condition
+that it went by Braddock's road. "This," wrote Forbes, on hearing of the
+proposal, "is a new system of military discipline truly, and shows that
+my good friend Burd is either made a cat's-foot of himself, or little
+knows me if he imagines that sixty scoundrels are to direct me in my
+measures." [651] Bouquet, with a pliant tact rarely seen in the born
+Briton, took great pains to please these troublesome allies, and went so
+far as to adopt one of them as his son. [652] A considerable number
+joined the army; but they nearly all went off when the stock of presents
+provided for them was exhausted.
+
+[651] The above extracts are from the Bouquet and Haldimand Papers,
+British Museum.
+
+[652] Bouquet to Forbes, 3 June, 1758.
+
+Forbes was in total ignorance of the strength and movements of the
+enemy. The Indians reported their numbers to be at least equal to his
+own; but nothing could be learned from them with certainty, by reason of
+their inveterate habit of lying. Several scouting-parties of whites were
+therefore sent forward, of which the most successful was that of a young
+Virginian officer, accompanied by a sergeant and five Indians. At a
+little distance from the French fort, the Indians stopped to paint
+themselves and practise incantations. The chief warrior of the party
+then took certain charms from an otter-skin bag and tied them about the
+necks of the other Indians. On that of the officer he hung the
+otter-skin itself; while to the sergeant he gave a small packet of paint
+from the same mystic receptacle. "He told us," reports the officer,
+"that none of us could be shot, for those things would turn the balls
+from us; and then shook hands with us, and told us to go and fight like
+men." Thus armed against fate, they mounted the high ground afterwards
+called Grant's Hill, where, covered by trees and bushes, they had a good 
+view of the fort, and saw plainly that the reports of the French force
+were greatly exaggerated. [653]
+
+[653] Journal of a Reconnoitring Party, Aug. 1758. The writer seems to
+have been Ensign Chew, of Washington's regiment.
+
+Meanwhile Bouquet's men pushed on the heavy work of road-making up the
+main range of the Alleghanies, and, what proved far worse, the parallel
+mountain ridge of Laurel Hill, hewing, digging, blasting, laying
+fascines and gabions to support the track along the sides of steep
+declivities, or worming their way like moles through the jungle of swamp
+and forest. Forbes described the country to Pitt as an "immense
+uninhabited wilderness, overgrown everywhere with trees and brushwood,
+so that nowhere can one see twenty yards." In truth, as far as eye or
+mind could reach, a prodigious forest vegetation spread its impervious
+canopy over hill, valley, and plain, and wrapped the stern and awful
+waste in the shadows of the tomb.
+
+Having secured his magazines at Raystown, and built a fort there named
+Fort Bedford, Bouquet made a forward movement of some forty miles,
+crossed the main Alleghany and Laurel Hill, and, taking post on a stream
+called Loyalhannon Creek, began another depot of supplies as a base for
+the final advance on Fort Duquesne, which was scarcely fifty miles
+distant.
+
+Vaudreuil had learned from prisoners the march of Forbes, and, with his
+usual egotism, announced to the Colonial Minister what he had done in
+consequence. "I have provided for the safety for Fort Duquesne." "I have
+sent reinforcements to M. de Ligneris, who commands there." "I have done
+the impossible to supply him with provisions, and I am now sending them
+in abundance, in order that the troops I may perhaps have occasion to
+send to drive off the English may not be delayed." "A stronger fort is
+needed on the Ohio; but I cannot build one till after the peace; then I
+will take care to build such a one as will thenceforth keep the English
+out of that country." Some weeks later he was less confident, and very
+anxious for news from Ligneris. He says that he has sent him all the
+succors he could, and ordered troops to go to his aid from Niagara,
+Detroit, and Illinois, as well as the militia of Detroit, with the
+Indians there and elsewhere in the West,--Hurons, Ottawas,
+Pottawattamies, Miamis, and other tribes. What he fears is that the
+English will not attack the fort till all these Indians have grown tired
+of waiting, and have gone home again. [654] This was precisely the
+intention of Forbes, and the chief object of his long delays.
+
+[654] Vaudreuil au Ministre, Juillet, Août, Octobre 1758.
+
+He had another good reason for making no haste. There was hope that the
+Delawares and Shawanoes, who lived within easy reach of Fort Duquesne,
+and who for the past three years had spread havoc throughout the English
+border, might now be won over from the French alliance. Forbes wrote to
+Bouquet from Shippensburg: "After many intrigues with Quakers, the
+Provincial Commissioners, the Governor, etc., and by the downright
+bullying of Sir William Johnson, I hope I have now brought about a
+general convention of the Indians." [655] The convention was to include
+the Five Nations, the Delawares, the Shawanoes, and other tribes, who
+had accepted wampum belts of invitation, and promised to meet the
+Governor and Commissioners of the various provinces at the town of
+Easton, before the middle of September. This seeming miracle was wrought
+by several causes. The Indians in the French interest, always greedy for
+presents, had not of late got enough to satisfy them. Many of those
+destined for them had been taken on the way from France by British
+cruisers, and the rest had passed through the hands of official knaves,
+who sold the greater part for their own profit. Again, the goods
+supplied by French fur-traders were few and dear; and the Indians
+remembered with regret the abundance and comparative cheapness of those
+they had from the English before the war. At the same time it was
+reported among them that a British army was marching to the Ohio strong
+enough to drive out the French from all that country; and the Delawares
+and Shawanoes of the West began to waver in their attachment to the
+falling cause. The eastern Delawares, living at Wyoming and elsewhere on
+the upper Susquehanna, had made their peace with the English in the
+summer before; and their great chief, Teedyuscung, thinking it for his
+interest that the tribes of the Ohio should follow his example, sent
+them wampum belts, inviting them to lay down the hatchet. The Five
+Nations, with Johnson at one end of the Confederacy and Joncaire at the
+other,--the one cajoling them in behalf of England, and the other in
+behalf of France,--were still divided in counsel; but even among the
+Senecas, the tribe most under Joncaire's influence, there was a party so
+far inclined to England that, like the Delaware chief, they sent wampum
+to the Ohio, inviting peace. But the influence most potent in reclaiming
+the warriors of the West was of a different kind. Christian Frederic
+Post, a member of the Moravian brotherhood, had been sent at the
+instance of Forbes as an envoy to the hostile tribes from the Governor
+and Council of Pennsylvania. He spoke the Delaware language, knew the
+Indians well, had lived among them, had married a converted squaw, and,
+by his simplicity of character, directness, and perfect honesty, gained
+their full confidence. He now accepted his terrible mission, and calmly
+prepared to place himself in the clutches of the tiger. He was a plain
+German, upheld by a sense of duty and a single-hearted trust in God;
+alone, with no great disciplined organization to impel and support him,
+and no visions and illusions such as kindled and sustained the splendid
+heroism of the early Jesuit martyrs. Yet his errand was no whit less
+perilous. And here we may notice the contrast between the mission
+settlements of the Moravians in Pennsylvania and those which the later
+Jesuits and the Sulpitians had established at Caughnawaga, St. Francis,
+La Présentation, and other places. The Moravians were apostles of peace,
+and they succeeded to a surprising degree in weaning their converts from
+their ferocious instincts and warlike habits; while the Mission Indians
+of Canada retained all their native fierceness, and were systematically
+impelled to use their tomahawks against the enemies of the Church. Their
+wigwams were hung with scalps, male and female, adult and infant; and
+these so-called missions were but nests of baptized savages, who wore
+the crucifix instead of the medicine-bag, and were encouraged by the
+Government for purposes of war. [656]
+
+[655] Forbes to Bouquet, 18 Aug. 1758.
+
+[656] Of the Hurons of the mission of Lorette, Bougainville says: "Ils
+sont toujours sauvages autant que ceux qui sont les moins apprivoisés."
+And yet they had been converts under Jesuit control for more than four
+generations. The case was no better at the other missions; and at St.
+Francis it seems to have been worse.
+
+The Moravian envoy made his way to the Delaware town of Kushkushkee, on
+Beaver Creek, northwest of Fort Duquesne, where the three chiefs known
+as King Beaver, Shingas, and Delaware George received him kindly, and
+conducted him to another town on the same stream. Here his reception was
+different. A crowd of warriors, their faces distorted with rage,
+surrounded him, brandishing knives and threatening to kill him; but
+others took his part, and, order being at last restored, he read them
+his message from the Governor, which seemed to please them. They
+insisted, however, that he should go with them to Fort Duquesne, in
+order that the Indians assembled there might hear it also. Against this
+dangerous proposal he protested in vain. On arriving near the fort, the
+French demanded that he should be given up to them, and, being refused,
+offered a great reward for his scalp; on which his friends advised him
+to keep close by the camp-fire, as parties were out with intent to kill
+him. "Accordingly," says Post, "I stuck to the fire as if I had been
+chained there. On the next day the Indians, with a great many French
+officers, came out to hear what I had to say. The officers brought with
+them a table, pens, ink, and paper. I spoke in the midst of them with a
+free conscience, and perceived by their looks that they were not pleased
+with what I said." The substance of his message was an invitation to the
+Indians to renew the old chain of friendship, joined with a warning that
+an English army was on its way to drive off the French, and that they
+would do well to stand neutral.
+
+He addressed an audience filled with an inordinate sense of their own
+power and importance, believing themselves greater and braver than
+either of the European nations, and yet deeply jealous of both. "We have
+heard," they said, "that the French and English mean to kill all the
+Indians and divide the land among themselves." And on this string they
+harped continually. If they had known their true interest, they would
+have made no peace with the English, but would have united as one man to
+form a barrier of fire against their farther progress; for the West in
+English hands meant farms, villages, cities, the ruin of the forest, the
+extermination of the game, and the expulsion of those who lived on it;
+while the West in French hands meant but scattered posts of war and
+trade, with the native tribes cherished as indispensable allies.
+
+After waiting some days, the three tribes of the Delawares met in
+council, and made their answer to the message brought by Post. It was
+worthy of a proud and warlike race, and was to the effect that since
+their brothers of Pennsylvania wished to renew the old peace-chain, they
+on their part were willing to do so, provided that the wampum belt
+should be sent them in the name, not of Pennsylvania alone, but of the
+rest of the provinces also.
+
+Having now accomplished his errand, Post wished to return home; but the
+Indians were seized with an access of distrust, and would not let him
+go. This jealousy redoubled when they saw him writing in his notebook.
+"It is a troublesome cross and heavy yoke to draw this people," he says;
+"they can punish and squeeze a body's heart to the utmost. There came
+some together and examined me about what I had wrote yesterday. I told
+them I writ what was my duty. 'Brothers, I tell you I am not afraid of
+you. I have a good conscience before God and man. I tell you, brothers,
+there is a bad spirit in your hearts, which breeds jealousy, and will
+keep you ever in fear.'" At last they let him go; and, eluding a party
+that lay in wait for his scalp, he journeyed twelve days through the
+forest, and reached Fort Augusta with the report of his mission. [657]
+
+[657] Journal of Christian Frederic Post, July, August, September, 1758.
+
+As the result of it, a great convention of white men and red was held at
+Easton in October. The neighboring provinces had been asked to send
+their delegates, and some of them did so; while belts of invitation were
+sent to the Indians far and near. Sir William Johnson, for reasons best
+known to himself, at first opposed the plan; but was afterwards led to
+favor it and to induce tribes under his influence to join in the grand
+pacification. The Five Nations, with the smaller tribes lately admitted
+into their confederacy, the Delawares of the Susquehanna, the Mohegans,
+and several kindred bands, all had their representatives at the meeting.
+The conferences lasted nineteen days, with the inevitable formalities of
+such occasions, and the weary repetition of conventional metaphors and
+long-winded speeches. At length, every difficulty being settled, the
+Governor of Pennsylvania, in behalf of all the English, rose with a
+wampum belt in his hand, and addressed the tawny congregation thus: "By
+this belt we heal your wounds; we remove your grief; we take the hatchet
+out of your heads; we make a hole in the earth, and bury it so deep that
+nobody can dig it up again." Then, laying the first belt before them, he
+took another, very large, made of white wampum beads, in token of peace:
+"By this belt we renew all our treaties; we brighten the chain of
+friendship; we put fresh earth to the roots of the tree of peace, that
+it may bear up against every storm, and live and flourish while the sun
+shines and the rivers run." And he gave them the belt with the request
+that they would send it to their friends and allies, and invite them to
+take hold also of the chain of friendship. Accordingly all present
+agreed on a joint message of peace to the tribes of the Ohio. [658]
+
+[658] Minutes of Conferences at Easton, October, 1758.
+
+Frederic Post, with several white and Indian companions, was chosen to
+bear it. A small escort of soldiers that attended him as far as the
+Alleghany was cut to pieces on its return by a band of the very warriors
+to whom he was carrying his offers of friendship; and other tenants of
+the grim and frowning wilderness met the invaders of their domain with
+inhospitable greetings. "The wolves made a terrible music this night,"
+he writes at his first bivouac after leaving Loyalhannon. When he
+reached the Delaware towns his reception was ominous. The young warriors
+said: "Anybody can see with half an eye that the English only mean to
+cheat us. Let us knock the messengers in the head." Some of them had
+attacked an English outpost, and had been repulsed; hence, in the words
+of Post, "They were possessed with a murdering spirit, and with bloody
+vengeance were thirsty and drunk. I said: 'As God has stopped the mouths
+of the lions that they could not devour Daniel, so he will preserve us
+from their fury.'" The chiefs and elders were of a different mind from
+their fierce and capricious young men. They met during the evening in
+the log-house where Post and his party lodged; and here a French officer
+presently arrived with a string of wampum from the commandant, inviting
+them to help him drive back the army of Forbes. The string was
+scornfully rejected. "They kicked it from one to another as if it were a
+snake. Captain Peter took a stick, and with it flung the string from one
+end of the room to the other, and said: 'Give it to the French captain;
+he boasted of his fighting, now let us see him fight. We have often
+ventured our lives for him, and got hardly a loaf of bread in return;
+and now he thinks we shall jump to serve him.' Then we saw the French
+captain mortified to the uttermost. He looked as pale as death. The
+Indians discoursed and joked till midnight, and the French captain sent
+messengers at midnight to Fort Duquesne."
+
+There was a grand council, at which the French officer was present; and
+Post delivered the peace message from the council at Easton, along with
+another with which Forbes had charged him. "The messages pleased all the
+hearers except the French captain. He shook his head in bitter grief,
+and often changed countenance. Isaac Still [an Indian] ran him down with
+great boldness, and pointed at him, saying, 'There he sits!' They all
+said: 'The French always deceived us!' pointing at the French captain;
+who, bowing down his head, turned quite pale, and could look no one in
+the face. All the Indians began to mock and laugh at him. He could hold
+it no longer, and went out." [659]
+
+[659] Journal of Christian Frederic Post, October, November, 1758.
+
+The overtures of peace were accepted, and the Delawares, Shawanoes, and
+Mingoes were no longer enemies of the English. The loss was the more
+disheartening to the French, since, some weeks before, they had gained a
+success which they hoped would confirm the adhesion of all their
+wavering allies. Major Grant, of the Highlanders, had urged Bouquet to
+send him to reconnoitre Fort Duquesne, capture prisoners, and strike a
+blow that would animate the assailants and discourage the assailed.
+Bouquet, forgetting his usual prudence, consented; and Grant set out
+from the camp at Loyalhannon with about eight hundred men, Highlanders,
+Royal Americans, and provincials. On the fourteenth of September, at two
+in the morning, he reached the top of the rising ground thenceforth
+called Grant's Hill, half a mile or more from the French fort. The
+forest and the darkness of the night hid him completely from the enemy.
+He ordered Major Lewis, of the Virginians, to take with him half the
+detachment, descend to the open plain before the fort, and attack the
+Indians known to be encamped there; after which he was to make a feigned
+retreat to the hill, where the rest of the troops were to lie in ambush
+and receive the pursuers. Lewis set out on his errand, while Grant
+waited anxiously for the result. Dawn was near, and all was silent; till
+at length Lewis returned, and incensed his commander by declaring that
+his men had lost their way in the dark woods, and fallen into such
+confusion that the attempt was impracticable. The morning twilight now
+began, but the country was wrapped in thick fog. Grant abandoned his
+first plan, and sent a few Highlanders into the cleared ground to burn a
+warehouse that had been seen there. He was convinced that the French and
+their Indians were too few to attack him, though their numbers in fact
+were far greater than his own. [660] Infatuated with this idea, and bent
+on taking prisoners, he had the incredible rashness to divide his force
+in such a way that the several parts could not support each other.
+Lewis, with two hundred men, was sent to guard the baggage two miles in
+the rear, where a company of Virginians, under Captain Bullitt, was
+already stationed. A hundred Pennsylvanians were posted far off on the
+right, towards the Alleghany, while Captain Mackenzie, with a detachment
+of Highlanders, was sent to the left, towards the Monongahela. Then, the
+fog having cleared a little, Captain Macdonald, with another company of
+Highlanders, was ordered into the open plain to reconnoitre the fort and
+make a plan of it, Grant himself remaining on the hill with a hundred of
+his own regiment and a company of Maryland men. "In order to put on a
+good countenance," he says, "and convince our men they had no reason to
+be afraid, I gave directions to our drums to beat the reveille. The
+troops were in an advantageous post, and I must own I thought we had
+nothing to fear." Macdonald was at this time on the plain, midway
+between the woods and the fort, and in full sight of it. The roll of the
+drums from the hill was answered by a burst of war-whoops, and the
+French came swarming out like hornets, many of them in their shirts,
+having just leaped from their beds. They all rushed upon Macdonald and
+his men, who met them with a volley that checked their advance; on which
+they surrounded him at a distance, and tried to cut off his retreat. The
+Highlanders broke through, and gained the woods, with the loss of their
+commander, who was shot dead. A crowd of French followed close, and soon
+put them to rout, driving them and Mackenzie's party back to the hill
+where Grant was posted. Here there was a hot fight in the forest,
+lasting about three quarters of an hour. At length the force of numbers,
+the novelty of the situation, and the appalling yells of the Canadians
+and Indians, completely overcame the Highlanders, so intrepid in the
+ordinary situations of war. They broke away in a wild and disorderly
+retreat. "Fear," says Grant, "got the better of every other passion; and
+I trust I shall never again see such a panic among troops."
+
+[660] Grant to Forbes, no date. "Les rapports sur le nombre des Français
+varient de 3,000 à 1,200." Bouquet à Forbes, 17 Sept. 1758. Bigot says
+that 3,500 daily rations were delivered at Fort Duquesne throughout the
+summer. Bigot au Ministre, 22 Nov. 1758. In October the number had
+fallen to 1,180, which included Indians. Ligneris à Vaudreuil, 18 Oct.
+1758.
+
+His only hope was in the detachment he had sent to the rear under Lewis
+to guard the baggage. But Lewis and his men, when they heard the firing
+in front, had left their post and pushed forward to help their comrades,
+taking a straight course through the forest; while Grant was retreating
+along the path by which he had advanced the night before. Thus they
+missed each other; and when Grant reached the spot where he expected to
+find Lewis, he saw to his dismay that nobody was there but Captain
+Bullitt and his company. He cried in despair that he was a ruined man;
+not without reason, for the whole body of French and Indians was upon
+him. Such of his men as held together were forced towards the Alleghany,
+and, writes Bouquet, "would probably have been cut to pieces but for
+Captain Bullitt and his Virginians, who kept up the fight against the
+whole French force till two thirds of them were killed." They were
+offered quarter, but refused it; and the survivors were driven at last
+into the Alleghany, where some were drowned, and others swam over and
+escaped. Grant was surrounded and captured, and Lewis, who presently
+came up, was also made prisoner, along with some of his men, after a
+stiff resistance. Thus ended this mismanaged affair, which cost the
+English two hundred and seventy three killed, wounded, and taken. The
+rest got back safe to Loyalhannon. [661]
+
+[661] On Grant's defeat, Grant to Forbes, no date, a long and minute
+report, written while a prisoner. Bouquet à Forbes, 17 Sept. 1758.
+Forbes to Pitt, 20 Oct. 1758. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 1 Nov. 1758.
+Letters from camp in Boston Evening Post, Boston Weekly Advertiser,
+Boston News Letter, and other provincial newspapers of the time. List of
+Killed, Wounded, and Missing in the Action of Sept. 14. Gentleman's
+Magazine, XXIX. 173. Hazard's Pennsylvania Register, VIII. 141. Olden
+Time, I. 179. Vaudreuil, with characteristic exaggeration, represents
+all Grant's party as killed or taken, except a few who died of
+starvation. The returns show that 540 came back safe, out of 813.
+
+The invalid General was deeply touched by this reverse, yet expressed
+himself with a moderation that does him honor. He wrote to Bouquet from
+Raystown: "Your letter of the seventeenth I read with no less surprise
+than concern, as I could not believe that such an attempt would have
+been made without my knowledge and concurrence. The breaking in upon our
+fair and flattering hopes of success touches me most sensibly. There are
+two wounded Highland officers just now arrived, who give so lame an
+account of the matter that one can draw nothing from them, only that my
+friend Grant most certainly lost his wits, and by his thirst of fame
+brought on his own perdition, and ran great risk of ours." [662]
+
+[662] Forbes to Bouquet, 23 Sept. 1758.
+
+The French pushed their advantage with spirit. Early in October a large
+body of them hovered in the woods about the camp at Loyalhannon, drove
+back a detachment sent against them, approached under cover of the
+trees, and, though beaten off, withdrew deliberately, after burying
+their dead and killing great numbers of horses and cattle. [663] But,
+with all their courageous energy, their position was desperate. The
+militia of Louisiana and the Illinois left the fort in November and went
+home; the Indians of Detroit and the Wabash would stay no longer; and,
+worse yet, the supplies destined for Fort Duquesne had been destroyed by
+Bradstreet at Fort Frontenac. Hence Ligneris was compelled by
+prospective starvation to dismiss the greater part of his force, and
+await the approach of his enemy with those that remained.
+
+[663] Burd to Bouquet, 12 Oct. 1758. Bouquet à Forbes, 13 Oct. 1758.
+Forbes to Pitt, 20 Oct. 1758. Letter from Loyalhannon, 14 Oct., in Olden
+Time, I. 180. Letters from camp, in Boston News Letter. Ligneris à
+Vaudreuil, 18 Oct. 1758. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 20 Nov. 1758.
+
+His enemy was in a plight hardly better than his own. Autumnal rains,
+uncommonly heavy and persistent, had ruined the newly-cut road. On the
+mountains the torrents tore it up, and in the valleys the wheels of the
+wagons and cannon churned it into soft mud. The horses, overworked and
+underfed, were fast breaking down. The forest had little food for them,
+and they were forced to drag their own oats and corn, as well as
+supplies for the army, through two hundred miles of wilderness. In the
+wretched condition of the road this was no longer possible. The
+magazines of provisions formed at Raystown and Loyalhannon to support
+the army on its forward march were emptied faster than they could be
+filled. Early in October the elements relented; the clouds broke, the
+sky was bright again, and the sun shone out in splendor on mountains
+radiant in the livery of autumn. A gleam of hope revisited the heart of
+Forbes. It was but a flattering illusion. The sullen clouds returned,
+and a chill, impenetrable veil of mist and rain hid the mountains and
+the trees. Dejected Nature wept and would not be comforted. Above,
+below, around, all was trickling, oozing, pattering, gushing. In the
+miserable encampments the starved horses stood steaming in the rain, and
+the men crouched, disgusted, under their dripping tents, while the
+drenched picket-guard in the neighboring forest paced dolefully through
+black mire and spongy mosses. The rain turned to snow; the descending
+flakes clung to the many-colored foliage, or melted from sight in the
+trench of half-liquid clay that was called a road. The wheels of the
+wagons sank in it to the hub, and to advance or retreat was alike
+impossible.
+
+Forbes from his sick bed at Raystown wrote to Bouquet: "Your description
+of the road pierces me to the very soul." And a few days later to Pitt:
+"I am in the greatest distress, occasioned by rains unusual at this
+season, which have rendered the clay roads absolutely impracticable. If
+the weather does not favor, I shall be absolutely locked up in the
+mountains. I cannot form any judgment how I am to extricate myself, as
+everything depends on the weather, which snows and rains frightfully."
+There was no improvement. In the next week he writes to Bouquet: "These
+four days of constant rain have completely ruined the road. The wagons
+would cut it up more in an hour than we could repair in a week. I have
+written to General Abercromby, but have not had one scrape of a pen from
+him since the beginning of September; so it looks as if we were either
+forgot or left to our fate." [664] Wasted and tortured by disease, the
+perplexed commander was forced to burden himself with a multitude of
+details which would else have been neglected, and to do the work of
+commissary and quartermaster as well as general. "My time," he writes,
+"is disagreeably spent between business and medicine."
+
+[664] Forbes to Bouquet, 15 Oct. 1758. Ibid., 25 Oct. 1758. Forbes to
+Pitt, 20 Oct. 1758.
+
+In the beginning of November he was carried to Loyalhannon, where the
+whole army was then gathered. There was a council of officers, and they
+resolved to attempt nothing more that season; but, a few days later,
+three prisoners were brought in who reported the defenceless condition
+of the French, on which Forbes gave orders to advance again. The wagons
+and all the artillery, except a few light pieces, were left behind; and
+on the eighteenth of November twenty-five hundred picked men marched for
+Fort Duquesne, without tents or baggage, and burdened only with
+knapsacks and blankets. Washington and Colonel Armstrong, of the
+Pennsylvanians, had opened a way for them by cutting a road to within a
+day's march of the French fort. On the evening of the twenty-fourth, the
+detachment encamped among the hills of Turkey Creek; and the men on
+guard heard at midnight a dull and heavy sound booming over the western
+woods. Was it a magazine exploded by accident, or were the French
+blowing up their works? In the morning the march was resumed, a strong
+advance-guard leading the way. Forbes came next, carried in his litter;
+and the troops followed in three parallel columns, the Highlanders in
+the centre under Montgomery, their colonel, and the Royal Americans and
+provincials on the right and left, under Bouquet and Washington. [665]
+Thus, guided by the tap of the drum at the head of each column, they
+moved slowly through the forest, over damp, fallen leaves, crisp with
+frost, beneath an endless entanglement of bare gray twigs that sighed
+and moaned in the bleak November wind. It was dusk when they emerged
+upon the open plain and saw Fort Duquesne before them, with its
+background of wintry hills beyond the Monongahela and the Alleghany.
+During the last three miles they had passed the scattered bodies of
+those slain two months before at the defeat of Grant; and it is said
+that, as they neared the fort, the Highlanders were goaded to fury at
+seeing the heads of their slaughtered comrades stuck on poles, round
+which the kilts were hung derisively, in imitation of petticoats. Their
+rage was vain; the enemy was gone. Only a few Indians lingered about the
+place, who reported that the garrison, to the number of four or five
+hundred, had retreated, some down the Ohio, some overland towards
+Presquisle, and the rest, with their commander, up the Alleghany to
+Venango, called by the French, Fort Machault. They had burned the
+barracks and storehouses, and blown up the fortifications.
+
+[665] Letter from a British Officer in the Expedition, 25 Feb. 1759,
+Gentleman's Magazine, XXIX. 171.
+
+The first care of the victors was to provide defence and shelter for
+those of their number on whom the dangerous task was to fall of keeping
+what they had won. A stockade was planted around a cluster of traders'
+cabins and soldiers' huts, which Forbes named Pittsburg, in honor of the
+great minister. It was not till the next autumn that General Stanwix
+built, hard by, the regular fortified work called Fort Pitt. [666]
+Captain West, brother of Benjamin West, the painter, led a detachment of
+Pennsylvanians, with Indian guides, through the forests of the
+Monongahela, to search for the bones of those who had fallen under
+Braddock. In the heart of the savage wood they found them in abundance,
+gnawed by wolves and foxes, and covered with the dead leaves of four
+successive autumns. Major Halket, of Forbes' staff, had joined the
+party; and, with the help of an Indian who was in the fight, he
+presently found two skeletons lying under a tree. In one of them he
+recognized, by a peculiarity of the teeth, the remains of his father,
+Sir Peter Halket, and in the other he believed that he saw the bones of
+a brother who had fallen at his father's side. The young officer fainted
+at the sight. The two skeletons were buried together, covered with a
+Highland plaid, and the Pennsylvanian woodsmen fired a volley over the
+grave. The rest of the bones were undistinguishable; and, being
+carefully gathered up, they were all interred in a deep trench dug in
+the freezing ground. [667]
+
+[666] Stanwix to Pitt, 20 Nov. 1759.
+
+[667] Galt, Life of Benjamin West, I. 64 (ed. 1820).
+
+The work of the new fort was pushed on apace, and the task of holding it
+for the winter was assigned to Lieutenant-Colonel Mercer, of the
+Virginians, with two hundred provincials. The number was far too small.
+It was certain that, unless vigorously prevented by a counter attack,
+the French would gather in early spring from all their nearer western
+posts, Niagara, Detroit, Presquisle, Le Bœuf, and Venango, to retake the 
+place; but there was no food for a larger garrison, and the risk must be
+run.
+
+The rest of the troops, with steps quickened by hunger, began their
+homeward march early in December. "We would soon make M. de Ligneris
+shift his quarters at Venango," writes Bouquet just after the fort was
+taken, "if we only had provisions; but we are scarcely able to maintain
+ourselves a few days here. After God, the success of this expedition is
+entirely due to the General, who, by bringing about the treaty with the
+Indians at Easton, struck the French a stunning blow, wisely delayed our
+advance to wait the effects of that treaty, secured all our posts and
+left nothing to chance, and resisted the urgent solicitation to take
+Braddock's road, which would have been our destruction. In all his
+measures he has shown the greatest prudence, firmness, and ability."
+[668] No sooner was his work done, than Forbes fell into a state of
+entire prostration, so that for a time he could neither write a letter
+nor dictate one. He managed, however, two days after reaching Fort
+Duquesne, to send Amherst a brief notice of his success, adding: "I
+shall leave this place as soon as I am able to stand; but God knows when
+I shall reach Philadelphia, if I ever do." [669] On the way back, a hut
+with a chimney was built for him at each stopping-place, and on the
+twenty-eighth of December Major Halket writes from "Tomahawk Camp:" "How
+great was our disappointment, on coming to this ground last night, to
+find that the chimney was unlaid, no fire made, nor any wood cut that
+would burn. This distressed the General to the greatest degree, by
+obliging him after his long journey to sit above two hours without any
+fire, exposed to a snowstorm, which had very near destroyed him
+entirely; but with great difficulty, by the assistance of some cordials,
+he was brought to." [670] At length, carried all the way in his litter,
+he reached Philadelphia, where, after lingering through the winter, he
+died in March, and was buried with military honors in the chancel of
+Christ Church.
+
+[668] Bouquet to Chief Justice Allen, 25 Nov. 1758.
+
+[669] Forbes to Amherst, 26 Nov. 1758.
+
+[670] Halket to Bouquet, 28 Dec. 1758.
+
+If his achievement was not brilliant, its solid value was above price.
+It opened the Great West to English enterprise, took from France half
+her savage allies, and relieved the western borders from the scourge of
+Indian war. From southern New York to North Carolina, the frontier
+populations had cause to bless the memory of the steadfast and
+all-enduring soldier.
+
+So ended the campaign of 1758. The centre of the French had held its own
+triumphantly at Ticonderoga; but their left had been forced back by the
+capture of Louisbourg, and their right by that of Fort Duquesne, while
+their entire right wing had been well nigh cut off by the destruction of
+Fort Frontenac. The outlook was dark. Their own Indians were turning
+against them. "They have struck us," wrote Doreil to the Minister of
+War; "they have seized three canoes loaded with furs on Lake Ontario,
+and murdered the men in them: sad forerunner of what we have to fear!
+Peace, Monseigneur, give us peace! Pardon me, but I cannot repeat that
+word too often."
+
+Note.--The Bouquet and Haldimand Papers in the British Museum contain a
+mass of curious correspondence of the principal persons engaged in the
+expedition under Forbes; copies of it all are before me. The Public
+Record Office, America and West Indies, has also furnished much
+material, including the official letters of Forbes. The Writings of
+Washington, the Archives and Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, and the
+magazines and newspapers of the time may be mentioned among the sources
+of information, along with a variety of miscellaneous contemporary
+letters. The Journals of Christian Frederic Post are printed in full in
+the Olden Time and elsewhere.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+1758, 1759.
+
+THE BRINK OF RUIN.
+
+Jealousy of Vaudreuil • He asks for Montcalm's Recall • His Discomfiture
+• Scene at the Governor's House • Disgust of Montcalm • The Canadians
+Despondent • Devices to encourage them • Gasconade of the Governor •
+Deplorable State of the Colony • Mission of Bougainville • Duplicity of
+Vaudreuil • Bougainville at Versailles • Substantial Aid refused to
+Canada • A Matrimonial Treaty • Return of Bougainville • Montcalm
+abandoned by the Court • His Plans of Defence • Sad News from Candiac •
+Promises of Vaudreuil.
+
+"Never was general in a more critical position than I was: God has
+delivered me; his be the praise! He gives me health, though I am worn
+out with labor, fatigue, and miserable dissensions that have determined
+me to ask for my recall. Heaven grant that I may get it!"
+
+Thus wrote Montcalm to his mother after his triumph at Ticonderoga. That
+great exploit had entailed a train of vexations, for it stirred the envy
+of Vaudreuil, more especially as it was due to the troops of the line,
+with no help from Indians, and very little from Canadians. The Governor
+assured the Colonial Minister that the victory would have bad results,
+though he gives no hint what these might be; that Montcalm had
+mismanaged the whole affair; that he would have been beaten but for the
+manifest interposition of Heaven; [671] and, finally, that he had failed
+to follow his (Vaudreuil's) directions, and had therefore enabled the
+English to escape. The real directions of the Governor, dictated,
+perhaps, by dread lest his rival should reap laurels, were to avoid a
+general engagement; and it was only by setting them at nought that
+Abercromby had been routed. After the battle a sharp correspondence
+passed between the two chiefs. The Governor, who had left Montcalm to
+his own resources before the crisis, sent him Canadians and Indians in
+abundance after it was over; while he cautiously refrained from
+committing himself by positive orders, repeated again and again that if 
+these reinforcements were used to harass Abercromby's communications,
+the whole English army would fall back to the Hudson, and leave baggage
+and artillery a prey to the French. These preposterous assertions and
+tardy succors were thought by Montcalm to be a device for giving color
+to the charge that he had not only failed to deserve victory, but had
+failed also to make use of it. [672] He did what was possible, and sent
+strong detachments to act in the English rear; which, though they did
+not, and could not, compel the enemy to fall back, caused no slight
+annoyance, till Rogers checked them by the defeat of Marin. Nevertheless
+Vaudreuil pretended on one hand that Montcalm had done nothing with the
+Canadians and Indians sent him, and on the other that these same
+Canadians and Indians had triumphed over the enemy by their mere
+presence at Ticonderoga. "It was my activity in sending these succors to
+Carillon [Ticonderoga] that forced the English to retreat. The Marquis
+de Montcalm might have made their retreat difficult; but it was in vain
+that I wrote to him, in vain that the colony troops, Canadians and
+Indians, begged him to pursue the enemy." [673] The succors he speaks of
+were sent in July and August, while the English did not fall back till
+the first of November. Neither army left its position till the season
+was over, and Abercromby did so only when he learned that the French
+were setting the example. Vaudreuil grew more and more bitter. "As the
+King has intrusted this colony to me, I cannot help warning you of the
+unhappy consequences that would follow if the Marquis de Montcalm should
+remain here. I shall keep him by me till I receive your orders. It is
+essential that they reach me early." "I pass over in silence all the
+infamous conduct and indecent talk he has held or countenanced; but I
+should be wanting in my duty to the King if I did not beg you to ask for
+his recall." [674]
+
+[671] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 8 Août, 1758.
+
+[672] Much of the voluminous correspondence on these matters will be
+found in N. Y. Col. Docs., X.
+
+[673] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 8 Avril, 1759.
+
+[674] Ibid.
+
+He does not say what is meant by infamous conduct and indecent talk; but
+the allusion is probably to irreverent utterances touching the Governor
+in which the officers from France were apt to indulge, not always
+without the knowledge of their chief. Vaudreuil complained of this to
+Montcalm, adding, "I am greatly above it, and I despise it." [675] To
+which the General replied: "You are right to despise gossip, supposing
+that there has been any. For my part, though I hear that I have been
+torn to pieces without mercy in your presence, I do not believe it."
+[676] In these infelicities Bigot figures as peacemaker, though with no
+perceptible success. Vaudreuil's cup of bitterness was full when letters
+came from Versailles ordering him to defer to Montcalm on all questions
+of war, or of civil administration bearing upon war. [677] He had begged
+hard for his rival's recall, and in reply his rival was set over his
+head.
+
+[675] Vaudreuil à Montcalm, 1 Août, 1758.
+
+[676] Montcalm à Vaudreuil, 6 Août, 1758.
+
+[677] Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, 1758, 1759.
+
+The two yokefellows were excellently fitted to exasperate each other:
+Montcalm, with his southern vivacity of emotion and an impetuous,
+impatient volubility that sometimes forgot prudence; and Vaudreuil,
+always affable towards adherents, but full of suspicious egotism and
+restless jealousy that bristled within him at the very thought of his
+colleague. Some of the byplay of the quarrel may be seen in Montcalm's
+familiar correspondence with Bourlamaque. One day the Governor, in his
+own house, brought up the old complaint that Montcalm, after taking Fort
+William Henry, did not take Fort Edward also. The General, for the
+twentieth time, gave good reasons for not making the attempt. "I ended,"
+he tells Bourlamaque, "by saying quietly that when I went to war I did
+the best I could; and that when one is not pleased with one's
+lieutenants, one had better take the field in person. He was very much
+moved, and muttered between his teeth that perhaps he would; at which I
+said that I should be delighted to serve under him. Madame de Vaudreuil
+wanted to put in her word. I said: 'Madame, saving due respect, permit
+me to have the honor to say that ladies ought not to talk war.' She kept
+on. I said: 'Madame, saving due respect, permit me to have the honor to
+say that if Madame de Montcalm were here, and heard me talking war with
+Monsieur le Marquis de Vaudreuil, she would remain silent.' This scene
+was in presence of eight officers, three of them belonging to the colony
+troops; and a pretty story they will make of it."
+
+These letters to Bourlamaque, in their detestable handwriting, small,
+cramped, confused, without stops, and sometimes almost indecipherable,
+betray the writer's state of mind. "I should like as well as anybody to
+be Marshal of France; but to buy the honor with the life I am leading
+here would be too much." He recounts the last news from Fort Duquesne,
+just before its fall. "Mutiny among the Canadians, who want to come
+home; the officers busy with making money, and stealing like mandarins.
+Their commander sets the example, and will come back with three or four
+hundred thousand francs; the pettiest ensign, who does not gamble, will
+have ten, twelve, or fifteen thousand. The Indians don't like Ligneris,
+who is drunk every day. Forgive the confusion of this letter; I have not
+slept all night with thinking of the robberies and mismanagement and
+folly. Pauvre Roi, pauvre France, cara patria!" "Oh, when shall we get
+out of this country! I think I would give half that I have to go home.
+Pardon this digression to a melancholy man. It is not that I have not
+still some remnants of gayety; but what would seem such in anybody else
+is melancholy for a Languedocian. Burn my letter, and never doubt my
+attachment." "I shall always say, Happy he who is free from the proud
+yoke to which I am bound. When shall I see my château of Candiac, my
+plantations, my chestnut grove, my oil-mill, my mulberry-trees? O bon
+Dieu! Bon soir; brûlez ma lettre." [678]
+
+[678] The above extracts are from letters of 5 and 27 Nov. and 9 Dec.
+1758, and 18 and 23 March, 1759.
+
+Never was dispute more untimely than that between these ill-matched
+colleagues. The position of the colony was desperate. Thus far the
+Canadians had never lost heart, but had obeyed with admirable alacrity
+the Governor's call to arms, borne with patience the burdens and
+privations of the war, and submitted without revolt to the exactions and
+oppressions of Cadet and his crew; loyal to their native soil, loyal to
+their Church, loyal to the wretched government that crushed and
+belittled them. When the able-bodied were ordered to the war, where
+four fifths of them were employed in the hard and tedious work of
+transportation, the women, boys, and old men tilled the fields and
+raised a scanty harvest, which always might be, and sometimes was, taken
+from them in the name of the King. Yet the least destitute among them
+were forced every winter to lodge soldiers in their houses, for each of
+whom they were paid fifteen francs a month, in return for substance
+devoured and wives and daughters debauched. [679]
+
+[679] Mémoire sur le moyen d'entretenir 10,000 Hommes de Troupes dans
+les Colonies, 1759.
+
+No pains had been spared to keep up the courage of the people and feed
+them with flattering illusions. When the partisan officer Boishébert was
+tried for peculation, his counsel met the charge by extolling the manner
+in which he had fulfilled the arduous duty of encouraging the Acadians,
+"putting on an air of triumph even in defeat; using threats, caresses,
+stratagems; painting our victories in vivid colors; hiding the strength
+and successes of the enemy; promising succors that did not and could not
+come; inventing plausible reasons why they did not come, and making new
+promises to set off the failure of the old; persuading a starved people
+to forget their misery; taking from some to give to others; and doing
+all this continually in the face of a superior enemy, that this country
+might be snatched from England and saved to France." [680] What
+Boishébert was doing in Acadia, Vaudreuil was doing on a larger scale in
+Canada. By indefatigable lying, by exaggerating every success and
+covering over every reverse, he deceived the people and in some measure
+himself. He had in abundance the Canadian gift of gasconade, and boasted
+to the Colonial Minister that one of his countrymen was a match for from
+three to ten Englishmen. It is possible that he almost believed it; for
+the midnight surprise of defenceless families and the spreading of
+panics among scattered border settlements were inseparable from his idea
+of war. Hence the high value he set on Indians, who in such work outdid
+the Canadians themselves. Sustained by the intoxication of flattering
+falsehoods, and not doubting that the blunders and weakness of the first
+years of the war gave the measure of English efficiency, the colonists
+had never suspected that they could be subdued.
+
+[680] Procès de Bigot, Cadet, et autres, Mémoire pour le Sieur de
+Boishébert.
+
+But now there was a change. The reverses of the last campaign, hunger,
+weariness, and possibly some incipient sense of atrocious misgovernment,
+began to produce their effect; and some, especially in the towns, were
+heard to murmur that further resistance was useless. The Canadians,
+though brave and patient, needed, like Frenchmen, the stimulus of
+success. "The people are alarmed," said the modest Governor, "and would
+lose courage if my firmness did not rekindle their zeal to serve the
+King." [681]
+
+[681] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 10 Avril, 1759.
+
+"Rapacity, folly, intrigue, falsehood, will soon ruin this colony which
+has cost the King so dear," wrote Doreil to the Minister of War. "We
+must not flatter ourselves with vain hope; Canada is lost if we do not
+have peace this winter." "It has been saved by miracle in these past
+three years; nothing but peace can save it now, in spite of all the
+efforts and the talents of M. de Montcalm." [682] Vaudreuil himself
+became thoroughly alarmed, and told the Court in the autumn of 1758 that
+food, arms, munitions, and everything else were fast failing, and that
+without immediate peace or heavy reinforcements all was lost.
+
+[682] Doreil au Ministre, 31 Juillet, 1758. Ibid. 12 Août, 1758. Ibid.
+31 Août, 1758. Ibid. 1 Sept. 1758.
+
+The condition of Canada was indeed deplorable. The St. Lawrence was
+watched by British ships; the harvest was meagre; a barrel of flour cost
+two hundred francs; most of the cattle and many of the horses had been
+killed for food. The people lived chiefly on a pittance of salt cod or
+on rations furnished by the King; all prices were inordinate; the
+officers from France were starving on their pay; while a legion of
+indigenous and imported scoundrels fattened on the general distress.
+"What a country!" exclaims Montcalm. "Here all the knaves grow rich, and
+the honest men are ruined." Yet he was resolved to stand by it to the
+last, and wrote to the Minister of War that he would bury himself under
+its ruins. "I asked for my recall after the glorious affair of the
+eighth of July; but since the state of the colony is so bad, I must do
+what I can to help it and retard its fall." The only hope was in a
+strong appeal to the Court; and he thought himself fortunate in
+persuading Vaudreuil to consent that Bougainville should be commissioned
+to make it, seconded by Doreil. They were to sail in different ships, in
+order that at least one of them might arrive safe.
+
+Vaudreuil gave Bougainville a letter introducing him to the Colonial
+Minister in high terms of praise: "He is in all respects better fitted
+than anybody else to inform you of the state of the colony. I have given
+him my instructions, and you can trust entirely in what he tells you."
+[683] Concerning Doreil he wrote to the Minister of War: "I have full
+confidence in him, and he may be entirely trusted. Everybody here likes
+him." [684] While thus extolling the friends of his rival, the Governor
+took care to provide against the effects of his politic commendations,
+and wrote thus to his patron, the Colonial Minister: "In order to
+condescend to the wishes of M. de Montcalm, and leave no means untried
+to keep in harmony with him, I have given letters to MM. Doreil and
+Bougainville; but I have the honor to inform you, Monseigneur, that they
+do not understand the colony, and to warn you that they are creatures of
+M. de Montcalm." [685]
+
+[683] Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 4 Nov. 1758.
+
+[684] Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Guerre, 11 Oct. 1758.
+
+[685] Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 3 Nov. 1758.
+
+The two envoys had sailed for France. Winter was close at hand, and the
+harbor of Quebec was nearly empty. One ship still lingered, the last of
+the season, and by her Montcalm sent a letter to his mother: "You will
+be glad to have me write to you up to the last moment to tell you for
+the hundredth time that, occupied as I am with the fate of New France,
+the preservation of the troops, the interest of the state, and my own
+glory, I think continually of you all. We did our best in 1756, 1757,
+and 1758; and so, God helping, we will do in 1759, unless you make peace
+in Europe." Then, shut from the outer world for half a year by barriers
+of ice, he waited what returning spring might bright forth.
+
+Both Bougainville and Doreil escaped the British cruisers and safely
+reached Versailles, where, in the slippery precincts of the Court, as
+new to him as they were treacherous, the young aide-de-camp justified
+all the confidence of his chief. He had interviews with the ministers,
+the King, and, more important than all, with Madame de Pompadour, whom
+he succeeded in propitiating, though not, it seems, without difficulty
+and delay. France, unfortunate by land and sea, with finances ruined and
+navy crippled, had gained one brilliant victory, and she owed it to
+Montcalm. She could pay for it in honors, if in nothing else. Montcalm
+was made lieutenant-general, Lévis major-general, Bourlamaque brigadier,
+and Bougainville colonel and chevalier of St. Louis; while Vaudreuil was
+solaced with the grand cross of that order. [686] But when the two
+envoys asked substantial aid for the imperilled colony, the response was
+chilling. The Colonial Minister, Berryer, prepossessed against
+Bougainville by the secret warning of Vaudreuil, received him coldly,
+and replied to his appeal for help: "Eh, Monsieur, when the house is on
+fire one cannot occupy one's self with the stable." "At least, Monsieur,
+nobody will say that you talk like a horse," was the irreverent answer.
+
+[686] Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, Janvier, Février, 1759.
+
+Bougainville laid four memorials before the Court, in which he showed
+the desperate state of the colony and its dire need of help. Thus far,
+he said, Canada has been saved by the dissensions of the English
+colonies; but now, for the first time, they are united against her, and
+prepared to put forth their strength. And he begged for troops, arms,
+munitions, food, and a squadron to defend the mouth of the St. Lawrence.
+[687] The reply, couched in a letter to Montcalm, was to the effect that
+it was necessary to concentrate all the strength of the kingdom for a
+decisive operation in Europe; that, therefore, the aid required could
+not be sent; and that the King trusted everything to his zeal and
+generalship, joined with the valor of the victors of Ticonderoga. [688]
+All that could be obtained was between three and four hundred recruits
+for the regulars, sixty engineers, sappers, and artillerymen, and
+gunpowder, arms, and provisions sufficient, along with the supplies
+brought over by the contractor, Cadet, to carry the colony through the
+next campaign. [689]
+
+[687] Mémoire remis au Ministre par M. de Bougainville, Décembre, 1758.
+
+[688] Le Ministre à Montcalm, 3 Fév. 1759.
+
+[689] Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, Février, 1759.
+
+Montcalm had intrusted Bougainville with another mission, widely
+different. This was no less than the negotiating of suitable marriages
+for the eldest son and daughter of his commander, with whom, in the
+confidence of friendship, he had had many conversations on the matter.
+"He and I," Montcalm wrote to his mother, Madame de Saint-Véran, "have
+two ideas touching these marriages,--the first, romantic and chimerical;
+the second, good, practicable." [690] Bougainville, invoking the aid of
+a lady of rank, a friend of the family, acquitted himself well of his
+delicate task. Before he embarked for Canada, in early spring, a treaty
+was on foot for the marriage of the young Comte de Montcalm to an
+heiress of sixteen; while Mademoiselle de Montcalm had already become
+Madame d'Espineuse. "Her father will be delighted," says the successful
+negotiator. [691]
+
+[690] Montcalm à Madame de Saint-Véran, 24 Sept. 1758.
+
+[691] Lettres de Bougainville à Madame de Saint-Véran, 1758, 1759.
+
+Again he crossed the Atlantic and sailed up the St. Lawrence as the
+portentous spring of 1759 was lowering over the dissolving snows of
+Canada. With him came a squadron bearing the supplies and the petty
+reinforcement which the Court had vouchsafed. "A little is precious to
+those who have nothing," said Montcalm on receiving them. Despatches
+from the ministers gave warning of a great armament fitted out in
+English ports for the attack of Quebec, while a letter to the General
+from the Maréchal de Belleisle, minister of war, told what was expected
+of him, and why he and the colony were abandoned to their fate. "If we
+sent a large reinforcement of troops," said Belleisle, "there would be
+great fear that the English would intercept them on the way; and as the
+King could never send you forces equal to those which the English are
+prepared to oppose to you, the attempt would have no other effect than
+to excite the Cabinet of London to increased efforts for preserving its
+superiority on the American continent."
+
+"As we must expect the English to turn all their force against Canada,
+and attack you on several sides at once, it is necessary that you limit
+your plans of defence to the most essential points and those most
+closely connected, so that, being concentrated within a smaller space,
+each part may be within reach of support and succor from the rest. How
+small soever may be the space you are able to hold, it is indispensable
+to keep a footing in North America; for if we once lose the country
+entirely, its recovery will be almost impossible. The King counts on
+your zeal, courage, and persistency to accomplish this object, and
+relies on you to spare no pains and no exertions. Impart this resolution
+to your chief officers, and join with them to inspire your soldiers with
+it. I have answered for you to the King; I am confident that you will
+not disappoint me, and that for the glory of the nation, the good of the
+state, and your own preservation, you will go to the utmost extremity
+rather than submit to conditions as shameful as those imposed at
+Louisbourg, the memory of which you will wipe out." [692] "We will save
+this unhappy colony, or perish," was the answer of Montcalm.
+
+[692] Belleisle à Montcalm, 19 Fév. 1759.
+
+It was believed that Canada would be attacked with at least fifty
+thousand men. Vaudreuil had caused a census to be made of the
+governments of Montreal, Three Rivers, and Quebec. It showed a little
+more than thirteen thousand effective men. [693] To these were to be
+added thirty-five hundred troops of the line, including the late
+reinforcement, fifteen hundred colony troops, a body of irregulars in
+Acadia, and the militia and coureurs-de-bois of Detroit and the other
+upper posts, along with from one to two thousand Indians who could still
+be counted on. Great as was the disparity of numbers, there was good
+hope that the centre of the colony could be defended; for the only
+avenues by which an enemy could approach were barred by the rock of
+Quebec, the rapids of the St. Lawrence, and the strong position of
+Isle-aux-Noix, at the outlet of Lake Champlain. Montcalm had long
+inclined to the plan of concentration enjoined on him by the Minister of
+War. Vaudreuil was of another mind; he insisted on still occupying
+Acadia and the forts of the upper country: matters on which he and the
+General exchanged a correspondence that widened the breach between them.
+
+[693] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 8 Avril, 1759. The Mémoires sur le Canada,
+1749-1760, says 15,229 effective men.
+
+Should every effort of resistance fail, and the invaders force their way
+into the heart of Canada, Montcalm proposed the desperate resort of
+abandoning the valley of the St. Lawrence, descending the Mississippi
+with his troops and as many as possible of the inhabitants, and making a
+last stand for France among the swamps of Louisiana. [694]
+
+[694] Mémoire sur le Canada remis au Ministre, 27 Déc. 1758.
+
+In April, before Bougainville's return, he wrote to his wife: "Can we
+hope for another miracle to save us? I trust in God; he fought for us on
+the eighth of July. Come what may, his will be done! I wait the news
+from France with impatience and dread. We have had none for eight
+months; and who knows if much can reach us at all this year? How dearly
+I have to pay for the dismal privilege of figuring two or three times in
+the gazettes!" A month later, after Bougainvile had come: "Our daughter
+is well married. I think I would renounce every honor to join you again;
+but the King must be obeyed. The moment when I see you once more will be
+the brightest of my life. Adieu, my heart! I believe that I love you
+more than ever."
+
+Bougainville had brought sad news. He had heard before sailing from
+France that one of Montcalm's daughters was dead, but could not learn
+which of them. "I think," says the father, "that it must be poor Mirète,
+who was like me, and whom I loved very much." He was never to know if
+this conjecture was true.
+
+To Vaudreuil came a repetition of the detested order that he should
+defer to Montcalm on all questions of war; and moreover that he should
+not take command in person except when the whole body of the militia was
+called out; nor, even then, without consulting his rival. [695] His ire
+and vexation produced an access of jealous self-assertion, and drove him
+into something like revolt against the ministerial command. "If the
+English attack Quebec, I shall always hold myself free to go thither
+myself with most of the troops and all the militia and Indians I can
+assemble. On arriving I shall give battle to the enemy; and I shall do
+so again and again, till I have forced him to retire, or till he has
+entirely crushed me by excessive superiority of numbers. My obstinacy in
+opposing his landing will be the more à propos, as I have not the means
+of sustaining a siege. If I succeed as I wish, I shall next march to
+Carillon to arrest him there. You see, Monseigneur, that the slightest
+change in my arrangements would have the most unfortunate consequences."
+[696]
+
+[695] Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, Lettre à Vaudreuil, 3
+Fév. 1759.
+
+[696] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 8 Avril, 1759.
+
+Whether he made good this valorous declaration will presently be seen.
+
+Note.--The Archives de la Guerre and the Archives de la Marine contain a
+mass of letters and documents on the subjects treated in the above
+chapter; these I have carefully read and collated. The other principal
+authorities are the correspondence of Montcalm with Bourlamaque and with
+his own family; the letters of Vaudreuil preserved in the Archives
+Nationales; and the letters of Bougainville and Doreil to Montcalm and
+Madame de Saint-Véran while on their mission to France. For copies of
+these last I am indebted to the present Marquis de Montcalm.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+1758, 1759.
+
+WOLFE.
+
+The Exiles of Fort Cumberland • Relief • The Voyage to Louisbourg • The
+British Fleet • Expedition against Quebec • Early Life of Wolfe • His
+Character • His Letters to his Parents • His Domestic Qualities •
+Appointed to command the Expedition • Sails for America.
+
+Captain John Knox, of the forty-third regiment, had spent the winter in
+garrison at Fort Cumberland, on the hill of Beauséjour. For nearly two
+years he and his comrades had been exiles amid the wilds of Nova Scotia,
+and the monotonous inaction was becoming insupportable. The great marsh
+of Tantemar on the one side, and that of Missaguash on the other, two
+vast flat tracts of glaring snow, bounded by dark hills of spruce and
+fir, were hateful to their sight. Shooting, fishing, or skating were a
+dangerous relief; for the neighborhood was infested by "vermin," as they
+called the Acadians and their Micmac allies. In January four soldiers
+and a ranger were waylaid not far from the fort, disabled by bullets,
+and then scalped alive. They were found the next morning on the snow,
+contorted in the agonies of death, and frozen like marble statues.
+St. Patrick's Day brought more cheerful excitements. The Irish officers
+of the garrison gave their comrades a feast, having laid in during the
+autumn a stock of frozen provisions, that the festival of their saint
+might be duly honored. All was hilarity at Fort Cumberland, where it is
+recorded that punch to the value of twelve pounds sterling, with a
+corresponding supply of wine and beer, was consumed on this joyous
+occasion. [697]
+
+[697] Knox, Historical Journal, I. 228.
+
+About the middle of April a schooner came up the bay, bringing letters
+that filled men and officers with delight. The regiment was ordered to
+hold itself ready to embark for Louisbourg and join an expedition to the
+St. Lawrence, under command of Major-General Wolfe. All that afternoon
+the soldiers were shouting and cheering in their barracks; and when they
+mustered for the evening roll-call, there was another burst of huzzas.
+They waited in expectancy nearly three weeks, and then the transports
+which were to carry them arrived, bringing the provincials who had been
+hastily raised in New England to take their place. These Knox describes
+as a mean-looking set of fellows, of all ages and sizes, and without any
+kind of discipline; adding that their officers are sober, modest men,
+who, though of confined ideas, talk very clearly and sensibly, and make
+a decent appearance in blue, faced with scarlet, though the privates
+have no uniform at all.
+
+At last the forty-third set sail, the cannon of the fort saluting them,
+and the soldiers cheering lustily, overjoyed to escape from their long
+imprisonment. A gale soon began; the transports became separated; Knox's
+vessel sheltered herself for a time in Passamaquoddy Bay; then passed
+the Grand Menan, and steered southward and eastward along the coast of
+Nova Scotia. A calm followed the gale; and they moved so slowly that
+Knox beguiled the time by fishing over the stern, and caught a halibut
+so large that he was forced to call for help to pull it in. Then they
+steered northeastward, now lost in fogs, and now tossed mercilessly on
+those boisterous waves; till, on the twenty-fourth of May, they saw a
+rocky and surf-lashed shore, with a forest of masts rising to all
+appearance out of it. It was the British fleet in the land-locked harbor
+of Louisbourg.
+
+On the left, as they sailed through the narrow passage, lay the town,
+scarred with shot and shell, the red cross floating over its battered
+ramparts; and around in a wide semicircle rose the bristling back of
+rugged hills, set thick with dismal evergreens. They passed the great
+ships of the fleet, and anchored among the other transports towards the
+head of the harbor. It was not yet free from ice; and the floating
+masses lay so thick in some parts that the reckless sailors, returning
+from leave on shore, jumped from one to another to regain their ships.
+There was a review of troops, and Knox went to see it; but it was over
+before he reached the place, where he was presently told of a
+characteristic reply just made by Wolfe to some officers who had
+apologized for not having taught their men the new exercise. "Poh,
+poh!--new exercise--new fiddlestick. If they are otherwise well
+disciplined, and will fight, that's all I shall require of them."
+
+Knox does not record his impressions of his new commander, which must
+have been disappointing. He called him afterwards a British Achilles;
+but in person at least Wolfe bore no likeness to the son of Peleus, for
+never was the soul of a hero cased in a frame so incongruous. His face,
+when seen in profile, was singular as that of the Great Condé. The
+forehead and chin receded; the nose, slightly upturned, formed with the
+other features the point of an obtuse triangle; the mouth was by no
+means shaped to express resolution; and nothing but the clear, bright,
+and piercing eye bespoke the spirit within. On his head he wore a black
+three-cornered hat; his red hair was tied in a queue behind; his narrow
+shoulders, slender body, and long, thin limbs were cased in a scarlet
+frock, with broad cuffs and ample skirts that reached the knee; while on
+his left arm he wore a band of crape in mourning for his father, of
+whose death he had heard a few days before.
+
+James Wolfe was in his thirty-third year. His father was an officer of
+distinction, Major-General Edward Wolfe, and he himself, a delicate and
+sensitive child, but an impetuous and somewhat headstrong youth, had
+served the King since the age of fifteen. From childhood he had dreamed
+of the army and the wars. At sixteen he was in Flanders, adjutant of his
+regiment, discharging the duties of the post in a way that gained him
+early promotion and, along with a painstaking assiduity, showing a
+precocious faculty for commanding men. He passed with credit through
+several campaigns, took part in the victory of Dettingen, and then went
+to Scotland to fight at Culloden. Next we find him at Stirling, Perth,
+and Glasgow, always ardent and always diligent, constant in military
+duty, and giving his spare hours to mathematics and Latin. He presently
+fell in love; and being disappointed, plunged into a variety of
+dissipations, contrary to his usual habits, which were far above the
+standard of that profligate time.
+
+At twenty-three he was a lieutenant-colonel, commanding his regiment in
+the then dirty and barbarous town of Inverness, amid a disaffected and
+turbulent population whom it was his duty to keep in order: a difficult
+task, which he accomplished so well as to gain the special commendation
+of the King, and even the goodwill of the Highlanders themselves. He was
+five years among these northern hills, battling with ill-health, and
+restless under the intellectual barrenness of his surroundings. He felt
+his position to be in no way salutary, and wrote to his mother: "The
+fear of becoming a mere ruffian and of imbibing the tyrannical
+principles of an absolute commander, or giving way insensibly to the
+temptations of power till I became proud, insolent, and
+intolerable,--these considerations will make me wish to leave the
+regiment before next winter; that by frequenting men above myself I may
+know my true condition, and by discoursing with the other sex may learn
+some civility and mildness of carriage." He got leave of absence, and
+spent six months in Paris, where he was presented at Court and saw much
+of the best society. This did not prevent him from working hard to
+perfect himself in French, as well as in horsemanship, fencing, dancing,
+and other accomplishments, and from earnestly seeking an opportunity to
+study the various armies of Europe. In this he was thwarted by the
+stupidity and prejudice of the commander-in-chief; and he made what
+amends he could by extensive reading in all that bore on military
+matters.
+
+His martial instincts were balanced by strong domestic inclinations. He
+was fond of children; and after his disappointment in love used to say
+that they were the only true inducement to marriage. He was a most
+dutiful son, and wrote continually to both his parents. Sometimes he
+would philosophize on the good and ill of life; sometimes he held
+questionings with his conscience; and once he wrote to his mother in a
+strain of self-accusation not to be expected from a bold and determined
+soldier. His nature was a compound of tenderness and fire, which last
+sometimes showed itself in sharp and unpleasant flashes. His excitable
+temper was capable almost of fierceness, and he could now and then be
+needlessly stern; but towards his father, mother, and friends he was a
+model of steady affection. He made friends readily, and kept them, and
+was usually a pleasant companion, though subject to sallies of imperious
+irritability which occasionally broke through his strong sense of good
+breeding. For this his susceptible constitution was largely answerable,
+for he was a living barometer, and his spirits rose and fell with every
+change of weather. In spite of his impatient outbursts, the officers
+whom he had commanded remained attached to him for life; and, in spite
+of his rigorous discipline, he was beloved by his soldiers, to whose
+comfort he was always attentive. Frankness, directness, essential good
+feeling, and a high integrity atoned for all his faults.
+
+In his own view, as expressed to his mother, he was a person of very
+moderate abilities, aided by more than usual diligence; but this modest
+judgment of himself by no means deprived him of self-confidence, nor, in
+time of need, of self-assertion. He delighted in every kind of
+hardihood; and, in his contempt for effeminacy, once said to his mother:
+"Better be a savage of some use than a gentle, amorous puppy, obnoxious
+to all the world." He was far from despising fame; but the controlling
+principles of his life were duty to his country and his profession,
+loyalty to the King, and fidelity to his own ideal of the perfect
+soldier. To the parent who was the confidant of his most intimate
+thoughts he said: "All that I wish for myself is that I may at all times
+be ready and firm to meet that fate we cannot shun, and to die
+gracefully and properly when the hour comes." Never was wish more
+signally fulfilled. Again he tells her: "My utmost desire and ambition
+is to look steadily upon danger;" and his desire was accomplished. His
+intrepidity was complete. No form of death had power to daunt him. Once
+and again, when bound on some deadly enterprise of war, he calmly counts
+the chances whether or not he can compel his feeble body to bear him on
+till the work is done. A frame so delicately strung could not have been
+insensible to danger; but forgetfulness of self, and the absorption of
+every faculty in the object before him, shut out the sense of fear. He
+seems always to have been at his best in the thick of battle; most
+complete in his mastery over himself and over others.
+
+But it is in the intimacies of domestic life that one sees him most
+closely, and especially in his letters to his mother, from whom he
+inherited his frail constitution, without the beauty that distinguished
+her. "The greatest happiness that I wish for here is to see you happy."
+"If you stay much at home I will come and shut myself up with you for
+three weeks or a month, and play at piquet from morning till night; and
+you shall laugh at my short red hair as much as you please." The playing
+at piquet was a sacrifice to filial attachment; for the mother loved
+cards, and the son did not. "Don't trouble yourself about my room or my
+bedclothes; too much care and delicacy at this time would enervate me
+and complete the destruction of a tottering constitution. Such as it is,
+it must serve me now, and I'll make the best of it while it holds." At
+the beginning of the war his father tried to dissuade him from offering
+his services on board the fleet; and he replies in a letter to Mrs.
+Wolfe: "It is no time to think of what is convenient or agreeable; that
+service is certainly the best in which we are the most useful. For my
+part, I am determined never to give myself a moment's concern about the
+nature of the duty which His Majesty is pleased to order us upon. It
+will be a sufficient comfort to you two, as far as my person is
+concerned,--at least it will be a reasonable consolation,--to reflect
+that the Power which has hitherto preserved me may, if it be his
+pleasure, continue to do so; if not, that it is but a few days or a few
+years more or less, and that those who perish in their duty and in the
+service of their country die honorably." Then he proceeds to give
+particular directions about his numerous dogs, for the welfare of which
+in his absence he provides with anxious solicitude, especially for "my
+friend Cæsar, who has great merit and much good-humor."
+
+After the unfortunate expedition against Rochefort, when the board of
+general officers appointed to inquire into the affair were passing the
+highest encomiums upon his conduct, his parents were at Bath, and he
+took possession of their house at Blackheath, whence he wrote to his
+mother: "I lie in your chamber, dress in the General's little parlor,
+and dine where you did. The most perceptible difference and change of
+affairs (exclusive of the bad table I keep) is the number of dogs in the
+yard; but by coaxing Ball [his father's dog] and rubbing his back with
+my stick, I have reconciled him with the new ones, and put them in some
+measure under his protection."
+
+When about to sail on the expedition against Louisbourg, he was anxious
+for his parents, and wrote to his uncle, Major Wolfe, at Dublin: "I
+trust you will give the best advice to my mother, and such assistance,
+if it should be wanted, as the distance between you will permit. I
+mention this because the General seems to decline apace, and narrowly
+escaped being carried off in the spring. She, poor woman, is in a bad
+state of health, and needs the care of some friendly hand. She has long
+and painful fits of illness, which by succession and inheritance are
+likely to devolve on me, since I feel the early symptoms of them." Of
+his friends Guy Carleton, afterwards Lord Dorchester, and George Warde,
+the companion of his boyhood, he also asks help for his mother in his
+absence.
+
+His part in the taking of Louisbourg greatly increased his reputation.
+After his return he went to Bath to recruit his health; and it seems to
+have been here that he wooed and won Miss Katherine Lowther, daughter of
+an ex-Governor of Barbadoes, and sister of the future Lord Lonsdale. A
+betrothal took place, and Wolfe wore her portrait till the night before
+his death. It was a little before this engagement that he wrote to his
+friend Lieutenant-Colonel Rickson: "I have this day signified to Mr.
+Pitt that he may dispose of my slight carcass as he pleases, and that I
+am ready for any undertaking within the compass of my skill and cunning.
+I am in a very bad condition both with the gravel and rheumatism;
+but I had much rather die than decline any kind of service that offers.
+If I followed my own taste it would lead me into Germany. However, it is
+not our part to choose, but to obey. My opinion is that I shall join the
+army in America."
+
+Pitt chose him to command the expedition then fitting out against
+Quebec; made him a major-general, though, to avoid giving offence to
+older officers, he was to hold that rank in America alone; and permitted
+him to choose his own staff. Appointments made for merit, and not
+through routine and patronage, shocked the Duke of Newcastle, to whom a
+man like Wolfe was a hopeless enigma; and he told George II. that Pitt's
+new general was mad. "Mad is he?" returned the old King; "then I hope he
+will bite some others of my generals."
+
+At the end of January the fleet was almost ready, and Wolfe wrote to his
+uncle Walter: "I am to act a greater part in this business than I
+wished. The backwardness of some of the older officers has in some
+measure forced the Government to come down so low. I shall do my best,
+and leave the rest to fortune, as perforce we must when there are not
+the most commanding abilities. We expect to sail in about three weeks. A
+London life and little exercise disagrees entirely with me, but the sea
+still more. If I have health and constitution enough for the campaign, I
+shall think myself a lucky man; what happens afterwards is of no great
+consequence." He sent to his mother an affectionate letter of farewell,
+went to Spithead, embarked with Admiral Saunders in the ship "Neptune,"
+and set sail on the seventeenth of February. In a few hours the whole
+squadron was at sea, the transports, the frigates, and the great
+line-of-battle ships, with their ponderous armament and their freight of
+rude humanity armed and trained for destruction; while on the heaving
+deck of the "Neptune," wretched with sea-sickness and racked with pain,
+stood the gallant invalid who was master of it all.
+
+The fleet consisted of twenty-two ships of the line, with frigates,
+sloops-of-war, and a great number of transports. When Admiral Saunders
+arrived with his squadron off Louisbourg, he found the entrance blocked
+by ice, and was forced to seek harborage at Halifax. The squadron of
+Admiral Holmes, which had sailed a few days earlier, proceeded to New
+York to take on board troops destined for the expedition, while the
+squadron of Admiral Durell steered for the St. Lawrence to intercept the
+expected ships from France.
+
+In May the whole fleet, except the ten ships with Durell, was united in
+the harbor of Louisbourg. Twelve thousand troops were to have been
+employed for the expedition; but several regiments expected from the
+West Indies were for some reason countermanded, while the accessions
+from New York and the Nova Scotia garrisons fell far short of the
+looked-for numbers. Three weeks before leaving Louisbourg, Wolfe writes
+to his uncle Walter that he has an army of nine thousand men. The actual
+number seems to have been somewhat less. [698] "Our troops are good," he
+informs Pitt; "and if valor can make amends for the want of numbers, we
+shall probably succeed."
+
+[698] See Grenville Correspondence, I. 305.
+
+Three brigadiers, all in the early prime of life, held command under
+him: Monckton, Townshend, and Murray. They were all his superiors in
+birth, and one of them, Townshend, never forgot that he was so. "George
+Townshend," says Walpole, "has thrust himself again into the service;
+and, as far as wrongheadedness will go, is very proper for a hero."
+[699] The same caustic writer says further that he was of "a proud,
+sullen, and contemptuous temper," and that he "saw everything in an
+ill-natured and ridiculous light." [700] Though his perverse and envious
+disposition made him a difficult colleague, Townshend had both talents
+and energy; as also had Monckton, the same officer who commanded at the
+capture of Beauséjour in 1755. Murray, too, was well matched to the work
+in hand, in spite of some lingering remains of youthful rashness.
+
+[699] Horace Walpole, Letters III. 207 (ed. Cunningham, 1857).
+
+[700] Ibid. George II., II. 345.
+
+On the sixth of June the last ship of the fleet sailed out of Louisbourg
+harbor, the troops cheering and the officers drinking to the toast,
+"British colors on every French fort, port, and garrison in America."
+The ships that had gone before lay to till the whole fleet was reunited,
+and then all steered together for the St. Lawrence. From the headland of
+Cape Egmont, the Micmac hunter, gazing far out over the shimmering sea,
+saw the horizon flecked with their canvas wings, as they bore northward
+on their errand of havoc.
+
+Note.--For the material of the foregoing sketch of Wolfe I am indebted
+to Wright's excellent Life of him and the numerous letters contained in
+it. Several autograph letters which have escaped the notice of Mr.
+Wright are preserved in the Public Record Office. The following is a
+characteristic passage from one of these, written on board the
+"Neptune," at sea, on the sixth of June, the day when the fleet sailed
+from Louisbourg. It is directed to a nobleman of high rank in the army,
+whose name does not appear, the address being lost (War Office Records:
+North America, various, 1756-1763): "I have had the honour to receive
+two letters from your Lordship, one of an old date, concerning my stay
+in this country [after the capture of Louisbourg], in answer to which I
+shall only say that the Marshal told me I was to return at the end of
+the campaign; and as General Amherst had no other commands than to send
+me to winter at Halifax under the orders of an officer [Brigadier
+Lawrence] who was but a few months before put over my head, I thought it
+was much better to get into the way of service and out of the way of
+being insulted; and as the style of your Lordship's letter is pretty
+strong, I must take the liberty to inform you that ... rather than
+receive orders in the Government [of Nova Scotia] from an officer
+younger than myself (though a very worthy man), I should certainly have
+desired leave to resign my commission; for as I neither ask nor expect
+any favour, so I never intend to submit to any ill-usage whatsoever."
+
+Many other papers in the Public Record Office have been consulted in
+preparing the above chapter, including the secret instructions of the
+King to Wolfe and to Saunders, and the letters of Amherst to Wolfe and
+to Pitt. Other correspondence touching the same subjects is printed in
+Selections from the Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 441-450. Knox,
+Mante, and Entick are the best contemporary printed sources.
+
+A story has gained currency respecting the last interview of Wolfe with
+Pitt, in which he is said to have flourished his sword and boasted of
+what he would achieve. This anecdote was told by Lord Temple, who was
+present at the interview, to Mr. Grenville, who, many years after, told
+it to Earl Stanhope, by whom it was made public. That the incident
+underwent essential changes in the course of these transmissions,--which
+extended over more than half a century, for Earl Stanhope was not born
+till 1805,--can never be doubted by one who considers the known
+character of Wolfe, who may have uttered some vehement expression, but
+who can never be suspected of gasconade.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+1759.
+
+WOLFE AT QUEBEC.
+
+French Preparation • Muster of Forces • Gasconade of Vaudreuil • Plan of
+Defence • Strength of Montcalm • Advance of Wolfe • British Sailors •
+Landing of the English • Difficulties before them • Storm • Fireships •
+Confidence of French Commanders • Wolfe occupies Point Levi • A Futile
+Night Attack • Quebec bombarded • Wolfe at the Montmorenci • Skirmishes
+• Danger of the English Position • Effects of the Bombardment •
+Desertion of Canadians • The English above Quebec • Severities of Wolfe
+• Another Attempt to burn the Fleet • Desperate Enterprise of Wolfe •
+The Heights of Montmorenci • Repulse of the English.
+
+In early spring the chiefs of Canada met at Montreal to settle a plan of
+defence. What at first they most dreaded was an advance of the enemy by
+way of Lake Champlain. Bourlamaque, with three battalions, was ordered
+to take post at Ticonderoga, hold it if he could, or, if overborne by
+numbers, fall back to Isle-aux-Noix, at the outlet of the lake. La Corne
+was sent with a strong detachment to intrench himself at the head of the
+rapids of the St. Lawrence, and oppose any hostile movement from Lake
+Ontario. Every able-bodied man in the colony, and every boy who could
+fire a gun, was to be called to the field. Vaudreuil sent a circular
+letter to the militia captains of all the parishes, with orders to read
+it to the parishioners. It exhorted them to defend their religion, their
+wives, their children, and their goods from the fury of the heretics;
+declared that he, the Governor, would never yield up Canada on any terms
+whatever; and ordered them to join the army at once, leaving none behind
+but the old, the sick, the women, and the children. [701] The Bishop
+issued a pastoral mandate: "On every side, dearest brethren, the enemy
+is making immense preparations. His forces, at least six times more
+numerous than ours, are already in motion. Never was Canada in a state
+so critical and full of peril. Never were we so destitute, or threatened
+with an attack so fierce, so general, and so obstinate. Now, in truth,
+we may say, more than ever before, that our only resource is in the
+powerful succor of our Lord. Then, dearest brethren, make every effort
+to deserve it. 'Seek first the kingdom of God; and all these things
+shall be added unto you.'" And he reproves their sins, exhorts them to
+repentance, and ordains processions, masses, and prayers. [702]
+
+[701] Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
+
+[702] I am indebted for a copy of this mandate to the kindness of Abbé
+Bois. As printed by Knox, it is somewhat different, though the spirit is
+the same.
+
+Vaudreuil bustled and boasted. In May he wrote to the Minister: "The
+zeal with which I am animated for the service of the King will always
+make me surmount the greatest obstacles. I am taking the most proper
+measures to give the enemy a good reception whenever he may attack us. I
+keep in view the defence of Quebec. I have given orders in the parishes
+below to muster the inhabitants who are able to bear arms, and place
+women, children, cattle, and even hay and grain, in places of safety.
+Permit me, Monseigneur, to beg you to have the goodness to assure His
+Majesty that, to whatever hard extremity I may be reduced, my zeal will
+be equally ardent and indefatigable, and that I shall do the impossible
+to prevent our enemies from making progress in any direction, or, at
+least, to make them pay extremely dear for it." [703] Then he writes
+again to say that Amherst with a great army will, as he learns, attack
+Ticonderoga; that Bradstreet, with six thousand men, will advance to
+Lake Ontario; and that six thousand more will march to the Ohio.
+"Whatever progress they may make," he adds, "I am resolved to yield them
+nothing, but hold my ground even to annihilation." He promises to do his
+best to keep on good terms with Montcalm, and ends with a warm eulogy of
+Bigot. [704]
+
+[703] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 8 Mai, 1759.
+
+[704] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 20 [?] Mai, 1759.
+
+It was in the midst of all these preparations that Bougainville arrived
+from France with news that a great fleet was on its way to attack
+Quebec. The town was filled with consternation mixed with surprise, for
+the Canadians had believed that the dangerous navigation of the St.
+Lawrence would deter their enemies from the attempt. "Everybody," writes
+one of them, "was stupefied at an enterprise that seemed so bold." In a
+few days a crowd of sails was seen approaching. They were not enemies,
+but friends. It was the fleet of the contractor Cadet, commanded by
+officer named Kanon, and loaded with supplies for the colony. They
+anchored in the harbor, eighteen sail in all, and their arrival spread
+universal joy. Admiral Durell had come too late to intercept them,
+catching but three stragglers that had lagged behind the rest. Still
+others succeeded in eluding him, and before the first of June five more
+ships had come safely into port.
+
+When the news brought by Bougainville reached Montreal, nearly the whole
+force of the colony, except the detachments of Bourlamaque and La Corne,
+was ordered to Quebec. Montcalm hastened thither, and Vaudreuil
+followed. The Governor-General wrote to the Minister in his usual
+strain, as if all the hope of Canada rested in him. Such, he says, was
+his activity, that, though very busy, he reached Quebec only a day and a
+half after Montcalm; and, on arriving, learned from his scouts that
+English ships-of-war had already appeared at Isle-aux-Coudres. These
+were the squadron of Durell. "I expect," Vaudreuil goes on, "to be
+sharply attacked, and that our enemies will make their most powerful
+efforts to conquer this colony; but there is no ruse, no resource, no
+means which my zeal does not suggest to lay snares for them, and
+finally, when the exigency demands it, to fight them with an ardor, and
+even a fury, which exceeds the range of their ambitious designs. The
+troops, the Canadians, and the Indians are not ignorant of the
+resolution I have taken, and from which I shall not recoil under
+any circumstance whatever. The burghers of this city have already put
+their goods and furniture in places of safety. The old men, women, and
+children hold themselves ready to leave town. My firmness is generally
+applauded. It has penetrated every heart; and each man says aloud:
+'Canada, our native land, shall bury us under its ruins before we
+surrender to the English!' This is decidedly my own determination, and I
+shall hold to it inviolably." He launches into high praise of the
+contractor Cadet, whose zeal for the service of the King and the defence
+of the colony he declares to be triumphant over every difficulty. It is
+necessary, he adds, that ample supplies of all kinds should be sent out
+in the autumn, with the distribution of which Cadet offers to charge
+himself, and to account for them at their first cost; but he does not
+say what prices his disinterested friend will compel the destitute
+Canadians to pay for them. [705]
+
+[705] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 28 Mai, 1759.
+
+Five battalions from France, nearly all the colony troops, and the
+militia from every part of Canada poured into Quebec, along with a
+thousand or more Indians, who, at the call of Vaudreuil, came to lend
+their scalping-knives to the defence. Such was the ardor of the people
+that boys of fifteen and men of eighty were to be seen in the camp.
+Isle-aux-Coudres and Isle d'Orléans were ordered to be evacuated, and an
+excited crowd on the rock of Quebec watched hourly for the approaching
+fleet. Days passed and weeks passed, yet it did not appear. Meanwhile
+Vaudreuil held council after council to settle a plan of defence, They
+were strange scenes: a crowd of officers of every rank, mixed pell-mell
+in a small room, pushing, shouting, elbowing each other, interrupting
+each other; till Montcalm, in despair, took each aside after the meeting
+was over, and made him give his opinion in writing. [706]
+
+[706] Journal du Siége de Québec déposé à la Bibliothêque de Hartwell,
+en Angleterre. (Printed at Quebec, 1836.)
+
+He himself had at first proposed to encamp the army on the plains of
+Abraham and the meadows of the St. Charles, making that river his line
+of defence; [707] but he changed his plan, and, with the concurrence of
+Vaudreuil, resolved to post his whole force on the St. Lawrence below
+the city, with his right resting on the St. Charles, and his left on the
+Montmorenci. Here, accordingly, the troops and militia were stationed as
+they arrived. Early in June, standing at the northeastern brink of the
+rock of Quebec, one could have seen the whole position at a glance. On
+the curving shore from the St. Charles to the rocky gorge of the
+Montmorenci, a distance of seven or eight miles, the whitewashed
+dwellings of the parish of Beauport stretched down the road in a double
+chain, and the fields on both sides were studded with tents, huts, and
+Indian wigwams. Along the borders of the St. Lawrence, as far as the eye
+could distinguish them, gangs of men were throwing up redoubts,
+batteries, and lines of intrenchment. About midway between the two
+extremities of the encampment ran the little river of Beauport; and on
+the rising ground just beyond it stood a large stone house, round which
+the tents were thickly clustered; for here Montcalm had made his
+headquarters.
+
+[707] Livre d'Ordres, Disposition pour s'opposer à la Descente.
+
+A boom of logs chained together was drawn across the mouth of the St.
+Charles, which was further guarded by two hulks mounted with cannon. The
+bridge of boats that crossed the stream nearly a mile above, formed the
+chief communication between the city and the camp. Its head towards
+Beauport was protected by a strong and extensive earthwork; and the
+banks of the stream on the Quebec side were also intrenched, to form a
+second line of defence in case the position at Beauport should be
+forced.
+
+In the city itself every gate, except the Palace Gate, which gave access
+to the bridge, was closed and barricaded. A hundred and six cannon were
+mounted on the walls. [708] A floating battery of twelve heavy pieces, a
+number of gunboats, eight fireships, and several firerafts formed the
+river defences. The largest merchantmen of Kanon's fleet were sacrificed
+to make the fireships; and the rest, along with the frigates that came
+with them, were sent for safety up the St. Lawrence beyond the River
+Richelieu, whence about a thousand of their sailors returned to man the
+batteries and gunboats.
+
+[708] This number was found after the siege. Knox, II. 151. Some French
+writers make it much greater.
+
+In the camps along the Beauport shore were about fourteen thousand men,
+besides Indians. The regulars held the centre; the militia of Quebec and
+Three Rivers were on the right, and those of Montreal on the left. In
+Quebec itself there was a garrison of between one and two thousand men
+under the Chevalier de Ramesay. Thus the whole number, including
+Indians, amounted to more than sixteen thousand; [709] and though the
+Canadians who formed the greater part of it were of little use in the
+open field, they could be trusted to fight well behind intrenchments.
+Against this force, posted behind defensive works, on positions almost
+impregnable by nature, Wolfe brought less than nine thousand men
+available for operations on land. [710] The steep and lofty heights that
+lined the river made the cannon of the ships for the most part useless,
+while the exigencies of the naval service forbade employing the sailors
+on shore. In two or three instances only, throughout the siege, small
+squads of them landed to aid in moving and working cannon; and the
+actual fighting fell to the troops alone.
+
+[709] See Appendix H.
+
+[710] Ibid.
+
+Vaudreuil and Bigot took up their quarters with the army. The
+Governor-General had delegated the command of the land-forces to
+Montcalm, whom, in his own words, he authorized "to give orders
+everywhere, provisionally." His relations with him were more than ever
+anomalous and critical; for while Vaudreuil, in virtue of his office,
+had a right to supreme command, Montcalm, now a lieutenant-general, held
+a military grade far above him; and the Governor, while always writing
+himself down in his despatches as the head and front of every movement,
+had too little self-confidence not to leave the actual command in the
+hands of his rival.
+
+Days and weeks wore on, and the first excitement gave way to restless
+impatience. Why did not the English come? Many of the Canadians thought
+that Heaven would interpose and wreck the English fleet, as it had
+wrecked that of Admiral Walker half a century before. There were
+processions, prayers, and vows towards this happy consummation. Food was
+scarce. Bigot and Cadet lived in luxury; fowls by thousands were
+fattened with wheat for their tables, while the people were put on
+rations of two ounces of bread a day. [711] Durell and his ships were
+reported to be still at Isle-aux-Coudres. Vaudreuil sent thither a party
+of Canadians, and they captured three midshipmen, who, says Montcalm,
+had gone ashore pour polissonner, that is, on a lark. These youths were
+brought to Quebec, where they increased the general anxiety by grossly
+exaggerating the English force.
+
+[711] Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
+
+At length it became known that eight English vessels were anchored in
+the north channel of Orleans, and on the twenty-first of June the masts
+of three of them could plainly be seen. One of the fireships was
+consumed in a vain attempt to burn them, and several firerafts and a
+sort of infernal machine were tried with no better success; the
+unwelcome visitors still held their posts.
+
+Meanwhile the whole English fleet had slowly advanced, piloted by Denis
+de Vitré, a Canadian of good birth, captured at sea some time before,
+and now compelled to serve, under a threat of being hanged if he
+refused. [712] Nor was he alone; for when Durell reached the place where
+the river pilots were usually taken on board, he raised a French flag to
+his mast-head, causing great rejoicings among the Canadians on shore,
+who thought that a fleet was come to their rescue, and that their
+country was saved. The pilots launched their canoes and came out to the
+ships, where they were all made prisoners; then the French flag was
+lowered, and the red cross displayed in its stead. The spectators on
+shore turned from joy to despair; and a priest who stood watching the
+squadron with a telescope is said to have dropped dead with the
+revulsion of feeling.
+
+[712] Mémorial de Jean-Denis de Vitré au Très-honorable William Pitt.
+
+Towards the end of June the main fleet was near the mountain of Cape
+Tourmente. The passage called the Traverse, between the Cape and the
+lower end of the Island of Orleans, was reputed one of the most
+dangerous parts of the St. Lawrence; and as the ships successively came
+up, the captive pilots were put on board to carry them safely through,
+on pain of death. One of these men was assigned to the transport
+"Goodwill," in which was Captain Knox, who spoke French, and who reports
+thus in his Diary: "He gasconaded at a most extravagant rate, and gave
+us to understand that it was much against his will that he was become an
+English pilot. The poor fellow assumed great latitude in his
+conversation, and said 'he made no doubt that some of the fleet would
+return to England, but they should have a dismal tale to carry with
+them; for Canada should be the grave of the whole army, and he expected
+in a short time to see the walls of Quebec ornamented with English
+scalps.' Had it not been in obedience to the Admiral, who gave orders
+that he should not be ill-used, he would certainly have been thrown
+overboard." The master of the transport was an old sailor named Killick,
+who despised the whole Gallic race, and had no mind to see his ship in
+charge of a Frenchman. "He would not let the pilot speak," continues
+Knox, "but fixed his mate at the helm, charged him not to take orders
+from any person but himself, and going forward with his trumpet to the
+forecastle, gave the necessary instructions. All that could be said by
+the commanding officer and the other gentlemen on board was to no
+purpose; the pilot declared we should be lost, for that no French ship
+ever presumed to pass there without a pilot. 'Ay, ay, my dear,' replied
+our son of Neptune, 'but, damn me, I'll convince you that an Englishman
+shall go where a Frenchman dare not show his nose.' The 'Richmond'
+frigate being close astern of us, the commanding officer called out to
+the captain and told him our case; he inquired who the master was, and
+was answered from the forecastle by the man himself, who told him 'he
+was old Killick, and that was enough.' I went forward with this
+experienced mariner, who pointed out the channel to me as we passed;
+showing me by the ripple and color of the water where there was any
+danger, and distinguishing the places where there were ledges of rocks
+(to me invisible) from banks of sand, mud, or gravel. He gave his orders
+with great unconcern, joked with the sounding-boats which lay off on
+each side with different colored flags for our guidance; and when any of
+them called to him and pointed to the deepest water, he answered: 'Ay,
+ay, my dear, chalk it down, a damned dangerous navigation, eh! If you
+don't make a sputter about it you'll get no credit in England.' After we
+had cleared this remarkable place, where the channel forms a complete
+zigzag, the master called to his mate to give the helm to somebody else,
+saying, 'Damn me if there are not a thousand places in the Thames fifty
+times more hazardous than this; I am ashamed that Englishmen should make
+such a rout about it.' The Frenchman asked me if the captain had not
+been there before. I assured him in the negative; upon which he viewed
+him with great attention, lifting at the same time his hands and eyes to
+heaven with astonishment and fervency." [713]
+
+[713] Others, as well as the pilot, were astonished. "The enemy passed
+sixty ships of war where we hardly dared risk a vessel of a hundred
+tons." "Notwithstanding all our precautions, the English, without any
+accident, by night, as well as by day, passed through it [the Traverse]
+their ships of seventy and eighty guns, and even many of them together."
+Vaudreuil au Ministre, 22 Oct. 1759.
+
+Vaudreuil was blamed for not planting cannon at a certain plateau on the
+side of the mountain of Cape Tourmente, where the gunners would have
+been inaccessible, and whence they could have battered every passing
+ship with a plunging fire. As it was, the whole fleet sailed safely
+through. On the twenty-sixth they were all anchored off the south shore
+of the Island of Orleans, a few miles from Quebec; and, writes Knox,
+"here we are entertained with a most agreeable prospect of a delightful
+country on every side; windmills, watermills, churches, chapels, and
+compact farmhouses, all built with stone, and covered, some with wood,
+and others with straw. The lands appear to be everywhere well
+cultivated; and with the help of my glass I can discern that they are
+sowed with flax, wheat, barley, peas, etc., and the grounds are enclosed
+with wooden pales. The weather to-day is agreeably warm. A light fog
+sometimes hangs over the highlands, but in the river we have a fine
+clear air. In the curve of the river, while we were under sail, we had a
+transient view of a stupendous natural curiosity called the waterfall of
+Montmorenci."
+
+That night Lieutenant Meech, with forty New England rangers, landed on
+the Island of Orleans, and found a body of armed inhabitants, who tried
+to surround him. He beat them off, and took possession of a neighboring
+farmhouse, where he remained till daylight; then pursued the enemy, and
+found that they had crossed to the north shore. The whole army now
+landed, and were drawn up on the beach. As they were kept there for some
+time, Knox and several brother officers went to visit the neighboring
+church of Saint-Laurent, where they found a letter from the parish
+priest, directed to "The Worthy Officers of the British Army," praying
+that they would protect the sacred edifice, and also his own adjoining
+house, and adding, with somewhat needless civility, that he wished they
+had come sooner, that they might have enjoyed the asparagus and radishes
+of his garden, now unhappily going to seed. The letter concluded with
+many compliments and good wishes, in which the Britons to whom they were
+addressed saw only "the frothy politeness so peculiar to the French."
+The army marched westward and encamped. Wolfe, with his chief engineer,
+Major Mackellar, and an escort of light infantry, advanced to the
+extreme point of the island.
+
+Here he could see, in part, the desperate nature of the task he had
+undertaken. Before him, three or four miles away, Quebec sat perched
+upon her rock, a congregation of stone houses, churches, palaces,
+convents, and hospitals; the green trees of the Seminary garden and the
+spires of the Cathedral, the Ursulines, the Recollets, and the Jesuits.
+Beyond rose the loftier height of Cape Diamond, edged with palisades and
+capped with redoubt and parapet. Batteries frowned everywhere; the
+Château battery, the Clergy battery, the Hospital battery, on the rock
+above, and the Royal, Dauphin's, and Queen's batteries on the strand,
+where the dwellings and warehouses of the lower town clustered beneath
+the cliff.
+
+Full in sight lay the far-extended camp of Montcalm, stretching from the
+St. Charles, beneath the city walls, to the chasm and cataract of the
+Montmorenci. From the cataract to the river of Beauport, its front was
+covered by earthworks along the brink of abrupt and lofty heights; and
+from the river of Beauport to the St. Charles, by broad flats of mud
+swept by the fire of redoubts, intrenchments, a floating battery, and
+the city itself. Above the city, Cape Diamond hid the view; but could
+Wolfe have looked beyond it, he would have beheld a prospect still more
+disheartening. Here, mile after mile, the St. Lawrence was walled by a
+range of steeps, often inaccessible, and always so difficult that a few
+men at the top could hold an army in check; while at Cap-Rouge, about
+eight miles distant, the high plateau was cleft by the channel of a
+stream which formed a line of defence as strong as that of the
+Montmorenci. Quebec was a natural fortress. Bougainville had long before
+examined the position, and reported that "by the help of intrenchments,
+easily and quickly made, and defended by three or four thousand men, I
+think the city would be safe. I do not believe that the English will
+make any attempt against it; but they may have the madness to do so, and
+it is well to be prepared against surprise."
+
+Not four thousand men, but four times four thousand, now stood in its
+defence; and their chiefs wisely resolved not to throw away the
+advantages of their position. Nothing more was heard of Vaudreuil's bold
+plan of attacking the invaders at their landing; and Montcalm had
+declared that he would play the part, not of Hannibal, but of Fabius.
+His plan was to avoid a general battle, run no risks, and protract the
+defence till the resources of the enemy were exhausted, or till
+approaching winter forced them to withdraw. Success was almost certain
+but for one contingency. Amherst, with a force larger than that of
+Wolfe, was moving against Ticonderoga. If he should capture it, and
+advance into the colony, Montcalm would be forced to weaken his army by
+sending strong detachments to oppose him. Here was Wolfe's best hope.
+This failing, his only chance was in audacity. The game was desperate;
+but, intrepid gamester as he was in war, he was a man, in the last
+resort, to stake everything on the cast of the dice.
+
+The elements declared for France. On the afternoon of the day when
+Wolfe's army landed, a violent squall swept over the St. Lawrence,
+dashed the ships together, drove several ashore, and destroyed many of
+the flat-boats from which the troops had just disembarked. "I never saw
+so much distress among shipping in my whole life," writes an officer to
+a friend in Boston. Fortunately the storm subsided as quickly as it
+rose. Vaudreuil saw that the hoped-for deliverance had failed; and as
+the tempest had not destroyed the British fleet, he resolved to try the
+virtue of his fireships. "I am afraid," says Montcalm, "that they have
+cost us a million, and will be good for nothing after all." This
+remained to be seen. Vaudreuil gave the chief command of them to a naval
+officer named Delouche; and on the evening of the twenty-eighth, after
+long consultation and much debate among their respective captains, they
+set sail together at ten o'clock. The night was moonless and dark. In
+less than an hour they were at the entrance of the north channel.
+Delouche had been all enthusiasm; but as he neared the danger his nerves
+failed, and he set fire to his ship half an hour too soon, the rest
+following his example. [714]
+
+[714] Foligny, Journal mémoratif. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Oct. 1759.
+Journal du Siége (Bibliothêque de Hartwell).
+
+There was an English outpost at the Point of Orleans; and, about eleven
+o'clock, the sentries descried through the gloom the ghostly outlines of
+the approaching ships. As they gazed, these mysterious strangers began
+to dart tongues of flame; fire ran like lightning up their masts and
+sails, and then they burst out like volcanoes. Filled as they were with
+pitch, tar, and every manner of combustible, mixed with fireworks,
+bombs, grenades, and old cannon, swivels, and muskets loaded to the
+throat, the effect was terrific. The troops at the Point, amazed at the
+sudden eruption, the din of the explosions, and the showers of grapeshot
+that rattled among the trees, lost their wits and fled. The blazing
+dragons hissed and roared, spouted sheets of fire, vomited smoke in
+black, pitchy volumes and vast illumined clouds, and shed their infernal
+glare on the distant city, the tents of Montcalm, and the long red lines
+of the British army, drawn up in array of battle, lest the French should
+cross from their encampments to attack them in the confusion. Knox calls
+the display "the grandest fireworks that can possibly be conceived." Yet
+the fireships did no other harm than burning alive one of their own
+captains and six or seven of his sailors who failed to escape in their
+boats. Some of them ran ashore before reaching the fleet; the others
+were seized by the intrepid English sailors, who, approaching in their
+boats, threw grappling-irons upon them and towed them towards land, till
+they swung round and stranded. Here, after venting their fury for a
+while, they subsided into quiet conflagration, which lasted till
+morning. Vaudreuil watched the result of his experiment from the steeple
+of the church at Beauport; then returned, dejected, to Quebec.
+
+Wolfe longed to fight his enemy; but his sagacious enemy would not
+gratify him. From the heights of Beauport, the rock of Quebec, or the
+summit of Cape Diamond, Montcalm could look down on the river and its
+shores as on a map, and watch each movement of the invaders. He was
+hopeful, perhaps confident; and for a month or more he wrote almost
+daily to Bourlamaque at Ticonderoga, in a cheerful, and often a jocose
+vein, mingling orders and instructions with pleasantries and bits of
+news. Yet his vigilance was unceasing. "We pass every night in bivouac,
+or else sleep in our clothes. Perhaps you are doing as much, my dear
+Bourlamaque." [715]
+
+[715] Montcalm à Bourlamaque, 27 Juin, 1759. All these letters are
+before me.
+
+Of the two commanders, Vaudreuil was the more sanguine, and professed
+full faith that all would go well. He too corresponded with Bourlamaque,
+to whom he gave his opinion, founded on the reports of deserters, that
+Wolfe had no chance of success unless Amherst should come to his aid.
+This he pronounced impossible; and he expressed a strong desire that the
+English would attack him, "so that we may rid ourselves of them at
+once." [716] He was courageous, except in the immediate presence of
+danger, and failed only when the crisis came.
+
+[716] Vaudreuil à Bourlamaque, 8 Juillet, 1759.
+
+Wolfe, held in check at every other point, had one movement in his
+power. He could seize the heights of Point Levi, opposite the city; and
+this, along with his occupation of the Island of Orleans, would give him
+command of the Basin of Quebec. Thence also he could fire on the place
+across the St. Lawrence, which is here less than a mile wide. The
+movement was begun on the afternoon of the twenty-ninth, when, shivering
+in a north wind and a sharp frost, a part of Monckton's brigade was
+ferried over to Beaumont, on the south shore, and the rest followed in
+the morning. The rangers had a brush with a party of Canadians, whom
+they drove off, and the regulars then landed unopposed. Monckton ordered
+a proclamation, signed by Wolfe, to be posted on the door of the parish
+church. It called on the Canadians, in peremptory terms, to stand
+neutral in the contest, promised them, if they did so, full protection
+in property and religion, and threatened that, if they presumed to
+resist the invaders, their houses, goods, and harvests should be
+destroyed, and their churches despoiled. As soon as the troops were out
+of sight the inhabitants took down the placard and carried it to
+Vaudreuil.
+
+The brigade marched along the river road to Point Levi, drove off a body
+of French and Indians posted in the church, and took possession of the
+houses and the surrounding heights. In the morning they were intrenching
+themselves, when they were greeted by a brisk fire from the edge of the
+woods. It came from a party of Indians, whom the rangers presently put
+to flight, and, imitating their own ferocity, scalped nine of them.
+Wolfe came over to the camp on the next day, went with an escort to the
+heights opposite Quebec, examined it with a spy-glass, and chose a
+position from which to bombard it. Cannon and mortars were brought
+ashore, fascines and gabions made, intrenchments thrown up, and
+batteries planted. Knox came over from the main camp, and says that he
+had "a most agreeable view of the city of Quebec. It is a very fair
+object for our artillery, particularly the lower town." But why did
+Wolfe wish to bombard it? Its fortifications were but little exposed to
+his fire, and to knock its houses, convents, and churches to pieces
+would bring him no nearer to his object. His guns at Point Levi could
+destroy the city, but could not capture it; yet doubtless they would
+have good moral effect, discourage the French, and cheer his own
+soldiers with the flattering belief that they were achieving something.
+
+The guns of Quebec showered balls and bombs upon his workmen; but they
+still toiled on, and the French saw the fatal batteries fast growing to
+completion. The citizens, alarmed at the threatened destruction, begged
+the Governor for leave to cross the river and dislodge their assailants.
+At length he consented. A party of twelve or fifteen hundred was made up
+of armed burghers, Canadians from the camp, a few Indians, some pupils
+of the Seminary, and about a hundred volunteers from the regulars.
+Dumas, an experienced officer, took command of them; and, going up to
+Sillery, they crossed the river on the night of the twelfth of July.
+They had hardly climbed the heights of the south shore when they grew
+exceedingly nervous, though the enemy was still three miles off. The
+Seminary scholars fired on some of their own party, whom they mistook
+for English; and the same mishap was repeated a second and a third time.
+A panic seized the whole body, and Dumas could not control them. They
+turned and made for their canoes, rolling over each other as they rushed
+down the heights, and reappeared at Quebec at six in the morning,
+overwhelmed with despair and shame. [717]
+
+[717] Événements de la Guerre en Canada (Hist. Soc. Quebec, 1861).
+Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Oct. 1759.
+L'Abeille, II. No. 14 (a publication of the Quebec Seminary). Journal du
+Siége de Québec (Bibliothêque de Hartwell). Panet, Journal du Siége.
+Foligny, Journal mémoratif. Memoirs of the Siege of Quebec, by John
+Johnson, Clerk and Quartermaster-Sergeant to the Fifty-eighth Regiment.
+
+The presentiment of the unhappy burghers proved too true. The English
+batteries fell to their work, and the families of the town fled to the
+country for safety. In a single day eighteen houses and the cathedral
+were burned by exploding shells; and fiercer and fiercer the storm of
+fire and iron hailed upon Quebec.
+
+Wolfe did not rest content with distressing his enemy. With an ardor and
+a daring that no difficulties could cool, he sought means to strike an
+effective blow. It was nothing to lay Quebec in ruins if he could not
+defeat the army that protected it. To land from boats and attack
+Montcalm in front, through the mud of the Beauport flats or up the
+heights along the neighboring shore, was an enterprise too rash even for
+his temerity. It might, however, be possible to land below the cataract
+of Montmorenci, cross that stream higher up, and strike the French army
+in flank or rear; and he had no sooner secured his positions at the
+points of Levi and Orleans, than he addressed himself to this attempt.
+
+On the eighth several frigates and a bomb-ketch took their stations
+before the camp of the Chevalier de Lévis, who, with his division of
+Canadian militia, occupied the heights along the St. Lawrence just above
+the cataract. Here they shelled and cannonaded him all day; though, from
+his elevated position, with very little effect. Towards evening the
+troops on the Point of Orleans broke up their camp. Major Hardy, with a
+detachment of marines, was left to hold that post, while the rest
+embarked at night in the boats of the fleet. They were the brigades of
+Townshend and Murray, consisting of five battalions, with a body of
+grenadiers, light infantry, and rangers,--in all three thousand men.
+They landed before daybreak in front of the parish of L'Ange Gardien, a
+little below the cataract. The only opposition was from a troop of
+Canadians and Indians, whom they routed, after some loss, climbed the
+heights, gained the plateau above, and began to intrench themselves. A
+company of rangers, supported by detachments of regulars, was sent into
+the neighboring forest to protect the parties who were cutting fascines,
+and apparently, also, to look for a fording-place.
+
+Lévis, with his Scotch-Jacobite aide-de-camp, Johnstone, had watched the
+movements of Wolfe from the heights across the cataract. Johnstone says
+that he asked his commander if he was sure there was no ford higher up
+on the Montmorenci, by which the English could cross. Lévis averred that
+there was none, and that he himself had examined the stream to its
+source; on which a Canadian who stood by whispered to the aide-de-camp:
+"The General is mistaken; there is a ford." Johnstone told this to
+Lévis, who would not believe it, and so browbeat the Canadian that he
+dared not repeat what he had said. Johnstone, taking him aside, told him
+to go and find somebody who had lately crossed the ford, and bring him
+at once to the General's quarters; whereupon he soon reappeared with a
+man who affirmed that he had crossed it the night before with a sack of
+wheat on his back. A detachment was immediately sent to the place, with
+orders to intrench itself, and Repentigny, lieutenant of Lévis, was
+posted not far off with eleven hundred Canadians.
+
+Four hundred Indians passed the ford under the partisan Langlade,
+discovered Wolfe's detachment, hid themselves, and sent their commander
+to tell Repentigny that there was a body of English in the forest, who
+might all be destroyed if he would come over at once with his Canadians.
+Repentigny sent for orders to Lévis, and Lévis sent for orders to
+Vaudreuil, whose quarters were three or four miles distant. Vaudreuil
+answered that no risk should be run, and that he would come and see to
+the matter himself. It was about two hours before he arrived; and
+meanwhile the Indians grew impatient, rose from their hiding-place,
+fired on the rangers, and drove them back with heavy loss upon the
+regulars, who stood their ground, and at last repulsed the assailants.
+The Indians recrossed the ford with thirty-six scalps. If Repentigny had
+advanced, and Lévis had followed with his main body, the consequences to
+the English might have been serious; for, as Johnstone remarks, "a
+Canadian in the woods is worth three disciplined soldiers, as a soldier
+in a plain is worth three Canadians." Vaudreuil called a council of war.
+The question was whether an effort should be made to dislodge Wolfe's
+main force. Montcalm and the Governor were this time of one mind, and
+both thought it inexpedient to attack, with militia, a body of regular
+troops whose numbers and position were imperfectly known. Bigot gave
+his voice for the attack. He was overruled, and Wolfe was left to
+fortify himself in peace. [718]
+
+[718] The above is from a comparison of the rather discordant accounts
+of Johnstone, the Journal tenu à l'Armée, the Journal of Panet, and that
+of the Hartwell Library. The last says that Lévis crossed the
+Montmorenci. If so, he accomplished nothing. This affair should not be
+confounded with a somewhat similar one which took place on the 26th.
+
+His occupation of the heights of Montmorenci exposed him to great risks.
+The left wing of his army at Point Levi was six miles from its right
+wing at the cataract, and Major Hardy's detachment on the Point of
+Orleans was between them, separated from each by a wide arm of the St.
+Lawrence. Any one of the three camps might be overpowered before the
+others could support it; and Hardy with his small force was above all in
+danger of being cut to pieces. But the French kept persistently on the
+defensive; and after the failure of Dumas to dislodge the English from
+Point Levi, Vaudreuil would not hear of another such attempt. Wolfe was
+soon well intrenched; but it was easier to defend himself than to strike
+at his enemy. Montcalm, when urged to attack him, is said to have
+answered: "Let him amuse himself where he is. If we drive him off he may
+go to some place where he can do us harm." His late movement, however,
+had a discouraging effect on the Canadians, who now for the first time
+began to desert. His batteries, too, played across the chasm of
+Montmorenci upon the left wing of the French army with an effect
+extremely annoying.
+
+The position of the hostile forces was a remarkable one. They were
+separated by the vast gorge that opens upon the St. Lawrence; an
+amphitheatre of lofty precipices, their brows crested with forests, and
+their steep brown sides scantily feathered with stunted birch and fir.
+Into this abyss leaps the Montmorenci with one headlong plunge of nearly
+two hundred and fifty feet, a living column of snowy white, with its
+spray, its foam, its mists, and its rainbows; then spreads itself in
+broad thin sheets over a floor of rock and gravel, and creeps tamely to
+the St. Lawrence. It was but a gunshot across the gulf, and the
+sentinels on each side watched each other over the roar and turmoil of
+the cataract. Captain Knox, coming one day from Point Levi to receive
+orders from Wolfe, improved a spare hour to visit this marvel of nature.
+"I had very nigh paid dear for my inquisitiveness; for while I stood on
+the eminence I was hastily called to by one of our sentinels, when,
+throwing my eyes about, I saw a Frenchman creeping under the eastern
+extremity of their breastwork to fire at me. This obliged me to retire
+as fast as I could out of his reach, and, making up to the sentry to
+thank him for his attention, he told me the fellow had snapped his piece
+twice, and the second time it flashed in the pan at the instant I turned
+away from the Fall." Another officer, less fortunate, had a leg broken
+by a shot from the opposite cliffs.
+
+Day after day went by, and the invaders made no progress. Flags of truce
+passed often between the hostile camps. "You will demolish the town, no
+doubt," said the bearer of one of them, "but you shall never get inside
+of it." To which Wolfe replied: "I will have Quebec if I stay here till
+the end of November." Sometimes the heat was intense, and sometimes
+there were floods of summer rain that inundated the tents. Along the
+river, from the Montmorenci to Point Levi, there were ceaseless
+artillery fights between gunboats, frigates, and batteries on shore.
+Bands of Indians infested the outskirts of the camps, killing sentries
+and patrols. The rangers chased them through the woods; there were brisk
+skirmishes, and scalps lost and won. Sometimes the regulars took part in
+these forest battles; and once it was announced, in orders of the day,
+that "the General has ordered two sheep and some rum to Captain Cosnan's
+company of grenadiers for the spirit they showed this morning in pushing
+those scoundrels of Indians." The Indians complained that the British
+soldiers were learning how to fight, and no longer stood still in a mass
+to be shot at, as in Braddock's time. The Canadian coureurs-de-bois
+mixed with their red allies and wore their livery. One of them was
+caught on the eighteenth. He was naked, daubed red and blue, and adorned
+with a bunch of painted feathers dangling from the top of his head. He
+and his companions used the scalping-knife as freely as the Indians
+themselves; nor were the New England rangers much behind them in this
+respect, till an order came from Wolfe forbidding "the inhuman practice
+of scalping, except when the enemy are Indians, or Canadians dressed
+like Indians."
+
+A part of the fleet worked up into the Basin, beyond the Point of
+Orleans; and here, on the warm summer nights, officers and men watched
+the cannon flashing and thundering from the heights of Montmorenci on
+one side, and those of Pont Levi on the other, and the bombs sailing
+through the air in fiery semicircles. Often the gloom was lighted up by
+the blaze of the burning houses of Quebec, kindled by incendiary shells.
+Both the lower and the upper town were nearly deserted by the
+inhabitants, some retreating into the country, and some into the suburb
+of St. Roch; while the Ursulines and Hospital nuns abandoned their
+convents to seek harborage beyond the range of shot. The city was a prey 
+to robbers, who pillaged the empty houses, till an order came from
+headquarters promising the gallows to all who should be caught. News
+reached the French that Niagara was attacked, and that the army of
+Amherst was moving against Ticonderoga. The Canadians deserted more and
+more. They were disheartened by the defensive attitude in which both
+Vaudreuil and Montcalm steadily persisted; and accustomed as they were
+to rapid raids, sudden strokes, and a quick return to their homes, they
+tired of long weeks of inaction. The English patrols caught one of them
+as he was passing the time in fishing. "He seemed to be a subtle old
+rogue," says Knox, "of seventy years of age, as he told us. We plied him
+well with port wine, and then his heart was more open; and seeing that
+we laughed at the exaggerated accounts he had given us, he said he
+'wished the affair was well over, one way or the other; that his
+countrymen were all discontented, and would either surrender, or
+disperse and act a neutral part, if it were not for the persuasions of
+their priests and the fear of being maltreated by the savages, with whom
+they are threatened on all occasions.'" A deserter reported on the
+nineteenth of July that nothing but dread of the Indians kept the
+Canadians in the camp.
+
+Wolfe's proclamation, at first unavailing, was now taking effect. A
+large number of Canadian prisoners, brought in on the twenty-fifth,
+declared that their countrymen would gladly accept his offers but for
+the threats of their commanders that if they did so the Indians should
+be set upon them. The prisoners said further that "they had been under
+apprehension for several days past of having a body of four hundred
+barbarians sent to rifle their parish and habitations." [719] Such
+threats were not wholly effectual. A French chronicler of the time says:
+"The Canadians showed their disgust every day, and deserted at every
+opportunity, in spite of the means taken to prevent them." "The people
+were intimidated, seeing all our army kept in one body and solely on
+the defensive; while the English, though far less numerous, divided
+their forces, and undertook various bold enterprises without meeting
+resistance." [720]
+
+[719] Knox, I. 347; compare pp. 339, 341, 346.
+
+[720] Journal du Siége (Bibliothêque de Hartwell).
+
+On the eighteenth the English accomplished a feat which promised
+important results. The French commanders had thought it impossible for
+any hostile ship to pass the batteries of Quebec; but about eleven
+o'clock at night, favored by the wind, and covered by a furious
+cannonade from Point Levi, the ship "Sutherland," with a frigate and
+several small vessels, sailed safely by and reached the river above the
+town. Here they at once attacked and destroyed a fireship and some small
+craft that they found there. Now, for the first time, it became
+necessary for Montcalm to weaken his army at Beauport by sending six
+hundred men, under Dumas, to defend the accessible points in the line of
+precipices between Quebec and Cap-Rouge. Several hundred more were sent
+on the next day, when it became known that the English had dragged a
+fleet of boats over Point Levi, launched them above the town, and
+despatched troops to embark in them. Thus a new feature was introduced
+into the siege operations, and danger had risen on a side where the
+French thought themselves safe. On the other hand, Wolfe had become more
+vulnerable than ever. His army was now divided, not into three parts,
+but into four, each so far from the rest that, in case of sudden attack,
+it must defend itself alone. That Montcalm did not improve his
+opportunity was apparently due to want of confidence in his militia.
+
+The force above the town did not lie idle. On the night of the
+twentieth, Colonel Carleton, with six hundred men, rowed eighteen miles
+up the river, and landed at Pointe-aux-Trembles, on the north shore.
+Here some of the families of Quebec had sought asylum; and Wolfe had
+been told by prisoners that not only were stores in great quantity to be
+found here, but also letters and papers throwing light on the French
+plans. Carleton and his men drove off a band of Indians who fired on
+them, and spent a quiet day around the parish church; but found few
+papers, and still fewer stores. They withdrew towards evening, carrying
+with them nearly a hundred women, children, and old men; any they were
+no sooner gone than the Indians returned to plunder the empty houses of
+their unfortunate allies. The prisoners were treated with great
+kindness. The ladies among them were entertained at supper by Wolfe, who
+jested with them on the caution of the French generals, saying: "I have
+given good chances to attack me, and am surprised that they have not
+profited by them." [721] On the next day the prisoners were all sent to
+Quebec under a flag of truce.
+
+[721] Journal tenu à l'Armée que commandoit feu M. le Marquis de
+Montcalm.
+
+Thus far Wolfe had refrained from executing the threats he had affixed
+the month before to the church of Beaumont. But now he issued another
+proclamation. It declared that the Canadians had shown themselves
+unworthy of the offers he had made them, and that he had therefore
+ordered his light troops to ravage their country and bring them
+prisoners to his camp. Such of the Canadian militia as belonged to the
+parishes near Quebec were now in a sad dilemma; for Montcalm threatened
+them on one side, and Wolfe on the other. They might desert to their
+homes, or they might stand by their colors; in the one case their houses
+were to be burned by French savages, and in the other by British light
+infantry.
+
+Wolfe at once gave orders in accord with his late proclamation; but he
+commanded that no church should be profaned, and no woman or child
+injured. The first effects of his stern policy are thus recorded by
+Knox: "Major Dalling's light infantry brought in this afternoon to our
+camp two hundred and fifty male and female prisoners. Among this number
+was a very respectable looking priest, and about forty men fit to bear
+arms. There was almost an equal number of black cattle, with about
+seventy sheep and lambs, and a few horses. Brigadier Monckton
+entertained the reverend father and some other fashionable personages in
+his tent, and most humanely ordered refreshments to all the rest of the
+captives; which noble example was followed by the soldiery, who
+generously crowded about those unhappy people, sharing the provisions,
+rum, and tobacco with them. They were sent in the evening on board of
+transports in the river." Again, two days later: "Colonel Fraser's
+detachment returned this morning, and presented us with more scenes of
+distress and the dismal consequences of war, by a great number of
+wretched families, whom they brought in prisoners, with some of their
+effects, and near three hundred black cattle, sheep, hogs, and horses."
+
+On the next night the attention of the excellent journalist was
+otherwise engaged. Vaudreuil tried again to burn the English fleet.
+"Late last night," writes Knox, under date of the twenty-eighth, "the
+enemy sent down a most formidable fireraft, which consisted of a parcel
+of schooners, shallops, and stages chained together. It could not be
+less than a hundred fathoms in length, and was covered with grenades,
+old swivels, gun and pistol barrels loaded up to their muzzles, and
+various other inventions and combustible matters. This seemed to be
+their last attempt against our fleet, which happily miscarried, as
+before; for our gallant seamen, with their usual expertness, grappled
+them before they got down above a third part of the Basin, towed them
+safe to shore, and left them at anchor, continually repeating, All's
+well. A remarkable expression from some of these intrepid souls to their
+comrades on this occasion I must not omit, on account of its singular
+uncouthness; namely: 'Damme, Jack, didst thee ever take hell in tow
+before?'"
+
+According to a French account, this aquatic infernal machine consisted
+of seventy rafts, boats, and schooners. Its failure was due to no
+shortcoming on the part of its conductors; who, under a brave Canadian
+named Courval, acted with coolness and resolution. Nothing saved the
+fleet but the courage of the sailors, swarming out in their boats to
+fight the approaching conflagration.
+
+It was now the end of July. More than half the summer was gone, and
+Quebec seemed as far as ever beyond the grasp of Wolfe. Its buildings
+were in ruins, and the neighboring parishes were burned and ravaged; but
+its living rampart, the army of Montcalm, still lay in patient defiance
+along the shores of Beauport, while above the city every point where a
+wildcat could climb the precipices was watched and guarded, and Dumas
+with a thousand men held the impregnable heights of Cap-Rouge. Montcalm
+persisted in doing nothing that his enemy wished him to do. He would not
+fight on Wolfe's terms, and Wolfe resolved at last to fight him on his
+own; that is, to attack his camp in front.
+
+The plan was desperate; for, after leaving troops enough to hold Point
+Levi and the heights of Montmorenci, less than five thousand men would
+be left to attack a position of commanding strength, where Montcalm at
+an hour's notice could collect twice as many to oppose them. But Wolfe
+had a boundless trust in the disciplined valor of his soldiers, and an
+utter scorn of the militia who made the greater part of his enemy's
+force.
+
+Towards the Montmorenci the borders of the St. Lawrence are, as we have
+seen, extremely high and steep. At a mile from the gorge of the cataract
+there is, at high tide, a strand, about the eighth of a mile wide,
+between the foot of these heights and the river; and beyond this strand
+the receding tide lays bare a tract of mud nearly half a mile wide. At
+the edge of the dry ground the French had built a redoubt mounted with
+cannon, and there were other similar works on the strand a quarter of a
+mile nearer the cataract. Wolfe could not see from the river that these
+redoubts were commanded by the musketry of the intrenchments along the
+brink of the heights above. These intrenchments were so constructed that
+they swept with cross-fires the whole face of the declivity, which was
+covered with grass, and was very steep. Wolfe hoped that, if he attacked
+one of the redoubts, the French would come down to defend it, and so
+bring on a general engagement; or, if they did not, that he should gain
+an opportunity of reconnoitring the heights to find some point where
+they could be stormed with a chance of success.
+
+In front of the gorge of the Montmorenci there was a ford during several
+hours of low tide, so that troops from the adjoining English camp might
+cross to co-operate with their comrades landing in boats from Point Levi
+and the Island of Orleans. On the morning of the thirty-first of July,
+the tide then being at the flood, the French saw the ship "Centurion,"
+of sixty-four guns, anchor near the Montmorenci and open fire on the
+redoubts. Then two armed transports, each of fourteen guns, stood in as
+close as possible to the first redoubt and fired upon it, stranding as
+the tide went out, till in the afternoon they lay bare upon the mud. At
+the same time a battery of more than forty heavy pieces, planted on the
+lofty promontory beyond the Montmorenci, began a furious cannonade upon
+the flank of the French intrenchments. It did no great harm, however,
+for the works were protected by a great number of traverses, which
+stopped the shot; and the Canadians, who manned this part of the lines,
+held their ground with excellent steadiness.
+
+About eleven o'clock a fleet of boats filled with troops, chiefly from
+Point Levi, appeared in the river and hovered off the shore west of the
+parish church of Beauport, as if meaning to land there. Montcalm was
+perplexed, doubting whether the real attack was to be made here, or
+toward the Montmorenci. Hour after hour the boats moved to and fro, to
+increase his doubts and hide the real design; but he soon became
+convinced that the camp of Lévis at the Montmorenci was the true object
+of his enemy; and about two o'clock he went thither, greeted as he rode
+along the lines by shouts of Vive notre Général! Lévis had already made
+preparations for defence with his usual skill. His Canadians were
+reinforced by the battalions of Béarn, Guienne, and Royal Roussillon;
+and, as the intentions of Wolfe became certain, the right of the camp
+was nearly abandoned, the main strength of the army being gathered
+between the river of Beauport and the Montmorenci, where, according to a
+French writer, there were, towards the end of the afternoon, about
+twelve thousand men. [722]
+
+[722] Panet, Journal.
+
+At half-past five o'clock the tide was out, and the crisis came. The
+batteries across the Montmorenci, the distant batteries of Point Levi,
+the cannon of the "Centurion," and those of the two stranded ships, all
+opened together with redoubled fury. The French batteries replied; and,
+amid this deafening roar of artillery, the English boats set their
+troops ashore at the edge of the broad tract of sedgy mud that the
+receding river had left bare. At the same time a column of two thousand
+men was seen, a mile away, moving in perfect order across the
+Montmorenci ford. The first troops that landed from the boats were
+thirteen companies of grenadiers and a detachment of Royal Americans.
+They dashed swiftly forward; while at some distance behind came
+Monckton's brigade, composed of the fifteenth, or Amherst's regiment,
+and the seventy-eighth, or Fraser's Highlanders. The day had been fair
+and warm; but the sky was now thick with clouds, and large rain-drops
+began to fall, the precursors of a summer storm.
+
+With the utmost precipitation, without orders, and without waiting for
+Monckton's brigade to come up, the grenadiers in front made a rush for
+the redoubt near the foot of the hill. The French abandoned it; but the
+assailants had no sooner gained their prize than the thronged heights
+above blazed with musketry, and a tempest of bullets fell among them.
+Nothing daunted, they dashed forward again, reserving their fire, and
+struggling to climb the steep ascent; while, with yells and shouts of
+Vive le Roi! the troops and Canadians at the top poured upon them a
+hailstorm of musket-balls and buckshot, and dead and wounded in
+numbers rolled together down the slope. At that instant the clouds
+burst, and the rain fell in torrents. "We could not see half way down
+the hill," says the Chevalier Johnstone, who was at this part of the
+line. Ammunition was wet on both sides, and the grassy steeps became so
+slippery that it was impossible to climb them. The English say that the
+storm saved the French; the French, with as much reason, that it saved
+the English.
+
+The baffled grenadiers drew back into the redoubt. Wolfe saw the madness
+of persisting, and ordered a retreat. The rain ceased, and troops of
+Indians came down the heights to scalp the fallen. Some of them ran
+towards Lieutenant Peyton, of the Royal Americans, as he lay disabled by
+a musket-shot. With his double-barrelled gun he brought down two of his
+assailants, when a Highland sergeant snatched him in his arms, dragged
+him half a mile over the mud-flats, and placed him in one of the boats.
+A friend of Peyton, Captain Ochterlony, had received a mortal wound, and
+an Indian would have scalped him but for the generous intrepidity of a
+soldier of the battalion of Guienne; who, seizing the enraged savage,
+held him back till several French officers interposed, and had the dying
+man carried to a place of safety.
+
+The English retreated in good order, after setting fire to the two
+stranded vessels. Those of the grenadiers and Royal Americans who were
+left alive rowed for the Point of Orleans; the fifteenth regiment rowed
+for Point Levi; and the Highlanders, led by Wolfe himself, joined the
+column from beyond the Montmorenci, placing themselves in its rear as it
+slowly retired along the flats and across the ford, the Indians yelling
+and the French shouting from the heights, while the British waved their
+hats, daring them to come down and fight.
+
+The grenadiers and the Royal Americans, who had borne the brunt of the
+fray, bore also nearly all the loss; which, in proportion to their
+numbers, was enormous. Knox reports it at four hundred and forty-three,
+killed, wounded, and missing, including one colonel, eight captains,
+twenty-one lieutenants, and three ensigns.
+
+Vaudreuil, delighted, wrote to Bourlamaque an account of the affair. "I
+have no more anxiety about Quebec. M. Wolfe, I can assure you, will make
+no progress. Luckily for him, his prudence saved him from the
+consequences of his mad enterprise, and he contented himself with losing
+about five hundred of his best soldiers. Deserters say that he will try
+us again in a few days. That is what we want; he'll find somebody to
+talk to (il trouvera à qui parler)."
+
+Note.--Among the killed in this affair was Edward Botwood, sergeant in
+the grenadiers of the forty-seventh, or Lascelles' regiment. "Ned
+Botwood" was well known among his comrades as a poet; and the following
+lines of his, written on the eve of the expedition to Quebec, continued
+to be favorites with the British troops during the War of the Revolution
+(see Historical Magazine, II., First Series, 164). It may be observed
+here that the war produced a considerable quantity of indifferent verse
+on both sides. On that of the English it took the shape of occasional
+ballads, such as "Bold General Wolfe," printed on broadsides, or of
+patriotic effusions scattered through magazines and newspapers, while
+the French celebrated all their victories with songs.
+
+
+HOT STUFF.
+
+Air,--Lilies of France.
+
+Come, each death-doing dog who dares venture his neck,
+Come, follow the hero that goes to Quebec;
+Jump aboard of the transports, and loose every sail,
+Pay your debts at the tavern by giving leg-bail;
+And ye that love fighting shall soon have enough:
+Wolfe commands us, my boys; we shall give them Hot Stuff.
+
+Up the River St. Lawrence our troops shall advance,
+To the Grenadiers' March we will teach them to dance.
+Cape Breton we have taken, and next we will try
+At their capital to give them another black eye.
+Vaudreuil, 't is in vain you pretend to look gruff,--
+Those are coming who know how to give you Hot Stuff.
+
+With powder in his periwig, and snuff in his nose,
+Monsieur will run down our descent to oppose;
+And the Indians will come: but the light infantry
+Will soon oblige them to betake to a tree.
+From such rascals as these may we fear a rebuff?
+Advance, grenadiers, and let fly your Hot Stuff!
+
+When the forty-seventh regiment is dashing ashore,
+While bullets are whistling and cannons do roar,
+Says Montcalm: "Those are Shirley's--I know the lappels."
+"You lie," says Ned Botwood, "we belong to Lascelles'!
+Tho' our cloathing is changed, yet we scorn a powder-puff;
+So at you, ye b----s, here's give you Hot Stuff."
+
+On the repulse at Montmorenci, Wolfe to Pitt, 2 Sept. 1759. Vaudreuil au
+Ministre, 5 Oct. 1759. Panet, Journal du Siége. Johnstone, Dialogue in
+Hades. Journal tenu à l'Armée, etc. Journal of the Siege of Quebec, by a
+Gentleman in an eminent Station on the Spot. Mémoires sur le Canada,
+1749-1760. Fraser, Journal of the Siege. Journal du Siége d'après un MS.
+déposé à la Bibliothêque Hartwell. Foligny, Journal mémoratif. Journal
+of Transactions at the Siege of Quebec, in Notes and Queries, XX. 164.
+John Johnson, Memoirs of the Siege of Quebec. Journal of an Expedition
+on the River St. Lawrence. An Authentic Account of the Expedition
+against Quebec, by a Volunteer on that Expedition. J. Gibson to Governor
+Lawrence, 1 Aug. 1759. Knox, I. 354. Mante, 244.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+1759.
+
+AMHERST. NIAGARA.
+
+Amherst on Lake George • Capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point • Delays
+of Amherst • Niagara Expedition • La Corne attacks Oswego • His Repulse
+• Niagara besieged • Aubry comes to its Relief • Battle • Rout of the
+French • The Fort taken • Isle-aux-Noix • Amherst advances to attack it
+• Storm • The Enterprise abandoned • Rogers attacks St. Francis •
+Destroys the Town • Sufferings of the Rangers.
+
+Pitt had directed that, while Quebec was attacked, an attempt should be
+made to penetrate into Canada by way of Ticonderoga and Crown Point.
+Thus the two armies might unite in the heart of the colony, or, at
+least, a powerful diversion might be effected in behalf of Wolfe. At the
+same time Oswego was to be re-established, and the possession of Fort
+Duquesne, or Pittsburg, secured by reinforcements and supplies; while
+Amherst, the commander-in-chief, was further directed to pursue any
+other enterprise which in his opinion would weaken the enemy, without
+detriment to the main objects of the campaign. [723] He accordingly
+resolved to attempt the capture of Niagara. Brigadier Prideaux was
+charged with this stroke; Brigadier Stanwix was sent to conduct the
+operations for the relief of Pittsburg; and Amherst himself prepared to
+lead the grand central advance against Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and
+Montreal. [724]
+
+[723] Pitt to Amherst, 23 Jan., 10 March, 1759.
+
+[724] Amherst to Pitt, 19 June, 1759. Amherst to Stanwix, 6 May, 1759.
+
+Towards the end of June he reached that valley by the head of Lake
+George which for five years past had been the annual mustering-place of
+armies. Here were now gathered about eleven thousand men, half regulars
+and half provincials, [725] drilling every day, firing by platoons,
+firing at marks, practising manœuvres in the woods; going out on
+scouting parties, bathing parties, fishing parties; gathering wild herbs
+to serve for greens, cutting brushwood and meadow hay to make hospital
+beds. The sick were ordered on certain mornings to repair to the
+surgeon's tent, there, in prompt succession, to swallow such doses as he
+thought appropriate to their several ailments; and it was further
+ordered that "every fair day they that can walk be paraded together and
+marched down to the lake to wash their hands and faces." Courts-martial
+were numerous; culprits were flogged at the head of each regiment in
+turn, and occasionally one was shot. A frequent employment was the
+cutting of spruce tops to make spruce beer. This innocent beverage was
+reputed sovereign against scurvy; and such was the fame of its virtues
+that a copious supply of the West Indian molasses used in concocting it
+was thought indispensable to every army or garrison in the wilderness.
+Throughout this campaign it is repeatedly mentioned in general orders,
+and the soldiers are promised that they shall have as much of it as they
+want at a halfpenny a quart. [726]
+
+[725] Mante, 210.
+
+[726] Orderly Book of Commissary Wilson in the Expedition against
+Ticonderoga, 1759. Journal of Samuel Warner, a Massachusetts Soldier,
+1759. General and Regimental Orders, Army of Major-General Amherst,
+1759. Diary of Sergeant Merriman, of Ruggles's Regiment, 1759. I owe to
+William L. Stone, Esq., the use of the last two curious documents.
+
+The rear of the army was well protected from insult. Fortified posts
+were built at intervals of three or four miles along the road to Fort
+Edward, and especially at the station called Half-way Brook; while, for
+the whole distance, a broad belt of wood on both sides was cut down and
+burned, to deprive a skulking enemy of cover. Amherst was never long in
+one place without building a fort there. He now began one, which proved
+wholly needless, on that flat rocky hill where the English made their
+intrenched camp during the siege of Fort William Henry. Only one bastion
+of it was ever finished, and this is still shown to tourists under the
+name of Fort George.
+
+The army embarked on Saturday, the twenty-first of July. The Reverend
+Benjamin Pomeroy watched their departure in some concern, and wrote on
+Monday to Abigail, his wife: "I could wish for more appearance of
+dependence on God than was observable among them; yet I hope God will
+grant deliverance unto Israel by them." There was another military
+pageant, another long procession of boats and banners, among the
+mountains and islands of Lake George. Night found them near the outlet;
+and here they lay till morning, tossed unpleasantly on waves ruffled by
+a summer gale. At daylight they landed, beat back a French detachment,
+and marched by the portage road to the saw-mill at the waterfall. There
+was little resistance. They occupied the heights, and then advanced to
+the famous line of intrenchment against which the army of Abercromby had
+hurled itself in vain. These works had been completely reconstructed,
+partly of earth, and partly of logs. Amherst's followers were less
+numerous than those of his predecessor, while the French commander,
+Bourlamaque, had a force nearly equal to that of Montcalm in the summer
+before; yet he made no attempt to defend the intrenchment, and the
+English, encamping along its front, found it an excellent shelter from
+the cannon of the fort beyond.
+
+Amherst brought up his artillery and began approaches in form, when, on
+the night of the twenty-third, it was found that Bourlamaque had retired
+down Lake Champlain, leaving four hundred men under Hebecourt to defend
+the place as long as possible. This was in obedience to an order from
+Vaudreuil, requiring him on the approach of the English to abandon both
+Ticonderoga and Crown Point, retreat to the outlet of Lake Champlain,
+take post at Isle-aux-Noix, and there defend himself to the last
+extremity; [727] a course unquestionably the best that could have been
+taken, since obstinacy in holding Ticonderoga might have involved the
+surrender of Bourlamaque's whole force, while Isle-aux-Noix offered rare
+advantages for defence.
+
+[727] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 8 Nov. 1759. Instructions pour M. de
+Bourlamaque, 20 Mai, 1759, signé Vaudreuil. Montcalm à Bourlamaque, 4
+Juin, 1759.
+
+The fort fired briskly; a cannon-shot killed Colonel Townshend, and a
+few soldiers were killed and wounded by grape and bursting shells; when,
+at dusk on the evening of the twenty-sixth, an unusual movement was seen
+among the garrison, and, about ten o'clock, three deserters came in
+great excitement to the English camp. They reported that Hebecourt and
+his soldiers were escaping in their boats, and that a match was burning
+in the magazine to blow Ticonderoga to atoms. Amherst offered a hundred
+guineas to any one of them who would point out the match, that it might
+be cut; but they shrank from the perilous venture. All was silent till
+eleven o'clock, when a broad, fierce glare burst on the night, and a
+roaring explosion shook the promontory; then came a few breathless
+moments, and then the fragments of Fort Ticonderoga fell with clatter
+and splash on the water and the land. It was but one bastion, however,
+that had been thus hurled skyward. The rest of the fort was little hurt,
+though the barracks and other combustible parts were set on fire, and by
+the light the French flag was seen still waving on the rampart. [728] A
+sergeant of the light infantry, braving the risk of other explosions,
+went and brought it off. Thus did this redoubted stronghold of France
+fall at last into English hands, as in all likelihood it would have done
+a year sooner, if Amherst had commanded in Abercromby's place; for, with
+the deliberation that marked all his proceedings, he would have sat down
+before Montcalm's wooden wall and knocked it to splinters with his
+cannon.
+
+[728] Journal of Colonel Amherst (brother of General Amherst). Vaudreuil
+au Ministre, 8 Nov. 1759. Amherst to Prideaux, 28 July, 1759. Amherst to
+Pitt, 27 July, 1759. Mante, 213. Knox, I., 397-403. Vaudreuil à
+Bourlamaque, 19 Juin, 1759.
+
+He now set about repairing the damaged works and making ready to advance
+on Crown Point; when on the first of August his scouts told him that the
+enemy had abandoned this place also, and retreated northward down the
+lake. [729] Well pleased, he took possession of the deserted fort, and,
+in the animation of success, thought for a moment of keeping the promise
+he had given to Pitt "to make an irruption into Canada with the utmost
+vigor and despatch." [730] Wolfe, his brother in arms and his friend,
+was battling with the impossible under the rocks of Quebec, and every
+motive, public and private, impelled Amherst to push to his relief, not
+counting costs, or balancing risks too nicely. He was ready enough to
+spur on others, for he wrote to Gage: "We must all be alert and active
+day and night; if we all do our parts the French must fall;" [731] but,
+far from doing his, he set the army to building a new fort at Crown
+Point, telling them that it would "give plenty, peace, and quiet to His
+Majesty's subjects for ages to come." [732] Then he began three small
+additional forts, as outworks to the first, sent two parties to explore
+the sources of the Hudson; one party to explore Otter Creek; another to
+explore South Bay, which was already well known; another to make a road
+across what is now the State of Vermont, from Crown Point to
+Charlestown, or "Number Four," on the Connecticut; and another to widen
+and improve the old French road between Crown Point and Ticonderoga. His
+industry was untiring; a great deal of useful work was done: but the
+essential task of making a diversion to aid the army of Wolfe was
+needlessly postponed.
+
+[729] Amherst to Pitt, 5 Aug. 1759.
+
+[730] Ibid., 19 June, 1759.
+
+[731] Amherst to Gage, 1 Aug. 1759.
+
+[732] General Orders, 13 Aug. 1759.
+
+It is true that some delay was inevitable. The French had four armed
+vessels on the lake, and this made it necessary to provide an equal or
+superior force to protect the troops on their way to Isle-aux-Noix.
+Captain Loring, the English naval commander, was therefore ordered to
+build a brigantine; and, this being thought insufficient, he was
+directed to add a kind of floating battery, moved by sweeps. Three weeks
+later, in consequence of farther information concerning the force of the
+French vessels, Amherst ordered an armed sloop to be put on the stocks;
+and this involved a long delay. The saw-mill at Ticonderoga was to
+furnish planks for the intended navy; but, being overtasked in sawing
+timber for the new works at Crown Point, it was continually breaking
+down. Hence much time was lost, and autumn was well advanced before
+Loring could launch his vessels. [733]
+
+[733] Amherst to Pitt, 22 Oct. 1759. This letter, which is in the form
+of a journal, covers twenty-one folio pages.
+
+Meanwhile news had come from Prideaux and the Niagara expedition. That
+officer had been ordered to ascend the Mohawk with five thousand
+regulars and provincials, leave a strong garrison at Fort Stanwix, on
+the Great Carrying Place, establish posts at both ends of Lake Oneida,
+descend the Onondaga to Oswego, leave nearly half his force there under
+Colonel Haldimand, and proceed with the rest to attack Niagara. [734]
+These orders he accomplished. Haldimand remained to reoccupy the spot
+that Montcalm had made desolate three years before; and, while preparing
+to build a fort, he barricaded his camp with pork and flour barrels,
+lest the enemy should make a dash upon him from their station at the
+head of the St. Lawrence Rapids. Such an attack was probable; for if the
+French could seize Oswego, the return of Prideaux from Niagara would be
+cut off, and when his small stock of provisions had failed, he would be
+reduced to extremity. Saint-Luc de la Corne left the head of the Rapids
+early in July with a thousand French and Canadians and a body of
+Indians, who soon made their appearance among the stumps and bushes that
+surrounded the camp at Oswego. The priest Piquet was of the party; and
+five deserters declared that he solemnly blessed them, and told them to
+give the English no quarter. [735] Some valuable time was lost in
+bestowing the benediction; yet Haldimand's men were taken by surprise.
+Many of them were dispersed in the woods, cutting timber for the
+intended fort; and it might have gone hard with them had not some of La
+Corne's Canadians become alarmed and rushed back to their boats,
+oversetting Father Piquet on the way. [736] These being rallied, the
+whole party ensconced itself in a tract of felled trees so far from the
+English that their fire did little harm. They continued it about two
+hours, and resumed it the next morning; when, three cannon being brought
+to bear on them, they took to their boats and disappeared, having lost
+about thirty killed and wounded, including two officers and La Corne
+himself, who was shot in the thigh. The English loss was slight.
+
+[734] Instructions of Amherst to Prideaux, 17 May, 1759. Prideaux to
+Haldimand, 30 June, 1759.
+
+[735] Journal of Colonel Amherst.
+
+[736] Pouchot, II. 130. Compare Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760; N. Y.
+Col. Docs., VII. 395; and Letter from Oswego, in Boston Evening Post,
+No. 1,248.
+
+Prideaux safely reached Niagara, and laid siege to it. It was a strong
+fort, lately rebuilt in regular form by an excellent officer, Captain
+Pouchot, of the battalion of Béarn, who commanded it. It stood where the
+present fort stands, in the angle formed by the junction of the River
+Niagara with Lake Ontario, and was held by about six hundred men, well
+supplied with provisions and munitions of war. [737] Higher up the
+river, a mile and a half above the cataract, there was another fort,
+called Little Niagara, built of wood, and commanded by the half-breed
+officer, Joncaire-Chabert, who with his brother, Joncaire-Clauzonne, and
+a numerous clan of Indian relatives, had so long thwarted the efforts of
+Johnson to engage the Five Nations in the English cause. But recent
+English successes had had their effect. Joncaire's influence was waning,
+and Johnson was now in Prideaux's camp with nine hundred Five Nation
+warriors pledged to fight the French. Joncaire, finding his fort
+untenable, burned it, and came with his garrison and his Indian friends
+to reinforce Niagara. [738]
+
+[737] Pouchot says 515, besides 60 men from Little Niagara; Vaudreuil
+gives a total of 589.
+
+[738] Pouchot, II. 52, 59. Procès de Bigot, Cadet, et autres, Mémoire
+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. [739] These mixed bands of white men and
+red, bushrangers and savages, were now gathered, partly at Le Bœuf 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. [740]
+
+[739] 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.
+
+[740] 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. [741] At last the batteries
+opened fire. A shell from a coehorn burst prematurely, just as it left
+the mouth of the piece, and a fragment striking Prideaux on the head,
+killed him instantly. Johnson took command in his place, and made up in
+energy what he lacked in skill. In two or three weeks the fort was in
+extremity. The rampart was breached, more than a hundred of the garrison
+were killed or disabled, and the rest were exhausted with want of sleep.
+Pouchot watched anxiously for the promised succors; and on the morning
+of the twenty-fourth of July a distant firing told him that they were at
+hand.
+
+[741] Rutherford to Haldimand, 14 July, 1759. Prideaux was extremely
+disgusted. Prideaux to Haldimand, 13 July, 1759. Allan Macleane, of the
+Highlanders, calls the engineers "fools and blockheads, G--d d--n them."
+Macleane to Haldimand, 21 July, 1759.
+
+Aubry and Ligneris, with their motley following, had left Presquisle a
+few days before, to the number, according to Vaudreuil, of eleven
+hundred French and two hundred Indians. [742] Among them was a body of
+colony troops; but the Frenchmen of the party were chiefly traders and
+bushrangers from the West, connecting links between civilization and
+savagery; some of them indeed were mere white Indians, imbued with the
+ideas and morals of the wigwam, wearing hunting-shirts of smoked
+deer-skin embroidered with quills of the Canada porcupine, painting
+their faces black and red, tying eagle feathers in their long hair, or
+plastering it on their temples with a compound of vermilion and glue.
+They were excellent woodsmen, skilful hunters, and perhaps the best
+bushfighters in all Canada.
+
+[742] "Il n'y avoit que 1,100 François 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. Pouchot would not believe him.
+
+Nevertheless his tale was true. Johnson, besides his Indians, had with
+him about twenty-three hundred men, whom he was forced to divide into
+three separate bodies,--one to guard the bateaux, one to guard the
+trenches, and one to fight Aubry and his band. This last body consisted
+of the provincial light infantry and the pickets, two companies of
+grenadiers, and a hundred and fifty men of the forty-sixth regiment, all
+under command of Colonel Massey. [743] They took post behind an abattis
+at a place called La Belle Famille, and the Five Nation warriors placed
+themselves on their flanks. These savages had shown signs of
+disaffection; and when the enemy approached, they opened a parley with
+the French Indians, which, however, soon ended, and both sides raised
+the war-whoop. The fight was brisk for a while; but at last Aubry's men
+broke away in a panic. The French officers seem to have made desperate
+efforts to retrieve the day, for nearly all of them were killed or
+captured; while their followers, after heavy loss, fled to their canoes
+and boats above the cataract, hastened back to Lake Erie, burned
+Presquisle, Le Bœuf, and Venango, and, joined by the garrisons of those
+forts, retreated to Detroit, leaving the whole region of the upper Ohio
+in undisputed possession of the English.
+
+[743] Johnson to Amherst, 25 July, 1759. Knox, II. 135. Captain Delancey
+to------, 25 July, 1759. This writer commanded the light infantry in the
+fight.
+
+At four o'clock on the day of the battle, after a furious cannonade on
+both sides, a trumpet sounded from the trenches, and an officer
+approached the fort with a summons to surrender. He brought also a paper
+containing the names of the captive French officers, though some of them
+were spelled in a way that defied recognition. Pouchot, feigning
+incredulity, sent an officer of his own to the English camp, who soon
+saw unanswerable proof of the disaster; for here, under a shelter of
+leaves and boughs near the tent of Johnson, sat Ligneris, severely
+wounded, with Aubry, Villiers, Montigny, Marin, and their companions in
+misfortune,--in all, sixteen officers, four cadets, and a surgeon. [744]
+
+[744] Johnson gives the names in his private Diary, printed in Stone,
+Life of Johnson, II. 394. Compare Pouchot, II. 105, 106. Letter from
+Niagara, in Boston Evening Post, No. 1,250. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 30
+Oct. 1759.
+
+Pouchot had now no choice but surrender. By the terms of the
+capitulation, the garrison were to be sent prisoners to New York, though
+honors of war were granted them in acknowledgment of their courageous
+conduct. There was a special stipulation that they should be protected
+from the Indians, of whom they stood in the greatest terror, lest the
+massacre of Fort William Henry should be avenged upon them. Johnson
+restrained his dangerous allies, and, though the fort was pillaged, no
+blood was shed.
+
+The capture of Niagara was an important stroke. Thenceforth Detroit,
+Michillimackinac, the Illinois, and all the other French interior posts,
+were severed from Canada, and left in helpless isolation; but Amherst
+was not yet satisfied. On hearing of Prideaux's death he sent Brigadier
+Gage to supersede Johnson and take command on Lake Ontario, directing
+him to descend the St. Lawrence, attack the French posts at the head of
+the rapids, and hold them if possible for the winter. The attempt was
+difficult; for the French force on the St. Lawrence was now greater than
+that which Gage could bring against it, after providing for the safety
+of Oswego and Niagara. Nor was he by nature prone to dashing and
+doubtful enterprise. He reported that the movement was impossible, much
+to the disappointment of Amherst, who seemed to expect from subordinates
+an activity greater than his own. [744]
+
+[745] Amherst to Gage, 28 July, 1 Aug., 14 Aug., 11 Sept. 1759. Diary of
+Sir William Johnson, in Stone, Life of Johnson, II. 394-429.
+
+He, meanwhile, was working at his fort at Crown Point, while the season
+crept away, and Bourlamaque lay ready to receive him at Isle-aux-Noix.
+"I wait his coming with impatience," writes the French commander,
+"though I doubt if he will venture to attack a post where we are
+intrenched to the teeth, and armed with a hundred pieces of cannon."
+[746] Bourlamaque now had with him thirty-five hundred men, in a
+position of great strength. Isle-aux-Noix, planted in mid-channel of the
+Richelieu soon after it issues from Lake Champlain, had been diligently
+fortified since the spring. On each side of it was an arm of the river,
+closed against an enemy with chevaux-de-frise. To attack it in front in
+the face of its formidable artillery would be a hazardous attempt, and
+the task of reducing it was likely to be a long one. The French force in
+these parts had lately received accessions. After the fall of Niagara
+the danger seemed so great, both in the direction of Lake Ontario and
+that of Lake Champlain, that Lévis had been sent up from Quebec with
+eight hundred men to command the whole department of Montreal. [747] A
+body of troops and militia was encamped opposite that town, ready to
+march towards either quarter, as need might be, while the abundant crops
+of the neighboring parishes were harvested by armed bands, ready at a
+word to drop the sickle for the gun.
+
+[746] Bourlamaque à (Bernetz?), 22 Sept. 1759.
+
+[747] Montcalm à Bourlamaque, 9 Août, 1759. Rigaud à Bourlamaque, 14
+Août, 1759. Lévis à Bourlamaque, 25 Août, 1759.
+
+Thus the promised advance of Amherst into Canada would be not without
+its difficulties, even when his navy, too tardily begun, should be ready
+to act its part. But if he showed no haste in succoring Wolfe, he at
+least made some attempts to communicate with him. Early in August he
+wrote him a letter, which Ensign Hutchins, of the rangers, carried to
+him in about a month by the long and circuitous route of the Kennebec,
+and which, after telling the news of the campaign, ended thus: "You may
+depend on my doing all I can for effectually reducing Canada. Now is the
+time!" [748] Amherst soon after tried another expedient, and sent
+Captains Kennedy and Hamilton with a flag of truce and a message of
+peace to the Abenakis of St. Francis, who, he thought, won over by these
+advances, might permit the two officers to pass unmolested to Quebec.
+But the Abenakis seized them and carried them prisoners to Montreal; on
+which Amherst sent Major Robert Rogers and a band of rangers to destroy
+their town. [749]
+
+[748] Amherst to Wolfe, 7 Aug. 1759.
+
+[749] Amherst to Pitt, 22 Oct. 1759. Rogers, Journals, 144.
+
+It was the eleventh of October before the miniature navy of Captain
+Loring--the floating battery, the brig, and the sloop that had been
+begun three weeks too late--was ready for service. They sailed at once
+to look for the enemy. The four French vessels made no resistance. One
+of them succeeded in reaching Isle-aux-Noix; one was run aground; and
+two were sunk by their crews, who escaped to the shore. Amherst,
+meanwhile, leaving the provincials to work at the fort, embarked with
+the regulars in bateaux, and proceeded on his northern way till, on the
+evening of the twelfth, a head-wind began to blow, and, rising to a
+storm, drove him for shelter into Ligonier Bay, on the west side of the
+lake. [750] On the thirteenth, it blew a gale. The lake raged like an
+angry sea, and the frail bateaux, fit only for smooth water, could not
+have lived a moment. Through all the next night the gale continued, with
+floods of driving rain. "I hope it will soon change," wrote Amherst on
+the fifteenth, "for I have no time to lose." He was right. He had waited
+till the season of autumnal storms, when nature was more dangerous than
+man. On the sixteenth there was frost, and the wind did not abate. On
+the next morning it shifted to the south, but soon turned back with
+violence to the north, and the ruffled lake put on a look of winter,
+"which determined me," says the General, "not to lose time by striving
+to get to the Isle-aux-Noix, where I should arrive too late to force the
+enemy from their post, but to return to Crown Point and complete the
+works there." This he did, and spent the remnant of the season in the
+congenial task of finishing the fort, of which the massive remains still
+bear witness to his industry.
+
+[750] Orderly Book of Commissary Wilson.
+
+When Lévis heard that the English army had fallen back, he wrote, well
+pleased, to Bourlamaque: "I don't know how General Amherst will excuse
+himself to his Court, but I am very glad he let us alone, because the
+Canadians are so backward that you could count on nobody but the
+regulars." [751]
+
+[751] Lévis à Bourlamaque, 1 Nov. 1759.
+
+Concerning this year's operations on the Lakes, it may be observed that
+the result was not what the French feared, or what the British colonists
+had cause to hope. If, at the end of winter, Amherst had begun, as he
+might have done, the building of armed vessels at the head of the
+navigable waters of Lake Champlain, where Whitehall now stands, he would
+have had a navy ready to his hand before August, and would have been
+able to follow the retreating French without delay, and attack them at
+Isle-aux-Noix before they had finished their fortifications. And if, at
+the same time, he had directed Prideaux, instead of attacking Niagara,
+to co-operate with him by descending the St. Lawrence towards Montreal,
+the prospect was good that the two armies would have united at the
+place, and ended the campaign by the reduction of all Canada. In this
+case Niagara and all the western posts would have fallen without a blow.
+
+Major Robert Rogers, sent in September to punish the Abenakis of St.
+Francis, had addressed himself to the task with his usual vigor. These
+Indians had been settled for about three quarters of a century on the
+River St. Francis, a few miles above its junction with the St. Lawrence.
+They were nominal Christians, and had been under the control of their
+missionaries for three generations; but though zealous and sometimes
+fanatical in their devotion to the forms of Romanism, they remained
+thorough savages in dress, habits, and character. They were the scourge
+of the New England borders, where they surprised and burned farmhouses
+and small hamlets, killed men, women, and children without distinction,
+carried others prisoners to their village, subjected them to the torture
+of "running the gantlet," and compelled them to witness dances of
+triumph around the scalps of parents, children, and friends.
+
+Amherst's instructions to Rogers contained the following: "Remember the
+barbarities that have been committed by the enemy's Indian scoundrels.
+Take your revenge, but don't forget that, though those dastardly
+villains have promiscuously murdered women and children of all ages, it
+is my order that no women or children be killed or hurt."
+
+Rogers and his men set out in whaleboats, and, eluding the French armed
+vessels, then in full activity, came, on the tenth day, to Missisquoi
+Bay, at the north end of Lake Champlain. Here he hid his boats, leaving
+two friendly Indians to watch them from a distance, and inform him
+should the enemy discover them. He then began his march for St. Francis,
+when, on the evening of the second day, the two Indians overtook him
+with the startling news that a party of about four hundred French had
+found the boats, and that half of them were on his tracks in hot
+pursuit. It was certain that the alarm would soon be given, and other
+parties sent to cut him off. He took the bold resolution of outmarching
+his pursuers, pushing straight for St. Francis, striking it before
+succors could arrive, and then returning by Lake Memphremagog and the
+Connecticut. Accordingly he despatched Lieutenant McMullen by a
+circuitous route back to Crown Point, with a request to Amherst that
+provisions should be sent up the Connecticut to meet him on the way
+down. Then he set his course for the Indian town, and for nine days more
+toiled through the forest with desperate energy. Much of the way was
+through dense spruce swamps, with no dry resting-place at night. At
+length the party reached the River St. Francis, fifteen miles above the
+town, and, hooking their arms together for mutual support, forded it
+with extreme difficulty. Towards evening, Rogers climbed a tree, and
+descried the town three miles distant. Accidents, fatigue, and illness
+had reduced his followers to a hundred and forty-two officers and men.
+He left them to rest for a time, and, taking with him Lieutenant Turner
+and Ensign Avery, went to reconnoitre the place; left his two
+companions, entered it disguised in an Indian dress, and saw the
+unconscious savages yelling and signing in the full enjoyment of a grand
+dance. At two o'clock in the morning he rejoined his party, and at three
+led them to the attack, formed them in a semicircle, and burst in upon
+the town half an hour before sunrise. Many of the warriors were absent,
+and the rest were asleep. Some were killed in their beds, and some shot
+down in trying to escape. "About seven o'clock in the morning," he says,
+"the affair was completely over, in which time we had killed at least
+two hundred Indians and taken twenty of their women and children
+prisoners, fifteen of whom I let go their own way, and five I brought
+with me, namely, two Indian boys and three Indian girls. I likewise
+retook five English captives."
+
+English scalps in hundreds were dangling from poles over the doors of
+the houses. [752] The town was pillaged and burned, not excepting the
+church, where ornaments of some value were found. On the side of the
+rangers, Captain Ogden and six men were wounded, and a Mohegan Indian
+from Stockbridge was killed. Rogers was told by his prisoners that a
+party of three hundred French and Indians was encamped on the river
+below, and that another party of two hundred and fifteen was not far
+distant. They had been sent to cut off the retreat of the invaders, but
+were doubtful as to their designs till after the blow was struck. There
+was no time to lose. The rangers made all haste southward, up the St.
+Francis, subsisting on corn from the Indian town; till, near the eastern
+borders of Lake Memphremagog, the supply failed, and they separated into
+small parties, the better to sustain life by hunting. The enemy followed
+close, attacked Ensign Avery's party, and captured five of them; then
+fell upon a band of about twenty, under Lieutenants Dunbar and Turner,
+and killed or captured nearly all. The other bands eluded their
+pursuers, turned southeastward, reached the Connecticut, some here, some
+there, and, giddy with fatigue and hunger, toiled wearily down the wild
+and lonely stream to the appointed rendezvous at the mouth of the
+Amonoosuc.
+
+[752] Rogers says "about six hundred." Other accounts say six or seven
+hundred. The late Abbé Maurault, missionary of the St. Francis Indians,
+and their historian, adopts the latter statement, though it is probably
+exaggerated.
+
+This was the place to which Rogers had requested that provisions might
+be sent; and the hope of finding them there had been the breath of life
+to the famished wayfarers. To their horror, the place was a solitude.
+There were fires still burning, but those who made them were gone.
+Amherst had sent Lieutenant Stephen up the river from Charlestown with
+an abundant supply of food; but finding nobody at the Amonoosuc, he had
+waited there two days, and then returned, carrying the provisions back
+with him; for which outrageous conduct he was expelled from the service.
+"It is hardly possible," says Rogers, "to describe our grief and
+consternation." Some gave themselves up to despair. Few but their
+indomitable chief had strength to go father. There was scarcely any
+game, and the barren wilderness yielded no sustenance but a few lily
+bulbs and the tubers of the climbing plant called in New England the
+ground-nut. Leaving his party to these miserable resources, and
+promising to send them relief within ten days, Rogers made a raft of dry
+pine logs, and drifted on it down the stream, with Captain Ogden, a
+ranger, and one of the captive Indian boys. They were stopped on the
+second day by rapids, and gained the shore with difficulty. At the foot
+of the rapids, while Ogden and the ranger went in search of squirrels,
+Rogers set himself to making another raft; and, having no strength to
+use the axe, he burned down the trees, which he then divided into logs
+by the same process. Five days after leaving his party he reached the
+first English settlement, Charlestown, or "Number Four," and immediately
+sent a canoe with provisions to the relief of the sufferers, following
+himself with other canoes two days later. Most of the men were saved,
+though some died miserably of famine and exhaustion. Of the few who had
+been captured, we are told by French contemporary that they "became
+victims of the fury of the Indian women," from whose clutches the
+Canadians tried in vain to save them. [753]
+
+[753] Événements de la guerre en Canada, 1759, 1760. Compare N. Y,
+Colonial Docs., X. 1042.
+
+Note.--On the day after he reached "Number Four," Rogers wrote a report
+of his expedition to Amherst. This letter is printed in his Journals, in
+which he gives also a supplementary account, containing further
+particulars. The New Hampshire Gazette, Boston Evening Post, and other
+newspapers of the time recount the story in detail. Hoyt (Indian Wars,
+302) repeats it, with a few additions drawn from the recollections of
+survivors, long after. There is another account, very short and
+unsatisfactory, by Thompson Maxwell, who says that he was of the party,
+which is doubtful. Mante (223) gives horrible details of the sufferings
+of the rangers. An old chief of the St. Francis Indians, said to be one
+of those who pursued Rogers after the town was burned, many years ago
+told Mr. Jesse Pennoyer, a government land surveyor, that Rogers laid an
+ambush for the pursuers, and defeated them with great loss. This, the
+story says, took place near the present town of Sherbrooke; and minute
+details are given, with high praise of the skill and conduct of the
+famous partisan. If such an incident really took place, it is scarcely
+possible that Rogers would not have made some mention of it. On the
+other hand, it is equally incredible that the Indians would have
+invented the tale of their own defeat. I am indebted for Pennoyer's
+puzzling narrative to the kindness of R. A. Ramsay, Esq., of Montreal.
+It was printed, in 1869, in the History of the Eastern Townships, by
+Mrs. C. M. Day. All things considered, it is probably groundless.
+
+Vaudreuil describes the destruction of the village in a letter to the
+Minister dated October 26, and says that Rogers had a hundred and fifty
+men; that St. Francis was burned to ashes; that the head chief and
+others were killed; that he (Vaudreuil), hearing of the march of the
+rangers, sent the most active of the Canadians to oppose them, and that
+Longueuil sent all the Canadians and Indians he could muster to pursue
+them on their retreat; that forty-six rangers were killed, and ten
+captured; that he thinks all the rest will starve to death; and,
+finally, that the affair is very unfortunate.
+
+I once, when a college student, followed on foot the route of Rogers
+from Lake Memphremagog to the Connecticut.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+1759.
+
+THE HEIGHTS OF ABRAHAM.
+
+Elation of the French • Despondency of Wolfe • The Parishes laid waste •
+Operations above Quebec • Illness of Wolfe • A New Plan of Attack •
+Faint Hope of Success • Wolfe's Last Despatch • Confidence of Vaudreuil
+• Last Letters of Montcalm • French Vigilance • British Squadron at
+Cap-Rouge • Last Orders of Wolfe • Embarkation • Descent of the St.
+Lawrence • The Heights scaled • The British Line • Last Night of
+Montcalm • The Alarm • March of French Troops • The Battle • The Rout •
+The Pursuit • Fall of Wolfe and of Montcalm.
+
+Wolfe was deeply moved by the disaster at the heights of Montmorenci,
+and in a General Order on the next day he rebuked the grenadiers for
+their precipitation. "Such impetuous, irregular, and unsoldierlike
+proceedings destroy all order, make it impossible for the commanders to
+form any disposition for an attack, and put it out of the general's
+power to execute his plans. The grenadiers could not suppose that they
+could beat the French alone."
+
+The French were elated by their success. "Everybody," says the
+commissary Berniers, "thought that the campaign was as good as ended,
+gloriously for us." They had been sufficiently confident even before
+their victory; and the bearer of a flag of truce told the English
+officers that he had never imagined they were such fools as to attack
+Quebec with so small a force. Wolfe, on the other hand, had every reason
+to despond. At the outset, before he had seen Quebec and learned the
+nature of the ground, he had meant to begin the campaign by taking post
+on the Plains of Abraham, and thence laying siege to the town; but he
+soon discovered that the Plains of Abraham were hardly more within his
+reach than was Quebec itself. Such hope as was left him lay in the
+composition of Montcalm's army. He respected the French commander, and
+thought his disciplined soldiers not unworthy of the British steel; but
+he held his militia in high scorn, and could he but face them in the
+open field, he never doubted the result. But Montcalm also distrusted
+them, and persisted in refusing the coveted battle.
+
+Wolfe, therefore, was forced to the conviction that his chances were of
+the smallest. It is said that, despairing of any decisive stroke, he
+conceived the idea of fortifying Isle-aux-Coudres, and leaving a part of
+his troops there when he sailed for home, against another attempt in the
+spring. The more to weaken the enemy and prepare his future conquest, he
+began at the same time a course of action which for his credit one would
+gladly wipe from the record; for, though far from inhuman, he threw
+himself with extraordinary intensity into whatever work he had in hand,
+and, to accomplish it, spared others scarcely more than he spared
+himself. About the middle of August he issued a third proclamation to
+the Canadians, declaring that as they had refused his offers of
+protection and "had made such ungrateful returns in practising the most
+unchristian barbarities against his troops on all occasions, he could no
+longer refrain in justice to himself and his army from chastising them
+as they deserved." The barbarities in question consisted in the frequent
+scalping and mutilating of sentinels and men on outpost duty,
+perpetrated no less by Canadians than by Indians. Wolfe's object was
+twofold: first, to cause the militia to desert, and, secondly, to
+exhaust the colony. Rangers, light infantry, and Highlanders were sent
+to waste the settlements far and wide. Wherever resistance was offered,
+farmhouses and villages were laid in ashes, though churches were
+generally spared. St. Paul, far below Quebec, was sacked and burned, and
+the settlements of the opposite shore were partially destroyed. The
+parishes of L'Ange Gardien, Château Richer, and St. Joachim were wasted
+with fire and sword. Night after night the garrison of Quebec could see
+the light of burning houses as far down as the mountain of Cape
+Tourmente. Near St. Joachim there was a severe skirmish, followed by
+atrocious cruelties. Captain Alexander Montgomery, of the forty-third
+regiment, who commanded the detachment, and who has been most unjustly
+confounded with the revolutionary general, Richard Montgomery, ordered
+the prisoners to be shot in cold blood, to the indignation of his own
+officers. [754] Robineau de Portneuf, curé of St. Joachim, placed
+himself at the head of thirty parishioners and took possession of a
+large stone house in the adjacent parish of Château Richer, where for a
+time he held the English at bay. At length he and his followers were
+drawn out into an ambush, where they were surrounded and killed; and,
+being disguised as Indians, the rangers scalped them all. [755]
+
+[754] Fraser Journal. Fraser was an officer under Montgomery, of whom he
+speaks with anger and disgust.
+
+[755] Knox, II. 32. Most of the contemporary journals mention the
+incident.
+
+Most of the French writers of the time mention these barbarities without
+much comment, while Vaudreuil loudly denounces them. Yet he himself was
+answerable for atrocities incomparably worse, and on a far larger scale.
+He had turned loose his savages, red and white, along a frontier of six
+hundred miles, to waste, burn, and murder at will. "Women and children,"
+such were the orders of Wolfe, "are to be treated with humanity; if any
+violence is offered to a woman, the offender shall be punished with
+death." These orders were generally obeyed. The English, with the single
+exception of Montgomery, killed none but armed men in the act of
+resistance or attack; Vaudreuil's war-parties spared neither age nor
+sex.
+
+Montcalm let the parishes burn, and still lay fast intrenched in his
+lines of Beauport. He would not imperil all Canada to save a few hundred
+farmhouses; and Wolfe was as far as ever from the battle that he
+coveted. Hitherto, his attacks had been made chiefly below the town;
+but, these having failed, he now changed his plan and renewed on a
+larger scale the movements begun above it in July. With every fair wind,
+ships and transports passed the batteries of Quebec, favored by a hot
+fire from Point Levi, and generally succeeded, with more or less damage,
+in gaining the upper river. A fleet of flatboats was also sent thither,
+and twelve hundred troops marched overland to embark in them, under
+Brigadier Murray. Admiral Holmes took command of the little fleet now
+gathered above the town, and operations in that quarter were
+systematically resumed.
+
+To oppose them, Bougainville was sent from the camp at Beauport with
+fifteen hundred men. His was a most arduous and exhausting duty. He must
+watch the shores for fifteen or twenty miles, divide his force into
+detachments, and subject himself and his followers to the strain of
+incessant vigilance and incessant marching. Murray made a descent at
+Pointe-aux-Trembles, and was repulsed with loss. He tried a second time
+at another place, was met before landing by a body of ambushed
+Canadians, and was again driven back, his foremost boats full of dead
+and wounded. A third time he succeeded, landed at Deschambault, and
+burned a large building filled with stores and all the spare baggage of
+the French regular officers. The blow was so alarming that Montcalm
+hastened from Beauport to take command in person; but when he arrived
+the English were gone.
+
+Vaudreuil now saw his mistake in sending the French frigates up the
+river out of harm's way, and withdrawing their crews to serve the
+batteries of Quebec. Had these ships been there, they might have
+overpowered those of the English in detail as they passed the town. An
+attempt was made to retrieve the blunder. The sailors were sent to man
+the frigates anew and attack the squadron of Holmes. It was too late.
+Holmes was already too strong for them, and they were recalled. Yet the
+difficulties of the English still seemed insurmountable. Dysentery and
+fever broke out in their camps, the number of their effective men was
+greatly reduced, and the advancing season told them that their work must
+be done quickly, or not done at all.
+
+On the other side, the distress of the French grew greater every day.
+Their army was on short rations. The operations of the English above the
+town filled the camp of Beauport with dismay, for troops and Canadians
+alike dreaded the cutting off of their supplies. These were all drawn
+from the districts of Three Rivers and Montreal; and, at best, they were
+in great danger, since when brought down in boats at night they were apt
+to be intercepted, while the difficulty of bringing them by land was
+extreme, through the scarcity of cattle and horses. Discipline was
+relaxed, disorder and pillage were rife, and the Canadians deserted so
+fast, that towards the end of August two hundred of them, it is said,
+would sometimes go off in one night. Early in the month the
+disheartening news came of the loss of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, the
+retreat of Bourlamaque, the fall of Niagara, and the expected advance of
+Amherst on Montreal. It was then that Lévis was despatched to the scene
+of danger; and Quebec was deplorably weakened by his absence. About this
+time the Lower Town was again set on fire by the English batteries, and
+a hundred and sixty-seven houses were burned in a night. In the front of
+the Upper Town nearly every building was a ruin. At the General
+Hospital, which was remote enough to be safe from the bombardment, every
+barn, shed, and garret, and even the chapel itself, were crowded with
+sick and wounded, with women and children from the town, and the nuns of
+the Ursulines and the Hôtel-Dieu, driven thither for refuge. Bishop
+Pontbriand, though suffering from a mortal disease, came almost daily to
+visit and console them from his lodging in the house of the curé at
+Charlesbourg.
+
+Towards the end of August the sky brightened again. It became known that
+Amherst was not moving on Montreal, and Bourlamaque wrote that his
+position at Isle-aux-Noix was impregnable. On the twenty-seventh a
+deserter from Wolfe's army brought the welcome assurance that the
+invaders despaired of success, and would soon sail for home; while there
+were movements in the English camps and fleet that seemed to confirm
+what he said. Vaudreuil breathed more freely, and renewed hope and
+confidence visited the army of Beauport.
+
+Meanwhile a deep cloud fell on the English. Since the siege began, Wolfe
+had passed with ceaseless energy from camp to camp, animating the
+troops, observing everything, and directing everything; but now the pale
+face and tall lean form were seen no more, and the rumor spread that the
+General was dangerously ill. He had in fact been seized by an access of
+the disease that had tortured him for some time past; and fever had
+followed. His quarters were at a French farmhouse in the camp at
+Montmorenci; and here, as he lay in an upper chamber, helpless in bed,
+his singular and most unmilitary features haggard with disease and drawn
+with pain, no man could less have looked the hero. But as the needle,
+though quivering, points always to the pole, so, through torment and
+languor and the heats of fever, the mind of Wolfe dwelt on the capture
+of Quebec. His illness, which began before the twentieth of August, had
+so far subsided on the twenty-fifth that Knox wrote in his Diary of that
+day: "His Excellency General Wolfe is on the recovery, to the
+inconceivable joy of the whole army." On the twenty-ninth he was able to
+write or dictate a letter to the three brigadiers, Monckton, Townshend,
+and Murray: "That the public service may not suffer by the General's
+indisposition, he begs the brigadiers will meet and consult together for
+the public utility and advantage, and consider of the best method to
+attack the enemy." The letter then proposes three plans, all bold to
+audacity. The first was to send a part of the army to ford the
+Montmorenci eight or nine miles above its mouth, march through the
+forest, and fall on the rear of the French at Beauport, while the rest
+landed and attacked them in front. The second was to cross the ford at
+the mouth of the Montmorenci and march along the strand, under the
+French intrenchments, till a place could be found where the troops might
+climb the heights. The third was to make a general attack from boats at
+the Beauport flats. Wolfe had before entertained two other plans, one of
+which was to scale the heights at St. Michel, about a league above
+Quebec; but this he had abandoned on learning that the French were there
+in force to receive him. The other was to storm the Lower Town; but this
+also he had abandoned, because the Upper Town, which commanded it, would
+still remain inaccessible.
+
+The brigadiers met in consultation, rejected the three plans proposed in
+the letter, and advised that an attempt should be made to gain a footing
+on the north shore above the town, place the army between Montcalm and
+his base of supply, and so force him to fight or surrender. The scheme
+was similar to that of the heights of St. Michel. It seemed desperate,
+but so did all the rest; and if by chance it should succeed, the gain
+was far greater than could follow any success below the town. Wolfe
+embraced it at once.
+
+Not that he saw much hope in it. He knew that every chance was against
+him. Disappointment in the past and gloom in the future, the pain and
+exhaustion of disease, toils, and anxieties "too great," in the words of
+Burke, "to be supported by a delicate constitution, and a body unequal
+to the vigorous and enterprising soul that it lodged," threw him at
+times into deep dejection. By those intimate with him he was heard to
+say that he would not go back defeated, "to be exposed to the censure
+and reproach of an ignorant populace." In other moods he felt that he
+ought not to sacrifice what was left of his diminished army in vain
+conflict with hopeless obstacles. But his final resolve once taken, he
+would not swerve from it. His fear was that he might not be able to lead
+his troops in person. "I know perfectly well you cannot cure me," he
+said to his physician; "but pray make me up so that I may be without
+pain for a few days, and able to do my duty: that is all I want."
+
+In a despatch which Wolfe had written to Pitt, Admiral Saunders
+conceived that he had ascribed to the fleet more than its just share in
+the disaster at Montmorenci; and he sent him a letter on the subject.
+Major Barré kept it from the invalid till the fever had abated. Wolfe
+then wrote a long answer, which reveals his mixed dejection and resolve.
+He affirms the justice of what Saunders had said, but adds: "I shall
+leave out that part of my letter to Mr. Pitt which you object to. I am
+sensible of my own errors in the course of the campaign, see clearly
+wherein I have been deficient, and think a little more or less blame to
+a man that must necessarily be ruined, of little or no consequence. I
+take the blame of that unlucky day entirely upon my own shoulders, and I
+expect to suffer for it." Then, speaking of the new project of an attack
+above Quebec, he says despondingly: "My ill state of health prevents me
+from executing my own plan; it is of too desperate a nature to order
+others to execute." He proceeds, however, to give directions for it. "It
+will be necessary to run as many small craft as possible above the town,
+with provisions for six weeks, for about five thousand, which is all I
+intend to take. My letters, I hope, will be ready to-morrow, and I hope
+I shall have strength to lead these men to wherever we can find the
+enemy."
+
+On the next day, the last of August, he was able for the first time to
+leave the house. It was on this same day that he wrote his last letter
+to his mother: "My writing to you will convince you that no personal
+evils worse than defeats and disappointments have fallen upon me. The
+enemy puts nothing to risk, and I can't in conscience put the whole army
+to risk. My antagonist has wisely shut himself up in inaccessible
+intrenchments, so that I can't get at him without spilling a torrent of
+blood, and that perhaps to little purpose. The Marquis de Montcalm is at
+the head of a great number of bad soldiers, and I am at the head of a
+small number of good ones, that wish for nothing so much as to fight
+him; but the wary old fellow avoids an action, doubtful of the behavior
+of his army. People must be of the profession to understand the
+disadvantages and difficulties we labor under, arising from the uncommon
+natural strength of the country."
+
+On the second of September a vessel was sent to England with his last
+despatch to Pitt. It begins thus: "The obstacles we have met with in the
+operations of the campaign are much greater than we had reason to expect
+or could foresee; not so much from the number of the enemy (though
+superior to us) as from the natural strength of the country, which the
+Marquis of Montcalm seems wisely to depend upon. When I learned that
+succors of all kinds had been thrown into Quebec; that five battalions
+of regular troops, completed from the best inhabitants of the country,
+some of the troops of the colony, and every Canadian that was able to
+bear arms, besides several nations of savages, had taken the field in a
+very advantageous situation,--I could not flatter myself that I should
+be able to reduce the place. I sought, however, an occasion to attack
+their army, knowing well that with these troops I was able to fight, and
+hoping that a victory might disperse them." Then, after recounting the
+events of the campaign with admirable clearness, he continues: "I found
+myself so ill, and am still so weak, that I begged the general officers
+to consult together for the general utility. They are all of opinion
+that, as more ships and provisions are now got above the town, they
+should try, by conveying up a corps of four or five thousand men (which
+is nearly the whole strength of the army after the Points of Levi and
+Orleans are left in a proper state of defence), to draw the enemy
+from their present situation and bring them to an action. I have
+acquiesced in the proposal, and we are preparing to put it into
+execution." The letter ends thus: "By the list of disabled officers,
+many of whom are of rank, you may perceive that the army is much
+weakened. By the nature of the river, the most formidable part of this
+armament is deprived of the power of acting; yet we have almost the
+whole force of Canada to oppose. In this situation there is such a
+choice of difficulties that I own myself at a loss how to determine. The
+affairs of Great Britain, I know, require the most vigorous measures;
+but the courage of a handful of brave troops should be exerted only when
+there is some hope of a favorable event; however, you may be assured
+that the small part of the campaign which remains shall be employed, as
+far as I am able, for the honor of His Majesty and the interest of the
+nation, in which I am sure of being well seconded by the Admiral and by
+the generals; happy if our efforts here can contribute to the success of
+His Majesty's arms in any other parts of America."
+
+Some days later, he wrote to the Earl of Holdernesse: "The Marquis of
+Montcalm has a numerous body of armed men (I cannot call it an army),
+and the strongest country perhaps in the world. Our fleet blocks up the
+river above and below the town, but can give no manner of aid in an
+attack upon the Canadian army. We are now here [off Cap-Rouge] with
+about thirty-six hundred men, waiting to attack them when and wherever
+they can best be got at. I am so far recovered as to do business; but my
+constitution is entirely ruined, without the consolation of doing any
+considerable service to the state, and without any prospect of it." He
+had just learned, through the letter brought from Amherst by Ensign
+Hutchins, that he could expect no help from that quarter.
+
+Perhaps he was as near despair as his undaunted nature was capable of
+being. In his present state of body and mind he was a hero without the
+light and cheer of heroism. He flattered himself with no illusions, but
+saw the worst and faced it all. He seems to have been entirely without
+excitement. The languor of disease, the desperation of the chances, and
+the greatness of the stake may have wrought to tranquillize him. His
+energy was doubly tasked: to bear up his own sinking frame, and to
+achieve an almost hopeless feat of arms.
+
+Audacious as it was, his plan cannot be called rash if we may accept the
+statement of two well-informed writers on the French side. They say that
+on the tenth of September the English naval commanders held a council on
+board the flagship, in which it was resolved that the lateness of the
+season required the fleet to leave Quebec without delay. They say
+further that Wolfe then went to the Admiral, told him that he had found
+a place where the heights could be scaled, that he would send up a
+hundred and fifty picked men to feel the way, and that if they gained a
+lodgment at the top, the other troops should follow; if, on the other
+hand, the French were there in force to oppose them, he would not
+sacrifice the army in a hopeless attempt, but embark them for home,
+consoled by the thought that all had been done that man could do. On
+this, concludes the story, the Admiral and his officers consented to
+wait the result. [756]
+
+[756] This statement is made by the Chevalier Johnstone, and, with some
+variation, by the author of the valuable Journal tenu à l'Armée que
+commandoit feu M. le Marquis de Montcalm. Bigot says that, after the
+battle, he was told by British officers that Wolfe meant to risk only an
+advance party of two hundred men, and to reimbark if they were repulsed.
+
+As Wolfe had informed Pitt, his army was greatly weakened. Since the end
+of June his loss in killed and wounded was more than eight hundred and
+fifty, including two colonels, two majors, nineteen captains, and
+thirty-four subalterns; and to these were to be added a greater number
+disabled by disease.
+
+The squadron of Admiral Holmes above Quebec had now increased to
+twenty-two vessels, great and small. One of the last that went up was a
+diminutive schooner, armed with a few swivels, and jocosely named the
+"Terror of France." She sailed by the town in broad daylight, the
+French, incensed at her impudence, blazing at her from all their
+batteries; but she passed unharmed, anchored by the Admiral's ship, and
+saluted him triumphantly with her swivels.
+
+Wolfe's first move towards executing his plan was the critical one of
+evacuating the camp at Montmorenci. This was accomplished on the third
+of September. Montcalm sent a strong force to fall on the rear of the
+retiring English. Monckton saw the movement from Point Levi, embarked
+two battalions in the boats of the fleet, and made a feint of landing at
+Beauport. Montcalm recalled his troops to repulse the threatened attack;
+and the English withdrew from Montmorenci unmolested, some to the Point
+of Orleans, others to Point Levi. On the night of the fourth a fleet of
+flatboats passed above the town with the baggage and stores. On the
+fifth, Murray, with four battalions, marched up to the River Etechemin,
+and forded it under a hot fire from the French batteries at Sillery.
+Monckton and Townshend followed with three more battalions, and the
+united force, of about thirty-six hundred men, was embarked on board the
+ships of Holmes, where Wolfe joined them on the same evening.
+
+These movements of the English filled the French commanders with mingled
+perplexity, anxiety, and hope. A deserter told them that Admiral
+Saunders was impatient to be gone. Vaudreuil grew confident. "The
+breaking up of the camp at Montmorenci," he says, "and the abandonment
+of the intrenchments there, the reimbarkation on board the vessels above
+Quebec of the troops who had encamped on the south bank, the movements
+of these vessels, the removal of the heaviest pieces of artillery from
+the batteries of Point Levi,--these and the lateness of the season all
+combined to announce the speedy departure of the fleet, several vessels
+of which had even sailed down the river already. The prisoners and the
+deserters who daily came in told us that this was the common report in
+their army." [757] He wrote to Bourlamaque on the first of September:
+"Everything proves that the grand design of the English has failed."
+
+[757] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Oct. 1759.
+
+Yet he was ceaselessly watchful. So was Montcalm; and he, too, on the
+night of the second, snatched a moment to write to Bourlamaque from his
+headquarters in the stone house, by the river of Beauport: "The night is
+dark; it rains; our troops are in their tents, with clothes on, ready
+for an alarm; I in my boots; my horses saddled. In fact, this is my
+usual way. I wish you were here; for I cannot be everywhere, though I
+multiply myself, and have not taken off my clothes since the
+twenty-third of June." On the eleventh of September he wrote his last
+letter to Bourlamaque, and probably the last that his pen ever traced.
+"I am overwhelmed with work, and should often lose temper, like you, if
+I did not remember that I am paid by Europe for not losing it. Nothing
+new since my last. I give the enemy another month, or something less, to
+stay here." The more sanguine Vaudreuil would hardly give them a week.
+
+Meanwhile, no precaution was spared. The force under Bougainville above
+Quebec was raised to three thousand men. [758] He was ordered to watch
+the shore as far as Jacques-Cartier, and follow with his main body every
+movement of Holmes's squadron. There was little fear for the heights
+near the town; they were thought inaccessible. [759] Even Montcalm
+believed them safe, and had expressed himself to that effect some time
+before. "We need not suppose," he wrote to Vaudreuil, "that the enemy
+have wings;" and again, speaking of the very place where Wolfe
+afterwards landed, "I swear to you that a hundred men posted there would
+stop their whole army." [760] He was right. A hundred watchful and
+determined men could have held the position long enough for
+reinforcements to come up.
+
+[758] Journal du Siége (Bibliothêque de Hartwell). Journal tenu à
+l'Armée, etc. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Oct. 1759.
+
+[759] Pontbriand, Jugement impartial.
+
+[760] Montcalm à Vaudreuil, 27 Juillet. Ibid., 29 Juillet, 1759.
+
+The hundred men were there. Captain de Vergor, of the colony troops,
+commanded them, and reinforcements were within his call; for the
+battalion of Guienne had been ordered to encamp close at hand on the
+Plains of Abraham. [761] Vergor's post, called Anse du Foulon, was a
+mile and a half from Quebec. A little beyond it, by the brink of the
+cliffs, was another post, called Samos, held by seventy men with four
+cannon; and, beyond this again, the heights of Sillery were guarded by a
+hundred and thirty men, also with cannon. [762] These were outposts of
+Bougainville, whose headquarters were at Cap-Rouge, six miles above
+Sillery, and whose troops were in continual movement along the
+intervening shore. Thus all was vigilance; for while the French were
+strong in the hope of speedy delivery, they felt that there was no
+safety till the tents of the invader had vanished from their shores and
+his ships from their river. "What we knew," says one of them, "of the
+character of M. Wolfe, that impetuous, bold, and intrepid warrior,
+prepared us for a last attack before he left us."
+
+[761] Foligny, Journal mémoratif. Journal tenu à l'Armée, etc.
+
+[762] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Oct. 1759.
+
+Wolfe had been very ill on the evening of the fourth. The troops knew
+it, and their spirits sank; but, after a night of torment, he grew
+better, and was soon among them again, rekindling their ardor, and
+imparting a cheer that he could not share. For himself he had no pity;
+but when he heard of the illness of two officers in one of the ships, he
+sent them a message of warm sympathy, advised them to return to Point
+Levi, and offered them his own barge and an escort. They thanked him,
+but replied that, come what might, they would see the enterprise to an
+end. Another officer remarked in his hearing that one of the invalids
+had a very delicate constitution. "Don't tell me of constitution," said
+Wolfe; "he has good spirit, and good spirit will carry a man through
+everything." [763] An immense moral force bore up his own frail body and
+forced it to its work.
+
+[763] Knox, II. 61, 65.
+
+Major Robert Stobo, who, five years before, had been given as a hostage
+to the French at the capture of Fort Necessity, arrived about this time
+in a vessel from Halifax. He had long been a prisoner at Quebec, not
+always in close custody, and had used his opportunities to acquaint
+himself with the neighborhood. In the spring of this year he and an
+officer of rangers named Stevens had made their escape with
+extraordinary skill and daring; and he now returned to give his
+countrymen the benefit of his local knowledge. [764] His biographer says
+that it was he who directed Wolfe in the choice of a landing-place.
+[765] Be this as it may, Wolfe in person examined the river and the
+shores as far as Pointe-aux-Trembles; till at length, landing on the
+south side a little above Quebec, and looking across the water with a
+telescope, he descried a path that ran with a long slope up the face of
+the woody precipice, and saw at the top a cluster of tents. They were
+those of Vergor's guard at the Anse du Foulon, now called Wolfe's Cove.
+As he could see but ten or twelve of them, he thought that the guard
+could not be numerous, and might be overpowered. His hope would have
+been stronger if he had known that Vergor had once been tried for
+misconduct and cowardice in the surrender of Beauséjour, and saved from
+merited disgrace by the friendship of Bigot and the protection of
+Vaudreuil. [766]
+
+[764] Letters in Boston Post Boy, No. 97, and Boston Evening Post, No.
+1,258.
+
+[765] Memoirs of Major Robert Stobo. Curious, but often inexact.
+
+[766] See supra, Vol I. p. 253.
+
+The morning of the seventh was fair and warm, and the vessels of Holmes,
+their crowded decks gay with scarlet uniforms, sailed up the river to
+Cap-Rouge. A lively scene awaited them; for here were the headquarters
+of Bougainville, and here lay his principal force, while the rest
+watched the banks above and below. The cove into which the little river
+runs was guarded by floating batteries; the surrounding shore was
+defended by breastworks; and a large body of regulars, militia, and
+mounted Canadians in blue uniforms moved to and fro, with restless
+activity, on the hills behind. When the vessels came to anchor, the
+horsemen dismounted and formed in line with the infantry; then, with
+loud shouts, the whole rushed down the heights to man their works at the
+shore. That true Briton, Captain Knox, looked on with a critical eye
+from the gangway of his ship, and wrote that night in his Diary that
+they had made a ridiculous noise. "How different!" he exclaims, "how
+nobly awful and expressive of true valor is the customary silence of the
+British troops!"
+
+In the afternoon the ships opened fire, while the troops entered the
+boats and rowed up and down as if looking for a landing-place. It was
+but a feint of Wolfe to deceive Bougainville as to his real design. A
+heavy easterly rain set in on the next morning, and lasted two days
+without respite. All operations were suspended, and the men suffered
+greatly in the crowded transports. Half of them were therefore landed on
+the south shore, where they made their quarters in the village of St.
+Nicolas, refreshed themselves, and dried their wet clothing, knapsacks,
+and blankets.
+
+For several successive days the squadron of Holmes was allowed to drift
+up the river with the flood tide and down with the ebb, thus passing and
+repassing incessantly between the neighborhood of Quebec on one hand,
+and a point high above Cap-Rouge on the other; while Bougainville,
+perplexed, and always expecting an attack, followed the ships to and fro
+along the shore, by day and by night, till his men were exhausted with
+ceaseless forced marches. [767]
+
+[767] Joannès, Major de Québec, Mémoire sur la Campagne de 1759.
+
+At last the time for action came. On Wednesday, the twelfth, the troops
+at St. Nicolas were embarked again, and all were told to hold themselves
+in readiness. Wolfe, from the flagship "Sutherland," issued his last
+general orders. "The enemy's force is now divided, great scarcity of
+provisions in their camp, and universal discontent among the Canadians.
+Our troops below are in readiness to join us; all the light artillery
+and tools are embarked at the Point of Levi; and the troops will land
+where the French seem least to expect it. The first body that gets on
+shore is to march directly to the enemy and drive them from any little
+post they may occupy; the officers must be careful that the succeeding
+bodies do not by any mistake fire on those who go before them. The
+battalions must form on the upper ground with expedition, and be ready
+to charge whatever presents itself. When the artillery and troops are
+landed, a corps will be left to secure the landing-place, while the rest
+march on and endeavor to bring the Canadians and French to a battle. The
+officers and men will remember what their country expects from them, and
+what a determined body of soldiers inured to war is capable of doing
+against five weak French battalions mingled with a disorderly
+peasantry."
+
+The spirit of the army answered to that of its chief. The troops loved
+and admired their general, trusted their officers, and were ready for
+any attempt. "Nay, how could it be otherwise," quaintly asks honest
+Sergeant John Johnson, of the fifty-eighth regiment, "being at the heels
+of gentlemen whose whole thirst, equal with their general, was for
+glory? We had seen them tried, and always found them sterling. We knew
+that they would stand by us to the last extremity."
+
+Wolfe had thirty-six hundred men and officers with him on board the
+vessels of Holmes; and he now sent orders to Colonel Burton at Point
+Levi to bring to his aid all who could be spared from that place and the
+Point of Orleans. They were to march along the south bank, after
+nightfall, and wait further orders at a designated spot convenient for
+embarkation. Their number was about twelve hundred, so that the entire
+forced destined for the enterprise was at the utmost forty-eight
+hundred. [768] With these, Wolfe meant to climb the heights of Abraham
+in the teeth of an enemy who, though much reduced, were still twice as
+numerous as their assailants. [769]
+
+[768] See Note, end of chapter.
+
+[769] Including Bougainville's command. An escaped prisoner told Wolfe,
+a few days before, that Montcalm still had fourteen thousand men.
+Journal of an Expedition on the River St. Lawrence. This meant only
+those in the town and the camps of Beauport. "I don't believe their
+whole army amounts to that number," wrote Wolfe to Colonel Burton, on
+the tenth. He knew, however, that if Montcalm could bring all his troops
+together, the French would outnumber him more than two to one.
+
+Admiral Saunders lay with the main fleet in the Basin of Quebec. This
+excellent officer, whatever may have been his views as to the necessity
+of a speedy departure, aided Wolfe to the last with unfailing energy and
+zeal. It was agreed between them that while the General made the real
+attack, the Admiral should engage Montcalm's attention by a pretended
+one. As night approached, the fleet ranged itself along the Beauport
+shore; the boats were lowered and filled with sailors, marines, and the
+few troops that had been left behind; while ship signalled to ship,
+cannon flashed and thundered, and shot ploughed the beach, as if to
+clear a way for assailants to land. In the gloom of the evening the
+effect was imposing. Montcalm, who thought that the movements of the
+English above the town were only a feint, that their main force was
+still below it, and that their real attack would be made there, was
+completely deceived, and massed his troops in front of Beauport to repel
+the expected landing. But while in the fleet of Saunders all was uproar
+and ostentatious menace, the danger was ten miles away, where the
+squadron of Holmes lay tranquil and silent at its anchorage off
+Cap-Rouge.
+
+It was less tranquil than it seemed. All on board knew that a blow would
+be struck that night, though only a few high officers knew where.
+Colonel Howe, of the light infantry, called for volunteers to lead the
+unknown and desperate venture, promising, in the words of one of them,
+"that if any of us survived we might depend on being recommended to the
+General." [770] As many as were wanted--twenty-four in all--soon came
+forward. Thirty large bateaux and some boats belonging to the squadron
+lay moored alongside the vessels; and late in the evening the troops
+were ordered into them, the twenty-four volunteers taking their place in
+the foremost. They held in all about seventeen hundred men. The rest
+remained on board.
+
+[770] Journal of the Particular Transactions during the Siege of Quebec.
+The writer, a soldier in the light infantry, says he was one of the
+first eight who came forward. See Notes and Queries, XX. 370.
+
+Bougainville could discern the movement, and misjudged it, thinking that
+he himself was to be attacked. The tide was still flowing; and, the
+better to deceive him, the vessels and boats were allowed to drift
+upward with it for a little distance, as if to land above Cap-Rouge.
+
+The day had been fortunate for Wolfe. Two deserters came from the camp
+of Bougainville with intelligence that, at ebb tide on the next night,
+he was to send down a convoy of provisions to Montcalm. The necessities
+of the camp at Beauport, and the difficulties of transportation by land,
+had before compelled the French to resort to this perilous means of
+conveying supplies; and their boats, drifting in darkness under the
+shadows of the northern shore, had commonly passed in safety. Wolfe saw
+at once that, if his own boats went down in advance of the convoy, he
+could turn the intelligence of the deserters to good account.
+
+He was still on board the "Sutherland." Every preparation was made, and
+every order given; it only remained to wait the turning of the tide.
+Seated with him in the cabin was the commander of the sloop-of-war
+"Porcupine," his former school-fellow, John Jervis, afterwards Earl St.
+Vincent. Wolfe told him that he expected to die in the battle of the
+next day; and taking from his bosom a miniature of Miss Lowther, his
+betrothed, he gave it to him with a request that he would return it to
+her if the presentiment should prove true. [771]
+
+[771] Tucker, Life of Earl St. Vincent, I. 19. (London, 1844.)
+
+Towards two o'clock the tide began to ebb, and a fresh wind blew down
+the river. Two lanterns were raised into the maintop shrouds of the
+"Sutherland." It was the appointed signal; the boats cast off and fell
+down with the current, those of the light infantry leading the way. The
+vessels with the rest of the troops had orders to follow a little later.
+
+To look for a moment at the chances on which this bold adventure hung.
+First, the deserters told Wolfe that provision-boats were ordered to go
+down to Quebec that night; secondly, Bougainville countermanded them;
+thirdly, the sentries posted along the heights were told of the order,
+but not of the countermand; [772] fourthly, Vergor at the Anse du Foulon
+had permitted most of his men, chiefly Canadians from Lorette, to go
+home for a time and work at their harvesting, on condition, it is said,
+that they should afterwards work in a neighboring field of his own;
+[773] fifthly, he kept careless watch, and went quietly to bed; sixthly,
+the battalion of Guienne, ordered to take post on the Plains of Abraham,
+had, for reasons unexplained, remained encamped by the St. Charles;
+[774] and lastly, when Bougainville saw Holmes's vessels drift down the
+stream, he did not tax his weary troops to follow them, thinking that
+they would return as usual with the flood tide. [775] But for these
+conspiring circumstances New France might have lived a little longer,
+and the fruitless heroism of Wolfe would have passed, with countless
+other heroisms, into oblivion.
+
+[772] Journal tenu à l'Armée, etc.
+
+[773] Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
+
+[774] Foligny, Journal mémoratif. Journal tenu à l'Armée, etc.
+
+[775] Johnstone, Dialogue. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Oct. 1759.
+
+For full two hours the procession of boats, borne on the current,
+steered silently down the St. Lawrence. The stars were visible, but the
+night was moonless and sufficiently dark. The General was in one of the
+foremost boats, and near him was a young midshipman, John Robison,
+afterwards professor of natural philosophy in the University of
+Edinburgh. He used to tell in his later life how Wolfe, with a low
+voice, repeated Gray's Elegy in a Country Churchyard to the officers
+about him. Probably it was to relieve the intense strain of his
+thoughts. Among the rest was the verse which his own fate was soon to
+illustrate,--
+
+"The paths of glory lead but to the grave."
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, as his recital ended, "I would rather have written
+those lines than take Quebec." None were there to tell him that the hero
+is greater than the poet.
+
+As they neared their destination, the tide bore them in towards the
+shore, and the mighty wall of rock and forest towered in darkness on
+their left. The dead stillness was suddenly broken by the sharp Qui
+vive! of a French sentry, invisible in the thick gloom. France! answered
+a Highland officer of Fraser's regiment from one of the boats of the
+light infantry. He had served in Holland, and spoke French fluently.
+
+À quel régiment?
+
+De la Reine, replied the Highlander. He knew that a part of that corps
+was with Bougainville. The sentry, expecting the convoy of provisions,
+was satisfied, and did not ask for the password.
+
+Soon after, the foremost boats were passing the heights of Samos, when
+another sentry challenged them, and they could see him through the
+darkness running down to the edge of the water, within range of a
+pistol-shot. In answer to his questions, the same officer replied, in
+French: "Provision-boats. Don't make a noise; the English will hear us."
+[776] In fact, the sloop-of-war "Hunter" was anchored in the stream not
+far off. This time, again, the sentry let them pass. In a few moments
+they rounded the headland above the Anse du Foulon. There was no sentry
+there. The strong current swept the boats of the light infantry a
+little below the intended landing-place. [777] They disembarked on a
+narrow strand at the foot of heights as steep as a hill covered with
+trees can be. The twenty-four volunteers led the way, climbing with what
+silence they might, closely followed by a much larger body. When they
+reached the top they saw in the dim light a cluster of tents at a short
+distance, and immediately made a dash at them. Vergor leaped from bed
+and tried to run off, but was shot in the heel and captured. His men,
+taken by surprise, made little resistance. One or two were caught, the
+rest fled.
+
+[776] See a note of Smollett, History of England, V. 56 (ed. 1805).
+Sergeant Johnson, Vaudreuil, Foligny, and the Journal of Particular
+Transactions give similar accounts.
+
+[777] Saunders to Pitt, 20 Sept. Journal of Sergeant Johnson. Compare
+Knox, II. 67.
+
+The main body of troops waited in their boats by the edge of the strand.
+The heights near by were cleft by a great ravine choked with forest
+trees; and in its depths ran a little brook called Ruisseau St.-Denis,
+which, swollen by the late rains, fell plashing in the stillness over a
+rock. Other than this no sound could reach the strained ear of Wolfe but
+the gurgle of the tide and the cautious climbing of his advance-parties
+as they mounted the steeps at some little distance from where he sat
+listening. At length from the top came a sound of musket-shots, followed
+by loud huzzas, and he knew that his men were masters of the position.
+The word was given; the troops leaped from the boats and scaled the
+heights, some here, some there, clutching at trees and bushes, their
+muskets slung at their backs. Tradition still points out the place, near
+the mouth of the ravine, where the foremost reached the top. Wolfe said
+to an officer near him: "You can try it, but I don't think you'll get
+up." He himself, however, found strength to drag himself up with the
+rest. The narrow slanting path on the face of the heights had been made
+impassable by trenches and abattis; but all obstructions were soon
+cleared away, and then the ascent was easy. In the gray of the morning
+the long file of red-coated soldiers moved quickly upward, and formed in
+order on the plateau above.
+
+Before many of them had reached the top, cannon were heard close on the
+left. It was the battery at Samos firing on the boats in the rear and
+the vessels descending from Cap-Rouge. A party was sent to silence it;
+this was soon effected, and the more distant battery at Sillery was next
+attacked and taken. As fast as the boats were emptied they returned for
+the troops left on board the vessels and for those waiting on the
+southern shore under Colonel Burton.
+
+The day broke in clouds and threatening rain. Wolfe's battalions were
+drawn up along the crest of the heights. No enemy was in sight, though a
+body of Canadians had sallied from the town and moved along the strand
+towards the landing-place, whence they were quickly driven back. He had
+achieved the most critical part of his enterprise; yet the success that
+he coveted placed him in imminent danger. On one side was the garrison
+of Quebec and the army of Beauport, and Bougainville was on the other.
+Wolfe's alternative was victory or ruin; for if he should be overwhelmed
+by a combined attack, retreat would be hopeless. His feelings no man can
+know; but it would be safe to say that hesitation or doubt had no part
+in them.
+
+He went to reconnoitre the ground, and soon came to the Plains of
+Abraham, so called from Abraham Martin, a pilot known as Maître Abraham,
+who had owned a piece of land here in the early times of the colony. The
+Plains were a tract of grass, tolerably level in most parts, patched
+here and there with cornfields, studded with clumps of bushes, and
+forming a part of the high plateau at the eastern end of which Quebec
+stood. On the south it was bounded by the declivities along the St.
+Lawrence; on the north, by those along the St. Charles, or rather along
+the meadows through which that lazy stream crawled like a writhing
+snake. At the place that Wolfe chose for his battle-field the plateau
+was less than a mile wide.
+
+Thither the troops advanced, marched by files till they reached the
+ground, and then wheeled to form their line of battle, which stretched
+across the plateau and faced the city. It consisted of six battalions
+and the detached grenadiers from Louisbourg, all drawn up in ranks three
+deep. Its right wing was near the brink of the heights along the St.
+Lawrence; but the left could not reach those along the St. Charles. On
+this side a wide space was perforce left open, and there was danger of
+being outflanked. To prevent this, Brigadier Townshend was stationed
+here with two battalions, drawn up at right angles with the rest, and
+fronting the St. Charles. The battalion of Webb's regiment, under
+Colonel Burton, formed the reserve; the third battalion of Royal
+Americans was left to guard the landing; and Howe's light infantry
+occupied a wood far in the rear. Wolfe, with Monckton and Murray,
+commanded the front line, on which the heavy fighting was to fall, and
+which, when all the troops had arrived, numbered less than thirty-five
+hundred men. [778]
+
+[778] See Note, end of chapter.
+
+Quebec was not a mile distant, but they could not see it; for a ridge of
+broken ground intervened, called Buttes-à-Neveu, about six hundred paces
+off. The first division of troops had scarcely come up when, about six
+o'clock, this ridge was suddenly thronged with white uniforms. It was
+the battalion of Guienne, arrived at the eleventh hour from its camp by
+the St. Charles. Some time after there was hot firing in the rear. It
+came from a detachment of Bougainville's command attacking a house where
+some of the light infantry were posted. The assailants were repulsed,
+and the firing ceased. Light showers fell at intervals, besprinkling the
+troops as they stood patiently waiting the event.
+
+Montcalm had passed a troubled night. Through all the evening the cannon
+bellowed from the ships of Saunders, and the boats of the fleet hovered
+in the dusk off the Beauport shore, threatening every moment to land.
+Troops lined the intrenchments till day, while the General walked the
+field that adjoined his headquarters till one in the morning,
+accompanied by the Chevalier Johnstone and Colonel Poulariez. Johnstone
+says that he was in great agitation, and took no rest all night. At
+daybreak he heard the sound of cannon above the town. It was the battery
+at Samos firing on the English ships. He had sent an officer to the
+quarters of Vaudreuil, which were much nearer Quebec, with orders to
+bring him word at once should anything unusual happen. But no word came,
+and about six o'clock he mounted and rode thither with Johnstone. As
+they advanced, the country behind the town opened more and more upon
+their sight; till at length, when opposite Vaudreuil's house, they saw
+across the St. Charles, some two miles away, the red ranks of British
+soldiers on the heights beyond.
+
+"This is a serious business," Montcalm said; and sent off Johnstone at
+full gallop to bring up the troops from the centre and left of the camp.
+Those of the right were in motion already, doubtless by the Governor's
+order. Vaudreuil came out of the house. Montcalm stopped for a few words
+with him; then set spurs to his horse, and rode over the bridge of the
+St. Charles to the scene of danger. [779] He rode with a fixed look,
+uttering not a word. [780]
+
+[779] Johnstone, Dialogue.
+
+[780] Malartic à Bourlamaque,--Sept. 1759.
+
+The army followed in such order as it might, crossed the bridge in hot
+haste, passed under the northern rampart of Quebec, entered at the
+Palace Gate, and pressed on in headlong march along the quaint narrow
+streets of the warlike town: troops of Indians in scalplocks and
+war-paint, a savage glitter in their deep-set eyes; bands of Canadians
+whose all was at stake,--faith, country, and home; the colony regulars;
+the battalions of Old France, a torrent of white uniforms and gleaming
+bayonets, La Sarre, Languedoc, Roussillon, Béarn,--victors of Oswego,
+William Henry, and Ticonderoga. So they swept on, poured out upon the
+plain, some by the gate of St. Louis, and some by that of St. John, and
+hurried, breathless, to where the banners of Guienne still fluttered on
+the ridge.
+
+Montcalm was amazed at what he saw. He had expected a detachment, and he
+found an army. Full in sight before him stretched the lines of Wolfe:
+the close ranks of the English infantry, a silent wall of red, and the
+wild array of the Highlanders, with their waving tartans, and bagpipes
+screaming defiance. Vaudreuil had not come; but not the less was felt
+the evil of a divided authority and the jealousy of the rival chiefs.
+Montcalm waited long for the forces he had ordered to join him from the
+left wing of the army. He waited in vain. It is said that the Governor
+had detained them, lest the English should attack the Beauport shore.
+Even if they did so, and succeeded, the French might defy them, could
+they but put Wolfe to rout on the Plains of Abraham. Neither did the
+garrison of Quebec come to the aid of Montcalm. He sent to Ramesay, its
+commander, for twenty-five field-pieces which were on the Palace
+battery. Ramesay would give him only three, saying that he wanted them
+for his own defence. There were orders and counter-orders;
+misunderstanding, haste, delay, perplexity.
+
+Montcalm and his chief officers held a council of war. It is said that
+he and they alike were for immediate attack. His enemies declare that he
+was afraid lest Vaudreuil should arrive and take command; but the
+Governor was not a man to assume responsibility at such a crisis. Others
+say that his impetuosity overcame his better judgment; and of this
+charge it is hard to acquit him. Bougainville was but a few miles
+distant, and some of his troops were much nearer; a messenger sent by
+way of Old Lorette could have reached him in an hour and a half at most,
+and a combined attack in front and rear might have been concerted with
+him. If, moreover, Montcalm could have come to an understanding with
+Vaudreuil, his own force might have been strengthened by two or three
+thousand additional men from the town and the camp of Beauport; but he
+felt that there was no time to lose, for he imagined that Wolfe would
+soon be reinforced, which was impossible, and he believed that the
+English were fortifying themselves, which was no less an error. He has
+been blamed not only for fighting too soon, but for fighting at all. In
+this he could not choose. Fight he must, for Wolfe was now in a position
+to cut off all his supplies. His men were full of ardor, and he resolved
+to attack before their ardor cooled. He spoke a few words to them in his
+keen, vehement way. "I remember very well how he looked," one of the
+Canadians, then a boy of eighteen, used to say in his old age; "he rode
+a black or dark bay horse along the front of our lines, brandishing his
+sword, as if to excite us to do our duty. He wore a coat with wide
+sleeves, which fell back as he raised his arm, and showed the white
+linen of the wristband." [781]
+
+[781] Recollections of Joseph Trahan, in Revue Canadienne, IV. 856.
+
+The English waited the result with a composure which, if not quite real,
+was at least well feigned. The three field-pieces sent by Ramesay plied
+them with canister-shot, and fifteen hundred Canadians and Indians
+fusilladed them in front and flank. Over all the plain, from behind
+bushes and knolls and the edge of cornfields, puffs of smoke sprang
+incessantly from the guns of these hidden marksmen. Skirmishers were
+thrown out before the lines to hold them in check, and the soldiers were
+ordered to lie on the grass to avoid the shot. The firing was liveliest
+on the English left, where bands of sharpshooters got under the edge of
+the declivity, among thickets, and behind scattered houses, whence they
+killed and wounded a considerable number of Townshend's men. The light
+infantry were called up from the rear. The houses were taken and
+retaken, and one or more of them was burned.
+
+Wolfe was everywhere. How cool he was, and why his followers loved him,
+is shown by an incident that happened in the course of the morning.
+One of his captains was shot through the lungs; and on recovering
+consciousness he saw the General standing at his side. Wolfe pressed his
+hand, told him not to despair, praised his services, promised him early
+promotion, and sent an aide-de-camp to Monckton to beg that officer to
+keep the promise if he himself should fall. [782]
+
+[782] Sir Denis Le Marchant, cited by Wright, 579. Le Marchant knew the
+captain in his old age. Monckton kept Wolfe's promise.
+
+It was towards ten o'clock when, from the high ground on the right of
+the line, Wolfe saw that the crisis was near. The French on the ridge
+had formed themselves into three bodies, regulars in the centre,
+regulars and Canadians on right and left. Two field-pieces, which had
+been dragged up the heights at Anse du Foulon, fired on them with
+grape-shot, and the troops, rising from the ground, prepared to receive
+them. In a few moments more they were in motion. They came on rapidly,
+uttering loud shouts, and firing as soon as they were within range.
+Their ranks, ill ordered at the best, were further confused by a number
+of Canadians who had been mixed among the regulars, and who, after
+hastily firing, threw themselves on the ground to reload. [783] The
+British advanced a few rods; then halted and stood still. When the
+French were within forty paces the word of command rang out, and a crash
+of musketry answered all along the line. The volley was delivered with
+remarkable precision. In the battalions of the centre, which had
+suffered least from the enemy's bullets, the simultaneous explosion was
+afterwards said by French officers to have sounded like a cannon-shot.
+Another volley followed, and then a furious clattering fire that lasted
+but a minute or two. When the smoke rose, a miserable sight was
+revealed: the ground cumbered with dead and wounded, the advancing
+masses stopped short and turned into a frantic mob, shouting, cursing,
+gesticulating. The order was given to charge. Then over the field rose
+the British cheer, mixed with the fierce yell of the Highland slogan.
+Some of the corps pushed forward with the bayonet; some advanced firing.
+The clansmen drew their broadswords and dashed on, keen and swift as
+bloodhounds. At the English right, though the attacking column was
+broken to pieces, a fire was still kept up, chiefly, it seems, by
+sharpshooters from the bushes and cornfields, where they had lain for an
+hour or more. Here Wolfe himself led the charge, at the head of the
+Louisbourg grenadiers. A shot shattered his wrist. He wrapped his
+handkerchief about it and kept on. Another shot struck him, and he still
+advanced, when a third lodged in his breast. He staggered, and sat on
+the ground. Lieutenant Brown, of the grenadiers, one Henderson, a
+volunteer in the same company, and a private soldier, aided by an
+officer of artillery who ran to join them, carried him in their arms to
+the rear. He begged them to lay him down. They did so, and asked if he
+would have a surgeon. "There's no need," he answered; "it's all over
+with me." A moment after, one of them cried out: "They run; see how they
+run!" "Who run?" Wolfe demanded, like a man roused from sleep. "The
+enemy, sir. Egad, they give way everywhere!" "Go, one of you, to Colonel
+Burton," returned the dying man; "tell him to march Webb's regiment down
+to Charles River, to cut off their retreat from the bridge." Then,
+turning on his side, he murmured, "Now, God be praised, I will die in
+peace!" and in a few moments his gallant soul had fled.
+
+[783] "Les Canadiens, qui étaient mêlés dans les bataillons, se
+pressèrent de tirer et, dès qu'ils l'eussent fait, de mettre ventre à
+terre pour charger, ce qui rompit tout l'ordre." Malartic à Bourlamaque,
+25 Sept. 1759.
+
+Montcalm, still on horseback, was borne with the tide of fugitives
+towards the town. As he approached the walls a shot passed through his
+body. He kept his seat; two soldiers supported him, one on each side,
+and led his horse through the St. Louis Gate. On the open space within,
+among the excited crowd, were several women, drawn, no doubt, by
+eagerness to know the result of the fight. One of them recognized him,
+saw the streaming blood, and shrieked, "O mon Dieu! mon Dieu! le Marquis
+est tué!" "It's nothing, it's nothing," replied the death-stricken man;
+"don't be troubled for me, my good friends." ("Ce n'est rien, ce n'est
+rien; ne vous affligez pas pour moi, mes bonnes amies.")
+
+Note.--There are several contemporary versions of the dying words of
+Wolfe. The report of Knox, given above, is by far the best attested.
+Knox says that he took particular pains at the time to learn them
+accurately from those who were with Wolfe when they were uttered.
+
+The anecdote of Montcalm is due to the late Hon. Malcolm Fraser, of
+Quebec. He often heard it in his youth from an old woman, who, when a
+girl, was one of the group who saw the wounded general led by, and to
+whom the words were addressed.
+
+Force of the English and French at the Battle of Quebec.--The tabular
+return given by Knox shows the number of officers and men in each corps
+engaged. According to this, the battalions as they stood on the Plains
+of Abraham before the battle varied in strength from 322 (Monckton's) to
+683 (Webb's), making a total of 4,828, including officers. But another
+return, less specific, signed George Townshend, Brigadier, makes the
+entire number only 4,441. Townshend succeeded Wolfe in the command; and
+this return, which is preserved in the Public Record Office, was sent to
+London a few days after the battle. Some French writers present put the
+number lower, perhaps for the reason that Webb's regiment and the third
+battalion of Royal Americans took no part in the fight, the one being in
+the rear as a reserve, and the other also invisible, guarding the
+landing place. Wolfe's front line, which alone met and turned the French
+attack, was made up as follows, the figures including officers and
+men:--
+
+    Regiment                   Size
+    Thirty-fifth                519
+    Fifty-eighth                335
+    Seventy-eighth              662
+    Louisbourg Grenadiers       241
+    Twenty-eighth               421
+    Forty-seventh               360
+    Forty-third                 327
+    Light Infantry              400
+        Making a total of     3,265
+
+The French force engaged cannot be precisely given. Knox, on information
+received from "an intelligent Frenchman," states the number, corps by
+corps, the aggregate being 7,520. This, on examination, plainly appears
+exaggerated. Fraser puts it at 5,000; Townshend at 4,470, including
+militia. Bigot says, 3,500, which may perhaps be as many as actually
+advanced to the attack, since some of the militia held back. Including
+Bougainville's command, the militia and the artillerymen left in the
+Beauport camp, the sailors at the town batteries, and the garrison of
+Quebec, at least as many of the French were out of the battle as were in
+it; and the numbers engaged on each side seem to have been about equal.
+
+For authorities of the foregoing chapter, see Appendix I.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+1759.
+
+FALL OF QUEBEC.
+
+After the Battle • Canadians resist the Pursuit • Arrival of Vaudreuil •
+Scene in the Redoubt • Panic • Movements of the Victors • Vaudreuil's
+Council of War • Precipitate Retreat of the French Army • Last Hours of
+Montcalm • His Death and Burial • Quebec abandoned to its Fate • Despair
+of the Garrison • Lévis joins the Army • Attempts to relieve the Town •
+Surrender • The British occupy Quebec • Slanders of Vaudreuil •
+Reception in England of the News of Wolfe's Victory and Death •
+Prediction of Jonathan Mayhew.
+
+"Never was rout more complete than that of our army," says a French
+official. [784] It was the more so because Montcalm held no troops in
+reserve, but launched his whole force at once against the English.
+Nevertheless there was some resistance to the pursuit. It came chiefly
+from the Canadians, many of whom had not advanced with the regulars to
+the attack. Those on the right wing, instead of doing so, threw
+themselves into an extensive tract of bushes that lay in front of the
+English left; and from this cover they opened a fire, too distant for
+much effect, till the victors advanced in their turn, when the shot of
+the hidden marksmen told severely upon them. Two battalions, therefore,
+deployed before the bushes, fired volleys into them, and drove their
+occupants out.
+
+[784] Daine au Ministre, 9 Oct. 1759.
+
+Again, those of the Canadians who, before the main battle began,
+attacked the English left from the brink of the plateau towards the St.
+Charles, withdrew when the rout took place, and ran along the edge of
+the declivity till, at the part of it called Côte Ste.-Geneviève, they
+came to a place where it was overgrown with thickets. Into these they
+threw themselves; and were no sooner under cover than they faced about
+to fire upon the Highlanders, who presently came up. As many of these
+mountaineers, according to their old custom, threw down their muskets
+when they charged, and had no weapons but their broadswords, they tried
+in vain to dislodge the marksmen, and suffered greatly in the attempt.
+Other troops came to their aid, cleared the thickets, after stout
+resistance, and drove their occupants across the meadow to the bridge of
+boats. The conduct of the Canadians at the Côte Ste.-Geneviève went far
+to atone for the shortcomings of some of them on the battle-field.
+
+A part of the fugitives escaped into the town by the gates of St. Louis
+and St. John, while the greater number fled along the front of the
+ramparts, rushed down the declivity to the suburb of St. Roch, and ran
+over the meadows to the bridge, protected by the cannon of the town and
+the two armed hulks in the river. The rout had but just begun when
+Vaudreuil crossed the bridge from the camp of Beauport. It was four
+hours since he first heard the alarm, and his quarters were not much
+more than two miles from the battle-field. He does not explain why he
+did not come sooner; it is certain that his coming was well timed to
+throw the blame on Montcalm in case of defeat, or to claim some of the
+honor for himself in case of victory. "Monsieur the Marquis of
+Montcalm," he says, "unfortunately made his attack before I had joined
+him." [785] His joining him could have done no good; for though he had
+at last brought with him the rest of the militia from the Beauport camp,
+they had come no farther than the bridge over the St. Charles, having,
+as he alleges, been kept there by an unauthorized order from the chief
+of staff, Montreuil. [786] He declares that the regulars were in such a
+fright that he could not stop them; but that the Canadians listened to
+his voice, and that it was he who rallied them at the Côte
+Ste.-Geneviève. Of this the evidence is his own word. From other
+accounts it would appear that the Canadians rallied themselves.
+Vaudreuil lost no time in recrossing the bridge and joining the militia
+in the redoubt at the farther end, where a crowd of fugitives soon
+poured in after him.
+
+[785] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 21 Sept. 1759.
+
+[786] Ibid., 5 Oct. 1759.
+
+The aide-de-camp Johnstone, mounted on horseback, had stopped for a
+moment in what is now the suburb of St. John to encourage some soldiers
+who were trying to save a cannon that had stuck fast in a marshy hollow;
+when, on spurring his horse to the higher ground, he saw within
+musket-shot a long line of British troops, who immediately fired upon
+him. The bullets whistled about his ears, tore his clothes, and wounded
+his horse; which, however, carried him along the edge of the declivity
+to a windmill, near which was a roadway to a bakehouse on the meadow
+below. He descended, crossed the meadow, reached the bridge, and rode
+over it to the great redoubt or hornwork that guarded its head.
+
+The place was full of troops and Canadians in a wild panic. "It is
+impossible," says Johnstone, "to imagine the disorder and confusion I
+found in the hornwork. Consternation was general. M. de Vaudreuil
+listened to everybody, and was always of the opinion of him who spoke
+last. On the appearance of the English troops on the plain by the
+bakehouse, Montguet and La Motte, two old captains in the regiment of
+Béarn, cried out with vehemence to M. de Vaudreuil 'that the hornwork
+would be taken in an instant by assault, sword in hand; that we all
+should be cut to pieces without quarter; and that nothing would save us
+but an immediate and general capitulation of Canada, giving it up to the
+English.'" [787] Yet the river was wide and deep, and the hornwork was
+protected on the water side by strong palisades, with cannon.
+Nevertheless there rose a general cry to cut the bridge of boats. By
+doing so more than half the army, who had not yet crossed, would have
+been sacrificed. The axemen were already at work, when they were stopped
+by some officers who had not lost their wits.
+
+[787] Confirmed by Journal tenu à l'Armée, etc. "Divers officiers des
+troupes de terre n'hésitèrent point à dire, tout haut en présence du
+soldat, qu'il ne nous restoit d'autre ressource que celle de capituler
+promptement pour toute la colonie," etc.
+
+"M. de Vaudreuil," pursues Johnstone, "was closeted in a house in the
+inside of the hornwork with the Intendant and some other persons. I
+suspected they were busy drafting the articles for a general
+capitulation, and I entered the house, where I had only time to see the
+Intendant, with a pen in his hand, writing upon a sheet of paper, when
+M. de Vaudreuil told me I had no business there. Having answered him
+that what he had said was true, I retired immediately, in wrath to see
+them intent on giving up so scandalously a dependency for the
+preservation of which so much blood and treasure had been expended." On
+going out he met Lieutenant-colonels Dalquier and Poulariez, whom he
+begged to prevent the apprehended disgrace; and, in fact, if Vaudreuil
+really meant to capitulate for the colony, he was presently dissuaded by
+firmer spirits than his own.
+
+Johnstone, whose horse could carry him no farther, set out on foot for
+Beauport, and, in his own words, "continued sorrowfully jogging on, with
+a very heavy heart for the loss of my dear friend M. de Montcalm,
+sinking with weariness, and lost in reflection upon the changes which
+Providence had brought about in the space of three or four hours."
+
+Great indeed were these changes. Montcalm was dying; his second in
+command, the Brigadier Senezergues, was mortally wounded; the army,
+routed and demoralized, was virtually without a head; and the colony,
+yesterday cheered as on the eve of deliverance, was plunged into sudden
+despair. "Ah, what a cruel day!" cries Bougainville; "how fatal to all
+that was dearest to us! My heart is torn in its most tender parts. We
+shall be fortunate if the approach of winter saves the country from
+total ruin." [788]
+
+[788] Bougainville à Bourlamaque, 18 Sept. 1759.
+
+The victors were fortifying themselves on the field of battle. Like the
+French, they had lost two generals; for Monckton, second in rank, was
+disabled by a musket-shot, and the command had fallen upon Townshend at
+the moment when the enemy were in full flight. He had recalled the
+pursuers, and formed them again in line of battle, knowing that another
+foe was at hand. Bougainville, in fact, appeared at noon from Cap-Rouge
+with about two thousand men; but withdrew on seeing double that force
+prepared to receive him. He had not heard till eight o'clock that the
+English were on the Plains of Abraham; and the delay of his arrival was
+no doubt due to his endeavors to collect as many as possible of his
+detachments posted along the St. Lawrence for many miles towards
+Jacques-Cartier.
+
+Before midnight the English had made good progress in their redoubts and
+intrenchments, had brought cannon up the heights to defend them, planted
+a battery on the Côte Ste.-Geneviève, descended into the meadows of the
+St. Charles, and taken possession of the General Hospital, with its
+crowds of sick and wounded. Their victory had cost them six hundred and
+sixty-four of all ranks, killed, wounded, and missing. The French loss
+is placed by Vaudreuil at about six hundred and forty, and by the
+English official reports at about fifteen hundred. Measured by the
+numbers engaged, the battle of Quebec was but a heavy skirmish; measured
+by results, it was one of the great battles of the world.
+
+Vaudreuil went from the hornwork to his quarters on the Beauport road
+and called a council of war. It was a tumultuous scene. A letter was
+despatched to Quebec to ask advice of Montcalm. The dying General sent a
+brief message to the effect that there was a threefold choice,--to fight
+again, retreat to Jacques-Cartier, or give up the colony. There was much
+in favor of fighting. When Bougainville had gathered all his force from
+the river above, he would have three thousand men; and these, joined to
+the garrison of Quebec, the sailors at the batteries, and the militia
+and artillerymen of the Beauport camp, would form a body of fresh
+soldiers more than equal to the English then on the Plains of Abraham.
+Add to these the defeated troops, and the victors would be greatly
+outnumbered. [789] Bigot gave his voice for fighting. Vaudreuil
+expressed himself to the same effect; but he says that all the officers
+were against him. "In vain I remarked to these gentlemen that we were
+superior to the enemy, and should beat them if we managed well. I could
+not at all change their opinion, and my love for the service and for the
+colony made me subscribe to the views of the council. In fact, if I had
+attacked the English against the advice of all the principal officers,
+their ill-will would have exposed me to the risk of losing the battle
+and the colony also." [790]
+
+[789] Bigot, as well as Vaudreuil, sets Bougainville's force at three
+thousand. "En réunissant le corps M. de Bougainville, les bataillons de
+Montréal [laissés au camp de Beauport] et la garnison de la ville, il
+nous restoit encore près de 5,000 hommes de troupes fraîches." Journal
+tenu à l'Armée. Vaudreuil says that there were fifteen hundred men in
+garrison at Quebec who did not take part in the battle. If this is
+correct, the number of fresh troops after it was not five thousand, but
+more than six thousand; to whom the defeated force is to be added,
+making, after deducting killed and wounded, some ten thousand in all.
+
+[790] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Oct. 1759.
+
+It was said at the time that the officers voted for retreat because they
+thought Vaudreuil unfit to command an army, and, still more, to fight a
+battle. [791] There was no need, however, to fight at once. The object
+of the English was to take Quebec, and that of Vaudreuil should have
+been to keep it. By a march of a few miles he could have joined
+Bougainville; and by then intrenching himself at or near Ste.-Foy he
+would have placed a greatly superior force in the English rear, where
+his position might have been made impregnable. Here he might be easily
+furnished with provisions, and from hence he could readily throw men and
+supplies into Quebec, which the English were too few to invest. He could
+harass the besiegers, or attack them, should opportunity offer, and
+either raise the siege or so protract it that they would be forced by
+approaching winter to sail homeward, robbed of the fruit of their
+victory.
+
+[791] Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
+
+At least he might have taken a night for reflection. He was safe behind
+the St. Charles. The English, spent by fighting, toil, and want of
+sleep, were in no condition to disturb him. A part of his own men were
+in deadly need of rest; the night would have brought refreshment, and
+the morning might have brought wise counsel. Vaudreuil would not wait,
+and orders were given at once for retreat. [792] It began at nine
+o'clock that evening. Quebec was abandoned to its fate. The cannon were
+left in the lines of Beauport, the tents in the encampments, and
+provisions enough in the storehouses to supply the army for a week. "The
+loss of the Marquis de Montcalm," says a French officer then on the
+spot, "robbed his successors of their senses, and they thought of
+nothing but flight; such was their fear that the enemy would attack the
+intrenchments the next day. The army abandoned the camp in such disorder
+that the like was never known." [793] "It was not a retreat," says
+Johnstone, who was himself a part of it, "but an abominable flight, with
+such disorder and confusion that, had the English known it, three
+hundred men sent after us would have been sufficient to cut all our army
+to pieces. The soldiers were all mixed, scattered, dispersed, and
+running as hard as they could, as if the English army were at their
+heels." They passed Charlesbourg, Lorette, and St. Augustin, till, on
+the fifteenth, they found rest on the impregnable hill of
+Jacques-Cartier, by the brink of the St. Lawrence, thirty miles from
+danger.
+
+[792] Livre d'Ordres, Ordre du 13 Sept. 1759.
+
+[793] Foligny, Journal mémoratif.
+
+In the night of humiliation when Vaudreuil abandoned Quebec, Montcalm
+was breathing his last within its walls. When he was brought wounded
+from the field, he was placed in the house of the Surgeon Arnoux, who
+was then with Bourlamaque at Isle-aux-Noix, but whose younger brother,
+also a surgeon, examined the wound and pronounced it mortal. "I am glad
+of it," Montcalm said quietly; and then asked how long he had to live.
+"Twelve hours, more or less," was the reply. "So much the better," he
+returned. "I am happy that I shall not live to see the surrender of
+Quebec." He is reported to have said that since he had lost the battle
+it consoled him to have been defeated by so brave an enemy; and some of
+his last words were in praise of his successor, Lévis, for whose talents
+and fitness for command he expressed high esteem. When Vaudreuil sent to
+ask his opinion, he gave it; but when Ramesay, commandant of the
+garrison, came to receive his orders, he replied: "I will neither give
+orders nor interfere any further. I have much business that must be
+attended to, of greater moment than your ruined garrison and this
+wretched country. My time is very short; therefore pray leave me. I wish
+you all comfort, and to be happily extricated from your present
+perplexities." Nevertheless he thought to the last of those who had been
+under his command, and sent the following note to Brigadier Townshend:
+"Monsieur, the humanity of the English sets my mind at peace concerning
+the fate of the French prisoners and the Canadians. Feel towards them as
+they have caused me to feel. Do not let them perceive that they have
+changed masters. Be their protector as I have been their father." [794]
+
+[794] I am indebted to Abbé Bois for a copy of this note. The last words
+of Montcalm, as above, are reported partly by Johnstone, and partly by
+Knox.
+
+Bishop Pontbriand, himself fast sinking with mortal disease, attended
+his death-bed and administered the last sacraments. He died peacefully
+at four o'clock on the morning of the fourteenth. He was in his
+forty-eighth year.
+
+In the confusion of the time no workman could be found to make a coffin,
+and an old servant of the Ursulines, known as Bonhomme Michel, gathered
+a few boards and nailed them together so as to form a rough box. In it
+was laid the body of the dead soldier; and late in the evening of the
+same day he was carried to his rest. There was no tolling of bells or
+firing of cannon. The officers of the garrison followed the bier, and
+some of the populace, including women and children, joined the
+procession as it moved in dreary silence along the dusky street,
+shattered with cannon-ball and bomb, to the chapel of the Ursuline
+convent. Here a shell, bursting under the floor, had made a cavity which
+had been hollowed into a grave. Three priests of the Cathedral, several
+nuns, Ramesay with his officers, and a throng of towns-people were
+present at the rite. After the service and the chant, the body was
+lowered into the grave by the light of torches; and then, says the
+chronicle, "the tears and sobs burst forth. It seemed as if the last
+hope of the colony were buried with the remains of the General." [795]
+In truth, the funeral of Montcalm was the funeral of New France. [796]
+
+[795] Ursulines de Québec, III. 10.
+
+[796] See Appendix J.
+
+It was no time for grief. The demands of the hour were too exigent and
+stern. When, on the morning after the battle, the people of Quebec saw
+the tents standing in the camp of Beauport, they thought the army still
+there to defend them. [797] Ramesay knew that the hope was vain. On the
+evening before, Vaudreuil had sent two hasty notes to tell him of his
+flight. "The position of the enemy," wrote the Governor, "becomes
+stronger every instant; and this, with other reasons, obliges me to
+retreat." "I have received all your letters. As I set out this moment, I
+pray you not to write again. You shall hear from me to-morrow. I wish
+you good evening." With these notes came the following order: "M. de
+Ramesay is not to wait till the enemy carries the town by assault. As
+soon as provisions fail, he will raise the white flag." This order was
+accompanied by a memorandum of terms which Ramesay was to ask of the
+victors. [798]
+
+[797] Mémoire du Sieur de Ramesay.
+
+[798] Mémoire pour servir d'Instruction à M. de Ramesay, 13 Sept. 1759.
+Appended, with the foregoing notes, to the Mémoire de Ramesay.
+
+"What a blow for me," says the unfortunate commandant, "to find myself
+abandoned so soon by the army, which alone could defend the town!" His
+garrison consisted of between one and two hundred troops of the line,
+some four or five hundred colony troops, a considerable number of
+sailors, and the local militia. [799] These last were in a state of
+despair. The inhabitants who, during the siege, had sought refuge in the
+suburb of St. Roch, had returned after the battle, and there were now
+twenty-six hundred women and children, with about a housand invalids and
+other non-combatants to be supported, though the provisions in the town,
+even at half rations, would hardly last a week. Ramesay had not been
+informed that a good supply was left in the camps of Beauport; and when
+he heard at last that it was there, and sent out parties to get it, they
+found that the Indians and the famished country people had carried it
+off.
+
+[799] The English returns give a total of 615 French regulars in the
+place besides sailors and militia.
+
+"Despondency," he says again, "was complete; discouragement extreme and
+universal. Murmurs and complaints against the army that had abandoned us
+rose to a general outcry. I could not prevent the merchants, all of whom
+were officers of the town militia, from meeting at the house of M.
+Daine, the mayor. There they declared for capitulating, and presented me
+a petition to that effect, signed by M. Daine and all the principal
+citizens."
+
+Ramesay called a council of war. One officer alone, Fiedmont, captain of
+artillery, was for reducing the rations still more, and holding out to
+the last. All the others gave their voices for capitulation. [800]
+Ramesay might have yielded without dishonor; but he still held out till
+an event fraught with new hope took place at Jacques-Cartier.
+
+[800] Copie du Conseil de Guerre tenu par M. de Ramesay à Québec, 15
+Sept. 1759.
+
+This event was the arrival of Lévis. On the afternoon of the battle
+Vaudreuil took one rational step; he sent a courier to Montreal to
+summon that able officer to his aid. [801] Lévis set out at once,
+reached Jacques-Cartier, and found his worst fears realized. "The great
+number of fugitives that I began to meet at Three Rivers prepared me for
+the disorder in which I found the army. I never in my life knew the like
+of it. They left everything behind in the camp at Beauport; tents,
+baggage, and kettles."
+
+[801] Lévis à Bourlamaque, 15 Sept. 1759. Lévis, Guerre du Canada.
+
+He spoke his mind freely; loudly blamed the retreat, and urged Vaudreuil
+to march back with all speed to whence he came. [802] The Governor,
+stiff at ordinary times, but pliant at a crisis, welcomed the firmer
+mind that decided for him, consented that the troops should return, and
+wrote afterwards in his despatch to the Minister: "I was much charmed to
+find M. de Lévis disposed to march with the army towards Quebec." [803]
+
+[802] Bigot au Ministre, 15 Oct. 1759. Malartic à Bourlamaque, 28 Sept.
+1759.
+
+[803] "Je fus bien charmé," etc. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Oct. 1759.
+
+Lévis, on his part, wrote: "The condition in which I found the army,
+bereft of everything, did not discourage me, because M. de Vaudreuil
+told me that Quebec was not taken, and that he had left there a
+sufficiently numerous garrison; I therefore resolved, in order to repair
+the fault that had been committed, to engage M. de Vaudreuil to march
+the army back to the relief of the place. I represented to him that this
+was the only way to prevent the complete defection of the Canadians and
+Indians; that our knowledge of the country would enable us to approach
+very near the enemy, whom we knew to be intrenching themselves on the
+heights of Quebec and constructing batteries to breach the walls; that
+if we found their army ill posted, we could attack them, or, at any
+rate, could prolong the siege by throwing men and supplies into the
+town; and that if we could not save it, we could evacuate and burn it,
+so that the enemy could not possibly winter there." [804]
+
+[804] Lévis au Ministre, 10 Nov. 1759.
+
+Lévis quickly made his presence felt in the military chaos about him.
+Bigot bestirred himself with his usual vigor to collect provisions; and
+before the next morning all was ready. [805] Bougainville had taken no
+part in the retreat, but sturdily held his ground at Cap-Rouge while the
+fugitive mob swept by him. A hundred of the mounted Canadians who formed
+part of his command were now sent to Quebec, each with a bag of biscuit
+across his saddle. They were to circle round to the Beauport side, where
+there was no enemy, and whence they could cross the St. Charles in
+canoes to the town. Bougainville followed close with a larger supply.
+Vaudreuil sent Ramesay a message, revoking his order to surrender if
+threatened with assault, telling him to hold out to the last, and
+assuring him that the whole army was coming to his relief. Lévis
+hastened to be gone; but first he found time to write a few lines to
+Bourlamaque. "We have had a very great loss, for we have lost M. de
+Montcalm. I regret him as my general and my friend. I found our army
+here. It is now on the march to retrieve our fortunes. I can trust you
+to hold your position; as I have not M. de Montcalm's talents, I look to
+you to second me and advise me. Put a good face on it. Hide this
+business as long as you can. I am mounting my horse this moment. Write
+me all the news." [806]
+
+[805] Livre d'Ordres, Ordre du 17-18 Sept. 1759.
+
+[806] Lévis a Bourlamaque, 18 Sept. 1759.
+
+The army marched that morning, the eighteenth. In the evening it reached
+St. Augustin; and here it was stopped by the chilling news that Quebec
+had surrendered.
+
+Utter confusion had reigned in the disheartened garrison. Men deserted
+hourly, some to the country, and some to the English camp; while
+Townshend pushed his trenches nearer and nearer to the walls, in spite
+of the cannonade with which Fiedmont and his artillerymen tried to check
+them. On the evening of the seventeenth, the English ships of war moved
+towards the Lower Town, and a column of troops was seen approaching over
+the meadows of the St. Charles, as if to storm the Palace Gate. The
+drums beat the alarm; but the militia refused to fight. Their officers
+came to Ramesay in a body; declared that they had no mind to sustain an
+assault; that they knew he had orders against it; that they would carry
+their guns back to the arsenal; that they were no longer soldiers, but
+citizens; that if the army had not abandoned them they would fight with
+as much spirit as ever; but that they would not get themselves killed to
+no purpose. The town-major, Joannès, in a rage, beat two of them with
+the flat of his sword.
+
+The white flag was raised; Joannès pulled it down, thinking, or
+pretending to think, that it was raised without authority; but Ramesay
+presently ordered him to go to the English camp and get what terms he
+could. He went, through driving rain, to the quarters of Townshend, and,
+in hope of the promised succor, spun out the negotiation to the utmost,
+pretended that he had no power to yield certain points demanded, and was
+at last sent back to confer with Ramesay, under a promise from the
+English commander that, if Quebec were not given up before eleven
+o'clock, he would take it by storm. On this Ramesay signed the articles,
+and Joannès carried them back within the time prescribed. Scarcely had
+he left the town, when the Canadian horsemen appeared with their sacks
+of biscuit and a renewed assurance that help was near; but it was too
+late. Ramesay had surrendered, and would not break his word. He dreaded
+an assault, which he knew he could not withstand, and he but half
+believed in the promised succor. "How could I trust it?" he asks. "The
+army had not dared to face the enemy before he had fortified himself;
+and could I hope that it would come to attack him in an intrenched camp,
+defended by a formidable artillery?" Whatever may be thought of his
+conduct, it was to Vaudreuil, and not to him, that the loss of Quebec
+was due.
+
+The conditions granted were favorable, for Townshend knew the danger of
+his position, and was glad to have Quebec on any terms. The troops and
+sailors of the garrison were to march out of the place with the honors
+of war, and to be carried to France. The inhabitants were to have
+protection in person and property, and free exercise of religion. [807]
+
+[807] Articles de Capitulation, 18 Sept. 1759.
+
+In the afternoon a company of artillerymen with a field-piece entered
+the town, and marched to the place of arms, followed by a body of
+infantry. Detachments took post at all the gates. The British flag was
+raised on the heights near the top of Mountain Street, and the capital
+of New France passed into the hands of its hereditary foes. The question
+remained, should they keep, or destroy it? It was resolved to keep it at
+every risk. The marines, the grenadiers from Louisbourg, and some of the
+rangers were to reimbark in the fleet; while the ten battalions, with
+the artillery and one company of rangers, were to remain behind, bide
+the Canadian winter, and defend the ruins of Quebec against the efforts
+of Lévis. Monckton, the oldest brigadier, was disabled by his wound, and
+could not stay; while Townshend returned home, to parade his laurels and
+claim more than his share of the honors of victory. [808] The command,
+therefore, rested with Murray.
+
+[808] Letter to an Honourable Brigadier-General [Townshend], printed in
+1760. A Refutation soon after appeared, angry, but not conclusive. Other
+replies will be found in the Imperial Magazine for 1760.
+
+The troops were not idle. Levelling their own field-works, repairing the
+defences of the town, storing provisions sent ashore from the fleet,
+making fascines, and cutting firewood, busied them through the autumn
+days bright with sunshine, or dark and chill with premonition of the
+bitter months to come. Admiral Saunders put off his departure longer
+than he had once thought possible; and it was past the middle of October
+when he fired a parting salute, and sailed down the river with his
+fleet. In it was the ship "Royal William," carrying the embalmed remains
+of Wolfe.
+
+Montcalm lay in his soldier's grave before the humble altar of the
+Ursulines, never more to see the home for which he yearned, the wife,
+mother, and children whom he loved, the olive-trees and chestnut-groves
+of his beloved Candiac. He slept in peace among triumphant enemies, who
+respected his memory, though they hardly knew his resting-place. It was
+left for a fellow-countryman--a colleague and a brother-in-arms--to
+belittle his achievements and blacken his name. The jealous spite of
+Vaudreuil pursued him even in death. Leaving Lévis to command at
+Jacques-Cartier, whither the army had again withdrawn, the Governor
+retired to Montreal, whence he wrote a series of despatches to justify
+himself at the expense of others, and above all of the slain general,
+against whom his accusations were never so bitter as now, when the lips
+were cold that could have answered them. First, he threw on Ramesay all
+the blame of the surrender of Quebec. Then he addressed himself to his
+chief task, the defamation of his unconscious rival. "The letter that
+you wrote in cipher, on the tenth of February, to Monsieur the Marquis
+of Montcalm and me, in common, [809] flattered his self-love to such a
+degree that, far from seeking conciliation, he did nothing but try to
+persuade the public that his authority surpassed mine. From the moment
+of Monsieur de Montcalm's arrival in this colony, down to that of his
+death, he did not cease to sacrifice everything to his boundless
+ambition. He sowed dissension among the troops, tolerated the most
+indecent talk against the government, attached to himself the most
+disreputable persons, used means to corrupt the most virtuous, and, when
+he could not succeed, became their cruel enemy. He wanted to be
+Governor-General. He privately flattered with favors and promises of
+patronage every officer of the colony troops who adopted his ideas. He
+spared no pains to gain over the people of whatever calling, and
+persuade them of his attachment; while, either by himself or by means of
+the troops of the line, he made them bear the most frightful yoke (le
+joug le plus affreux). He defamed honest people, encouraged
+insubordination, and closed his eyes to the rapine of his soldiers."
+
+[809] See ante, p. 167.
+
+This letter was written to Vaudreuil's official superior and confidant,
+the Minister of the Marine and Colonies. In another letter, written
+about the same time to the Minister of War, who held similar relations
+to his rival, he declares that he "greatly regretted Monsieur de
+Montcalm." [810]
+
+[810] Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Guerre, 1 Nov. 1759.
+
+His charges are strange ones from a man who was by turns the patron,
+advocate, and tool of the official villains who cheated the King and
+plundered the people. Bigot, Cadet, and the rest of the harpies that
+preyed on Canada looked to Vaudreuil for support, and found it. It was
+but three or four weeks since he had written to the Court in high eulogy
+of Bigot and effusive praise of Cadet, coupled with the request that a
+patent of nobility should be given to that notorious public thief. [811]
+The corruptions which disgraced his government were rife, not only in
+the civil administration, but also among the officers of the colony
+troops, over whom he had complete control. They did not, as has been
+seen already, extend to the officers of the line, who were outside the
+circle of peculation. It was these who were the habitual associates of
+Montcalm; and when Vaudreuil charges him with "attaching to himself the
+most disreputable persons, and using means to corrupt the most
+virtuous," the true interpretation of his words is that the former were
+disreputable because they disliked him (the Governor), and the latter
+virtuous because they were his partisans.
+
+[811] See ante, p. 31.
+
+Vaudreuil continues thus: "I am in despair, Monseigneur, to be under the
+necessity of painting you such a portrait after death of Monsieur the
+Marquis of Montcalm. Though it contains the exact truth, I would have
+deferred it if his personal hatred to me were alone to be considered;
+but I feel too deeply the loss of the colony to hide from you the cause
+of it. I can assure you that if I had been the sole master, Quebec would
+still belong to the King, and that nothing is so disadvantageous in a
+colony as a division of authority and the mingling of troops of the line
+with marine [colony] troops. Thoroughly knowing Monsieur de Montcalm, I
+did not doubt in the least that unless I condescended to all his wishes,
+he would succeed in ruining Canada and wrecking all my plans."
+
+He then charges the dead man with losing the battle of Quebec by
+attacking before he, the Governor, arrived to take command; and this, he
+says, was due to Montcalm's absolute determination to exercise
+independent authority, without caring whether the colony was saved or
+lost. "I cannot hide from you, Monseigneur, that if he had had his way
+in past years Oswego and Fort George [William Henry] would never have
+been attacked or taken; and he owed the success at Ticonderoga to the
+orders I had given him." [812] Montcalm, on the other hand, declared at
+the time that Vaudreuil had ordered him not to risk a battle, and that
+it was only through his disobedience that Ticonderoga was saved.
+
+[812] Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 30 Oct. 1759.
+
+Ten days later Vaudreuil wrote again: "I have already had the honor, by
+my letter written in cipher on the thirteenth of last month, to give you
+a sketch of the character of Monsieur the Marquis of Montcalm; but I
+have just been informed of a stroke so black that I think, Monseigneur,
+that I should fail in my duty to you if I did not tell you of it." He
+goes on to say that, a little before his death, and "no doubt in fear of
+the fate that befell him," Montcalm placed in the hands of Father
+Roubaud, missionary at St. Francis, two packets of papers containing
+remarks on the administration of the colony, and especially on the
+manner in which the military posts were furnished with supplies; that
+these observations were accompanied by certificates; and that they
+involved charges against him, the Governor, of complicity in peculation.
+Roubaud, he continues, was to send these papers to France; "but now,
+Monseigneur, that you are informed about them, I feel no anxiety, and I
+am sure that the King will receive no impression from them without
+acquainting himself with their truth or falsity."
+
+Vaudreuil's anxiety was natural; and so was the action of Montcalm in
+making known to the Court the outrageous abuses that threatened the
+King's service with ruin. His doing so was necessary, both for his own
+justification and for the public good; and afterwards, when Vaudreuil
+and others were brought to trial at Paris, and when one of the counsel
+for the defence charged the late general with slanderously accusing his
+clients, the Court ordered the charge to be struck from the record.
+[813] The papers the existence of which, if they did exist, so terrified
+Vaudreuil, have thus far escaped research. But the correspondence of the
+two rivals with the chiefs of the departments on which they severally
+depended is in large measure preserved; and while that of the Governor
+is filled with defamation of Montcalm and praise of himself, that of the
+General is neither egotistic nor abusive. The faults of Montcalm have
+sufficiently appeared. They were those of an impetuous, excitable, and
+impatient nature, by no means free from either ambition or vanity; but
+they were never inconsistent with the character of a man of honor. His
+impulsive utterances, reported by retainers and sycophants, kept
+Vaudreuil in a state of chronic rage; and, void as he was of all
+magnanimity, gnawed with undying jealousy, and mortally in dread of
+being compromised by the knaveries to which he had lent his countenance,
+he could not contain himself within the bounds of decency or sense. In
+another letter he had the baseness to say that Montcalm met his death in
+trying to escape from the English.
+
+[813] Procès de Bigot, Cadet, et autres.
+
+Among the Governor's charges are some which cannot be flatly denied.
+When he accuses his rival of haste and precipitation in attacking the
+English army, he touches a fair subject of criticism; but, as a whole,
+he is as false in his detraction of Montcalm as in his praises of Bigot
+and Cadet.
+
+The letter which Wolfe sent to Pitt a few days before his death, written
+in what may be called a spirit of resolute despair, and representing
+success as almost hopeless, filled England with a dejection that found
+utterance in loud grumblings against the Ministry. Horace Walpole wrote
+the bad news to his friend Mann, ambassador at Florence: "Two days ago
+came letters from Wolfe, despairing as much as heroes can despair.
+Quebec is well victualled, Amherst is not arrived, and fifteen thousand
+men are encamped to defend it. We have lost many men by the enemy, and
+some by our friends; that is, we now call our nine thousand only seven
+thousand. How this little army will get away from a much larger, and in
+this season, in that country, I don't guess: yes, I do."
+
+Hardly were these lines written when tidings came that Montcalm was
+defeated, Quebec taken, and Wolfe killed. A flood of mixed emotions
+swept over England. Even Walpole grew half serious as he sent a packet
+of newspapers to his friend the ambassador. "You may now give yourself
+what airs you please. An ambassador is the only man in the world whom
+bullying becomes. All precedents are on your side: Persians, Greeks,
+Romans, always insulted their neighbors when they took Quebec. Think how
+pert the French would have been on such an occasion! What a scene! An
+army in the night dragging itself up a precipice by stumps of trees to
+assault a town and attack an enemy strongly intrenched and double in
+numbers! The King is overwhelmed with addresses on our victories; he
+will have enough to paper his palace." [814]
+
+[814] Letters of Horace Walpole, III. 254, 257 (ed. Cunningham, 1857).
+
+When, in soberer mood, he wrote the annals of his time, and turned, not
+for the better, from the epistolary style to the historical, he thus
+described the impression made on the English public by the touching and
+inspiring story of Wolfe's heroism and death: "The incidents of dramatic
+fiction could not be conducted with more address to lead an audience
+from despondency to sudden exaltation than accident prepared to excite
+the passions of a whole people. They despaired, they triumphed, and they
+wept; for Wolfe had fallen in the hour of victory. Joy, curiosity,
+astonishment, was painted on every countenance. The more they inquired,
+the more their admiration rose. Not an incident but was heroic and
+affecting." [815] England blazed with bonfires. In one spot alone all
+was dark and silent; for here a widowed mother mourned for a loving and
+devoted son, and the people forbore to profane her grief with the clamor
+of their rejoicings.
+
+[815] Walpole, Memoirs of George II., II. 384.
+
+New England had still more cause of joy than Old, and she filled the
+land with jubilation. The pulpits resounded with sermons of
+thanksgiving, some of which were worthy of the occasion that called them
+forth. Among the rest, Jonathan Mayhew, a young but justly celebrated
+minister of Boston, pictured with enthusiasm the future greatness of the
+British-American colonies, with the continent thrown open before them,
+and foretold that, "with the continued blessing of Heaven, they will
+become, in another century or two, a mighty empire;" adding in cautious
+parenthesis, "I do not mean an independent one." He read Wolfe's victory
+aright, and divined its far-reaching consequence.
+
+Note.--The authorities of this chapter are, in the main, the same as
+those of the preceding, with some additions, the principal of which is
+the Mémoire du Sieur de Ramezay, Chevalier de l'Ordre royal et militaire
+de St.-Louis, cy-devant Lieutenant pour le Roy commandant à Québec, au
+sujet de la Reddition de cette Ville, qui a été suivie de la
+Capitulation du 18 7bre, 1759 (Archives de la Marine). To this document
+are appended a number of important "pièces justificatives." These, with
+the Mémoire, have been printed by the Quebec Historical Society. The
+letters of Vaudreuil cited in this chapter are chiefly from the Archives
+Nationales.
+
+If Montcalm, as Vaudreuil says, really intrusted papers to the care of
+the Jesuit missionary Roubaud, he was not fortunate in his choice of a
+depositary. After the war Roubaud renounced his Order, adjured his
+faith, and went over to the English. He gave various and contradictory
+accounts of the documents said to be in his hands. On one occasion he
+declared that Montcalm's effects left with him at his mission of St.
+Francis had been burned to prevent their falling into the hands of the
+enemy (see Verreau, Report on Canadian Archives, 1874, p. 183). Again,
+he says that he had placed in the hands of the King of England certain
+letters of Montcalm (see Mr. Roubaud's Deplorable Case, humbly submitted
+to Lord North's Consideration, in Historical Magazine, Second Series,
+VIII. 283). Yet again, he speaks of these same letters as "pretended"
+(Verreau, as above). He complains that some of them had been published,
+without his consent, "by a Lord belonging to His Majesty's household"
+(Mr. Roubaud's Deplorable Case).
+
+The allusion here is evidently to a pamphlet printed in London, in 1777,
+in French and English, and entitled, Lettres de Monsieur le Marquis de
+Montcalm, Gouverneur-Général en Canada, à Messieurs de Berryer et de
+la Molé, écrites dans les Années 1757, 1758, et 1759, avec une Version
+Angloise. They profess to be observations by Montcalm on the English
+colonies, their political character, their trade, and their tendency to
+independence. They bear the strongest marks of being fabricated to suit
+the times, the colonies being then in revolt. The principal letter is
+one addressed to Molé, and bearing date Quebec, Aug. 24, 1759. It
+foretells the loss of her colonies as a consequence to England of her
+probable conquest of Canada. I laid before the Massachusetts Historical
+Society my reasons for believing this letter, like the rest, an
+imposture (see the Proceedings of that Society for 1869-1870, pp.
+112-128). To these reasons it may be added that at the date assigned to
+the letter all correspondence was stopped between Canada and France.
+From the arrival of the English fleet, at the end of spring, till its
+departure, late in autumn, communication was completely cut off. It was
+not till towards the end of November, when the river was clear of
+English ships, that the naval commander Kanon ran by the batteries of
+Quebec and carried to France the first news from Canada. Some of the
+letters thus sent were dated a month before, and had waited in Canada
+till Kanon's departure.
+
+Abbé Verreau--a high authority on questions of Canadian history--tells
+me a comparison of the handwriting has convinced him that these
+pretended letters of Montcalm are the work of Roubaud.
+
+On the burial of Montcalm, see Appendix J.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+1759, 1760.
+
+SAINTE-FOY.
+
+Quebec after the Siege • Captain Knox and the Nuns • Escape of French
+Ships • Winter at Quebec • Threats of Lévis • Attacks • Skirmishes •
+Feat of the Rangers • State of the Garrison • The French prepare to
+retake Quebec • Advance of Lévis • The Alarm • Sortie of the English •
+Rash Determination of Murray • Battle of Ste.-Foy • Retreat of the
+English • Lévis besieges Quebec • Spirit of the Garrison • Peril of
+their Situation • Relief • Quebec saved • Retreat of Lévis • The News in
+England.
+
+The fleet was gone; the great river was left a solitude; and the chill
+days of a fitful November passed over Quebec in alternations of rain and
+frost, sunshine and snow. The troops, driven by cold from their
+encampment on the Plains, were all gathered within the walls. Their own
+artillery had so battered the place that it was not easy to find
+shelter. The Lower Town was a wilderness of scorched and crumbling
+walls. As you ascend Mountain Street, the Bishop's Palace, on the right,
+was a skeleton of tottering masonry, and the buildings on the left were
+a mass of ruin, where ragged boys were playing at see-saw among the
+fallen planks and timbers. [816] Even in the Upper Town few of the
+churches and public buildings had escaped. The Cathedral was burned to a
+shell. The solid front of the College of the Jesuits was pockmarked by
+numberless cannon-balls, and the adjacent church of the Order was
+wofully shattered. The church of the Recollects suffered still more. The
+bombshells that fell through the roof had broken into the pavement, and
+as they burst had thrown up the bones and skulls of the dead from the
+graves beneath. [817] Even the more distant Hôtel-Dieu was pierced by
+fifteen projectiles, some of which had exploded in the halls and
+chambers. [818]
+
+[816] Drawings made on the spot by Richard Short. These drawings, twelve
+in number, were engraved and published in 1761.
+
+[817] Short's Views in Quebec, 1759. Compare Pontbriand, in N. Y. Col.
+Docs., X. 1,057.
+
+[818] Casgrain, Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, 445.
+
+The Commissary-General, Berniers, thus describes to Bourlamaque the
+state of the town: "Quebec is nothing but a shapeless mass of ruins.
+Confusion, disorder, pillage reign even among the inhabitants, for the
+English make examples of severity every day. Everybody rushes hither and
+thither, without knowing why. Each searches for his possessions, and,
+not finding his own, seizes those of other people. English and French,
+all is chaos alike. The inhabitants, famished and destitute, escape to
+the country. Never was there seen such a sight." [819]
+
+[819] Berniers à Bourlamaque, 27 Sept. 1759.
+
+Quebec swarmed with troops. There were guard-houses at twenty different
+points; sentinels paced the ramparts, squads of men went the rounds,
+soldiers off duty strolled the streets, some in mitre caps and some
+black three-cornered hats; while a ceaseless rolling of drums and a
+rigid observance of military forms betrayed the sense of a still
+imminent danger. While some of the inhabitants left town, others
+remained, having no refuge elsewhere. They were civil to the victors,
+but severe towards their late ruler. "The citizens," says Knox,
+"particularly the females, reproach M. Vaudreuil upon every occasion,
+and give full scope to bitter invectives." He praises the agreeable
+manners and cheerful spirit of the Canadian ladies, concerning whom
+another officer also writes: "It is very surprising with what ease the
+gayety of their tempers enables them to bear misfortunes which to us
+would be insupportable. Families whom the calamities of war have reduced
+from the height of luxury to the want of common necessaries laugh,
+dance, and sing, comforting themselves with this reflection--Fortune de
+guerre. Their young ladies take the utmost pains to teach our officers
+French; with what view I know not, if it is not that they may hear
+themselves praised, flattered, and courted without loss of time." [820]
+
+[820] Alexander Campbell to John Floyd, 22 Oct. 1759. Campbell was a
+lieutenant of the Highlanders; Lloyd was a Connecticut merchant.
+
+Knox was quartered in a small stable, with a hayloft above and a rack
+and manger at one end: a lodging better than fell to the lot of many of
+his brother officers; and, by means of a stove and some help from a
+carpenter, he says that he made himself tolerably comfortable. The
+change, however, was an agreeable one when he was ordered for a week to
+the General Hospital, a mile out of the town, where he was to command
+the guard stationed to protect the inmates and watch the enemy. Here
+were gathered the sick and wounded of both armies, nursed with equal
+care by the nuns, of whom Knox speaks with gratitude and respect. "When
+our poor fellows were ill and ordered to be removed from their odious
+regimental hospital to this general receptacle, they were indeed
+rendered inexpressibly happy. Each patient has his bed, with curtains,
+allotted to him, and a nurse to attend him. Every sick or wounded
+officer has an apartment to himself, and is attended by one of these
+religious sisters, who in general are young, handsome, courteous,
+rigidly reserved, and very respectful. Their office of nursing the sick
+furnishes them with opportunities of taking great latitudes if they are
+so disposed; but I never heard any of them charged with the least
+levity." The nuns, on their part, were well pleased with the conduct of
+their new masters, whom one of them describes as the "most moderate of
+all conquerors."
+
+"I lived here," Knox continues, "at the French King's table, with an
+agreeable, polite society of officers, directors, and commissaries. Some
+of the gentlemen were married, and their ladies honored us with their
+company. They were generally cheerful, except when we discoursed on the
+late revolution and the affairs of the campaign; then they seemingly
+gave way to grief, uttered by profound sighs, followed by an O mon
+Dieu!" He walked in the garden with the French officers, played at cards
+with them, and passed the time so pleasantly that his short stay at the
+hospital seemed an oasis in his hard life of camp and garrison.
+
+Mère de Sainte-Claude, the Superior, a sister of Ramesay, late
+commandant of Quebec, one morning sent him a note of invitation to what
+she called an English breakfast; and though the repast answered to
+nothing within his experience, he says that he "fared exceedingly well,
+and passed near two hours most agreeably in the society of this ancient
+lady and her virgin sisters."
+
+The excellent nuns of the General Hospital are to-day what their
+predecessors were, and the scene of their useful labors still answers at
+many points to that described by the careful pen of their military
+guest. Throughout the war they and the nuns of the Hôtel-Dieu had been
+above praise in their assiduous devotion to the sick and wounded.
+
+Brigadier Murray, now in command of Quebec, was a gallant soldier,
+upright, humane, generous, eager for distinction, and more daring than
+prudent. He befriended the Canadians, issued strict orders against
+harming them in person or property, hanged a soldier who had robbed a
+citizen of Quebec, and severely punished others for slighter offences of
+the same sort. In general the soldiers themselves showed kindness
+towards the conquered people; during harvest they were seen helping them
+to reap their fields, without compensation, and sharing with them their
+tobacco and rations. The inhabitants were disarmed, and required to take
+the oath of allegiance. Murray reported in the spring that the whole
+country, from Cap-Rouge downward, was in subjection to the British
+Crown. [821]
+
+[821] Murray to Pitt, 25 May, 1760. Murray, Journal, 1759, 1760.
+
+Late in October it was rumored that some of the French ships in the
+river above Quebec were preparing to run by the batteries. This was the
+squadron which had arrived in the spring with supplies, and had lain all
+summer at Batiscan, in the Richelieu, and at other points beyond reach
+of the English. After nearly a month of expectancy, they at length
+appeared, anchored off Sillery on the twenty-first of November, and
+tried to pass the town on the dark night of the twenty-fourth. Seven or
+eight of them succeeded; four others ran aground and were set on fire by
+their crews, excepting one which was stranded on the south shore and
+abandoned. Captain Miller, with a lieutenant and above forty men,
+boarded her; when, apparently through their own carelessness, she blew
+up. [822] Most of the party were killed by the explosion, and the rest,
+including the two officers, were left in a horrible condition between
+life and death. Thus they remained till a Canadian, venturing on board
+in search of plunder, found them, called his neighbors to his aid,
+carried them to his own house, and after applying, with the utmost
+kindness, what simple remedies he knew, went over to Quebec and told of
+the disaster. Fortunately for themselves, the sufferers soon died.
+
+[822] Murray to Amherst, 25 Jan. 1760. Not, as some believed, by a train
+laid by the French.
+
+December came, and brought the Canadian winter, with its fierce light
+and cold, glaring snowfields, and piercing blasts that scorch the cheek
+like a firebrand. The men were frost-bitten as they dug away the dry,
+powdery drifts that the wind had piled against the rampart. The sentries
+were relieved every hour; yet feet and fingers were continually frozen.
+The clothing of the troops was ill-suited to the climate, and, though
+stoves had been placed in the guard and barrack rooms, the supply of
+fuel constantly fell short. The cutting and dragging of wood was the
+chief task of the garrison for many weeks. Parties of axemen, strongly
+guarded, were always at work in the forest of Ste.-Foy, four or five
+miles from Quebec, and the logs were brought to town on sledges dragged
+by the soldiers. Eight of them were harnessed in pairs to each sledge;
+and as there was always danger from Indians and bushrangers, every man
+carried his musket slung at his back. The labor was prodigious; for
+frequent snowstorms made it necessary again and again to beat a fresh
+track through the drifts. The men bore their hardships with admirable
+good humor; and once a party of them on their return, dragging their
+load through the street, met a Canadian, also with a load of wood, which
+was drawn by a team of dogs harnessed much like themselves. They
+accosted them as yoke-fellows, comrades, and brothers; asked them what
+allowance of pork and rum they got; and invited them and their owner to
+mess at the regimental barracks.
+
+The appearance of the troops on duty within the town, as described by
+Knox, was scarcely less eccentric. "Our guards on the grand parade make
+a most grotesque appearance in their different dresses; and our
+inventions to guard us against the extreme rigor of this climate are
+various beyond imagination. The uniformity as well as nicety of the
+clean, methodical soldier is buried in the rough, fur-wrought garb of
+the frozen Laplander; and we rather resemble a masquerade than a body of
+regular troops, insomuch that I have frequently been accosted by my
+acquaintances, whom, though their voices were familiar to me, I could
+not discover, or conceive who they were. Besides, every man seems to be
+in a continual hurry; for instead of walking soberly through the
+streets, we are obliged to observe a running or trotting pace."
+
+Early in January there was a storm of sleet, followed by severe frost,
+which glazed the streets with ice. Knox, being ordered to mount guard in
+the Lower Town, found the descent of Mountain Street so slippery that it
+was impossible to walk down with safety, especially as the muskets of
+the men were loaded; and the whole party, seating themselves on the
+ground, slid one after another to the foot of the hill. The Highlanders,
+in spite of their natural hardihood, suffered more from the cold than
+the other troops, as their national costume was but a sorry defence
+against the Canadian winter. A detachment of these breechless warriors
+being on guard at the General Hospital, the nuns spent their scanty
+leisure in knitting for them long woollen hose, which they gratefully
+accepted, though at a loss to know whether modesty or charity inspired
+the gift.
+
+From the time when the English took possession of Quebec, reports had
+come in through deserters that Lévis meant to attack and recover it.
+Early in November there was a rumor that he was about to march upon it
+with fifteen thousand men. In December word came that he was on his way,
+resolved to storm it on or about the twenty-second, and dine within the
+walls, under the French flag, on Christmas Day. He failed to appear; but
+in January a deserter said that he had prepared scaling-ladders, and was
+training his men to use them by assaults on mock ramparts of snow. There
+was more tangible evidence that the enemy was astir. Murray had
+established two fortified outposts, one at Ste.-Foy, and the other
+farther on, at Old Lorette. War-parties hovered round both, and kept the
+occupants in alarm. A large body of French grenadiers appeared at the
+latter place in February, and drove off a herd of cattle; when a
+detachment of rangers, much inferior in number, set upon them, put them
+to flight, and recovered the plunder. At the same time a party of
+regulars, Canadians, and Indians took up a strong position near the
+church at Point Levi, and sent a message to the English officers that a
+large company of expert hairdressers were ready to wait upon them
+whenever they required their services. The allusion was of course
+to the scalp-lifting practices of the Indians and bushrangers.
+
+The river being now hard frozen, Murray sent over a detachment of light
+infantry under Major Dalling. A sharp fight ensued on the snow, around
+the church, and in the neighboring forest, where the English soldiers,
+taught to use snow-shoes by the rangers, routed the enemy, and killed or
+captured a considerable number. A third post was then established at the
+church and the priest's house adjacent. Some days after, the French came
+back in large numbers, fortified themselves with felled trees, and then
+attacked the English position. The firing being heard at Quebec, the
+light infantry went over to the scene of action, and Murray himself
+followed on the ice, with the Highlanders and other troops. Before he
+came up, the French drew off and retreated to their breastwork, where
+they were attacked and put to flight, the nimble Highlanders capturing a
+few, while the greater part made their escape.
+
+As it became known that the French held a strong post at Le Calvaire,
+near St. Augustin, two days' march from Quebec, Captain Donald MacDonald
+was sent with five hundred men to attack it. He found the enemy behind a
+breastwork of logs protected by an abattis. The light infantry advanced
+and poured in a brisk fire; on which the French threw down their arms
+and fled. About eighty of them were captured; but their commander,
+Herbin, escaped, leaving to the victors his watch, hat and feather,
+wine, liquor-case, and mistress. The English had six men wounded and
+nearly a hundred frost-bitten. [823]
+
+[823] Knox, II. 275. Murray, Journal. Fraser, Journal. Vaudreuil, in his
+usual way, multiplies the English force by three.
+
+Captain Hazen and his rangers soon after had a notable skirmish. They
+were posted in a house not far from the station at Lorette. A scout came
+in with news that a large party of the enemy was coming to attack them;
+on which Hazen left a sergeant and fourteen men in the house, and set
+out for Lorette with the rest to ask a reinforcement. On the way he met
+the French, who tried to surround him; and he told his men to fall back
+to the house. They remonstrated, saying that they "felt spry," and
+wanted to show the regulars that provincials could fight as well as
+red-coats. Thereupon they charged the enemy, gave them a close volley of
+buckshot and bullets, and put them to flight; but scarcely had they
+reloaded their guns when they were fired upon from behind. Another body
+of assailants had got into their rear, in order to cut them off. They
+faced about, attacked them, and drove them back like the first. The two
+French parties then joined forces, left Hazen to pursue his march, and
+attacked the fourteen rangers in the house, who met them with a brisk
+fire. Hazen and his men heard the noise; and, hastening back, fell upon
+the rear of the French, while those in the house sallied and attacked
+them in front. They were again routed; and the rangers chased them two
+miles, killing six of them and capturing seven. Knox, in whose eyes
+provincials usually find no favor, launches this time into warm
+commendation of "our simply honest New England men."
+
+Fresh reports came in from time to time that the French were gathering
+all their strength to recover Quebec; and late in February these stories
+took a definite shape. A deserter from Montreal brought Murray a letter
+from an officer of rangers, who was a prisoner at that place, warning
+him that eleven thousand men were on the point of marching to attack
+him. Three other deserters soon after confirmed the news, but added that
+the scheme had met with a check; for as it was intended to carry the
+town by storm, a grand rehearsal had taken place, with the help of
+scaling-ladders planted against the wall of a church; whereupon the
+Canadians rushed with such zeal to the assault that numerous broken
+legs, arms, and heads ensued, along with ruptures, sprains, bruises, and
+dislocations; insomuch, said the story, that they became disgusted with
+the attempt. All remained quiet till after the middle of April, when the
+garrison was startled by repeated assurances that at the first
+breaking-up of the ice all Canada would be upon them. Murray accordingly
+ordered the French inhabitants to leave the town within three days.
+[824]
+
+[824] Ordonnance faite à Québec le 21 Avril, 1760, par son Excellence,
+Jacques Murray.
+
+In some respects the temper of the troops was excellent. In the petty
+warfare of the past winter they had generally been successful, proving
+themselves a match for the bushrangers and Indians on their own ground;
+so that, as Sergeant Johnson remarks, in his odd way, "Very often a
+small number of our men would put to flight a considerable party of
+those Cannibals." They began to think themselves invincible; yet they
+had the deepest cause for anxiety. The effective strength of the
+garrison was reduced to less than half, and of those that remained fit
+for duty, hardly a man was entirely free from scurvy. The rank and file
+had no fresh provisions; and, in spite of every precaution, this
+malignant disease, aided by fever and dysentery, made no less havoc
+among them than among the crews of Jacques Cartier at this same place
+two centuries before. Of about seven thousand men left at Quebec in the
+autumn, scarcely more than three thousand were fit for duty on the
+twenty-fourth of April. [825] About seven hundred had found temporary
+burial in the snowdrifts, as the frozen ground was impenetrable as a
+rock.
+
+[825] Return of the present State of His Majesty's Forces in Garrison at
+Quebec, 24 April, 1760 (Public Record Office).
+
+Meanwhile Vaudreuil was still at Montreal, where he says that he
+"arrived just in time to take the most judicious measures and prevent
+General Amherst from penetrating into the colony." [826] During the
+winter some of the French regulars were kept in garrison at the
+outposts, and the rest quartered on the inhabitants; while the Canadians
+were dismissed to their homes, subject to be mustered again at the call
+of the Governor. Both he and Lévis were full of the hope of retaking
+Quebec. He had spies and agents among Murray's soldiers; and though the
+citizens had sworn allegiance to King George, some of them were
+exceedingly useful to his enemies. Vaudreuil had constant information of
+the state of the garrison. He knew that the scurvy was his active and
+powerful ally, and that the hospitals and houses of Quebec were crowded
+with the sick. At the end of March he was informed that more than half
+the British were on the sick-list; and it was presently rumored that
+Murray had only two thousand men able to bear arms. [827] With every
+allowance for exaggeration in these reports, it was plain that the
+French could attack their invaders in overwhelming force.
+
+[826] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 30 Oct. 1759.
+
+[827] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 15 Avril, 1760.
+
+The difficulty was to find means of transportation. The depth of the
+snow and the want of draught animals made it necessary to wait till the
+river should become navigable; but preparation was begun at once. Lévis
+was the soul of the enterprise. Provisions were gathered from far and
+near; cannon, mortars, and munitions of war were brought from the
+frontier posts, and butcher-knives were fitted to the muzzles of guns to
+serve the Canadians in place of bayonets. All the workmen about Montreal
+were busied in making tools and gun-carriages. Stores were impressed
+from the merchants; and certain articles, which could not otherwise be
+had, were smuggled, with extraordinary address, out of Quebec itself.
+[828] Early in spring the militia received orders to muster for the
+march. There were doubts and discontent; but, says a contemporary,
+"sensible people dared not speak, for if they did they were set down as
+English." Some there were who in secret called the scheme "Lévis'
+folly;" yet it was perfectly rational, well conceived, and conducted
+with vigor and skill. Two frigates, two sloops-of-war, and a number of
+smaller craft still remained in the river, under command of Vauquelin,
+the brave officer who had distinguished himself at the siege of
+Louisbourg. The stores and cannon were placed on board these vessels,
+the army embarked in a fleet of bateaux, and on the twentieth of April
+the whole set out together for the scene of action. They comprised eight
+battalions of troops of the line and two of colony troops; with the
+colonial artillery, three thousand Canadians, and four hundred Indians.
+When they left Montreal, their effective strength, besides Indians, is
+said by Lévis to have been six thousand nine hundred and ten, a number
+which was increased as he advanced by the garrisons of Jacques-Cartier,
+Déschambault, and Pointe-aux-Trembles, as well as by the Canadians on
+both side of the St. Lawrence below Three Rivers; for Vaudreuil had
+ordered the militia captains to join his standard, with all their
+followers, armed and equipped, on pain of death. [829] These accessions
+appear to have raised his force to between eight and nine thousand.
+
+[828] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 23 Avril, 1760.
+
+[829] Vaudreuil aux Capitaines de Milice, 16 Avril, 1760. I am indebted
+to Abbé H. R. Casgrain for a copy of this letter.
+
+The ice still clung to the river banks, the weather was bad, and the
+navigation difficult; but on the twenty-sixth the army landed at St.
+Augustin, crossed the river of Cap-Rouge on bridges of their own making,
+and moved upon the English outpost at Old Lorette. The English abandoned
+it and fell back to Ste.-Foy. Lévis followed. Night came on, with a gale
+from the southeast, a driving rain, and violent thunder, unusual at that
+season. The road, a bad and broken one, led through the marsh called La
+Suède. Causeways and bridges broke down under the weight of the marching
+columns and plunged the men into water, mud, and half-thawed ice. "It
+was a frightful night," says Lévis; "so dark that but for the flashes of
+lightning we should have been forced to stop." The break of day found
+the vanguard at the edge of the woods bordering the farther side of the
+marsh. The storm had abated; and they saw before them, a few hundred
+yards distant, through the misty air, a ridge of rising ground on which
+stood the parish church of Ste.-Foy, with a row of Canadian houses
+stretching far to right and left. This ridge was the declivity of the
+plateau of Quebec; the same which as it approaches the town, some five
+or six miles towards the left, takes the names of Côte d'Abraham and
+Côte Ste.-Geneviève. The church and the houses were occupied by British
+troops, who, as the French debouched from the woods, opened on them with
+cannon, and compelled them to fall back. Though the ridge at this point
+is not steep, the position was a strong one; but had Lévis known how few
+were as yet there to oppose him, he might have carried it by an assault
+in front. As it was, he resolved to wait till night, and then flank the
+enemy by a march to the right along the border of the wood.
+
+It was the morning of Sunday, the twenty-seventh. Till late in the night
+before, Murray and the garrison of Quebec were unaware of the immediate
+danger; and they learned it at last through a singular stroke of
+fortune. Some time after midnight the watch on board the frigate
+"Racehorse," which had wintered in the dock at the Lower Town, heard a
+feeble cry of distress from the midst of the darkness that covered the
+St. Lawrence. Captain Macartney was at once informed of it; and, through
+an impulse of humanity, he ordered a boat to put out amid the drifting
+ice that was sweeping up the river with the tide. Guided by the faint
+cries, the sailors found a man lying on a large cake of ice, drenched,
+and half dead with cold; and, taking him with difficulty into their
+boat, they carried him to the ship. It was long before he was able to
+speak intelligibly; but at last, being revived by cordials and other
+remedies, he found strength to tell his benefactors that he was a
+sergeant of artillery in the army that had come to retake Quebec; that
+in trying to land a little above Cap-Rouge, his boat had been overset,
+his companions drowned, and he himself saved by climbing upon the cake
+of ice where they had discovered him; that he had been borne by the ebb
+tide down to the Island of Orleans, and then brought up to Quebec by the
+flow; and, finally, that Lévis was marching on the town with twelve
+thousand men at his back.
+
+He was placed in a hammock and carried up Mountain Street to the
+quarters of the General, who was roused from sleep at three o'clock in
+the morning to hear his story. The troops were ordered under arms; and
+soon after daybreak Murray marched out with ten pieces of cannon and
+more than half the garrison. His principal object was to withdraw the
+advanced posts at Ste.-Foy, Cap-Rouge, Sillery, and Anse du Foulon. The
+storm had turned to a cold, drizzling rain, and the men, as they dragged
+their cannon through snow and mud, were soon drenched to the skin. On
+reaching Ste.-Foy, they opened a brisk fire from the heights upon the
+woods which now covered the whole army of Lévis; and being rejoined by
+the various outposts, returned to Quebec in the afternoon, after blowing
+up the church, which contained a store of munitions that they had no
+means of bringing off. When they entered Quebec a gill of rum was served
+out to each man; several houses in the suburb of St. Roch were torn down
+to supply them with firewood for drying their clothes; and they were
+left to take what rest they could against the morrow. The French,
+meanwhile, took possession of the abandoned heights; and while some
+filled the houses, barns, and sheds of Ste.-Foy and its neighborhood,
+others, chiefly Canadians, crossed the plateau to seek shelter in the
+village of Sillery.
+
+Three courses were open to Murray. He could defend Quebec, fortify
+himself outside the walls on the Buttes-à-Neveu, or fight Lévis at all
+risks. The walls of Quebec could not withstand a cannonade, and he had
+long intended to intrench his army on the Buttes, as a better position
+of defence; but the ground, frozen like a rock, had thus far made the
+plan impracticable. Even now, though the surface was thawed, the soil
+beneath was still frost-bound, making the task of fortification
+extremely difficult, if indeed the French would give him time for it.
+Murray was young in years, and younger still in impulse. He was ardent,
+fearless, ambitious, and emulous of the fame of Wolfe. "The enemy," he
+soon after wrote to Pitt, "was greatly superior in number, it is true;
+but when I considered that our little army was in the habit of beating
+the enemy, and had a very fine train of field artillery; that shutting
+ourselves at once within the walls was putting all upon the single
+chance of holding out for a considerable time a wretched fortification,
+I resolved to give them battle; and, half an hour after six in the
+morning, we marched with all the force I could muster, namely, three
+thousand men." [830] Some of these had left the hospitals of their own
+accord in their eagerness to take part in the fray.
+
+[830] Murray to Pitt, 25 May, 1760.
+
+The rain had ceased; but as the column emerged from St. Louis Gate, the
+scene before them was a dismal one. As yet there was no sign of spring.
+Each leafless bush and tree was dark with clammy moisture; patches of
+bare earth lay oozy and black on the southern slopes: but elsewhere the
+ground was still covered with snow, in some places piled in drifts, and
+everywhere sodden with rain; while each hollow and depression was full
+of that half-liquid, lead-colored mixture of snow and water which New
+England schoolboys call "slush," for all drainage was stopped by the
+frozen subsoil. The troops had with them two howitzers and twenty
+field-pieces, which had been captured when Quebec surrendered, and had
+formed a part of that very battery which Ramesay refused to Montcalm at
+the battle of the autumn before. As there were no horses, the cannon
+were dragged by some of the soldiers, while others carried picks and
+spades; for as yet Murray seems not to have made up his mind whether to
+fortify or fight. Thus they advanced nearly half a mile; till reaching
+the Buttes-à-Neveu, they formed in order of battle along their farther
+slopes, on the same ground that Montcalm had occupied on the morning of
+his death.
+
+Murray went forward to reconnoitre. Immediately before him was a rising
+ground, and, beyond it, a tract of forest called Sillery Wood, a mile or
+more distant. Nearer, on the left, he could see two blockhouses built by
+the English in the last autumn, not far from the brink of the plateau
+above the Anse du Foulon where Wolfe climbed the heights. On the right,
+at the opposite brink of the plateau, was a house and a fortified
+windmill belonging to one Dumont. The blockhouses, the mill, and the
+rising ground between them were occupied by the vanguard of Lévis' army;
+while, behind, he could descry the main body moving along the road from
+Ste.-Foy, then turning, battalion after battalion, and rapidly marching
+across the plateau along the edge of Sillery Wood. The two brigades of
+the leading column had already reached the blockhouses by the Anse du
+Foulon, and formed themselves as the right wing of the French line of
+battle; but those behind were not yet in position.
+
+Murray, kindling at the sight, thought that so favorable a moment was
+not to be lost, and ordered an advance. His line consisted of eight
+battalions, numbering a little above two thousand. In the intervals
+between them the cannon were dragged through slush and mud by five
+hundred men; and, at a little distance behind, the remaining two
+battalions followed as a reserve. The right flank was covered by
+Dalling's light infantry; the left by Hazen's company of rangers and a
+hundred volunteers under Major MacDonald. They all moved forward till
+they were on nearly the same ground where Wolfe's army had been drawn
+up. Then the cannon unlimbered, and opened on the French with such
+effect that Lévis, who was on horseback in the middle of the field, sent
+orders to the corps of his left to fall back to the cover of the woods.
+The movement caused some disorder. Murray mistook it for retreat, and
+commanded a farther advance. The whole British line, extending itself
+towards the right, pushed eagerly forward: in doing which it lost the
+advantage of the favorable position it had occupied; and the battalions
+of the right soon found themselves on low grounds, wading in half-melted
+snow, which in some parts was knee deep. Here the cannon could no longer
+be worked with effect. Just in front, a small brook ran along the
+hollow, through soft mud and saturated snowdrifts, then gurgled down the
+slope on the right, to lose itself in the meadows of the St. Charles. A
+few rods before this brook stood the house and windmill of Dumont,
+occupied by five companies of French grenadiers. The light infantry at
+once attacked them. A furious struggle ensued, till at length the French
+gave way, and the victors dashed forward to follow up their advantage.
+Their ardor cost them dear. The corps on the French left, which had
+fallen back into the woods, now advanced again as the cannon ceased to
+play, rushing on without order but with the utmost impetuosity, led by a
+gallant old officer, Colonel Dalquier, of the battalion of Béarn. A
+bullet in the body could not stop him. The light infantry were
+overwhelmed; and such of them as were left alive were driven back in
+confusion upon the battalions behind them, along the front of which they
+remained dispersed for some minutes, preventing the troops from firing
+on the advancing French, who thus had time to reform their ranks. At
+length the light infantry got themselves out of the way and retired to
+the rear, where, having lost nearly all their officers, they remained
+during the rest of the fight. Another struggle followed for the house
+and mill of Dumont, of which the French again got possession, to be
+again driven out; and it remained, as if by mutual consent, unoccupied
+for some time by either party. For above an hour more the fight was hot
+and fierce. "We drove them back as long as we had ammunition for our
+cannon," says Sergeant Johnson; but now it failed, and no more was to be
+had, because, in the eccentric phrase of the sergeant, the tumbrils were
+"bogged in deep pits of snow."
+
+While this was passing on the English right, it fared still worse with
+them on the left. The advance of the line was no less disastrous here
+than there. It brought the troops close to the woods which circled round
+to this point from the French rear, and from which the Canadians,
+covered by the trees, now poured on them a deadly fire. Here, as on the
+right, Lévis had ordered his troops to fall back for a time; but when
+the fire of the English cannon ceased, they advanced again, and their
+artillery, though consisting of only three pieces, played its part with
+good effect. Hazen's rangers and MacDonald's volunteers attacked and
+took the two adjacent blockhouses, but could not hold them. Hazen was
+wounded, MacDonald killed, and their party overpowered. The British
+battalions held their ground till the French, whose superior numbers
+enabled them to extend themselves on both sides beyond the English line,
+made a furious attack on the left wing, in front and flank. The reserves
+were ordered up, and the troops stood for a time in sullen desperation
+under the storm of bullets; but they were dropping fast in the
+blood-stained snow, and the order came at length to fall back. They
+obeyed with curses: "Damn it, what is falling back but retreating?"
+[831] The right wing, also outflanked, followed the example of the left.
+Some of the corps tried to drag off their cannon; but being prevented by
+the deep mud and snow they spiked the pieces and abandoned them. The
+French followed close, hoping to cut off the fugitives from the gates of
+Quebec; till Lévis, seeing that the retreat, though precipitate, was not
+entirely without order, thought best to stop the pursuit.
+
+[831] Knox, II. 295.
+
+The fight lasted about two hours, and did credit to both sides. The
+Canadians not only showed their usual address and courage when under
+cover of woods, but they also fought well in the open field; and the
+conduct of the whole French force proved how completely they had
+recovered from the panic of the last autumn. From the first they were
+greatly superior in number, and at the middle and end of the affair,
+when they had all reached the field, they were more than two against
+one. [832] The English, on the other hand, besides the opportunity of
+attacking before their enemies had completely formed, had a vastly
+superior artillery and a favorable position, both which advantages they
+lost after their second advance.
+
+[832] See Appendix K.
+
+Some curious anecdotes are told of the retreat. Colonel Fraser, of the
+Highlanders, received a bullet which was no doubt half spent, and which,
+with excellent precision, hit the base of his queue, so deadening the
+shock that it gave him no other inconvenience than a stiff neck. Captain
+Hazen, of the rangers, badly wounded, was making his way towards the
+gate, supported by his servant, when he saw at a great distance a French
+officer leading a file of men across a rising ground; whereupon he
+stopped and told the servant to give him his gun. A volunteer named
+Thompson, who was near by and who tells the story, thought that he was
+out of his senses; but Hazen persisted, seated himself on the ground,
+took a long aim, fired, and brought down his man. Thompson congratulated
+him. "A chance shot may kill the devil," replied Hazen; and resigning
+himself again to the arms of his attendant, he reached the town,
+recovered from his wound, and lived to be a general of the Revolution.
+[833]
+
+[833] Thompson, deceived by Hazen's baptismal name, Moses, thought that
+he was a Jew. (Revue Canadienne, IV. 865.) He was, however, of an old
+New England Puritan family. See the Hazen genealogy in
+Historic-Genealogical Register, XXXIII.
+
+The English lost above a thousand, or more than a third of their whole
+number, killed, wounded, and missing. [834] They carried off some of
+their wounded, but left others behind; and the greater part of these
+were murdered, scalped, and mangled by the Indians, all of whom were
+converts from the mission villages. English writers put the French loss
+at two thousand and upwards, which is no doubt a gross exaggeration.
+Lévis declares that the number did not exceed six or eight hundred; but
+afterwards gives a list which makes it eight hundred and thirty-three.
+
+[834] Return of Killed, Wounded, and Missing, signed J. Murray.
+
+Murray had left three or four hundred men to guard Quebec when the rest
+marched out; and adding them to those who had returned scathless from
+the fight, he now had about twenty-four hundred rank and file fit for
+duty. Yet even the troops that were rated as effective were in so bad a
+condition that the hyperbolical Sergeant Johnson calls them
+"half-starved, scorbutic skeletons." That worthy soldier, commonly a
+model of dutiful respect to those above him, this time so far forgets
+himself as to criticise his general for the "mad, enthusiastic zeal" by
+which he nearly lost the fruits of Wolfe's victory. In fact, the fate of
+Quebec trembled in the balance. "We were too few and weak to stand an
+assault," continues Johnson, "and we were almost in as deep a distress
+as we could be." At first there was some drunkenness and some plundering
+of private houses; but Murray stopped the one by staving the rum-barrels
+of the sutlers, and the other by hanging the chief offender. Within
+three days order, subordination, hope, and almost confidence were
+completely restored. Not a man was idle. The troops left their barracks
+and lay in tents close to their respective alarm posts. On the open
+space by St. Louis Gate a crowd of convalescents were busy in fillings
+and-bags to strengthen the defences, while the sick and wounded in the
+hospitals made wadding for the cannon. The ramparts were faced with
+fascines, of which a large stock had been provided in the autumn;
+chevaux-de-frise were planted in exposed places; an outwork was built to
+protect St. Louis Gate; embrasures were cut along the whole length of
+the walls; and the French cannon captured when the town was taken were
+planted against their late owners. Every man was tasked to the utmost of
+his strength; and the garrison, gaunt, worn, besmirched with mud, looked
+less like soldiers than like overworked laborers.
+
+The conduct of the officers troubled the spirit of Sergeant Johnson. It
+shocked his sense of the fitness of things to see them sharing the hard
+work of the private men, and he thus gives utterance to his feelings:
+"None but those who were present on the spot can imagine the grief of
+heart the soldiers felt to see their officers yoked in the harness,
+dragging up cannon from the Lower Town; to see gentlemen, who were set
+over them by His Majesty to command and keep them to their duty, working
+at the batteries with the barrow, pickaxe, and spade." The effect,
+however, was admirable. The spirit of the men rose to the crisis.
+Murray, no less than his officers, had all their confidence; for if he
+had fallen into a fatal error, he atoned for it now by unconquerable
+resolution and exhaustless fertility of resource. Deserters said that
+Lévis would assault the town; and the soldiers replied: "Let him come
+on; he will catch a Tartar."
+
+Lévis and his army were no less busy in digging trenches along the stony
+back of the Buttes-à-Neveu. Every day the English fire grew hotter; till
+at last nearly a hundred and fifty cannon vomited iron upon them from
+the walls of Quebec, and May was well advanced before they could plant a
+single gun to reply. Their vessels had landed artillery at the Anse du
+Foulon; but their best hope lay in the succors they daily expected from
+the river below. In the autumn Lévis, with a view to his intended
+enterprise, had sent a request to Versailles that a ship laden with
+munitions and heavy siege-guns should be sent from France in time to
+meet him at Quebec in April; while he looked also for another ship,
+which had wintered at Gaspé, and which therefore might reach him as soon
+as navigation opened. The arrival of these vessels would have made the
+position of the English doubly critical; and, on the other hand, should
+an English squadron appear first, Lévis would be forced to raise the
+siege. Thus each side watched the river with an anxiety that grew
+constantly more intense; and the English presently descried signals
+along the shore which seemed to say that French ships were moving up the
+St. Lawrence. Meantime, while doing their best to compass each other's
+destruction, neither side forgot the courtesies of war. Lévis heard that
+Murray liked spruce-beer for his table, and sent him a flag of truce
+with a quantity of spruce-boughs and a message of compliment; Murray
+responded with a Cheshire cheese, and Lévis rejoined with a present of
+partridges.
+
+Bad and scanty fare, excessive toil, and broken sleep were telling
+ominously on the strength of the garrison when, on the ninth of May,
+Murray, as he sat pondering over the fire at his quarters in St. Louis
+Street, was interrupted by an officer who came to tell him that there
+was a ship-of-war in the Basin beating up towards the town. Murray
+started from his revery, and directed that British colors should be
+raised immediately on Cape Diamond. [835] The halyards being out of
+order, a sailor climbed the staff and drew up the flag to its place. The
+news had spread; men and officers, divided between hope and fear,
+crowded to the rampart by the Château, where Durham Terrace now
+overlooks the St. Lawrence, and every eye was strained on the
+approaching ship, eager to see whether she would show the red flag of
+England or the white one of France. Slowly her colors rose to the
+mast-head and unfurled to the wind the red cross of St. George. It was
+the British frigate "Lowestoffe." She anchored before the Lower Town,
+and saluted the garrison with twenty-one guns. "The gladness of the
+troops," says Knox, "is not to be expressed. Both officers and soldiers
+mounted the parapet in the face of the enemy and huzzaed with their hats
+in the air for almost an hour. The garrison, the enemy's camp, the bay,
+and circumjacent country resounded with our shouts and the thunder of
+our artillery; for the gunners were so elated that they did nothing but
+load and fire for a considerable time. In short, the general
+satisfaction is not to be conceived, except by a person who had suffered
+the extremities of a siege, and been destined, with his brave friends
+and countrymen, to the scalping-knives of a faithless conqueror and his
+barbarious allies." The "Lowestoffe" brought news that a British
+squadron was at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and would reach Quebec in
+a few days.
+
+[835] Thompson in Revue Canadienne, IV. 866.
+
+Lévis, in ignorance of this, still clung to the hope that French ships
+would arrive strong enough to overpower the unwelcome stranger. His
+guns, being at last in position, presently opened fire upon a wall that
+was not built to bear the brunt of heavy shot; but an artillery better
+and more numerous than his own almost silenced them, and his gunners
+were harassed by repeated sallies. The besiegers had now no real chance
+of success unless they could carry the place by storm, to which end they
+had provided abundant scaling-ladders as well as petards to burst in the
+gates. They made, however, no attempt to use them. A week passed, when,
+on the evening of the fifteenth, the ship of the line "Vanguard" and the
+frigate "Diana" sailed into the harbor; and on the next morning the
+"Diana" and the "Lowestoffe" passed the town to attack the French
+vessels in the river above. These were six in all,--two frigates, two
+smaller armed ships, and two schooners; the whole under command of the
+gallant Vauquelin. He did not belie his reputation; fought his ship with
+persistent bravery till his ammunition was spent, refused even then to
+strike his flag, and being made prisoner, was treated by his captors
+with distinguished honor. The other vessels made little or no
+resistance. One of them threw her guns overboard and escaped; the rest
+ran ashore and were burned.
+
+The destruction of his vessels was a death-blow to the hopes of Lévis,
+for they contained his stores of food and ammunition. He had passed the
+preceding night in great agitation; and when the cannonade on the river
+ceased, he hastened to raise the siege. In the evening deserters from
+his camp told Murray that the French were in full retreat; on which all
+the English batteries opened, firing at random through the darkness, and
+sending cannon-balls en ricochet, bowling by scores together, over the
+Plains of Abraham on the heels of the retiring enemy. Murray marched out
+at dawn of day to fall upon their rear; but, with a hundred and fifty
+cannon bellowing behind them, they had made such speed that, though he
+pushed over the marsh to Old Lorette, he could not overtake them; they
+had already crossed the river of Cap-Rouge. Why, with numbers still
+superior, they went off in such haste, it is hard to say. They left
+behind them thirty-four cannon and six mortars, with petards,
+scaling-ladders, tents, ammunition, baggage, intrenching tools, many of
+their muskets, and all their sick and wounded.
+
+The effort to recover Quebec did great honor to the enterprise of the
+French; but it availed them nothing, served only to waste resources that
+seemed already at the lowest ebb, and gave fresh opportunity of plunder
+to Cadet and his crew, who failed not to make use of it.
+
+After the battle of Ste.-Foy Murray sent the frigate "Racehorse" to
+Halifax with news of his defeat, and from Halifax it was sent to
+England. The British public were taken by surprise. "Who the deuce was
+thinking of Quebec?" says Horace Walpole. "America was like a book one
+has read and done with; but here we are on a sudden reading our book
+backwards." Ten days passed, and then came word that the siege was
+raised and that the French were gone; upon which Walpole wrote to
+General Conway: "Well, Quebec is come to life again. Last night I went
+to see the Holdernesses. I met my Lady in a triumphal car, drawn by a
+Manx horse, thirteen little fingers high, with Lady Emily. Mr. Milbank
+was walking by himself in ovation after the car, and they were going to
+see the bonfire at the alehouse at the corner. The whole procession
+returned with me; and from the Countess's dressing-room we saw a battery
+fired before the house, the mob crying, 'God bless the good news!' These
+are all the particulars I know of the siege. My Lord would have showed
+me the journal; but we amused ourselves much better in going to eat
+peaches from the new Dutch stoves [hot-houses]."
+
+Note.--On the battle of Ste.-Foy and the subsequent siege, Lévis, Guerre
+du Canada. Relation de la seconde Bataille de Québec et du Siége de
+cette Ville (there are several copies of this paper, with different
+titles and some variation). Murray to Amherst, 30 April, 1760. Murray,
+Journal kept at Quebec from Sept. 18, 1759, to May 17, 1760 (Public
+Record Office, America and West Indies, XCIX.). Murray to Pitt, 25 May,
+1760. Letter from an Officer of the Royal Americans at Quebec, 24 May,
+1760 (in London Magazine and several periodical papers of the time).
+Fraser, Journal (Quebec Hist. Soc.); Johnstone, Campaign of 1760
+(Ibid.). Relation de ce qui s'est passé au Siége de Québec, par une
+Réligieuse de l'Hôpital Général (Ibid.). Memoirs of the Siege of Quebec,
+by Sergeant John Johnson. Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. Letters of
+Lévis, Bourlamaque, and Vaudreuil, May, June, 1760. Several letters from
+officers at Quebec in provincial newspapers. Knox, II. 292-322. Plan of 
+the Battle and Situation of the British and French on the Heights of
+Abraham, the 28th of April, 1760,--an admirable plan, attached to the
+great plan of operations at Quebec before mentioned, and necessary to an
+understanding of the position and movements of the two armies (British
+Museum, King's Maps).
+
+The narratives of Mante, Entick, Wynne, Smith, and other secondary
+writers give no additional light. On the force engaged on each side, see
+Appendix K.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+1760.
+
+FALL OF CANADA.
+
+Desperate Situation • Efforts of Vaudreuil and Lévis • Plans of Amherst
+• A Triple Attack • Advance of Murray • Advance of Haviland • Advance of
+Amherst • Capitulation of Montreal • Protest of Lévis • Injustice of
+Louis XV. • Joy in the British Colonies • Character of the War.
+
+The retreat of Lévis left Canada little hope but in a speedy peace. This
+hope was strong, for a belief widely prevailed that, even if the colony
+should be subdued, it would be restored to France by treaty. Its
+available force did not exceed eight or ten thousand men, as most of the
+Canadians below the district of Three Rivers had sworn allegiance to
+King George; and though many of them had disregarded the oath to join
+the standard of Lévis, they could venture to do so no longer. The French
+had lost the best of their artillery, their gunpowder was falling short,
+their provisions would barely carry them to harvest time, and no more
+was to be hoped for, since a convoy of ships which had sailed from
+France at the end of winter, laden with supplies of all kinds, had been
+captured by the English. The blockade of the St. Lawrence was complete.
+The Western Indians would not fight, and even those of the mission
+villages were wavering and insolent.
+
+Yet Vaudreuil and Lévis exerted themselves for defence with an energy
+that does honor to them both. "Far from showing the least timidity,"
+says the ever-modest Governor, "I have taken positions such as may hide
+our weakness from the enemy." [836] He stationed Rochbeaucourt with
+three hundred men at Pointe-aux-Trembles; Repentigny with two hundred at
+Jacques-Cartier; and Dumas with twelve hundred at Deschambault to watch
+the St. Lawrence and, if possible, prevent Murray from moving up the
+river. Bougainville was stationed at Isle-aux-Noix to bar the approach
+from Lake Champlain, and a force under La Corne was held ready to defend
+the rapids above Montreal, should the English attempt that dangerous
+passage. Prisoners taken by war parties near Crown Point gave
+exaggerated reports of hostile preparation, and doubled and trebled the
+forces that were mustering against Canada.
+
+[836] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 22 Juin, 1760.
+
+These forces were nevertheless considerable. Amherst had resolved to
+enter the colony by all its three gates at once, and, advancing from
+east, west, and south, unite at Montreal and crush it as in the jaws of
+a vice. Murray was to ascend the St. Lawrence from Quebec, while
+Brigadier Haviland forced an entrance by way of Lake Champlain, and
+Amherst himself led the main army down the St. Lawrence from Lake
+Ontario. This last route was long, circuitous, difficult, and full of
+danger from the rapids that obstructed the river. His choice of it for
+his chief line of operation, instead of the shorter and easier way of
+Lake Champlain, was meant, no doubt, to prevent the French army from
+escaping up the Lakes to Detroit and the other wilderness posts, where
+it might have protracted the war for an indefinite time; while the plan
+adopted, if successful, would make its capture certain. The plan was a
+critical one. Three armies advancing from three different points,
+hundreds of miles apart, by routes full of difficulty, and with no
+possibility of intercommunication, were to meet at the same place at the
+same time, or, failing to do so, run the risk of being destroyed in
+detail. If the French troops could be kept together, and if the small
+army of Murray or of Haviland should reach Montreal a few days before
+the co-operating forces appeared, it might be separately attacked and
+overpowered. In this lay the hope of Vaudreuil and Lévis. [837]
+
+[837] Lévis à Bourlamaque, Juillet, Août, 1760.
+
+After the siege of Quebec was raised, Murray had an effective force of
+about twenty-five hundred rank and file. [838] As the spring opened the
+invalids were encamped on the Island of Orleans, where fresh air, fresh
+provisions, and the change from the pestiferous town hospitals wrought
+such wonders on the scorbutic patients, that in a few weeks a
+considerable number of them were again fit for garrison duty, if not for
+the field. Thus it happened that on the second of July twenty-four
+hundred and fifty men and officers received orders to embark for
+Montreal; and on the fifteenth they set sail, in thirty-two vessels,
+with a number of boats and bateaux. [839] They were followed some time
+after by Lord Rollo, with thirteen hundred additional men just arrived
+from Louisbourg, the King having ordered that fortress to be abandoned
+and dismantled. They advanced slowly, landing from time to time,
+skirmishing with detachments of the enemy who followed them along the
+shore, or more frequently trading with the farmers who brought them
+vegetables, poultry, eggs, and fresh meat. They passed the fortified
+hill of Jacques-Cartier, whence they were saluted with shot and shell,
+stopped at various parishes, disarmed the inhabitants, administered
+oaths of neutrality, which were taken without much apparent reluctance,
+and on the fourth of August came within sight of Three Rivers, then
+occupied by a body of troops expecting an attack. "But," says Knox, "a
+delay here would be absurd, as that wretched place must share the fate
+of Montreal. Our fleet sailed this morning. The French troops,
+apparently about two thousand, lined their different works, and were in
+general clothed as regulars, except a very few Canadians and about fifty
+naked Picts or savages, their bodies being painted of a reddish color
+and their faces of different colors, which I plainly discerned with my
+glass. Their light cavalry, who paraded along shore, seemed to be well
+appointed, clothed in blue, faced with scarlet; but their officers had
+white uniforms. In fine, their troops, batteries, fair-looking houses;
+their situation on the banks of a delightful river; our fleet sailing
+triumphantly before them, with our floating batteries drawn up in line
+of battle; the country on both sides interspersed with neat settlements,
+together with the verdure of the fields and trees and the clear,
+pleasant weather, afforded as agreeable a prospect as the most lively
+imagination can conceive."
+
+[838] Return of the Present State of His Majesty's Forces in Garrison at
+Quebec, 21 May, 1760.
+
+[839] Knox, II. 344, 348.
+
+This excellent lover of the picturesque was still more delighted as the
+fleet sailed among the islands of St. Peter. "I think nothing could
+equal the beauties of our navigation this morning: the meandering course
+of the narrow channel; the awfulness and solemnity of the dark forests
+with which these islands are covered; the fragrancy of the spontaneous
+fruits, shrubs, and flowers; the verdure of the water by the reflection
+of the neighboring woods; the wild chirping notes of the feathered
+inhabitants; the masts and sails of ships appearing as if among the
+trees, both ahead and astern: formed altogether an enchanting
+diversity."
+
+The evening recalled him from dreams to realities; for towards seven
+o'clock they reached the village of Sorel, where they found a large body
+of troops and militia intrenched along the strand. Bourlamaque was in
+command here with two or three thousand men, and Dumas, with another
+body, was on the northern shore. Both had orders to keep abreast of the
+fleet as it advanced; and thus French and English alike drew slowly
+towards Montreal, where lay the main French force under Lévis, ready to
+unite with Bourlamaque and Dumas, and fall upon Murray at the first
+opportunity. Montreal was now but a few leagues distant, and the
+situation was becoming delicate. Murray sent five rangers towards Lake
+Champlain to get news of Haviland, and took measures at the same time to
+cause the desertion of the Canadians, who formed the largest part of the
+opposing force. He sent a proclamation among the parishes, advising the
+inhabitants to remain peacefully at home, promising that those who did
+so should be safe in person and property, and threatening to burn every
+house from which the men of the family were absent. These were not idle
+words. A detachment sent for the purpose destroyed a settlement near
+Sorel, the owners of which were in arms under Bourlamaque. "I was under
+the cruel necessity of burning the greatest part of these poor unhappy
+people's houses," wrote Murray. "I pray God this example may suffice,
+for my nature revolts when this becomes a necessary part of my duty."
+[840] On the other hand, he treated with great kindness all who left the
+army and returned to their families. The effect was soon felt. The
+Canadians came in by scores and by hundreds to give up their arms and
+take the oath of neutrality, till, before the end of August, half
+Bourlamaque's force had disappeared. Murray encamped on Isle
+Ste.-Thérèse, just below Montreal, and watched and waited for Haviland
+and Amherst to appear. [841]
+
+[840] Murray to Pitt, 24 Aug. 1760.
+
+[841] Knox, II. 382, 384. Mante, 340.
+
+Vaudreuil on his part was not idle. He sent a counter-proclamation
+through the parishes as an antidote to that of Murray. "I have been
+compelled," he writes to the Minister, "to decree the pain of death to
+the Canadians who are so dastardly as to desert or give up their arms to
+the enemy, and to order that the houses of those who do not join our
+army shall be burned." [842] Execution was to be summary, without
+court-martial. [843] Yet desertion increased daily. The Canadians felt
+themselves doubly ruined, for it became known that the Court had refused
+to redeem the paper that formed the whole currency of the colony; and,
+in their desperation, they preferred to trust the tried clemency of the
+enemy rather than exasperate him by persisting in a vain defence.
+Vaudreuil writes in his usual strain: "I am taking the most just
+measures to unite our forces, and, if our situation permits, fight a
+battle, or several battles. It is to be feared that we shall go down
+before an enemy so numerous and strong; but, whatever may be the event,
+we will save the honor of the King's arms. I have the honor to repeat to
+you, Monseigneur, that if any resource were left me, whatever the
+progress the English might make, I would maintain myself in some part of
+the colony with my remaining troops, after having fought with the
+greatest obstinacy; but I am absolutely without the least remnant of the
+necessary means. In these unhappy circumstances I shall continue to use
+every manœuvre and device to keep the enemy in check; but if we succumb
+in the battles we shall fight, I shall apply myself to obtaining a
+capitulation which may avert the total ruin of a people who will remain
+forever French, and who could not survive their misfortunes but for the
+hope of being restored by the treaty of peace to the rule of His Most
+Christian Majesty. It is with this view that I shall remain in this
+town, the Chevalier de Lévis having represented to me that it would be
+an evil to the colonists past remedy if any accident should happen to
+me." Lévis was willing to go very far in soothing the susceptibilities
+of the Governor; but it may be suspected this time that he thought him
+more useful within four walls than in the open field.
+
+[842] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 29 Août, 1760.
+
+[843] Lévis à Bourlamaque, 25 Août, 1760.
+
+There seemed good hope of stopping the advance of Haviland. To this end
+Vaudreuil had stationed Bougainville at Isle-aux-Noix with seventeen
+hundred men, and Roquemaure at St. John, a few miles distant, with
+twelve or fifteen hundred more, besides all the Indians. [844] Haviland
+embarked at Crown Point with thirty-four hundred regulars, provincials,
+and Indians. [845] Four days brought him to Isle-aux-Noix; he landed,
+planted cannon in the swamp, and opened fire. Major Darby with the light
+infantry, and Rogers with the rangers, dragged three light pieces
+through the forest, and planted them on the river-bank in the rear of
+Bougainville's position, where lay the French naval force, consisting of
+three armed vessels and several gunboats. The cannon were turned upon
+the principal ship; a shot cut her cable, and a strong west wind drove
+her ashore into the hands of her enemies. The other vessels and gunboats
+made all sail for St. John, but stranded in a bend of the river, where
+the rangers, swimming out with their tomahawks, boarded and took one of
+them, and the rest soon surrendered. It was a fatal blow to
+Bougainville, whose communications with St. John were now cut off. In
+accordance with instructions from Vaudreuil, he abandoned the island on
+the night of the twenty-seventh of August, and, making his way with
+infinite difficulty through the dark forest, joined Roquemaure at St.
+John, twelve miles below. Haviland followed, the rangers leading the
+way. Bougainville and Roquemaure fell back, abandoned St. John and
+Chambly, and joined Bourlamaque on the banks of the St. Lawrence, where
+the united force at first outnumbered that of Haviland, though fast
+melted away by discouragement and desertion. Haviland opened
+communication with Murray, and they both looked daily for the arrival of
+Amherst, whose approach was rumored by prisoners and deserters. [846]
+
+[844] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 29 Août, 1760.
+
+[845] A List of the Forces employed in the Expedition against Canada,
+1760. Compare Mante, 340, Knox, II. 392, and Rogers, 188. Chevalier
+Johnstone, who was with Bougainville, says "about four thousand," which
+Vaudreuil multiplies to twelve thousand.
+
+[846] Rogers, Journals. Diary of a Sergeant in the Army of Haviland.
+Johnstone, Campaign of 1760. Bigot au Ministre, 29 Août, 1760.
+
+The army of Amherst had gathered at Oswego in July. On the tenth of
+August it was all afloat on Lake Ontario, to the number of ten thousand
+one hundred and forty-two men, besides about seven hundred Indians under
+Sir William Johnson. [847] Before the fifteenth the whole had reached La
+Présentation, otherwise called Oswegatchie or La Galette, the seat of
+Father Piquet's mission. Near by was a French armed brig, the "Ottawa,"
+with ten cannon and a hundred men, threatening destruction to Amherst's
+bateaux and whaleboats. Five gunboats attacked and captured her. Then
+the army advanced again, and were presently joined by two armed vessels
+of their own which had lingered behind, bewildered among the channels of
+the Thousand Islands.
+
+[847] A List of the Forces employed in the Expedition against Canada.
+Compare Mante, 301, and Knox, II. 403.
+
+Near the head of the rapids, a little below La Galette, stood Fort
+Lévis, built the year before on an islet in mid-channel. Amherst might
+have passed its batteries with slight loss, continuing his voyage
+without paying it the honor of a siege; and this was what the French
+commanders feared that he would do. "We shall be fortunate," Lévis wrote
+to Bourlamaque, "if the enemy amuse themselves with capturing it. My
+chief anxiety is lest Amherst should reach Montreal so soon that we may
+not have time to unite our forces to attack Haviland or Murray." If he
+had better known the English commander, Lévis would have seen that he
+was not the man to leave a post of the enemy in his rear under any
+circumstances; and Amherst had also another reason for wishing to get
+the garrison into his hands, for he expected to find among them the
+pilots whom he needed to guide his boats down the rapids. He therefore
+invested the fort, and, on the twenty-third, cannonaded it from his
+vessels, the mainland, and the neighboring islands. It was commanded by
+Pouchot, the late commandant of Niagara, made prisoner in the last
+campaign, and since exchanged. As the rocky islet had but little earth,
+the defences, though thick and strong, were chiefly of logs, which flew
+in splinters under the bombardment. The French, however, made a brave
+resistance. The firing lasted all day, was resumed in the morning, and
+continued two days more; when Pouchot, whose works were in ruins,
+surrendered himself and his garrison. On this, Johnson's Indians
+prepared to kill the prisoners; and, being compelled to desist, three
+fourths of them went home in a rage. [848]
+
+[848] On the capture of Fort Lévis, Amherst to Pitt, 26 Aug. 1760.
+Amherst to Monckton, same date. Pouchot, II. 264-282. Knox, II. 405-413.
+Mante, 303-306. All Canada in the Hands of the English (Boston, 1760).
+Journal of Colonel Nathaniel Woodhull.
+
+Now began the critical part of the expedition, the descent of the
+rapids. The Galops, the Rapide Plat, the Long Saut, the Côteau du Lac
+were passed in succession, with little loss, till they reached the
+Cedars, the Buisson, and the Cascades, where the reckless surges dashed
+and bounded in the sun, beautiful and terrible as young tigers at play.
+Boat after boat, borne on their foaming crests, rushed madly down the
+torrent. Forty-six were totally wrecked, eighteen were damaged, and
+eighty-four men were drowned. [849] La Corne was watching the rapids
+with a considerable body of Canadians; and it is difficult to see why
+this bold and enterprising chief allowed the army to descend undisturbed
+through passes so dangerous. At length the last rapid was left behind;
+and the flotilla, gliding in peace over the smooth breast of Lake St.
+Louis, landed at Isle Perrot, a few leagues from Montreal. In the
+morning, September sixth, the troops embarked again, landed unopposed at
+La Chine, nine miles from the city, marched on without delay, and
+encamped before its walls.
+
+[849] Amherst to Pitt, 8 Sept. 1760.
+
+The Montreal of that time was a long, narrow assemblage of wooden or
+stone houses, one or two stories high, above which rose the peaked
+towers of the Seminary, the spires of three churches, the walls of four
+convents, with the trees of their adjacent gardens, and, conspicuous at
+the lower end, a high mound of earth, crowned by a redoubt, where a few
+cannon were mounted. The whole was surrounded by a shallow moat and a
+bastioned stone wall, made for defence against Indians, and incapable of
+resisting cannon. [850]
+
+[850] An East View of Montreal, drawn on the Spot by Thomas Patten
+(King's Maps, British Museum), Plan of Montreal, 1759. A Description of
+Montreal, in several magazines of the time. The recent Canadian
+publication called Le Vieux Montréal, is exceedingly incorrect as to the
+numbers of the British troops and the position of their camps.
+
+On the morning after Amherst encamped above the place, Murray landed to
+encamp below it; and Vaudreuil, looking across the St. Lawrence, could
+see the tents of Haviland's little army on the southern shore.
+Bourlamaque, Bougainville, and Roquemaure, abandoned by all their
+militia, had crossed to Montreal with the few regulars that remained
+with them. The town was crowded with non-combatant refugees. Here, too,
+was nearly all the remaining force of Canada, consisting of twenty-two
+hundred troops of the line and some two hundred colony troops; for all
+the Canadians had by this time gone home. Many of the regulars,
+especially of the colony troops, had also deserted; and the rest were so
+broken in discipline that their officers were forced to use entreaties
+instead of commands. The three armies encamped around the city amounted
+to seventeen thousand men; [851] Amherst was bringing up his cannon from
+La Chine, and the town wall would have crumbled before them in an hour.
+
+[851] A List of the Forces employed in the Expedition against Canada.
+See Smith, History of Canada, I. Appendix xix. Vaudreuil writes to
+Charles Langlade, on the ninth, that the three armies amount to twenty
+thousand, and raises the number to thirty-two thousand in a letter to
+the Minister on the next day. Berniers says twenty thousand; Lévis, for
+obvious reasons, exaggerates the number to forty thousand.
+
+On the night when Amherst arrived, the Governor called a council of war.
+[852] It was resolved that since all the militia and many of the
+regulars had abandoned the army, and the Indian allies of France had
+gone over to the enemy, further resistance was impossible. Vaudreuil
+laid before the assembled officers a long paper that he had drawn up,
+containing fifty-five articles of capitulation to be proposed to the
+English; and these were unanimously approved. [853] In the morning
+Bougainville carried them to the tent of Amherst. He granted the greater
+part, modified some, and flatly refused others. That which the French
+officers thought more important than all the rest was the provision that
+the troops should march out with arms, cannon, and the honors of war; to
+which it was replied: "The whole garrison of Montreal and all other
+French troops in Canada must lay down their arms, and shall not serve
+during the present war." This demand was felt to be intolerable. The
+Governor sent Bougainville back to remonstrate; but Amherst was
+inflexible. Then Lévis tried to shake his resolution, and sent him an
+officer with the following note: "I send your Excellency M. de la Pause,
+Assistant Quartermaster-General of the Army, on the subject of the too
+rigorous article which you dictate to the troops by the capitulation, to
+which it would not be possible for us to subscribe." Amherst answered
+the envoy: "I am fully resolved, for the infamous part the troops of
+France have acted in exciting the savages to perpetrate the most horrid
+and unheard of barbarities in the whole progress of the war, and for
+other open treacheries and flagrant breaches of faith, to manifest to
+all the world by this capitulation my detestation of such practices;"
+and he dismissed La Pause with a short note, refusing to change the
+conditions.
+
+[852] Vaudreuil au Ministre, 10 Sept. 1760.
+
+[853] Procès-verbal de la Déliberation du Conseil de Guerre tenu à
+Montréal, 6 Sept. 1760.
+
+On the next morning, September eighth, Vaudreuil yielded, and signed the
+capitulation. By it Canada and all its dependencies passed to the
+British Crown. French officers, civil and military, with French troops
+and sailors, were to be sent to France in British ships. Free exercise
+of religion was assured to the people of the colony, and the religious
+communities were to retain their possessions, rights, and privileges.
+All persons who might wish to retire to France were allowed to do so,
+and the Canadians were to remain in full enjoyment of feudal and other
+property, including negro and Indian slaves. [854]
+
+[854] Articles of Capitulation, 8 Sept. 1760. Amherst to Pitt, same
+date.
+
+The greatest alarm had prevailed among the inhabitants lest they should
+suffer violence from the English Indians, and Vaudreuil had endeavored
+to provide that these dangerous enemies should be sent back at once to
+their villages. This was refused, with the remark: "There never have
+been any cruelties committed by the Indians of our army." Strict
+precautions were taken at the same time, not only against the few
+savages whom the firm conduct of Johnson at Fort Lévis had not driven
+away, but also against the late allies of the French, now become a peril
+to them. In consequence, not a man, woman, or child was hurt. Amherst,
+in general orders, expressed his confidence "that the troops will not
+disgrace themselves by the least appearance of inhumanity, or by any
+unsoldierlike behavior in seeking for plunder; and that as the Canadians
+are now become British subjects, they will feel the good effects of His
+Majesty's protection." They were in fact treated with a kindness that
+seemed to surprise them.
+
+Lévis was so incensed at the demand that the troops should lay down
+their arms and serve no longer during the war that, before the
+capitulation was signed, he made a formal protest [855] in his own name
+and that of the officers from France, and insisted that the negotiation
+should be broken off. "If," he added, "the Marquis de Vaudreuil, through
+political motives, thinks himself obliged to surrender the colony at
+once, we ask his permission to withdraw with the troops of the line to
+the Island of St. Helen, in order to uphold there, on our own behalf,
+the honor of the King's arms." The proposal was of course rejected, as
+Lévis knew that it would be, and he and his officers were ordered to
+conform to the capitulation. When Vaudreuil reached France, three months
+after, he had the mortification to receive from the Colonial Minister a
+letter containing these words: "Though His Majesty was perfectly aware
+of the state of Canada, nevertheless, after the assurances you had given
+to make the utmost efforts to sustain the honor of his arms, he did not
+expect to hear so soon of the surrender of Montreal and the whole
+colony. But, granting that capitulation was a necessity, his Majesty was
+not the less surprised and ill pleased at the conditions, so little
+honorable, to which you submitted, especially after the representations
+made you by the Chevalier de Lévis." [856] The brother of Vaudreuil
+complained to the Minister of the terms of this letter, and the Minister
+replied: "I see with regret, Monsieur, that you are pained by the letter
+I wrote your brother; but I could not help telling him what the King did
+me the honor to say to me; and it would have been unpleasant for him to
+hear it from anybody else." [857]
+
+[855] Protêt de M. de Lévis à M. de Vaudreuil contre la Clause dans les
+Articles de Capitulation qui exige que les Troupes mettront bas les
+Armes, avec l'Ordre de M. de Vaudreuil au Chevalier de Lévis de se
+conformer à la Capitulation proposée. Vaudreuil au Ministre de la
+Marine, 10 Sept. 1760. Lévis au Ministre de la Guerre, 27 Nov. 1760.
+
+[856] Le Ministre à Vaudreuil, 5 Déc. 1760.
+
+[857] Le Ministre au Vicomte de Vaudreuil, Frère du Gouverneur, 21 Déc.
+1760.
+
+It is true that Vaudreuil had in some measure drawn this reproach upon
+himself by his boastings about the battles he would fight; yet the royal
+displeasure was undeserved. The Governor had no choice but to give up
+the colony; for Amherst had him in his power, and knew that he could
+exact what terms he pleased. Further resistance could only have ended in
+surrender at the discretion of the victor, and the protest of Lévis was
+nothing but a device to save his own reputation and that of his brother
+officers from France. Vaudreuil had served the King and the colony in
+some respects with ability, always with an unflagging zeal; and he loved
+the land of his birth with a jealous devotion that goes far towards
+redeeming his miserable defects. The King himself, and not the servants
+whom he abandoned to their fate, was answerable for the loss of New
+France.
+
+Half the continent had changed hands at the scratch of a pen. Governor
+Bernard, of Massachusetts, proclaimed a day of thanksgiving for the
+great event, and the Boston newspapers recount how the occasion was
+celebrated with a parade of the cadets and other volunteer corps, a
+grand dinner in Faneuil Hall, music, bonfires, illuminations, firing of
+cannon, and, above all, by sermons in every church of the province; for
+the heart of early New England always found voice through her pulpits.
+Before me lies a bundle of these sermons, rescued from sixscore years of
+dust, scrawled on their title-pages with names of owners dead long ago,
+worm-eaten, dingy, stained with the damps of time, and uttering in
+quaint old letterpress the emotions of a buried and forgotten past.
+Triumph, gratulation, hope, breathe in every line, but no ill-will
+against a fallen enemy. Thomas Foxcroft, pastor of the "Old Church in
+Boston," preaches from the text, "The Lord hath done great things for
+us, whereof we are glad." "Long," he says, "had it been the common
+opinion, Delenda est Carthago, Canada must be conquered, or we could
+hope for no lasting quiet in these parts; and now, through the good hand
+of our God upon us, we see the happy day of its accomplishment. We
+behold His Majesty's victorious troops treading upon the high places of
+the enemy, their last fortress delivered up, and their whole country
+surrendered to the King of Britain in the person of his general, the
+intrepid, the serene, the successful Amherst."
+
+The loyal John Mellen, pastor of the Second Church in Lancaster,
+exclaims, boding nothing of the tempest to come: "Let us fear God and
+honor the King, and be peaceable subjects of an easy and happy
+government. And may the blessing of Heaven be ever upon those enemies of
+our country that have now submitted to the English Crown, and according
+to the oath they have taken lead quiet lives in all godliness and
+honesty." Then he ventures to predict that America, now thrown open to
+British colonists, will be peopled in a century and a half with sixty
+million souls: a prophecy likely to be more than fulfilled.
+
+"God has given us to sing this day the downfall of New France, the North
+American Babylon, New England's rival," cries Eli Forbes to his
+congregation of sober farmers and staid matrons at the rustic village of
+Brookfield. Like many of his flock, he had been to the war, having
+served two years as chaplain of Ruggles's Massachusetts regiment; and
+something of a martial spirit breathes through his discourse. He passes
+in review the events of each campaign down to their triumphant close.
+"Thus God was our salvation and our strength; yet he who directs the
+great events of war suffered not our joy to be uninterrupted, for we had
+to lament the fall of the valiant and good General Wolfe, whose death
+demands a tear from every British eye, a sigh from every Protestant
+heart. Is he dead? I recall myself. Such heroes are immortal; he lives
+on every loyal tongue; he lives in every grateful breast; and charity
+bids me give him a place among the princes of heaven." Nor does he
+forget the praises of Amherst, "the renowned general, worthy of that
+most honorable of all titles, the Christian hero; for he loves his
+enemies, and while he subdues them he makes them happy. He transplants
+British liberty to where till now it was unknown. He acts the General,
+the Briton, the Conqueror, and the Christian. What fair hopes arise from
+the peaceful and undisturbed enjoyment of this good land, and the
+blessing of our gracious God with it! Methinks I see towns enlarged,
+settlements increased, and this howling wilderness become a fruitful
+field which the Lord hath blessed; and, to complete the scene, I see
+churches rise and flourish in every Christian grace where has been the
+seat of Satan and Indian idolatry."
+
+Nathaniel Appleton, of Cambridge, hails the dawning of a new era. "Who
+can tell what great and glorious things God is about to bring forward in
+the world, and in this world of America in particular? Oh, may the time
+come when these deserts, which for ages unknown have been regions of
+darkness and habitations of cruelty, shall be illuminated with the light
+of the glorious Gospel, and when this part of the world, which till the
+later ages was utterly unknown, shall be the glory and joy of the whole
+earth!"
+
+On the American continent the war was ended, and the British colonists
+breathed for a space, as they drifted unwittingly towards a deadlier
+strife. They had learned hard and useful lessons. Their mutual
+jealousies and disputes, the quarrels of their governors and assemblies,
+the want of any general military organization, and the absence, in most
+of them, of military habits, joined to narrow views of their own
+interest, had unfitted them to the last degree for carrying on offensive
+war. Nor were the British troops sent for their support remarkable in
+the beginning for good discipline or efficient command. When hostilities
+broke out, the army of Great Britain was so small as to be hardly worth
+the name. A new one had to be created; and thus the inexperienced
+Shirley and the incompetent Loudon, with the futile Newcastle behind
+them, had, besides their own incapacity, the disadvantage of raw troops
+and half-formed officers; while against them stood an enemy who, though
+weak in numbers, was strong in a centralized military organization,
+skilful leaders armed with untrammelled and absolute authority,
+practised soldiers, and a population not only brave, but in good part
+inured to war.
+
+The nature of the country was another cause that helped to protract the
+contest. "Geography," says Von Moltke, "is three fourths of military
+science;" and never was the truth of his words more fully exemplified.
+Canada was fortified with vast outworks of defence in the savage
+forests, marshes, and mountains that encompassed her, where the
+thoroughfares were streams choked with fallen trees and obstructed by
+cataracts. Never was the problem of moving troops, encumbered with
+baggage and artillery, a more difficult one. The question was less how
+to fight the enemy than how to get at him. If a few practicable roads
+had crossed this broad tract of wilderness, the war would have been
+shortened and its character changed.
+
+From these and other reasons, the numerical superiority of the English
+was to some extent made unavailing. This superiority, though exaggerated
+by French writers, was nevertheless immense if estimated by the number
+of men called to arms; but only a part of these could be employed in
+offensive operations. The rest garrisoned forts and blockhouses and
+guarded the far reach of frontier from Nova Scotia to South Carolina,
+where a wily enemy, silent and secret as fate, choosing their own time
+and place of attack, and striking unawares at every unguarded spot,
+compelled thousands of men, scattered at countless points of defence, to
+keep unceasing watch against a few hundred savage marauders. Full half
+the levies of the colonies, and many of the regulars, were used in
+service of this kind.
+
+In actual encounters the advantage of numbers was often with the French,
+through the comparative ease with which they could concentrate their
+forces at a given point. Of the ten considerable sieges or battles of
+the war, five, besides the great bushfight in which the Indians defeated
+Braddock, were victories for France; and in four of these--Oswego, Fort
+William Henry, Montmorenci, and Ste.-Foy--the odds were greatly on her
+side.
+
+Yet in this the most picturesque and dramatic of American wars, there is
+nothing more noteworthy than the skill with which the French and
+Canadian leaders used their advantages; the indomitable spirit with
+which, slighted and abandoned as they were, they grappled with
+prodigious difficulties, and the courage with which they were seconded
+by regulars and militia alike. In spite of occasional lapses, the
+defence of Canada deserves a tribute of admiration.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+1758-1763.
+
+THE PEACE OF PARIS.
+
+Exodus of Canadian Leaders • Wreck of the "Auguste" • Trial of Bigot and
+his Confederates • Frederic of Prussia • His Triumphs • His Reverses •
+His Peril • His Fortitude • Death of George II. • Change of Policy •
+Choiseul • His Overtures of Peace • The Family Compact • Fall of Pitt •
+Death of the Czarina • Frederic saved • War with Spain • Capture of
+Havana • Negotiations • Terms of Peace • Shall Canada be restored? •
+Speech of Pitt • The Treaty signed • End of the Seven Years War.
+
+In accordance with the terms of the capitulation of Montreal, the French
+military officers, with such of the soldiers as could be kept together,
+as well as all the chief civil officers of the colony, sailed for France
+in vessels provided by the conquerors. They were voluntarily followed by
+the principal members of the Canadian noblesse, and by many of the
+merchants who had no mind to swear allegiance to King George. The
+peasants and poorer colonists remained at home to begin a new life under
+a new flag.
+
+Though this exodus of the natural leaders of Canada was in good part
+deferred till the next year, and though the number of persons to be
+immediately embarked was reduced by the desertion of many French
+soldiers who had married Canadian wives, yet the English authorities
+were sorely perplexed to find vessels enough for the motley crowd of
+passengers. When at last they were all on their way, a succession of
+furious autumnal storms fell upon them. The ship that carried Lévis
+barely escaped wreck, and that which bore Vaudreuil and his wife fared
+little better. [858] Worst of all was the fate of the "Auguste," on
+board of which was the bold but ruthless partisan, Saint-Luc de la
+Corne, his brother, his children, and a party of Canadian officers,
+together with ladies, merchants, and soldiers. A worthy ecclesiastical
+chronicler paints the unhappy vessel as a floating Babylon, and sees in
+her fate the stern judgment of Heaven. [859] It is true that New France
+ran riot in the last years of her existence; but before the "Auguste"
+was well out of the St. Lawrence she was so tossed and buffeted, so
+lashed with waves and pelted with rain, that the most alluring forms of
+sin must have lost their charm, and her inmates passed days rather of
+penance than transgression. There was a violent storm as the ship
+entered the Gulf; then a calm, during which she took fire in the cook's
+galley. The crew and passengers subdued the flames after desperate
+efforts; but their only food thenceforth was dry biscuit. Off the coast
+of Cape Breton another gale rose. They lost their reckoning and lay
+tossing blindly amid the tempest. The exhausted sailors took, in
+despair, to their hammocks, from which neither commands nor blows could
+rouse them, while amid shrieks, tears, prayers, and vows to Heaven, the
+"Auguste" drove towards the shore, struck, and rolled over on her side.
+La Corne with six others gained the beach; and towards night they saw
+the ship break asunder, and counted a hundred and fourteen corpses
+strewn along the sand. Aided by Indians and by English officers, La
+Corne made his way on snow-shoes up the St. John, and by a miracle of
+enduring hardihood reached Quebec before the end of winter. [860]
+
+[858] Lévis à Belleisle, 27 Nov. 1760.
+
+[859] Faillon, Vie de Mademoiselle Le Ber, 363-370.
+
+[860] Journal du Voyage de M. Saint-Luc de la Corne. This is his own
+narrative.
+
+The other ships weathered the November gales, and landed their
+passengers on the shores of France, where some of them found a dismal
+welcome, being seized and thrown into the Bastille. These were
+Vaudreuil, Bigot, Cadet, Péan, Bréard, Varin, Le Mercier, Penisseault,
+Maurin, Corpron, and others accused of the frauds and peculations that
+had helped to ruin Canada. In the next year they were all put on trial,
+whether as an act of pure justice or as a device to turn public
+indignation from the Government. In December, 1761, judges commissioned
+for the purpose began their sessions at the Châtelet, and a prodigious
+mass of evidence was laid before them. Cadet, with brazen effrontery, at
+first declared himself innocent, but ended with full and unblushing
+confession. Bigot denied everything till silenced point by point with
+papers bearing his own signature. The prisoners defended themselves by
+accusing each other. Bigot and Vaudreuil brought mutual charges, while
+all agreed in denouncing Cadet. Vaudreuil, as before mentioned, was
+acquitted. Bigot was banished from France for life, his property was
+confiscated, and he was condemned to pay fifteen hundred thousand francs
+by way of restitution. Cadet was banished for nine years from Paris and
+required to refund six millions; while others were sentenced in sums
+varying from thirty thousand to eight hundred thousand francs, and were
+ordered to be held in prison till the money was paid. Of twenty-one
+persons brought to trial ten were condemned, six were acquitted, three
+received an admonition, and two were dismissed for want of evidence.
+Thirty-four failed to appear, of whom seven were sentenced in default,
+and judgment was reserved in the case of the rest. [861] Even those who
+escaped from justice profited little by their gains, for unless they had
+turned them betimes into land or other substantial values, they lost
+them in a discredited paper currency and dishonored bills of exchange.
+
+[861] Jugement rendu souverainement et en dernier Ressort dans l'Affaire
+du Canada. Papers at the Châtelet of Paris, cited by Dussieux.
+
+While on the American continent the last scenes of the war were drawing
+to their close, the contest raged in Europe with unabated violence.
+England was in the full career of success; but her great ally, Frederic
+of Prussia, seemed tottering to his ruin. In the summer of 1758 his
+glory was at its height. French, Austrians, and Russians had all fled
+before him. But the autumn brought reverses; and the Austrian general,
+Daun, at the head of an overwhelming force, gained over him a partial
+victory, which his masterly strategy robbed of its fruits. It was but a
+momentary respite. His kingdom was exhausted by its own triumphs. His
+best generals were dead, his best soldiers killed or disabled, his
+resources almost spent, the very chandeliers of his palace melted into
+coin; and all Europe was in arms against him. The disciplined valor of
+the Prussian troops and the supreme leadership of their undespairing
+King had thus far held the invading hosts at bay; but now the end seemed
+near. Frederic could not be everywhere at once; and while he stopped one
+leak the torrent poured in at another. The Russians advanced again,
+defeated General Wedell, whom he sent against them, and made a junction
+with the Austrians. In August, 1759, he attacked their united force at
+Kunersdorf, broke their left wing to pieces, took a hundred and eighty
+cannon, forced their centre to give ground, and after hours of furious
+fighting was overwhelmed at last. In vain he tried to stop the rout. The
+bullets killed two horses under him, tore his clothes, and crushed a
+gold snuff-box in his waistcoat pocket. "Is there no b---- of a shot
+that can hit me, then?" he cried in his bitterness, as his aides-de-camp
+forced him from the field. For a few days he despaired; then rallied to
+his forlorn task, and with smiles on his lip and anguish at his heart
+watched, manœuvred, and fought with cool and stubborn desperation. To
+his friend D'Argens he wrote soon after his defeat: "Death is sweet in
+comparison to such a life as mine. Have pity on me and it; believe that
+I still keep to myself a great many evil things, not wishing to afflict
+or disgust anybody with them, and that I would not counsel you to fly
+these unlucky countries if I had any ray of hope. Adieu, mon cher!" It
+was well for him and for Prussia that he had strong allies in the
+dissensions and delays of his enemies. But his cup was not yet full.
+Dresden was taken from him, eight of his remaining generals and twelve
+thousand men were defeated and captured at Maxen, and "this infernal
+campaign," as he calls it, closed in thick darkness.
+
+"I wrap myself in my stoicism as best I can," he writes to Voltaire. "If
+you saw me you would hardly know me: I am old, broken, gray-headed,
+wrinkled. If this goes on there will be nothing left of me but the mania
+of making verses and an inviolable attachment to my duties and to the
+few virtuous men I know. But you will not get a peace signed by my hand
+except on conditions honorable to my nation. Your people, blown up with
+conceit and folly, may depend on this."
+
+The same stubborn conflict with overmastering odds, the same intrepid
+resolution, the same subtle strategy, the same skill in eluding the blow
+and lightning-like quickness in retorting it, marked Frederic's campaign
+of 1760. At Liegnitz three armies, each equal to his own, closed round
+him, and he put them all to flight. While he was fighting in Silesia,
+the Allies marched upon Berlin, took it, and held it three days, but
+withdrew on his approach. For him there was no peace. "Why weary you
+with the details of my labors and my sorrows?" he wrote again to his
+faithful D'Argens. "My spirits have forsaken me; all gayety is buried
+with the loved noble ones to whom my heart was bound." He had lost his
+mother and his devoted sister Wilhelmina. "You as a follower of Epicurus
+put a value upon life; as for me, I regard death from the Stoic point of
+view. I have told you, and I repeat it, never shall my hand sign a
+humiliating peace. Finish this campaign I will, resolved to dare all, to
+succeed, or find a glorious end." Then came the victory of Torgau, the
+last and one of the most desperate of his battles: a success dearly
+bought, and bringing neither rest nor safety. Once more he wrote to
+D'Argens: "Adieu, dear Marquis; write to me sometimes. Don't forget a
+poor devil who curses his fatal existence ten times a day." "I live like
+a military monk. Endless business, and a little consolation from my
+books. I don't know if I shall outlive this war, but if I do I am firmly
+resolved to pass the rest of my life in solitude in the bosom of
+philosophy and friendship. Your nation, you see, is blinder than you
+thought. These fools will lose their Canada and Pondicherry to please
+the Queen of Hungary and the Czarina."
+
+The campaign of 1761 was mainly defensive on the part of Frederic. In
+the exhaustion of his resources he could see no means of continuing the
+struggle. "It is only Fortune," says the royal sceptic, "that can
+extricate me from the situation I am in. I escape out of it by looking
+at the universe on the great scale like an observer from some distant
+planet. All then seems to be so infinitely small that I could almost
+pity my enemies for giving themselves so much trouble about so very
+little. I read a great deal, I devour my books. But for them I think
+hypochondria would have had me in Bedlam before now. In fine, dear
+Marquis, we live in troublous times and desperate situations. I have all
+the properties of a stage hero; always in danger, always on the point of
+perishing." [862] And in another mood: "I begin to feel that, as the
+Italians say, revenge is a pleasure for the gods. My philosophy is worn
+out by suffering. I am no saint, and I will own that I should die
+content if only I could first inflict a part of the misery that I
+endure."
+
+[862] The above extracts are as translated by Carlyle in his History of
+Frederick II. of Prussia.
+
+While Frederic was fighting for life and crown, an event took place in
+England that was to have great influence on the war. Walpole recounts it
+thus, writing to George Montagu on the twenty-fifth of October, 1760:
+"My man Harry tells me all the amusing news. He first told me of the
+late Prince of Wales's death, and to-day of the King's; so I must tell
+you all I know of departed majesty. He went to bed well last night, rose
+at six this morning as usual, looked, I suppose, if all his money was in
+his purse, and called for his chocolate. A little after seven he went
+into the closet; the German valet-de-chambre heard a noise, listened,
+heard something like a groan, ran in, and found the hero of Oudenarde
+and Dettingen on the floor with a gash on his right temple by falling
+against the corner of a bureau. He tried to speak, could not, and
+expired. The great ventricle of the heart had burst. What an enviable
+death!"
+
+The old King was succeeded by his grandson, George III., a mirror of
+domestic virtues, conscientious, obstinate, narrow. His accession
+produced political changes that had been preparing for some time. His
+grandfather was German at heart, loved his Continental kingdom of
+Hanover, and was eager for all measures that looked to its defence and
+preservation. Pitt, too, had of late vigorously supported the
+Continental war, saying that he would conquer America in Germany. Thus
+with different views the King and the Minister had concurred in the same
+measures. But George III. was English by birth, language, and
+inclination. His ruling passion was the establishment and increase of
+his own authority. He disliked Pitt, the representative of the people.
+He was at heart averse to a war, the continuance of which would make the
+Great Commoner necessary, and therefore powerful, and he wished for a
+peace that would give free scope to his schemes for strengthening the
+prerogative. He was not alone in his pacific inclinations. The enemies
+of the haughty Minister, who had ridden rough-shod over men far above
+him in rank, were tired of his ascendency, and saw no hope of ending it
+but by ending the war. Thus a peace party grew up, and the young King
+became its real, though not at first its declared, supporter.
+
+The Tory party, long buried, showed signs of resurrection. There were
+those among its members who, even in a king of the hated line of
+Hanover, could recognize and admire the same spirit of arbitrary
+domination that had marked their fallen idols, the Stuarts; and they now
+joined hands with the discontented Whigs in opposition to Pitt. The
+horrors of war, the blessings of peace, the weight of taxation, the
+growth of the national debt, were the rallying cries of the new party;
+but the mainspring of their zeal was hostility to the great Minister.
+Even his own colleagues chafed under his spirit of mastery; the chiefs
+of the Opposition longed to inherit his power; and the King had begun to
+hate him as a lion in his path. Pitt held to his purpose regardless of
+the gathering storm. That purpose, as proclaimed by his adherents, was
+to secure a solid and lasting peace, which meant the reduction of France
+to so low an estate that she could no more be a danger to her rival. In
+this he had the sympathy of the great body of the nation.
+
+Early in 1761 the King, a fanatic for prerogative, set his enginery in
+motion. The elections for the new Parliament were manipulated in his
+interest. If he disliked Pitt as the representative of the popular will,
+he also disliked his colleague, the shuffling and uncertain Newcastle,
+as the representative of a too powerful nobility. Elements hostile to
+both were introduced into the Cabinet and the great offices. The King's
+favorite, the Earl of Bute, supplanted Holdernesse as Secretary of State
+for the Northern Department; Charles Townshend, an opponent of Pitt, was
+made Secretary of War; Legge, Chancellor of the Exchequer, was replaced
+by Viscount Barrington, who was sure for the King; while a place in the
+Cabinet was also given to the Duke of Bedford, one of the few men who
+dared face the formidable Minister. It was the policy of the King and
+his following to abandon Prussia, hitherto supported by British
+subsidies, make friends with Austria and Russia at her expense, and
+conclude a separate peace with France.
+
+France was in sore need of peace. The infatuation that had turned her
+from her own true interest to serve the passions of Maria Theresa and
+the Czarina Elizabeth had brought military humiliation and financial
+ruin. Abbé de Bernis, Minister of Foreign Affairs, had lost the favor of
+Madame de Pompadour, and had been supplanted by the Duc de Choiseul. The
+new Minister had gained his place by pleasing the favorite; but he kept
+it through his own ability and the necessities of the time. The
+Englishman Stanley, whom Pitt sent to negotiate with him, drew this
+sketch of his character: "Though he may have his superiors, not only in
+experience of business, but in depth and refinement as a statesman, he
+is a person of as bold and daring a spirit as any man whatever in our
+country or in his own. Madame Pompadour has ever been looked upon by all
+preceding courtiers and ministers as their tutelary deity, under whose
+auspices only they could exist, and who was as much out of their reach
+as if she were of a superior class of beings; but this Minister is so
+far from being in subordination to her influence that he seized the
+first opportunity of depriving her not of an equality, but of any share
+of power, reducing her to the necessity of applying to him even for
+those favors that she wants for herself and her dependents. He has
+effected this great change, which every other man would have thought
+impossible, in the interior of the Court, not by plausibility, flattery,
+and address, but with a high hand, with frequent railleries and sarcasms
+which would have ruined any other, and, in short, by a clear superiority
+of spirit and resolution." [863]
+
+[863] Stanley to Pitt, 6 Aug. 1761, in Grenville Correspondence, I. 367,
+note.
+
+Choiseul was vivacious, brilliant, keen, penetrating; believing nothing,
+fearing nothing; an easy moralist, an uncertain ally, a hater of
+priests; light-minded, inconstant; yet a kind of patriot, eager to serve
+France and retrieve her fortunes.
+
+He flattered himself with no illusions. "Since we do not know how to
+make war," he said, "we must make peace;" [864] and he proposed a
+congress of all the belligerent Powers at Augsburg. At the same time,
+since the war in Germany was distinct from the maritime and colonial war
+of France and England, he proposed a separate negotiation with the
+British Court in order to settle the questions between them as a
+preliminary to the general pacification. Pitt consented, and Stanley
+went as envoy to Versailles; while M. de Bussy came as envoy to London
+and, in behalf of Choiseul, offered terms of peace, the first of which
+was the entire abandonment of Canada to England. [865] But the offers
+were accompanied by the demand that Spain, which had complaints of its
+own against England, should be admitted as a party to the negotiation,
+and even hold in some measure the attitude of a mediator. Pitt spurned
+the idea with fierce contempt. "Time enough to treat of all that, sir,
+when the Tower of London is taken sword in hand." [866] He bore his part
+with the ability that never failed him, and with a supreme arrogance
+that rose to a climax in his demand that the fortress of Dunkirk should
+be demolished, not because it was any longer dangerous to England, but
+because the nation would regard its destruction "as an eternal monument
+of the yoke imposed on France." [867]
+
+[864] Flassan, Diplomatie Française, V. 376 (Paris, 1809).
+
+[865] See the proposals in Entick, V. 161.
+
+[866] Beatson, Military Memoirs, II. 434. The Count de Fuentes to the
+Earl of Egremont, 25 Dec. 1761, in Entick, V. 264.
+
+[867] On this negotiation, see Mémoire historique sur la Négociation de
+la France et de l'Angleterre (Paris, 1761), a French Government
+publication containing papers on both sides. The British Ministry also
+published such documents as they saw fit, under the title of Papers
+relating to the Rupture with Spain. Compare Adolphus, George III., I.
+31-39.
+
+Choiseul replied with counter-propositions less humiliating to his
+nation. When the question of accepting or rejecting them came before the
+Ministry, the views of Pitt prevailed by a majority of one, and, to the
+disappointment of Bute and the King, the conferences were broken off.
+Choiseul, launched again on the billows of a disastrous war, had seen
+and provided against the event. Ferdinand VI. of Spain had died, and
+Carlos III. had succeeded to his throne. Here, as in England, change of
+kings brought change of policy. While negotiating vainly with Pitt, the
+French Minister had negotiated secretly and successfully with Carlos;
+and the result was the treaty known as the Family Compact, having for
+its object the union of the various members of the House of Bourbon in
+common resistance to the growing power of England. It provided that in
+any future war the Kings of France and Spain should act as one towards
+foreign Powers, insomuch that the enemy of either should be the enemy of
+both; and the Bourbon princes of Italy were invited to join in the
+covenant. [868] What was more to the present purpose, a special
+agreement was concluded on the same day, by which Spain bound herself to
+declare war against England unless that Power should make peace with
+France before the first of May, 1762. For the safety of her colonies and
+her trade Spain felt it her interest to join her sister nation in
+putting a check on the vast expansion of British maritime power. She
+could bring a hundred ships of war to aid the dilapidated navy of
+France, and the wealth of the Indies to aid her ruined treasury.
+
+[868] Flassan, Diplomatie Française, V. 317 (Paris, 1809).
+
+Pitt divined the secret treaty, and soon found evidence of it. He
+resolved to demand at once full explanation from Spain; and, failing to
+receive a satisfactory reply, attack her at home and abroad before she
+was prepared. On the second of October he laid his plan before a Cabinet
+Council held at a house in St. James Street. There were present the Earl
+of Bute, the Duke of Newcastle, Earl Granville, Earl Temple, and others
+of the Ministry. Pitt urged his views with great warmth. "This," he
+exclaimed, "is the time for humbling the whole House of Bourbon!" [869]
+His brother-in-law, Temple, supported him. Newcastle kept silent. Bute
+denounced the proposal, and the rest were of his mind. "If these views
+are to be followed," said Pitt, "this is the last time I can sit at this
+board. I was called to the administration of affairs by the voice of the
+people; to them I have always considered myself as accountable for my
+conduct; and therefore cannot remain in a situation which makes me
+responsible for measures I am no longer allowed to guide." Nothing could
+be more offensive to George III. and his adherents.
+
+[869] Beatson, II. 438.
+
+The veteran Carteret, Earl Granville, replied angrily: "I find the
+gentleman is determined to leave us; nor can I say I am sorry for it,
+since otherwise he would certainly have compelled us to leave him. But
+if he is resolved to assume the office of exclusively advising His
+Majesty and directing the operations of the war, to what purpose are we
+called to this council? When he talks of being responsible to the
+people, he talks the language of the House of Commons, and forgets that
+at this board he is responsible only to the King. However, though he may
+possibly have convinced himself of his infallibility, still it remains
+that we should be equally convinced before we can resign our
+understandings to his direction, or join with him in the measure he
+proposes." [870]
+
+[870] Annual Register, 1761, p. 44. Adolphus, George III., I. 40.
+Thackeray, Life of Chatham, I. 592.
+
+Pitt resigned, and his colleagues rejoiced. [871] Power fell to Bute and
+the Tories; and great was the fall. The mass of the nation was with the
+defeated Minister. On Lord Mayor's Day Bute and Barrington were passing
+St. Paul's in a coach, which the crowd mistook for that of Pitt, and
+cheered lustily; till one man, looking in at the window, shouted to the
+rest: "This isn't Pitt; it's Bute, and be damned to him!" The cheers
+turned forthwith to hisses, mixed with cries of "No Bute!" "No Newcastle
+salmon!" "Pitt forever!" Handfuls of mud were showered against the
+coach, and Barrington's ruffles were besmirched with it. [872]
+
+[871] Walpole, George III., I. 80, and note by Sir Denis Le Marchant,
+80-82.
+
+[872] Nuthall to Lady Chatham, 12 Nov. 1761, in Chatham Correspondence,
+II. 166.
+
+The fall of Pitt was like the knell of doom to Frederic of Prussia. It
+meant abandonment by his only ally, and the loss of the subsidy which
+was his chief resource. The darkness around him grew darker yet, and not
+a hope seemed left; when as by miracle the clouds broke, and light
+streamed out of the blackness. The bitterest of his foes, the Czarina
+Elizabeth, she whom he had called infâme catin du Nord, died, and was
+succeeded by her nephew, Peter III. Here again, as in England and Spain,
+a new sovereign brought new measures. The young Czar, simple and
+enthusiastic, admired the King of Prussia, thought him the paragon of
+heroes, and proclaimed himself his friend. No sooner was he on the
+throne than Russia changed front. From the foe of Frederic she became
+his ally; and in the opening campaign of 1762 the army that was to have
+aided in crushing him was ranged on his side. It was a turn of fortune
+too sharp and sudden to endure. Ill-balanced and extreme in all things,
+Peter plunged into headlong reforms, exasperated the clergy and the
+army, and alienated his wife, Catherine, who had hoped to rule in his
+name, and who now saw herself supplanted by his mistress. Within six
+months he was deposed and strangled. Catherine, one of whose lovers had
+borne part in the murder, reigned in his stead, conspicuous by the
+unbridled disorders of her life, and by powers of mind that mark her as
+the ablest of female sovereigns. If she did not share her husband's
+enthusiasm for Frederic, neither did she share Elizabeth's hatred of
+him. He, on his part, taught by hard experience, conciliated instead of
+insulting her, and she let him alone.
+
+Peace with Russia brought peace with Sweden, and Austria with the
+Germanic Empire stood alone against him. France needed all her strength
+to hold her own against the mixed English and German force under
+Ferdinand of Brunswick in the Rhine countries. She made spasmodic
+efforts to seize upon Hanover, but the result was humiliating defeat.
+
+In England George III. pursued his policy of strengthening the
+prerogative, and, jealous of the Whig aristocracy, attacked it in the
+person of Newcastle. In vain the old politician had played false with
+Pitt, and trimmed to please his young master. He was worried into
+resigning his place in the Cabinet, and Bute, the obsequious agent of
+the royal will, succeeded him as First Lord of the Treasury. Into his
+weak and unwilling hands now fell the task of carrying on the war; for
+the nation, elated with triumphs and full of fight, still called on its
+rulers for fresh efforts and fresh victories. Pitt had proved a true
+prophet, and his enemies were put to shame; for the attitude of Spain
+forced Bute and his colleagues to the open rupture with her which the
+great Minister had vainly urged upon them; and a new and formidable war
+was now added to the old. [873] Their counsels were weak and
+half-hearted; but the armies and navies of England still felt the
+impulsion that the imperial hand of Pitt had given and the unconquerable
+spirit that he had roused.
+
+[873] Declaration of War against the King of Spain, 4 Jan. 1762.
+
+This spirit had borne them from victory to victory. In Asia they had
+driven the French from Pondicherry and all their Indian possessions; in
+Africa they had wrested from them Gorée and the Senegal country; in the
+West Indies they had taken Guadeloupe and Dominica; in the European seas
+they had captured ship after ship, routed and crippled the great fleet
+of Admiral Conflans, seized Belleisle, and defeated a bold attempt to
+invade Ireland. The navy of France was reduced to helplessness. Pitt,
+before his resignation, had planned a series of new operations,
+including an attack on Martinique, with other West Indian islands still
+left to France, and then in turn on the Spanish possessions of Havana,
+Panama, Manila, and the Philippines. Now, more than ever before, the war
+appeared in its true character. It was a contest for maritime and
+colonial ascendency; and England saw herself confronted by both her
+great rivals at once.
+
+Admiral Rodney sailed for Martinique, and Brigadier Monckton joined him
+with troops from America. Before the middle of February the whole island
+was in their hands; and Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent soon shared
+its fate. The Earl of Albemarle and Admiral Sir George Pococke sailed in
+early spring on a more important errand, landed in June near Havana with
+eleven thousand soldiers, and attacked Moro Castle, the key of the city.
+The pitiless sun of the tropic midsummer poured its fierce light and
+heat on the parched rocks where the men toiled at the trenches. Earth
+was so scarce that hardly enough could be had to keep the fascines in
+place. The siege works were little else than a mass of dry faggots; and
+when, after exhausting toil, the grand battery opened on the Spanish
+defences, it presently took fire, was consumed, and had to be made anew.
+Fresh water failed, and the troops died by scores from thirst; fevers
+set in, killed many, and disabled nearly half the army. The sea was
+strewn with floating corpses, and carrion-birds in clouds hovered over
+the populous graveyards and infected camps. Yet the siege went on: a
+formidable sally was repulsed; Moro Castle was carried by storm; till at
+length, two months and eight days after the troops landed, Havana fell
+into their hands. [874] At the same time Spain was attacked at the
+antipodes, and the loss of Manila and the Philippines gave her fresh
+cause to repent her rash compact with France. She was hardly more
+fortunate near home; for having sent an army to invade Portugal, which
+was in the interest of England, a small British force, under Brigadier
+Burgoyne, foiled it, and forced it to retire.
+
+[874] Journal of the Siege, by the Chief Engineer, in Beatson, II. 544.
+Mante, 398-465. Entick, V. 363-383.
+
+The tide of British success was checked for an instant in Newfoundland,
+where a French squadron attacked St. John's and took it, with its
+garrison of sixty men. The news reached Amherst at New York; his
+brother, Lieutenant-Colonel Amherst, was sent to the scene of the
+mishap. St. John's was retaken, and its late conquerers were made
+prisoners of war.
+
+The financial condition of France was desperate. Her people were crushed
+with taxation; her debt grew apace; and her yearly expenditure was
+nearly double her revenue. Choiseul felt the need of immediate peace;
+and George III. and Bute were hardly less eager for it, to avert the
+danger of Pitt's return to power and give free scope to their schemes
+for strengthening the prerogative. Therefore, in September, 1762,
+negotiations were resumed. The Duke of Bedford was sent to Paris to
+settle the preliminaries, and the Duc de Nivernois came to London on the
+same errand. The populace were still for war. Bedford was hissed as he
+passed through the streets of London, and a mob hooted at the puny
+figure of Nivernois as he landed at Dover.
+
+The great question was, Should Canada be restored? Should France still
+be permitted to keep a foothold on the North American continent? Ever
+since the capitulation of Montreal a swarm of pamphlets had discussed
+the momentous subject. Some maintained that the acquisition of Canada
+was not an original object of the war; that the colony was of little
+value and ought to be given back to its old masters; that Guadeloupe
+should be kept instead, the sugar trade of that island being worth far
+more than the Canadian fur trade; and, lastly, that the British
+colonists, if no longer held in check by France, would spread themselves
+over the continent, learn to supply all their own wants, grow
+independent, and become dangerous. Nor were these views confined to
+Englishmen. There were foreign observers who clearly saw that the
+adhesion of her colonies to Great Britain would be jeopardized by the
+extinction of French power in America. Choiseul warned Stanley that they
+"would not fail to shake off their dependence the moment Canada should
+be ceded;" while thirteen years before, the Swedish traveller Kalm
+declared that the presence of the French in America gave the best
+assurance to Great Britain that its own colonies would remain in due
+subjection. [875]
+
+[875] Kalm, Travels in North America, I. 207.
+
+The most noteworthy argument on the other side was that of Franklin,
+whose words find a strange commentary in the events of the next few
+years. He affirmed that the colonies were so jealous of each other that
+they would never unite against England. "If they could not agree to
+unite against the French and Indians, can it reasonably be supposed that
+there is any danger of their uniting against their own nation, which it
+is well known they all love much more than they love one another? I will
+venture to say union amongst them for such a purpose is not merely
+improbable, it is impossible;" that is, he prudently adds, without "the
+most grievous tyranny and oppression," like the bloody rule of "Alva in
+the Netherlands." [876]
+
+[876] Interest of Great Britain in regard to her Colonies (London,
+1760).
+
+Lord Bath argues for retaining Canada in A Letter addressed to Two Great
+Men on the Prospect of Peace (1759). He is answered by another pamphlet
+called Remarks on the Letter to Two Great Men (1760). The Gentleman's
+Magazine for 1759 has an ironical article styled Reasons for restoring
+Canada to the French; and in 1761 a pamphlet against the restitution
+appeared under the title, Importance of Canada considered in Two Letters
+to a Noble Lord. These are but a part of the writings on the question.
+
+If Pitt had been in office he would have demanded terms that must ruin
+past redemption the maritime and colonial power of France; but Bute was
+less exacting. In November the plenipotentiaries of England, France, and
+Spain agreed on preliminaries of peace, in which the following were the
+essential points. France ceded to Great Britain Canada and all her
+possessions on the North American continent east of the River
+Mississippi, except the city of New Orleans and a small adjacent
+district. She renounced her claims to Acadia, and gave up to the
+conqueror the Island of Cape Breton, with all other islands in the Gulf
+and River of St. Lawrence. Spain received back Havana, and paid for it
+by the cession of Florida, with all her other possessions east of the
+Mississippi. France, subject to certain restrictions, was left free to
+fish in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off a part of the coast of
+Newfoundland; and the two little islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon were
+given her as fishing stations on condition that she should not fortify
+or garrison them. In the West Indies, England restored the captured
+islands of Guadeloupe, Marigalante, Désirade, and Martinique, and France
+ceded Grenada and the Grenadines; while it was agreed that of the
+so-called neutral islands, St. Vincent, Dominica, and Tobago should
+belong to England, and St. Lucia to France. In Europe, each side
+promised to give no more help to its allies in the German war. France
+restored Minorca, and England restored Belleisle; France gave up such
+parts of Hanoverian territory as she had occupied, and evacuated certain
+fortresses belonging to Prussia, pledging herself at the same time to
+demolish, under the inspection of English engineers, her own maritime
+fortress of Dunkirk. In Africa France ceded Senegal, and received back
+the small Island of Gorée. In India she lost everything she had gained
+since the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle; recovered certain trading stations,
+but renounced the right of building forts or maintaining troops in
+Bengal.
+
+On the day when the preliminaries were signed, France made a secret
+agreement with Spain, by which she divested herself of the last shred of
+her possessions on the North American continent. As compensation for
+Florida, which her luckless ally had lost in her quarrel, she made over
+to the Spanish Crown the city of New Orleans, and under the name of
+Louisiana gave her the vast region spreading westward from the
+Mississippi towards the Pacific.
+
+On the ninth of December the question of approving the preliminaries
+came up before both Houses of Parliament. There was a long debate in the
+Commons. Pitt was not present, confined, it was said, by gout; till late
+in the day the House was startled by repeated cheers from the outside.
+The doors opened, and the fallen Minister entered, carried in the arms
+of his servants, and followed by an applauding crowd. His bearers set
+him down within the bar, and by the help of a crutch he made his way
+with difficulty to his seat. "There was a mixture of the very solemn and
+the theatric in this apparition," says Walpole, who was present. "The
+moment was so well timed, the importance of the man and his services,
+the languor of his emaciated countenance, and the study bestowed on his
+dress were circumstances that struck solemnity into a patriot mind, and
+did a little furnish ridicule to the hardened and insensible. He was
+dressed in black velvet, his legs and thighs wrapped in flannel, his
+feet covered with buskins of black cloth, and his hands with thick
+gloves." Not for the first time, he was utilizing his maladies for
+purposes of stage effect. He spoke for about three hours, sometimes
+standing, and sometimes seated; sometimes with a brief burst of power,
+more often with the accents of pain and exhaustion. He highly commended
+the retention of Canada, but denounced the leaving to France a share in
+the fisheries, as well as other advantages tending to a possible revival
+of her maritime power. But the Commons listened coldly, and by a great
+majority approved the preliminaries of peace.
+
+These preliminaries were embodied in the definitive treaty concluded at
+Paris on the tenth of February, 1763. Peace between France and England
+brought peace between the warring nations of the Continent. Austria,
+bereft of her allies, and exhausted by vain efforts to crush Frederic,
+gave up the attempt in despair, and signed the treaty of Hubertsburg.
+The Seven Years War was ended.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+1763-1884.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+Results of the War • Germany • France • England • Canada • The British
+Provinces.
+
+"This," said Earl Granville on his deathbed, "has been the most glorious
+war and the most triumphant peace that England ever knew." Not all were
+so well pleased, and many held with Pitt that the House of Bourbon
+should have been forced to drain the cup of humiliation to the dregs.
+Yet the fact remains that the Peace of Paris marks an epoch than which
+none in modern history is more fruitful of grand results. With it began
+a new chapter in the annals of the world. To borrow the words of a late
+eminent writer, "It is no exaggeration to say that three of the many
+victories of the Seven Years War determined for ages to come the
+destinies of mankind. With that of Rossbach began the re-creation of
+Germany, with that of Plassey the influence of Europe told for the first
+time since the days of Alexander on the nations of the East; with the
+triumph of Wolfe on the Heights of Abraham began the history of the
+United States." [877]
+
+[877] Green, History of the English People, IV. 193 (London, 1880).
+
+So far, however, as concerns the war in the Germanic countries, it was
+to outward seeming but a mad debauch of blood and rapine, ending in
+nothing but the exhaustion of the combatants. The havoc had been
+frightful. According to the King of Prussia's reckoning, 853,000
+soldiers of the various nations had lost their lives, besides hundreds
+of thousands of non-combatants who had perished from famine, exposure,
+disease, or violence. And with all this waste of life not a boundary
+line had been changed. The rage of the two empresses and the vanity and
+spite of the concubine had been completely foiled. Frederic had defied
+them all, and had come out of the strife intact in his own hereditary
+dominions and master of all that he had snatched from the Empress-Queen;
+while Prussia, portioned out by her enemies as their spoil, lay depleted
+indeed, and faint with deadly striving, but crowned with glory, and with
+the career before her which, through tribulation and adversity, was to
+lead her at last to the headship of a united Germany.
+
+Through centuries of strife and vicissitude the French monarchy had
+triumphed over nobles, parliaments, and people, gathered to itself all
+the forces of the State, beamed with illusive splendors under Louis the
+Great, and shone with the phosphorescence of decay under his
+contemptible successor; till now, robbed of prestige, burdened with
+debt, and mined with corruption, it was moving swiftly and more swiftly
+towards the abyss of ruin.
+
+While the war hastened the inevitable downfall of the French monarchy,
+it produced still more notable effects. France under Colbert had
+embarked on a grand course of maritime and colonial enterprise, and
+followed it with an activity and vigor that promised to make her a great
+and formidable ocean power. It was she who led the way in the East,
+first trained the natives to fight her battles, and began that system of
+mixed diplomacy and war which, imitated by her rival, enabled a handful
+of Europeans to master all India. In North America her vast possessions
+dwarfed those of every other nation. She had built up a powerful navy
+and created an extensive foreign trade. All this was now changed. In
+India she was reduced to helpless inferiority, with total ruin in the
+future; and of all her boundless territories in North America nothing
+was left but the two island rocks on the coast of Newfoundland that the
+victors had given her for drying her codfish. Of her navy scarcely forty
+ships remained; all the rest were captured or destroyed. She was still
+great on the continent of Europe, but as a world power her grand
+opportunities were gone.
+
+In England as in France the several members of the State had battled
+together since the national life began, and the result had been, not the
+unchecked domination of the Crown, but a system of balanced and adjusted
+forces, in which King, Nobility, and Commons all had their recognized
+places and their share of power. Thus in the war just ended two great
+conditions of success had been supplied: a people instinct with the
+energies of ordered freedom, and a masterly leadership to inspire and
+direct them.
+
+All, and more than all, that France had lost England had won. Now, for
+the first time, she was beyond dispute the greatest of maritime and
+colonial Powers. Portugal and Holland, her precursors in ocean
+enterprise, had long ago fallen hopelessly behind. Two great rivals
+remained, and she had humbled the one and swept the other from her path.
+Spain, with vast American possessions, was sinking into the decay which
+is one of the phenomena of modern history; while France, of late a most
+formidable competitor, had abandoned the contest in despair. England was
+mistress of the seas, and the world was thrown open to her merchants,
+explorers, and colonists. A few years after the Peace the navigator Cook
+began his memorable series of voyages, and surveyed the strange and
+barbarous lands which after times were to transform into other Englands,
+vigorous children of this great mother of nations. It is true that a
+heavy blow was soon to fall upon her; her own folly was to alienate the
+eldest and greatest of her offspring. But nothing could rob her of the
+glory of giving birth to the United States; and, though politically
+severed, this gigantic progeny were to be not the less a source of
+growth and prosperity to the parent that bore them, joined with her in a
+triple kinship of laws, language, and blood. The war or series of wars
+that ended with the Peace of Paris secured the opportunities and set in
+action the forces that have planted English homes in every clime, and
+dotted the earth with English garrisons and posts of trade.
+
+With the Peace of Paris ended the checkered story of New France; a story
+which would have been a history if faults of constitution and the
+bigotry and folly of rulers had not dwarfed it to an episode. Yet it is
+a noteworthy one in both its lights and its shadows: in the
+disinterested zeal of the founder of Quebec, the self-devotion of the
+early missionary martyrs, and the daring enterprise of explorers; in the
+spiritual and temporal vassalage from which the only escape was to the
+savagery of the wilderness; and in the swarming corruptions which were
+the natural result of an attempt to rule, by the absolute hand of a
+master beyond the Atlantic, a people bereft of every vestige of civil
+liberty. Civil liberty was given them by the British sword; but the
+conqueror left their religious system untouched, and through it they
+have imposed upon themselves a weight of ecclesiastical tutelage that
+finds few equals in the most Catholic countries of Europe. Such
+guardianship is not without certain advantages. When faithfully
+exercised it aids to uphold some of the tamer virtues, if that can be
+called a virtue which needs the constant presence of a sentinel to keep
+it from escaping: but it is fatal to mental robustness and moral
+courage; and if French Canada would fulfil its aspirations it must cease
+to be one of the most priest-ridden communities of the modern world.
+
+Scarcely were they free from the incubus of France when the British
+provinces showed symptoms of revolt. The measures on the part of the
+mother-country which roused their resentment, far from being oppressive,
+were less burdensome than the navigation laws to which they had long
+submitted; and they resisted taxation by Parliament simply because it
+was in principle opposed to their rights as freemen. They did not, like
+the American provinces of Spain at a later day, sunder themselves from a
+parent fallen into decrepitude; but with astonishing audacity they
+affronted the wrath of England in the hour of her triumph, forgot their
+jealousies and quarrels, joined hands in the common cause, fought,
+endured, and won. The disunited colonies became the United States. The
+string of discordant communities along the Atlantic coast has grown to a
+mighty people, joined in a union which the earthquake of civil war
+served only to compact and consolidate. Those who in the weakness of
+their dissensions needed help from England against the savage on their
+borders have become a nation that may defy every foe but that most
+dangerous of all foes, herself, destined to a majestic future if she
+will shun the excess and perversion of the principles that made her
+great, prate less about the enemies of the past and strive more against
+the enemies of the present, resist the mob and the demagogue as she
+resisted Parliament and King, rally her powers from the race for gold
+and the delirium of prosperity to make firm the foundations on which
+that prosperity rests, and turn some fair proportion of her vast mental
+forces to other objects than material progress and the game of party
+politics. She has tamed the savage continent, peopled the solitude,
+gathered wealth untold, waxed potent, imposing, redoubtable; and now it
+remains for her to prove, if she can, that the rule of the masses is
+consistent with the highest growth of the individual; that democracy can
+give the world a civilization as mature and pregnant, ideas as energetic
+and vitalizing, and types of manhood as lofty and strong, as any of the
+systems which it boasts to supplant.
+
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+
+
+Appendix A.
+
+Chapter III. Conflict for the West.
+
+Piquet and his War-Party.--"Ce parti [de guerre] pour lequel M. le
+Général a donné son consentement, sera de plus de 3,800 hommes.... 500
+hommes de nos domiciliés, 700 des Cinq nations à l'exclusion des Agniers
+[Mohawks] qui ne sont plus regardés que comme des anglais, 600 tant
+Iroquois que d'autres nations le long de la Belle Rivière d'où ils
+espèrent chasser les anglais qui y forment des Établissemens contraires
+au bien des guerriers, 2,000 hommes qu'ils doivent prendre aux têtes
+plates [Choctaws] où ils s'arresteront, c'est la où les deux chefs de
+guerre doivent proposer à l'armée l'expédition des Miamis au retour de
+celle contre la Nation du Chien [Cherokees]. Un vieux levain, quelques
+anciennes querelles leur feront tout entreprendre contre les anglais de
+la Virginie s'ils donnent encore quelques secours à cette derniere
+nation, ce qui ne manquera pas d'arriver....
+
+"C'est un grand miracle que malgré l'envie, les contradictions,
+l'opposition presque générale de tous les Villages sauvages, j'aye formé
+en moins de 3 ans une des plus florissantes missions du Canada.... Je me
+trouve donc, Messieurs, dans l'occasion de pouvoir étendre l'empire de
+Jésus Christ et du Roy mes bons maitres jusqu'aux extrémités de ce
+nouveau monde, et de plus faire avec quelques secours que vous me
+procurerez que la France et l'angleterre ne pourraient faire avec
+plusieurs millions et toutes leur troupes." Copie de la Lettre écrite
+par M. l'Abbé Picquet, dattée à la Présentation du 8 Fév. 1752 (Archives
+de la Marine).
+
+I saw in the possession of the late Jacques Viger, of Montreal, an
+illuminated drawing of one of Piquet's banners, said to be still in
+existence, in which the cross, the emblems of the Virgin and the
+Saviour, the fleur-de-lis, and the Iroquois totems are all embroidered
+and linked together by strings of wampum beads wrought into the silk.
+
+Directions of the French Colonial Minister for the Destruction of
+Oswego.--"La seule voye dont on puisse faire usage en temps de paix pour
+une pareille opération est celle des Iroquois des cinq nations. Les
+terres sur lesquelles le poste à été établi leur appartiennent et ce
+n'est qu'avec leur consentement que les anglois s'y sont placés. Si en
+faisant regarder à ces sauvages un pareil établissement comme contraire
+à leur liberté et comme une usurpation dont les anglois prétendent faire
+usage pour acquérir la propriété de leur terre on pourrait les
+déterminer à entreprendre de les détruire, une pareille opération ne
+seroit pas à négliger; mais M. le Marquis de la Jonquière doit sentir
+avec quelle circonspection une affaire de cette espèce doit être
+conduite et il faut en effêt qu'il y travaille de façon à ne se point
+compromettre." Le Ministre à MM. de la Jonquière et Bigot, 15 Avril,
+1750 (Archives de la Marine).
+
+
+
+Appendix B.
+
+Chapter IV. Acadia.
+
+English Treatment of Acadians.--"Les Anglois dans la vue de la Conquête
+du Canada ont voulu donner aux peuples françois de ces Colonies un
+exemple frappant de la douceur de leur gouvernement dans leur conduite à
+l'égard des Accadiens.
+
+"Ils leur ont fourni pendant plus de 35 ans le simple nécessaire, sans
+élever la fortune d'aucun, ils leur ont fourni ce nécessaire souvent à
+crédit, avec un excès de confiance, sans fatiguer les débiteurs, sans
+les presser, sans vouloir les forcer au payement.
+
+"Ils leur ont laissé une apparence de liberté si excessive qu'ils n'ont
+voulu prendre aucune différence [sic] de leur différents, pas même pour
+les crimes.... Ils ont souffert que les accadiens leur refusassent
+insolemment certains rentes de grains, modiques & très-légitimement
+dues.
+
+"Ils ont dissimulé le refus méprisant que les accadiens ont fait de
+prendre d'eux des concessions pour les nouveaux terreins qu'ils
+voulaient occuper.
+
+"Les fruits que cette conduite a produit dans la dernière guerre nous le
+savons [sic] et les anglois n'en ignorent rien. Qu'on juge là-dessus de
+leur ressentiment et des vues de vengeance de cette nation cruelle....
+Je prévois notamment la dispersion des jeunes accadiens sur les
+vaisseaux de guerre anglois, où la seule règle pour la ration du pain
+suffit pour les detruire jusqu'au dernier." Roma, Officier à l'Isle
+Royale à----, 1750.
+
+Indians, directed by Missionaries, to attack the English in Time of
+Peace.--"La lettre de M. l'Abbé Le Loutre me paroit si intéressante que
+j'ay l'honneur de vous en envoyer Copie.... Les trois sauvages qui m'ont
+porté ces dépêches m'ont parlé relativement à ce que M. l'Abbé Le Loutre
+marque dans sa lettre; je n'ay eu garde de leur donner aucun Conseil
+là-dessus et je me suis borné à leur promettre que je ne les
+abandonnerai point, aussy ai-je pourvu à tout, soit pour les armes,
+munitions de guerre et de bouche, soit pour les autres choses
+nécessaires.
+
+"Il seroit à souhaiter que ces Sauvages rassemblés pussent parvenir à
+traverser les anglois dans leurs entreprises, même dans celle de
+Chibouctou [Halifax], ils sont dans cette résolution et s'ils peuvent
+mettre à execution ce qu'ils ont projetté il est assuré qu'ils seront
+fort incommodes aux Anglois et que les vexations qu'ils exerceront sur
+eux leur seront un très grand obstacle.
+
+"Ces sauvages doivent agir seuls, il n'y aura ny soldat ny habitant,
+tout se fera de leur pur mouvement, et sans qu'il paraisse que j'en
+eusse connoissance.
+
+"Cela est très essentiel, aussy ai-je écrit au Sr. de Boishébert
+d'observer beaucoup de prudence dans ses démarches et de les faire très
+secrètement pour que les Anglois ne puissent pas s'apercevoir que nous
+pourvoyons aux besoins des dits sauvages.
+
+"Ce seront les missionnaires qui feront toutes les négociations et qui
+dirigeront les pas des dits sauvages, ils sont en très bonnes mains, le
+R. P. Germain et M. l'Abbé Le Loutre étant fort au fait d'en tirer tout
+le party possible et le plus avantageux pour nos interêts, ils
+ménageront leur intrigue de façon à n'y pas paroitre....
+
+"Je sens, Monseigneur, toute la delicatesse de cette negociation, soyez
+persuadé que je la conduirai avec tant de précautions que les anglois ne
+pourront pas dire que mes ordres y ont eu part." La Jonquière au
+Ministre, 9 Oct. 1749.
+
+Missionaries to be encouraged in their Efforts to make the Indians
+attack the English.--"Les sauvages ... se distinguent, depuis la paix,
+dans les mouvements qu'il y a du côté de l'Acadie, et sur lesquels Sa
+Majesté juge à propos d'entrer dans quelques details avec le Sieur de
+Raymond....
+
+"Sa Majesté luy a déjà observé que les sauvages ont été jusqu'à présent
+dans les dispositions les plus favorables. Il est de la plus grande
+importance, et pour le présent et pour l'avenir, de ne rien négliger
+pour les y maintenir. Les missionnaires qui sont auprès d'eux sont plus
+à portés d'y contribuer que personne, et Sa Majesté a lieu d'être
+satisfaite des soins qu'ils y donnent. Le Sr. de Raymond doit exciter
+ces missionnaires à ne point se relacher sur cela; mais en même temps il
+doit les avertir de contenir leur zèle de manière qu'ils ne se
+compromettent pas mal à propos avec les anglois et qu'ils ne donnent
+point de justes sujets de plaintes." Mémoire du Roy pour servir
+d'Instruction au Comte de Raymond, 24 Avril, 1751.
+
+Acadians to join the Indians in attacking the English.--"Pour que ces
+Sauvages agissent avec beaucoup de Courage, quelques accadiens habillés
+et matachés comme les Sauvages pourront se joindre à eux pour faire coup
+sur les Anglois. Je ne puis éviter de consentir à ce que ces Sauvages
+feront puisque nous avons les bras liés et que nous ne pouvons rien
+faire par nous-mêmes, au surplus je ne crois pas qu'il y ait de
+l'inconvenient de laisser mêler les accadiens parmi les Sauvages,
+parceque s'ils sont pris, nous dirons qu'ils ont agi de leur propre
+mouvement." La Jonquière au Ministre, 1 Mai, 1751.
+
+Cost of Le Loutre's Intrigues.--"J'ay déjà fait payer a M. Le Loutre
+depuis l'année dernière la somme de 11183l. 18s. pour acquitter les
+dépenses qu'il fait journellement et je ne cesse de luy recommander de
+s'en tenir aux indispensables en evitant toujours de rien compromettre
+avec le gouvernement anglois." Prévost au Ministre, 22 Juillet, 1750.
+
+Payment for English Scalps in Time of Peace.--"Les Sauvages ont pris, il
+y a un mois, 18 chevelures angloises [English scalps], et M. Le Loutre a
+été obligé de les payer 1800l., argent de l'Acadie, dont je luy ay fait
+le remboursement." Ibid., 16 Août, 1753.
+
+Many pages might be filled with extracts like the above. These, with
+most of the other French documents used in Chapter IV., are taken from
+the Archives de la Marine et des Colonies.
+
+
+
+Appendix C.
+
+Chapter V. Washington.
+
+Washington and the Capitulation at Fort Necessity.--Villiers, in his
+Journal, boasts that he made Washington sign a virtual admission that he
+had assassinated Jumonville. In regard to this point, a letter, of which
+the following is an extract, is printed in the provincial papers of the
+time. It is from Captain Adam Stephen, an officer in the action, writing
+to a friend five weeks after.
+
+"When Mr. Vanbraam returned with the French proposals, we were obliged
+to take the sense of them from his mouth; it rained so heavy that he
+could not give us a written translation of them; we could scarcely keep
+the candle lighted to read them by; they were written in a bad hand, on
+wet and blotted paper, so that no person could read them but Vanbraam,
+who had heard them from the mouth of the French officer. Every officer
+there is ready to declare that there was no such word as assassination
+mentioned. The terms expressed were, the death of Jumonville. If it had
+been mentioned we would by all means have had it altered, as the French,
+during the course of the interview, seemed very condescending, and
+desirous to bring things to an issue." He then gives several other
+points in which Vanbraam had misled them.
+
+Dinwiddie, recounting the affair to Lord Albemarle, says that
+Washington, being ignorant of French, was deceived by the interpreter,
+who, through poltroonery, suppressed the word assassination.
+
+Captain Mackay, writing to Washington in September, after a visit to
+Philadelphia, says: "I had several disputes about our capitulation; but
+I satisfied every person that mentioned the subject as to the articles
+in question, that they were owing to a bad interpreter, and contrary to
+the translation made to us when we signed them."
+
+At the next meeting of the burgesses they passed a vote of thanks for
+gallant conduct to Washington and all his officers by name, except
+Vanbraam and the major of the regiment, the latter being charged with
+cowardice, and the former with treacherous misinterpretation of the
+articles.
+
+Sometime after, Washington wrote to a correspondent who had questioned
+him on the subject: "That we were wilfully or ignorantly deceived by our
+interpreter in regard to the word assassination I do aver, and will to
+my dying moment; so will every officer that was present. The interpreter
+was a Dutchman little acquainted with the English tongue, therefore
+might not advert to the tone and meaning of the word in English; but,
+whatever his motives for so doing, certain it is that he called it the
+death or the loss of the Sieur Jumonville. So we received and so we
+understood it, until, to our great surprise and mortification, we found
+it otherwise in a literal translation." Sparks, Writings of Washington,
+II. 464, 465.
+
+
+
+Appendix D.
+
+Chapter VII. Braddock.
+
+It has been said that Beaujeu, and not Contrecœur, commanded at Fort
+Duquesne at the time of Braddock's expedition. Some contemporaries, and
+notably the chaplain of the fort, do, in fact, speak of him as in this
+position; but their evidence is overborne by more numerous and
+conclusive authorities, among them Vaudreuil, governor of Canada, and
+Contrecœur himself, in an official report. Vaudreuil says of him: "Ce
+commandant s'occupa le 8 [Juillet] à former un parti pour aller au
+devant des Anglois;" and adds that this party was commanded by Beaujeu
+and consisted of 250 French and 650 Indians (Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5
+Août, 1755). In the autumn of 1756 Vaudreuil asked the Colonial Minister
+to procure a pension for Contrecœur and Ligneris. He says: "Le premier
+de ces Messieurs a commandé longtemps au fort Duquesne; c'est luy qui a
+ordonné et dirigé tous les mouvements qui se sont faits dans cette
+partie, soit pour faire abandonner le premier établissement des Anglois,
+soit pour les forcer à se retirer du fort Nécessité, et soit enfin pour
+aller au devant de l'armée du Général Braddock qui a été entièrement
+défaite" (Vaudreuil au Ministre, 8 Nov. 1756.) Beaujeu, who had lately
+arrived with a reinforcement, had been named to relieve Contrecœur
+(Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1756), but had not yet done so.
+
+As the report of Contrecœur has never been printed, I give an extract
+from it (Contrecœur à Vaudreuil, 14 Juillet, 1755, in Archives de la
+Marine):--
+
+"Le même jour [8 Juillet] je formai un party de tout ce que je pouvois
+mettre hors du fort pour aller à leur rencontre. Il étoit composé de 250
+François et de 650 sauvages, ce qui faisoit 900 hommes. M. de Beaujeu,
+capitaine, le commandoit. Il y avoit deux capitaines qui estoient Mrs.
+Dumas et Ligneris et plusieurs autres officiers subalternes. Ce parti se
+mit en marche le 9 à 8 heures du matin, et se trouva à midi et demie en
+présence des Anglois à environ 3 lieues du fort. On commença à faire feu
+de part et d'autre. Le feu de l'artillerie ennemie fit reculer un peu
+par deux fois notre parti. M. de Beaujeu fut tué à la troisième
+décharge. M. Dumas prit le commandement et s'en acquitta au mieux. Nos
+François, pleins de courage, soutenus par les sauvages, quoiqu'ils
+n'eussent point d'artillerie, firent à leur tour plier les Anglois qui
+se battirent en ordre de bataille et en bonne contenance. Et ces
+derniers voyant l'ardeur de nos gens qui fonçoient avec une vigeur
+infinie furent enfin obligés de plier tout à fait après 4 heures d'un
+grand feu. Mrs. Dumas et Ligneris qui n'avoient plus avec eux q'une
+vingtaine de François ne s'engagerent point dans la poursuite. Ils
+rentrerent dans le fort, parceq'une grande partie des Canadiens qui
+n'estoient malheureusement que des enfants s'estoient retirés à la
+première décharge."
+
+The letter of Dumas cited in the text has been equally unknown. It was
+written a year after the battle in order to draw the attention of the
+minister to services which the writer thought had not been duly
+recognized. The following is an extract (Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet,
+1756, in Archives de la Marine):--
+
+
+"M. de Beaujeu marcha donc, et sous ses ordres M. de Ligneris et moi. Il
+attaqua avec beaucoup d'audace mais sans nulle disposition; notre
+première décharge fut faite hors de portée; l'ennemi fit la sienne de
+plus près, et dans le premier instant du combat, cent miliciens, qui
+faisaient la moitié de nos Français lâcherent honteusement le pied en
+criant 'Sauve qui peut.' Deux cadets qui depuis ont été faits officiers
+autorisaient cette fuite par leur exemple. Ce mouvement en arrière ayant
+encouragé l'ennemi, il fit retentir ses cris de Vive le Roi et avança
+sur nous à grand pas. Son artillerie s'étant preparée pendant ce temps
+là commença à faire feu ce qui épouvanta tellement les Sauvages que tout
+prit la fuite; l'ennemi faisait sa troisième décharge de mousqueterie
+quand M. de Beaujeu fut tué.
+
+"Notre déroute se présenta a mes yeux sous le plus désagréable point de
+vue, et pour n'être point chargé de la mauvaise manœuvre d'autrui, je ne
+songeai plus qu'à me faire tuer. Ce fut alors, Monseigneur, qu'excitant
+de la voix et du geste le peu de soldats qui restait, je m'avançai avec
+la contenance qui donne le désespoir. Mon peloton fit un feu si vif que
+l'ennemi en parut étonné; il grossit insensiblement et les Sauvages
+voyant que mon attaque faisait cesser les cris de l'ennemi revinrent à
+moi. Dans ce moment j'envoyai M. le Chevr. Le Borgne et M. de Rocheblave
+dire aux officiers qui étaient à la tête des Sauvages de prendre
+l'ennemi en flanc. Le canon qui battit en tête donna faveur à mes
+ordres. L'ennemi, pris de tous cotés, combattit avec la fermeté la plus
+opiniâtre. Des rangs entiers tombaient à la fois; presque tous les
+officiers périrent; et le désordre s'étant mis par là dans cette
+colonne, tout prit la fuite."
+
+Whatever may have been the conduct of the Canadian militia, the French
+officers behaved with the utmost courage, and shared with the Indians
+the honors of the victory. The partisan chief Charles Langlade seems
+also to have been especially prominent. His grandson, the aged Pierre
+Grignon, declared that it was he who led the attack (Draper,
+Recollections of Grignon, in the Collections of the Wisconsin Historical
+Society, III.). Such evidence, taken alone, is of the least possible
+weight; but both the traveller Anbury and General John Burgoyne, writing
+many years after the event, speak of Langlade, who was then alive, as
+the author of Braddock's defeat. Hence there can be little doubt that he
+took an important part in it, though the contemporary writers do not
+mention his name. Compare Tassé, Notice sur Charles Langlade. The honors
+fell to Contrecœur, Dumas, and Ligneris, all of whom received the cross
+of the Order of St Louis (Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres,
+1755).
+
+
+
+Appendix E.
+
+Chapter XIV. Montcalm.
+
+To show the style of Montcalm's familiar letters, I give a few examples.
+Literal translation is often impossible.
+
+À Madame de Montcalm, à Montréal, 16 Artil, 1757.
+(Extrait.)
+
+"Ma santé assez bonne, malgré beaucoup de travail, surtout d'ecriture.
+Estève, mon secretaire, se marie. Beau caractère. Bon autographe,
+écrivant vite. Je lui procure un emploi et le moyen de faire fortune
+s'il veut. Il fait un meilleur mariage que ne lui appartient; malgré
+cela je crains qu'il ne la fasse pas comme un autre; fat, frivole,
+joueur, glorieux, petit-maître, dépensier. J'ai toujours Marcel, des
+soldats copistes dans le besoin.... Tous les soldats de Montpellier se
+portants bien, hors le fils de Pierre mort chez moi. Tout est hors de
+prix. Il faut vivre honorablement et je le fais, tous les jours seize
+personnes. Une fois tous les quinze jours chez M. le Gouverneur général
+et Mr. le Chev. de Lévis qui vit aussi très bien. Il a donné trois beaux
+grands bals. Pour moi jusqu'au carême, outre les diners, de grands
+soupers de dames trois fois la semaine. Le jour des devotes prudes, des
+concerts. Les jours des jeûnes des violons d'hazard, parcequ'on me les
+demandait, cela ne menait que jusqu'à deux heures du matin et il se
+joignait l'après-souper compagnie dansante sans être priée, mais sure
+d'être bien reçue à celle qui avait soupé. Fort cher, peu amusant, et
+souvent ennuyeux.... Vous connaissiez ma maison, je l'ai augmentée d'un
+cocher, d'un frotteur, un garçon de cuisine, et j'ai marié mon aide de
+cuisine; car je travaille à peupler la colonie: 80 mariages de soldats
+cet hiver et deux d'officiers. Germain a perdu sa fille. Il a epousé
+mieux que lui; bonne femme mais sans bien, comme toutes...."
+
+À Madame de Montcalm, à Montréal, 6 Juin, 1757.
+(Extrait.)
+
+"J'addresse la première de cette lettre à ma mère. Il n'y a pas une
+heure dans la journée que je ne songe à vous, à elle, et à mes enfants.
+J'embrasse ma fille; je vous adore, ma très chère, ainsi que ma mère.
+Mille choses à mes sœurs. Je n'ai pas le temps de leur écrire, ni à
+Naujac, ni aux abbesses.... Des compliments au château d'Arbois, aux Du
+Cayla, et aux Givard. P. S. N'oubliez pas d'envoyer une douzaine de
+bouteilles d'Angleterre de pinte d'eau de lavande; vous en mettrez
+quatre pour chaque envoi."
+
+À Bourlamaque, à Montréal, 20 Février, 1757.
+(Extrait.)
+
+"Dimanche j'avais rassemblé les dames de France hors Mad. de Parfouru
+qui m'a fait l'honneur de me venir voir il y a trois jours et en la
+voyant je me suis apperçu que l'amour avait des traits de puissance dont
+on ne pouvait pas rendre raison, non pas par l'impression qu'elle a
+faite sur mon cœur, mais bien par celle qu'elle a faite sur celui de son
+époux. Mercredi une assemblée chez Mad. Varin. Jeudi un bal chez le
+Chev. de Lévis qui avait prié 65 Dames ou demoiselles; Il n'y en avait
+que trente--autant d'hommes qu'à la guerre. Sa salle bien éclairée,
+aussi grand que celle de l'Intendance, beaucoup d'ordre, beaucoup
+d'attention, des rafraichissements en abondance toute la nuit de tout
+genre et de toute espèce et on ne se retira qu'à sept heures du matin.
+Pour moi qui ay quitté le séjour de Québec, Je me couchai de bonne
+heure. J'avais eu ce jour-là huit dames à souper et ce souper était
+dedié à Mad. Varin. Demain j'en aurai une demi douzaine. Je ne scai
+encore a qui il est dedié, Je suis tenté de croire que c'est à La Roche
+Beaucourt Le galant Chevr. nous donne encore un bal."
+
+
+
+Appendix F.
+
+Chapter XV. Fort William Henry.
+
+Webb to Loudon, Fort Edward, 11 Aug. 1757.
+Public Record Office. (Extract.)
+
+"On leaving the Camp Yesterday Morning they [the English soldiers] were
+stript by the Indians of everything they had both Officers and Men the
+Women and Children drag'd from among them and most inhumanly butchered
+before their faces, the party of about three hundred Men which were
+given them as an escort were during this time quietly looking on, from
+this and other circumstances we are too well convinced these barbarities
+must have been connived at by the French, After having destroyed the
+women and children they fell upon the rear of our Men who running in
+upon the Front soon put the whole to a most precipitate flight in which
+confusion part of them came into this Camp about two o'Clock yesterday
+morning in a most distressing situation, and have continued dropping in
+ever since, a great many men and we are afraid several Officers were
+massacred."
+
+The above is independent of the testimony of Frye, who did not reach
+Fort Edward till the day after Webb's letter was written.
+
+Frye to Thomas Hubbard, Speaker of the House of Representatives of
+Massachusetts, Albany, 16 Aug. 1757.
+Public Record Office. (Extract.)
+
+"We did not march till ye 10th at which time the Savages were let loose
+upon us, Strips, Kills, & Scalps our people drove them into Disorder
+Rendered it impossible to Rally, the French Gaurds we were promised
+shou'd Escort us to Fort Edward Could or would not protect us so that
+there Opened the most horrid Scene of Barbarity immaginable, I was
+strip'd myself of my Arms & Cloathing that I had nothing left but
+Briches Stockings Shoes & Shirt, the Indians round me with their
+Tomehawks Spears &c threatening Death I flew to the Officers of the
+French Gaurds for Protection but they would afford me none, therefore
+was Oblig'd to fly and was in the woods till the 12th in the Morning of
+which I arriv'd at Fort Edward almost Famished ... with what of Fatigue
+Starving &c I am obliged to break off but as soon as I can Recollect
+myself shall write to you more fully."
+
+Frye, Journal of the Attack of Fort William Henry.
+Public Record Office. (Extract.)
+
+"Wednesday, August 10th.--Early this morning we were ordered to prepare
+for our march, but found the Indians in a worse temper (if possible)
+than last night, every one having a tomahawk, hatchett or some other
+instrument of death, and Constantly plundering from the officers their
+arms &ca this Colo. Monro Complained of, as a breach of the Articles of
+Capitulation but to no effect, the french officers however told us that
+if we would give up the baggage of the officers and men, to the Indians,
+they thought it would make them easy, which at last Colo. Monro
+Consented to but this was no sooner done, then they began to take the
+Officers Hatts, Swords, guns & Cloaths, stripping them all to their
+Shirts, and on some officers, left no shirt at all, while this was doing
+they killed and scalp'd all the sick and wounded before our faces and
+then took out from our troops, all the Indians and negroes, and Carried
+them off, one of the former they burnt alive afterwards.
+
+"At last with great difficulty the troops gott from the Retrenchment,
+but they were no sooner out, then the savages fell upon the rear,
+killing & scalping, which Occasioned an order for a halt, which at last
+was done in great Confusion but as soon as those in the front knew what
+was doing in the rear they again pressed forward, and thus the Confusion
+continued & encreased till we came to the Advanc'd guard of the French,
+the savages still carrying away Officers, privates, Women and Children,
+some of which latter they kill'd & scalpt in the road. This horrid scene
+of blood and slaughter obliged our officers to apply to the Officers of
+the French Guard for protection, which they refus'd & told them they
+must take to the woods and shift for themselves which many did, and in
+all probability many perish't in the woods, many got into Fort Edward
+that day and others daily Continued coming in, but vastly fatigued with
+their former hardships added to this last, which threw several of them
+into Deliriums."
+
+Affidavit of Miles Whitworth, Surgeon of the Massachusetts Regiment,
+taken before Governor Pownall 17 Oct. 1757.
+Public Record Office. (Extract.)
+
+"Being duly sworn on the Holy Evangelists doth declare ... that there
+were also seventeen Men of the Massachusetts Regiment wounded unable to
+March under his immediate Care in the Intrenched Camp, that according to
+the Capitulation he did deliver them over to the French Surgeon on the
+ninth of August at two in the Afternoon ... that the French Surgeon
+received them into his Custody and placed Centinals of the French Troops
+upon the said seventeen wounded. That the French Surgeon going away to
+the French Camp, the said Miles Whitworth continued with the said
+wounded Men till five O'clock on the Morn of the tenth of August, That
+the Centinals were taken off and that he the said Whitworth saw the
+French Indians about 5 O'clock in the Morn of the 10th of August dragg
+the said seventeen wounded men out of their Hutts, Murder them with
+their Tomohawks and scalp them, That the French Troops posted round the
+lines were not further than forty feet from the Hutts where the said
+wounded Men lay, that several Canadian Officers particularly one Lacorne
+were present and that none, either Officer or Soldier, protected the
+said wounded Men.
+
+"Miles Whitworth.
+"Sworn before me T. Pownall."
+
+
+
+Appendix G.
+
+Chapter XX. Ticonderoga.
+
+The French accounts of the battle at Ticonderoga are very numerous, and
+consist of letters and despatches of Montcalm, Lévis, Bougainville,
+Doreil, and other officers, besides several anonymous narratives, one of
+which was printed in pamphlet form at the time. Translations of many of
+them may be found in N. Y. Colonial Documents, X. There are, however,
+various others preserved in the archives of the War and Marine
+Departments at Paris which have not seen the light. I have carefully
+examined and collated them all. The English accounts are by no means so
+numerous or so minute. Among those not already cited, may be mentioned a
+letter of Colonel Woolsey of the New York provincials, and two letters
+from British officers written just after the battle and enclosed in a
+letter from Alexander Colden to Major Halkett, 17 July. (Bouquet and
+Haldimand Papers.)
+
+The French greatly exaggerated the force of the English and their losses
+in the battle. They place the former at from twenty thousand to
+thirty-one thousand, and the latter at from four thousand to six
+thousand. Prisoners taken at the end of the battle told them that the
+English had lost four thousand,--a statement which they readily
+accepted, though the prisoners could have known little more about the
+matter than they themselves. And these figures were easily magnified.
+The number of dead lying before the lines is variously given at from
+eight hundred to three thousand. Montcalm himself, who was somewhat
+elated by his victory, gives this last number in one of his letters,
+though he elsewhere says two thousand; while Lévis, in his Journal de la
+Guerre, says "about eight hundred." The truth is that no pains were
+taken to ascertain the exact number, which, by the English returns, was
+a little above five hundred, the total of killed, wounded, and missing
+being nineteen hundred and forty-four. A friend of Knox, writing to him
+from Fort Edward three weeks after the battle, gives a tabular statement
+which shows nineteen hundred and fifty in all, or six more than the
+official report. As the name of every officer killed or wounded, with
+the corps to which he belonged, was published at the time (London
+Magazine, 1758), it is extremely unlikely that the official return was
+falsified. Abercromby's letter to Pitt, of July 12, says that he
+retreated "with the loss of four hundred and sixty-four regulars killed,
+twenty-nine missing eleven hundred and seventeen wounded; and
+eighty-seven provincials killed, eight missing, and two hundred and
+thirty-nine wounded, officers of both included." In a letter to Viscount
+Barrington, of the same date (Public Record Office), Abercromby encloses
+a full detail of losses, regiment by regiment and company by company,
+being a total of nineteen hundred and forty-five. Several of the French
+writers state correctly that about fourteen thousand men (including
+reserves) were engaged in the attack; but they add erroneously that
+there were thirteen thousand more at the Falls. In fact there was only a
+small provincial regiment left there, and a battalion of the New York
+regiment, under Colonel Woolsey, at the landing.
+
+A Legend of Ticonderoga.--Mention has been made of the death of Major
+Duncan Campbell of Inverawe. The following family tradition relating to
+it was told me in 1878 by the late Dean Stanley, to whom I am also
+indebted for various papers on the subject, including a letter from
+James Campbell, Esq., the present laird of Inverawe, and great-nephew of
+the hero of the tale. The same story is told, in an amplified form and
+with some variations, in the Legendary Tales of the Highlands of Sir
+Thomas Dick Lauder. As related by Dean Stanley and approved by Mr.
+Campbell, it is this:--
+
+The ancient castle of Inverawe stands by the banks of the Awe, in the
+midst of the wild and picturesque scenery of the western Highlands. Late
+one evening, before the middle of the last century, as the laird, Duncan
+Campbell, sat alone in the old hall, there was a loud knocking at the
+gate; and, opening it, he saw a stranger, with torn clothing and kilt
+besmeared with blood, who in a breathless voice begged for asylum. He
+went on to say that he had killed a man in a fray, and that the pursuers
+were at his heels. Campbell promised to shelter him. "Swear on your
+dirk!" said the stranger; and Campbell swore. He then led him to a
+secret recess in the depths of the castle. Scarcely was he hidden when
+again there was a loud knocking at the gate, and two armed men appeared.
+"Your cousin Donald has been murdered, and we are looking for the
+murderer!" Campbell, remembering his oath, professed to have no
+knowledge of the fugitive; and the men went on their way. The laird, in
+great agitation, lay down to rest in a large dark room, where at length
+he fell asleep. Waking suddenly in bewilderment and terror, he saw the
+ghost of the murdered Donald standing by his bedside, and heard a hollow
+voice pronounce the words: "Inverawe! Inverawe! blood has been shed.
+Shield not the murderer!" In the morning Campbell went to the
+hiding-place of the guilty man and told him that he could harbor him no
+longer. "You have sworn on your dirk!" he replied; and the laird of
+Inverawe, greatly perplexed and troubled, made a compromise between
+conflicting duties, promised not to betray his guest, led him to the
+neighboring mountain, and hid him in a cave.
+
+In the next night, as he lay tossing in feverish slumbers, the same
+stern voice awoke him, the ghost of his cousin Donald stood again at his
+bedside, and again he heard the same appalling words: "Inverawe!
+Inverawe! blood has been shed. Shield not the murderer!" At break of day
+he hastened, in strange agitation, to the cave; but it was empty, the
+stranger was gone. At night, as he strove in vain to sleep, the vision
+appeared once more, ghastly pale, but less stern of aspect than before.
+"Farewell, Inverawe!" it said; "Farewell, till we meet at TICONDEROGA!"
+
+The strange name dwelt in Campbell's memory. He had joined the Black
+Watch, or Forty-second Regiment, then employed in keeping order in the
+turbulent Highlands. In time he became its major; and, a year or two
+after the war broke out, he went with it to America. Here, to his
+horror, he learned that it was ordered to the attack of Ticonderoga. His
+story was well known among his brother officers. They combined among
+themselves to disarm his fears; and when they reached the fatal spot
+they told him on the eve of the battle, "This is not Ticonderoga; we are
+not there yet; this is Fort George." But in the morning he came to them
+with haggard looks. "I have seen him! You have deceived me! He came to
+my tent last night! This is Ticonderoga! I shall die to-day!" and his
+prediction was fulfilled.
+
+Such is the tradition. The indisputable facts are that Major Duncan
+Campbell of Inverawe, his arm shattered by a bullet, was carried to Fort
+Edward, where, after amputation, he died and was buried. (Abercromby to
+Pitt, 19 August, 1758.) The stone that marks his grave may still be
+seen, with this inscription: "Here lyes the Body of Duncan Campbell of
+Inverawe, Esqre., Major to the old Highland Regiment, aged 55 Years, who
+died the 17th July, 1758, of the Wounds he received in the Attack of the
+Retrenchment of Ticonderoga or Carrillon, on the 8th July, 1758."
+
+His son, Lieutenant Alexander Campbell, was severely wounded at the same
+time, but reached Scotland alive, and died in Glasgow.
+
+Mr. Campbell, the present Inverawe, in the letter mentioned above, says
+that forty-five years ago he knew an old man whose grandfather was
+foster-brother to the slain major of the forty-second, and who told him
+the following story while carrying a salmon for him to an inn near
+Inverawe. The old man's grandfather was sleeping with his son, then a
+lad, in the same room, but in another bed. This son, father of the
+narrator, "was awakened," to borrow the words of Mr. Campbell, "by some
+unaccustomed sound, and behold there was a bright light in the room, and
+he saw a figure, in full Highland regimentals, cross over the room and
+stoop down over his father's bed and give him a kiss. He was too
+frightened to speak, but put his head under his coverlet and went to
+sleep. Once more he was roused in like manner, and saw the same sight.
+In the morning he spoke to his father about it, who told him that it was
+Macdonnochie [the Gaelic patronymic of the laird of Inverawe] whom he
+had seen, and who came to tell him that he had been killed in a great
+battle in America. Sure enough, said my informant, it was on the very
+day that the battle of Ticonderoga was fought and the laird was killed."
+
+It is also said that two ladies of the family of Inverawe saw a battle
+in the clouds, in which the shadowy forms of Highland warriors were
+plainly to be descried; and that when the fatal news came from America,
+it was found that the time of the vision answered exactly to that of the
+battle in which the head of the family fell.
+
+The legend of Inverawe has within a few years found its way into an
+English magazine, and it has also been excellently told in the Atlantic
+Monthly of September of this year, 1884, by Miss C. F. Gordon Cumming.
+Her version differs a little from that given above from the recital of
+Dean Stanley and the present laird of Inverawe, but the essential points
+are the same. Miss Gordon Cumming, however, is in error when she says
+that Duncan Campbell was wounded in the breast, and that he was first
+buried at Ticonderoga. His burial-place was near Fort Edward, where he
+died, and where his remains still lie, though not at the same spot, as
+they were long after removed by a family named Gilchrist, who claimed
+kinship with the Campbells of Inverawe.
+
+
+
+Appendix H.
+
+Chapter XXV. Wolfe at Quebec.
+
+Force of the French and English at the Siege of Quebec.
+
+"Les retranchemens que j'avois fait tracer depuis la rivière St. Charles
+jusqu'au saut Montmorency furent occupés par plus de 14,000 hommes, 200
+cavaliers dont je formai un corps aux ordres de M. de la Rochebeaucour,
+environ 1,000 sauvages Abenakis et des différentes nations du nord des
+pays d'en haut. M. de Boishébert arriva ensuite avec les Acadiens et
+sauvages qu'il avoit rassemblés. Je réglai la garnison de Québec à 2,000
+hommes." Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Oct. 1759.
+
+The commissary Berniers says that the whole force was about fifteen
+thousand men, besides Indians, which is less than the number given by
+Vaudreuil.
+
+Bigot says: "Nous avions 13,000 hommes et mille à 1,200 sauvages, sans
+compter 2,000 hommes de garnison dans la ville." Bigot au Ministre, 25
+Oct. 1759.
+
+The Hartwell Journal du Siége says: "II fut décidé qu'on ne laisseroit
+dans la place que 1,200 hommes, et que tout le reste marcheroit au camp,
+où l'on comptoit se trouver plus de 15,000 hommes, y compris les
+sauvages."
+
+Rigaud, Vaudreuil's brother, writing from Montreal to Bourlamaque on the
+23d of June, says: "Je compte que l'armée campée sous Québec sera de
+17,000 hommes bien effectifs, sans les sauvages." He then gives a list
+of Indians who have joined the army, or are on the way, amounting to
+thirteen hundred.
+
+At the end of June Wolfe had about eight thousand six hundred effective
+soldiers. Of these the ten battalions, commonly mentioned as regiments,
+supplied six thousand four hundred; detached grenadiers from Louisbourg,
+three hundred; artillery, three hundred; rangers, four hundred; light
+infantry, two hundred; marines, one thousand. The complement of the
+battalions was in some cases seven hundred and in others one thousand
+(Knox, II. 25); but their actual strength varied from five hundred to
+eight hundred, except the Highlanders, who mustered eleven hundred,
+their ranks being more than full. Fraser, in his Journal of the Siege,
+gives a tabular view of the whole. At the end of the campaign Lévis
+reckons the remaining English troops at about six thousand (Lévis au
+Ministre, 10 Nov. 1759), which answers to the report of General Murray:
+"The troops will amount to six thousand" (Murray to Pitt, 12 Oct. 1759).
+The precise number is given in the Return of the State of His Majesty's
+Forces left in Garrison at Quebec, dated 12 Oct. 1759, and signed,
+Robert Monckton (Public Record Office, America and West Indies, XCIX.).
+This shows the total of rank and file to have been 6,214, which the
+addition of officers, sergeants, and drummers raises to about seven
+thousand, besides 171 artillerymen.
+
+
+
+Appendix I.
+
+Chapter XXVII. The Heights of Abraham.
+
+One of the most important unpublished documents on Wolfe's operations
+against Quebec is the long and elaborate Journal mémoratif de ce qui
+s'est passé de plus remarquable pendant qu'a duré le Siége de la Ville
+de Québec (Archives de la Marine). The writer, M. de Foligny, was a
+naval officer who during the siege commanded one of the principal
+batteries of the town. The official correspondence of Vaudreuil for 1759
+(Archives Nationales) gives the events of the time from his point of
+view; and various manuscript letters of Bigot, Lévis, Montreuil, and
+others (Archives de la Marine, Archives de la Guerre) give additional
+particulars. The letters, generally private and confidential, written to
+Bourlamaque by Montcalm, Lévis, Vaudreuil, Malartic, Berniers, and
+others during the siege contain much that is curious and interesting.
+
+Siége de Québec en 1759, d'après un Manuscrit déposé à la Bibliothêque
+de Hartwell en Angleterre. A very valuable diary, by a citizen of
+Quebec; it was brought from England in 1834 by the Hon. D. B. Viger, and
+a few copies were printed at Quebec in 1836. Journal tenu à l'Armée que
+commandoit feu M. le Marquis de Montcalm. A minute diary of an officer
+under Montcalm (printed by the Quebec Historical Society). Mémoire sur
+la Campagne de 1759, par M. de Joannès, Major de Québec (Archives de la
+Guerre). Lettres et Dépêches de Montcalm (Ibid.). These touch chiefly
+the antecedents of the siege. Mémoires sur le Canada depuis 1749 jusqu'à
+1760 (Quebec Historical Society). Journal du Siége de Québec en 1759,
+par M. Jean Claude Panet, notaire (Ibid.). The writer of this diary was
+in Quebec at the time. Several other journals and letters of persons
+present at the siege have been printed by the Quebec Historical Society,
+under the title Événements de la Guerre en Canada durant les Années 1759
+et 1760. Relation de ce qui s'est passé au Siége de Québec, par une
+Réligieuse de l'Hôpital Général de Québec (Quebec Historical Society).
+Jugement impartial sur les Opérations militaires de la Campagne, par
+Mgr. de Pontbriand, Évêque de Québec (Ibid.). Memoirs of the Siege of
+Quebec, from the Journal of a French Officer on board the Chezine
+Frigate, taken by His Majesty's Ship Rippon, by Richard Gardiner, Esq.,
+Captain of Marines in the Rippon, London, 1761.
+
+General Wolfe's Instructions to Young Officers, Philadelphia, 1778. This
+title is misleading, the book being a collection of military orders.
+General Orders in Wolfe's Army (Quebec Historical Society). This
+collection is much more full than the foregoing, so far as concerns the
+campaign of 1759. Letters of Wolfe (in Wright's Wolfe), Despatches of
+Wolfe, Saunders, Monckton, and Townshend (in contemporary magazines). A
+Short Authentic Account of the Expedition against Quebec, by a Volunteer
+upon that Expedition, Quebec, 1872. This valuable diary is ascribed to
+James Thompson, a volunteer under Wolfe, who died at Quebec in 1830 at
+the age of ninety-eight, after holding for many years the position of
+overseer of works in the Engineer Department. Another manuscript, for
+the most part identical with this, was found a few years ago among old
+papers in the office of the Royal Engineers at Quebec. Journal of the
+Expedition on the River St. Lawrence. Two entirely distinct diaries bear
+this name. One is printed in the New York Mercury for December, 1759;
+the other was found among the papers of George Alsopp, secretary to Sir
+Guy Carleton, who served under Wolfe (Quebec Historical Society).
+Johnstone, A Dialogue in Hades (Ibid.). The Scotch Jacobite, Chevalier
+Johnstone, as aide-de-camp to Lévis, and afterwards to Montcalm, had
+great opportunities of acquiring information during the campaign; and
+the results, though produced in the fanciful form of a dialogue between
+the ghosts of Wolfe and Montcalm, are of substantial historical value.
+The Dialogue is followed by a plain personal narrative. Fraser, Journal
+of the Siege of Quebec (Ibid.). Fraser was an officer in the
+Seventy-eighth Highlanders. Journal of the Siege of Quebec, by a
+Gentleman in an Eminent Station on the Spot, Dublin, 1759. Journal of
+the Particular Transactions during the Siege of Quebec (Notes and
+Queries, XX.). The writer was a soldier or non-commissioned officer
+serving in the light infantry.
+
+Memoirs of the Siege of Quebec and Total Reduction of Canada, by John
+Johnson, Clerk and Quarter-master Sergeant to the Fifty-eighth Regiment.
+A manuscript of 176 pages, written when Johnson was a pensioner at
+Chelsea (England). The handwriting is exceedingly neat and clear; and
+the style, though often grandiloquent, is creditable to a writer in his
+station. This curious production was found among the papers of Thomas
+McDonough, Esq., formerly British Consul at Boston, and is in possession
+of his grandson, my relative, George Francis Parkman, Esq., who, by
+inquiries at the Chelsea Hospital, learned that Johnson was still living
+in 1802.
+
+I have read and collated with extreme care all the above authorities,
+with others which need not be mentioned.
+
+Among several manuscript maps and plans showing the operations of the
+siege may be mentioned one entitled, Plan of the Town and Basin of
+Quebec and Part of the Adjacent Country, shewing the principal
+Encampments and Works of the British Army commanded by Major Genl.
+Wolfe, and those of the French Army by Lieut. Genl. the Marquis of
+Montcalm. It is the work of three engineers of Wolfe's army, and is on a
+scale of eight hundred feet to an inch. A fac-simile from the original
+in possession of the Royal Engineers is before me.
+
+Among the "King's Maps," British Museum (CXIX. 27), is a very large
+colored plan of operations at Quebec in 1759, 1760, superbly executed in
+minute detail.
+
+
+
+Appendix J.
+
+Chapter XXVIII. Fall of Quebec.
+
+Death and Burial of Montcalm.--Johnstone, who had every means of knowing
+the facts, says that Montcalm was carried after his wound to the house
+of the surgeon Arnoux. Yet it is not quite certain that he died there.
+According to Knox, his death took place at the General Hospital;
+according to the modern author of the Ursulines de Québec, at the
+Château St.-Louis. But the General Hospital was a mile out of the town,
+and in momentary danger of capture by the English; while the Château had
+been made untenable by the batteries of Point Levi, being immediately
+exposed to their fire. Neither of these places was one to which the
+dying general was likely to be removed, and it is probable that he was
+suffered to die in peace at the house of the surgeon.
+
+It has been said that the story of the burial of Montcalm in a grave
+partially formed by the explosion of a bomb, rests only on the assertion
+in his epitaph, composed in 1761 by the Academy of Inscriptions at the
+instance of Bougainville. There is, however, other evidence of the fact.
+The naval captain Foligny, writing on the spot at the time of the
+burial, says in his Diary, under the date of September 14: "A huit
+heures du soir, dans l'église des Ursulines, fut enterré dans une fosse
+faite sous la chaire par le travail de la Bombe, M. le Marquis de
+Montcalm, décédé du matin à 4 heures après avoir reçu tous les
+Sacrements. Jamais Général n'avoit été plus aimé de sa troupe et plus
+universellement regretté. Il étoit d'un esprit supérieur, doux,
+gracieux, affable, familier à tout le monde, ce qui lui avoit fait
+gagner la confiance de toute la Colonie: requiescat in pace."
+
+The author of Les Ursulines de Québec says: "Un des projectiles ayant
+fait une large ouverture dans le plancher de bas, on en profita pour
+creuser la fosse du général."
+
+The Boston Post Boy and Advertiser, in its issue of Dec. 3, 1759,
+contains a letter from "an officer of distinction" at Quebec to Messrs.
+Green and Russell, proprietors of the newspaper. This letter contains
+the following words: "He [Montcalm] died the next day; and, with a
+little Improvement, one of our 13-inch Shell-Holes served him for a
+Grave."
+
+The particulars of his burial are from the Acte Mortuaire du Marquis de
+Montcalm in the registers of the Church of Notre Dame de Québec, and
+from that valuable chronicle, Les Ursulines de Québec, composed by the
+Superior of the convent. A nun of the sisterhood, Mère Aimable Dubé de
+Saint-Ignace, was, when a child, a witness of the scene, and preserved a
+vivid memory of it to the age of eighty-one.
+
+
+
+Appendix K.
+
+Chapter XXIX. Sainte-Foy.
+
+Strength of the French and English at the Battle of Ste.-Foy.
+
+In the Public Record Office (America and West Indies, XCIX.) are
+preserved the tabular returns of the garrison of Quebec for 1759, 1760,
+sent by Murray to the War Office. They show the exact condition of each
+regiment, in all ranks, for every month of the autumn, winter, and
+spring. The return made out on the 24th of April, four days before the
+battle, shows that the total number of rank and file, exclusive of
+non-commissioned officers and drummers, was 6,808, of whom 2,612 were
+fit for duty in Quebec, and 654 at other places in Canada; that is, at
+Ste.-Foy, Old Lorette, and the other outposts. This gives a total of
+3,266 rank and file fit for duty at or near Quebec; besides which there
+were between one hundred and two hundred artillerymen, and a company of
+rangers. This was Murray's whole available force at the time. Of the
+rest of the 6,808 who appear in the return, 2,299 were invalids at
+Quebec, and 669 in New York; 538 were on service in Halifax and New
+York, and 36 were absent on furlough. These figures nearly answer to the
+condensed statement of Fraser, and confirm the various English
+statements of the numbers that took part in the battle; namely, 3,140
+(Knox), 3,000 (John Johnson), 3,111, and elsewhere, in round numbers,
+3,000 (Murray). Lévis, with natural exaggeration, says 4,000. Three or
+four hundred were left in Quebec to guard the walls when the rest
+marched out.
+
+I have been thus particular because a Canadian writer, Garneau, says:
+"Murray sortit de la ville le 28 au matin à la tête de toute la
+garnison, dont les seules troupes de la ligne comptaient encore 7,714
+combattants, non compris les officiers." To prove this, he cites the
+pay-roll of the garrison; which, in fact, corresponds to the returns of
+the same date, if non-commissioned officers, drummers, and artillerymen
+are counted with the rank and file. But Garneau falls into a double
+error. He assumes, first, that there were no men on the sick list; and
+secondly, that there were none absent from Quebec; when in reality, as
+the returns show, considerably more than half were in one or the other
+of these categories. The pay-rolls were made out at the headquarters of
+each corps, and always included the entire number of men enlisted in it,
+whether sick or well, present or absent. On the same fallacious premises
+Garneau affirms that Wolfe, at the battle on the Plains of Abraham, had
+eight thousand soldiers, or a little less than double his actual force.
+
+Having stated, as above, that Murray marched out of Quebec with at least
+7,714 effective troops, Garneau, not very consistently, goes on to say
+that he advanced against Lévis with six thousand or seven thousand men;
+and he adds that the two armies were about equal, because Lévis had left
+some detachments behind to guard his boats and artillery. The number of
+the French, after they had all reached the field, was, in truth, about
+seven thousand; at the beginning of the fight it seems not to have
+exceeded five thousand. The Relation de la seconde Bataille de Québec
+says: "Notre petite armée consistoit au moment de l'action en 3,000
+hommes de troupes reglées et 2,000 Canadiens ou sauvages." A large
+number of Canadians came up from Sillery while the affair went on; and
+as the whole French army, except the detachments mentioned by Garneau,
+had passed the night at no greater distance from the field than Ste.-Foy
+and Sillery, the last man must have reached it before the firing was
+half over.
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+A.
+
+Abenakis, the I. 23, 40, 209, 480; settled in Canada, I. 23; at Fort
+Duquesne, I. 154; assist the Canadian militia, I. 371, 372; called to a
+council of war by Montcalm, I. 485-489; position of the English at Fort
+William Henry, I. 499; the massacre at Fort William Henry (see William
+Henry, Fort), I. 510-513, II. 428-431; evidence concerning the massacre,
+I. 514 note; their conversion to Christianity, I. 514 note; seize the
+messengers of Amherst, II. 251; Rogers sent to destroy one of their
+towns, II. 251, 253-258 note; their cruelty, II. 253, 255; the St.
+Francis settlement, II. 253, 254; statistics of warriors at the siege of
+Quebec, II. 436, 437.
+Abercromby, General James, I. 165 note; to supersede Webb in command of
+the army, I. 383; to resign in favor of Earl Loudon, I. 383; arrives at
+Albany, I. 399; sends a letter of approbation to Rogers, I. 445; Loudon
+recalled from office, II. 48; succeeds Loudon in command, II. 48; to
+lead the expedition against Louisbourg, II. 48; Amherst prevented from
+co-operation with, II. 75; the rejoicing at the fall of Louisbourg, II.
+76, 77; Amherst plans to assist him at Lake George, II. 80; expedition
+led by, against Ticonderoga, II. 85-113 note; his camp at Lake George,
+II. 88; his leadership, II. 89, 240; number of his troops, II. 88, 89;
+his opinion of Lord Howe, II. 89; statistics of the expedition against
+Ticonderoga, II. 91, 92, 431-433; the passage of Lake George, II. 92-94;
+the army lost in the woods, II. 95; effect of the death of Lord Howe
+upon his army, II. 97, 98; the army reaches the Falls, II. 98, 99;
+statements concerning the French defences, II. 100, 101; different
+courses of action open to, II. 101, 102; the eve of battle, II. 103,
+104; order of the assault, II. 105-107; his encounter with Montcalm at
+Ticonderoga, II. 106-110; his retreat, II. 110, 111, 114, 115, 165, 238;
+his losses, II. 110, 432, 433; a disgraceful order sent to Colonel
+Cummings, II. 114; nickname given to, by the Provincials, II. 115;
+visited by the chaplains, II. 117; sends a war-party into the woods, II.
+121-123; despatches Bradstreet to capture Fort Frontenac, II. 127;
+receives news of the fall of Fort Frontenac, II. 127; joined by Amherst,
+II. 129; Fort Frontenac dismantled, II. 129; his camp broken up, II.
+130; neglects to assist Forbes's army, II. 157; Amherst's superior
+leadership, II. 240; his letter to Pitt, II. 432.
+Abraham an Indian, I. 174.
+Abraham Martin, his name given to the Heights of Abraham, II. 289.
+Abraham, the Heights of, II. 259, 408, 438-441; Wolfe discovers a path
+ascending the cliff, II. 272, 273; general belief in the safety of the
+heights, II. 275, 276; ascent of the troops under Wolfe's direction, II.
+281, 287; statistics concerning Wolfe's army, and the action upon, II.
+438-441.
+Abraham, the Plains of, II. 200, 298 note, 327, 357; inaccessibility of,
+II. 260; Guienne's troops not at their post, II. 285; origin of the
+name, and description of, II. 289; the fall of Quebec, II. 302-324, 325
+note, 326 note, 444.
+Acadia, I. 178, 486; population of, I. 20, 94, 124, 264, 284; attacks
+made on New England, I. 28; questions of boundary, I. 90, 122-128, 184,
+236-238, 259; conquest of, by Nicholson in 1710, I. 90; conditions of
+residence for French subjects, I. 90, 91; conflict for, I. 90-127;
+English power in, I. 92; the naval station at Chebucto, I. 92, 93; ceded
+to England by France, I. 93, 94; determination of the French to recover
+it, I. 93-95; six principal parishes of, I. 94; documents on the affairs
+of, I. 94-96; religion, priests, and government of, I. 94, 99, 100, 107,
+259, 260; attention given by Count Raymond to the affairs of, I. 102;
+wretched condition of the emigrants from, I. 109, 110; Joseph Le Loutre,
+the vicar-general of, I. 113; Beaubassin occupied by the English, I.
+115-120; emigration encouraged by the French, I. 116; the question of
+French or English ownership, I. 123, 124, 184, 236, 239, II. 405; need
+of communication between Quebec and Cape Breton, I. 123; the census of,
+I. 124; expedition against, to be led by Lieutenant-Colonel Monckton, I.
+194; sad condition of the people of, I. 234, 235; the French use the
+inhabitants to carry on their war-parties, I. 235; questions of policy
+for the French and English in Acadia, I. 236-241; probability of French
+invasion, I. 237; importance of her harbors, I. 237; arrival of the
+English troops, I. 246, 247; conditions leading to the expulsion of the
+inhabitants from, I. 253-266; removal of the inhabitants from their
+homes, I. 255, 266-284; encampment of the New England troops, I. 269,
+270; tour of inspection made by Winslow, I. 271; arrival of the vessels
+of transport at Nova Scotia, I. 276; arrival of Saul with provisions, I.
+278, 279; embarkation of the Acadians, I. 279-281; return of a portion
+of the exiles, I. 283; the act of expatriation criticised, I. 284;
+families of British stock settle in, I. 284; capture of forts by the
+English, I. 328; plans of Vaudreuil for conquest, II. 178.
+Acadians, the I. 93; religious privileges accorded to, by the treaty of
+Utrecht, I. 91, 256; required to take the oath of allegiance to England,
+I. 91, 92, 235, 260; influence of the French upon, I. 91, 93-124,
+235-237, 242-245; their religion, I. 91, 95, 259, 260, 281; their
+hostility to the English encouraged by the French priests, I. 91,
+98-107, 109, 113, 114, 121, 122, 235, 236, 238, 257, 259, 260, 262, 264,
+II. 419-421; the war of 1745, I. 92; form of the oath of allegiance, I.
+92 note, 265; their condition and numbers from 1748 to 1752, I. 93, 94;
+official papers relating to, I. 94-96; taught to love France, and to
+call themselves French subjects, I. 94, 235, 237, 243, 245, 253, 257;
+treatment received from the English, and mildness of their rule, I.
+95-97, 235, 236, 261, II. 418, 419; quotations from Roma, alluding to,
+I. 96, 97; their fear of the Indians, I. 96, 108, 114, 235; join the
+Indian war-parties of the French against the English, I. 97, 103, 104,
+262, 264, 275, II. 419-421; their neutrality, I. 97, 258; their oath of
+allegiance to be made more binding, I. 97, 98; deputies sent to meet
+Cornwallis at Halifax, I. 97, 98; their refusal to take an unqualified
+oath of allegiance to George II., I. 97, 98; promise good behavior and a
+reasonable compliance, I. 98; order of Cornwallis issued to, concerning
+the oath, I. 98, 99; plans of the French to recover their possessions,
+I. 98-100; their covert war, I. 99-105; advised by Desherbiers and
+others to refuse the oath of allegiance, I. 101, 106; letters from
+French officials showing their secret work against the English, I. 101;
+encouraged by the French to emigrate to French lands, I. 102, 108-110;
+testimony of Prévost concerning, I. 105; cruelly and dishonorably
+treated by the priest Le Loutre, I. 108-110, 113-122, 235-238, 242-245,
+II. 420, 421; wretchedness of the emigrants after leaving their English
+farms, I. 109, 110, 119, 120-122, 235-238, 243-245, 265, 266; speech of
+Cornwallis to the deputies, I. 110, 111, 112; treatment received from
+Hopson, I. 112, 113; French method of terrifying, by using the Micmacs,
+I. 113, 114; occupation of Beaubassin by the English, I. 115-120;
+disaffection among, I. 116; forcibly removed by the French from
+Beaubassin, and obliged to live on French ground, I. 116; the murder of
+Captain Howe, I. 118, 119; a French fort to be built on Beauséjour, I.
+119, 120; ordered to swear allegiance to France, I. 120, 121; contest
+between French and English, I. 120-122; proclamation of Lawrence
+concerning, I. 121; absurd demands of Le Loutre, I. 121; a portion of
+the inhabitants cross the French lines, I. 121; their suffering inside
+the French lines, I. 121, 122, 244, 245; plans of Shirley to send away
+from Acadia all French settlers, 234, 257; a portion of the people
+transported to French settlements, I. 235, 235 note; fears of the
+English, I. 239-241; supplies sent to the emigrants, I. 242; their
+supplies stolen by the officials, I. 242; plans of Le Loutre for the
+emigrants, I. 243, 244; false statements of Le Loutre, I. 244; prevented
+by Le Loutre from appealing to Duquesne, I. 244; harsh treatment
+received from Governor Duquesne, I. 244, 245; desire of, to return to
+their English allegiance, I. 244, 245; an annoyance to the English, I.
+245; dealt with by the French with heartlessness, I. 245; their terror
+upon the arrival of the English troops, I. 247; disloyalty of, I. 248,
+257, 258; join the French garrison, I. 248; the siege of Beauséjour by
+the English, I. 248-253, 260; assisted by Le Loutre at Beauséjour, I.
+250; capitulation of Beauséjour, I. 251; condition leading to the
+expulsion of, from Acadia, I. 253-266; ordered by Monckton to meet him
+at Beauséjour, I. 254; sentence pronounced upon, by Monckton, and
+prisoners taken at Fort Cumberland, I. 254, 255, 266; explanation of the
+imprisonment of, I. 255-266; prevented by the priests from joining the
+English, I. 255; again ordered to take the oath of allegiance, I. 255;
+demands made by the priests with regard to their return to their home,
+I. 255, 256; refuse to take the oath of allegiance to England, I. 256;
+instruction sent to Governor Lawrence with regard to, I. 257; to be
+compelled to take the oath of allegiance, I. 257; desire of Shirley to
+expel from the county, I. 257; their country commonly considered an
+Arcadia, I. 258; depicted by Abbé Raynal, I. 258; their means and mode
+of living, I. 258-260; their population, I. 259; their houses, I. 259,
+268; their food, I. 259; their furniture, I. 259; their animals, I. 259;
+their clothing, I. 259; marriages among, I. 259, 260; their village
+life, I. 259, 260; their priests, religion, and government, I. 259, 260;
+only a few take the required oath, I. 260; the priests assist the French
+Bishop and Governor of Canada, I. 260; loyal to Louis XV., and untrue to
+George II., 260, 264; described by Dieréville, I. 260 note; the oath of
+allegiance administered by Governor Lawrence, I. 260; emigration of a
+small number of, to Cape Breton, I. 260; they return, and take the oath
+of allegiance, I. 260; kind treatment vouchsafed to the loyal
+inhabitants, I. 260; memorial bought by, to Captain Murray, I. 260-263;
+contents of their memorial sent to Governor Lawrence, I. 260-263; their
+insolence, I. 261; ordered to take the oath of allegiance to England, or
+to leave the country, I. 263, 264; again refuse the oath of allegiance,
+I. 264; declare their preference to lose their lands, I. 264; plans of
+removal discussed by the English, I. 265, 266; resolution to remove the
+people from their country, I. 265, 266; instructions quoted with regard
+to the removal of, I. 266, 267; instrumentality of the priests in the
+expulsion of, I. 265, 266, 266 note; removal of, by the English, from
+their homes, I. 266-284; summoned to meet Winslow to hear the orders of
+George II., I. 271-274; meet Winslow in the church at Grand Pré, I.
+272-274, 276; declared prisoners of the King, I. 274; unite with the
+Indians to attack the English, I. 275; number in charge of Winslow, I.
+276; arrival of the transports, I. 276; detention of, on the vessels, I.
+276, 277, 277 note; supplies for the prisoners delayed, I. 278, 279;
+cases of the separation of families, I. 279, 280; removal of, described,
+I. 279-282; effort of the prisoners to escape, I. 280; number of,
+embarked for the colonies, I. 280-282; guerilla warfare against the
+English, I. 282; distribution of the exiles, I. 282; treatment received
+in the colonies, I. 282; heartless outrages practised upon, in Canada,
+I. 282, 283, II. 26; exiles on one of the vessels escape to the St.
+John, I. 282; sent to France, I. 283; sent to England, I. 283;
+progenitors of the present race, I. 283; death of, I. 283; arrival of
+the exiles in Louisiana, I. 283; at the siege of Louisbourg, II. 62, 66;
+false dealing of, Boishébert, II. 170; their hostility to the English,
+II. 181.
+Achilles, I. 353, II. 184.
+Acts of Parliament. See Parliament.
+Adams, a wagoner, carries a letter of warning to Fort Lyman, I. 296;
+shot by the Indians, I. 299.
+Adams, Captain, I. 249, 270, 272; removal of the Acadians, I. 267, 270,
+276, 277, 280 note.
+Adams, Parson, I. 6.
+Adirondacks, I. 453.
+Admiralty, the position held by Anson, I. 179.
+Admiralty, Lords of the, citation from letters to, I. 181.
+Africa, II. 44, 49; the French driven from Guinea, II. 47; the power of
+England over, II. 400; France cedes Senegal, II. 406.
+Aigues Mortes, dungeons of, I. 21.
+Aix-la-Chapelle, the treaty of, I. 9, 19, 36, 43, 94, 359, 360, II. 53,
+406; questions of boundary to be settled by commissioners, I. 122-128.
+Alais, I. 455.
+Albany, I. 28, 65, 171, 233, 289, 290, 298, 310, 326, 403, 421, 435,
+452, II. 91, 93; conservatism of, in the eighteenth century, I. 33;
+meeting of Indians and commissioners, I. 61; news sent to, of the death
+of Lord Howe, II. 98; advance of Bradstreet, II. 129; congress of
+Indians and English held, I. 172-176; plan of Franklin for colonial
+union, I. 175; the Dutch at, I. 193, 320; decisions of the council, I.
+194, 195; described by Mrs. Grant, I. 319, 320; the base of military
+operations, I. 319, 320; headquarters of Shirley, I. 384, 393; the
+Indians mislead by the traders, I. 390; plans of Vaudreuil, I. 393, 394;
+return of Bradstreet, I. 395, 396; arrival of Webb and Abercromby, I.
+399; rumors of danger from the enemy, I. 415, 475, II. 3.
+Albemarle, Lord, Governor of Virginia, I. 105 note, 137; English
+ambassador at Versailles, I. 180; his death, I. 184.
+Albemarle, Earl of, expedition of, II. 401, 402.
+"Alcide," the, I. 185.
+Alembert, D', I. 16.
+Alequippa, Queen, I. 151; flies from her possessions, I. 45.
+Alexander, II. 408.
+Alexandria, I. 142, 162, 247; camp of Braddock at, I. 191; council held
+at the camp, I. 196 note, 234, 241, 286.
+Algonquins, or Algonkins, the, I. 74; at Fort Duquesne, I. 154; assist
+the Canadian militia, I. 372; their means of divination, I. 438 note;
+called to a council by Montcalm, I. 485-489.
+Alleghany Mountains, the, I. 20, 40, 59, 124, 125, 127, 145, 148, 161,
+372, II. 130, 133, 141; crossed by the English traders, I. 42; road made
+through, by Braddock's forces, I. 205, II. 138, 141; condition of the
+settlers, I. 335.
+Alleghany River, the, I. 39, 128, 133, 136, 143, 207, 222, 233, 423,
+424, II. 149, 152, 154, 159; work of Céloron de Bienville, I. 43;
+settlement of Shenango, I. 46; a fort planned, I. 130.
+Allen, Ensign, to train the Provincials in Braddock's expedition, I.
+200, 201.
+Allen, Chief Justice, letter from Bouquet quoted, II. 161, 161 note.
+Alsopp, George, II. 439.
+Alva, II. 404.
+Amalek, II. 89.
+America, I. 202, 219 note, 230 note, 251, 295, 360, 369, 383, II. 45,
+49, 191, 271, 391, 401; conditions during, and results following, the
+Seven Years War in Europe, I. 1, 20; complication of political
+interests, I. 1, 3, 4; the War of Independence, I. 1; the British and
+French possessions compared, I. 1-3; British soldiers in, I. 9; number
+of French and English inhabitants in the middle of the eighteenth
+century, I. 20; towns and colonies compared and contrasted, I. 25-36;
+plan for the increase of French settlements, I. 37; questions of
+boundaries, I. 37, 43, 76, 79, 86, 122-128; commissioners appointed to
+decide upon French and English possessions in, I. 123-127; the balance
+of power, I. 126; conditions in the English colonies, I. 160-171;
+results of the meeting of the colonial Assemblies with their governors,
+I. 163-169; France and England compared, I. 181; the policy of England,
+I. 181; regiments ordered to, from England, I. 181, 182; expedition
+ordered to, from France, I. 182, 183; council of American governors held
+with Braddock, I. 191-195; the democracy of Pennsylvania, I. 338; holds
+a secondary place in the interests of France, I. 355; conflict of the
+eighteenth century, I. 355; French power in, to be sustained, I. 356,
+414; money granted by Parliament to the colonies, I. 382, 382 note;
+usefulness of Indian warriors, I. 484; the power of Pitt, II. 43, 44;
+interest felt for, by Pitt, II. 47-49; prophecy of John Mellen, II. 378;
+and of the French and English War, II., 378-382, 386; predictions
+concerning the future of the British colonies, II. 403, 404.
+American Antiquarian Society, the, I. 48; plate buried by the French in
+possession of, I. 48; Transactions of, I. 48.
+Amherst, Lieutenant-Colonel, recaptures St. John's, II. 402.
+Amherst, Jeffrey, II. 194 note, 231, 339; recalled from the German war,
+II. 48; his character, II. 48; promoted to be major-general, II. 48;
+takes command of the expedition against Louisbourg, II. 48, 49, 51,
+56-81; plans of attack, II. 57, 58; lands his troops at Freshwater Cove,
+II. 57-60; his camp, II. 61; roads made through marshes, II. 61, 62;
+courtesies between the commanders, II. 64, 65; his humanity, II. 70, 70
+note, 374; terms of capitulation extended to Louisbourg, II. 71, 72;
+capitulation of Louisbourg, II. 74, 75, 75 note; prevented from uniting
+with Abercromby, II. 75; increases his conquests, II. 78; action after
+the reduction of Louisbourg, II. 79, 80; orders issued to Wolfe, II. 80,
+81; evidences concerning the siege of Louisbourg, II. 81 note; joins
+Abercromby at Lake George, II. 129; letter sent to, from General Forbes,
+II. 161; his army moves against Ticonderoga, II. 197, 210, 222; his
+ability to render aid to Wolfe, II. 210, 212; commander-in-chief of the
+troops in America, II. 235; plans of Pitt for his movements, II. 235,
+236; deputes Prideaux to take charge of the expedition against Niagara,
+II. 235, 236; the capture of Ticonderoga, II. 235-241; on Lake George,
+II. 235, 236; forts built by, II. 237; Bourlamaque retires before, II.
+238, 239; Ticonderoga blown up by the French, II. 239; advances upon
+Crown Point, II. 240, 241; his delay in joining Wolfe, II. 240-242, 249,
+250, 272, 323; Crown Point rebuilt by, II. 240, 241; roads built by,
+across Vermont, II. 241; his navy, II. 241, 242, 251, 252; at Crown
+Point, II. 249; tries to pacify the Abenakis, II. 251; sends Major
+Rogers to destroy the Abenakis' town, II. 251, 253; unsuccessful attempt
+to reach Isle-aux-Noix, II. 251, 252; the result of his campaign, II.
+252, 253; desired to send supplies to Rogers, II. 254, 256, 257;
+Lieutenant Stephan sent to meet Rogers' rangers, II. 256, 257; letter
+from Rogers, II. 258 note; defers his advance upon Montreal, II. 265;
+his plans, II. 361; the fall of Canada, II. 361-382; his army embarks
+for Montreal, II. 369; the "Ottawa" captured, II. 369; attacks Fort
+Lévis, II. 369, 370; passage of the rapids, II. 370, 371; encamps near
+Montreal, II. 371; number of his troops, II. 372, 372 note; a council of
+war held by Vaudreuil, II. 372; articles of capitulation insisted upon
+by Amherst, II. 372-374; his detestation of French cruelty, II. 373;
+Vaudreuil obliged to surrender Montreal, II. 376; the news of his
+victory received in Boston, II. 377-379; sends his brother to recapture
+St. John's, II. 402.
+Amonoosuc River, the, II. 256, 257.
+Anastase, I. 209.
+Anastase, Father, I. 209.
+Anbury, the traveller, II. 426.
+Ange, Gardien L', landing of the English before, II. 217; burned by the
+order of Wolfe, II. 261.
+Anglican Church, the, in New York, I. 32.
+Anglicans, the, I. 29.
+Anglo-Saxon race, the, I. 25.
+Annapolis, Acadia, I. 92, 106, 178, 241, 279; garrison at, I. 92, 93;
+parish of, I. 94; Acadians encouraged to emigrate from, I. 108, 109; the
+inhabitants of the valley, I. 235; French feeling in the hearts of the
+inhabitants, I. 237; arrival of the English force, I. 247; means of
+living practised by the Acadians, I. 258, 259; number of Acadians sent
+away in the vessels, I. 280; isolation of the garrison at, II. 77;
+rejoicing at the fall of Louisbourg, II. 77, 78.
+Anne, Fort, II. 121.
+Anse de Foulon, II. 276, 284, 286, 344, 346, 347, 354; now called
+Wolfe's Cove, II. 278.
+Anson, First Lord of the Admiralty, I. 179, II. 50.
+Anthonay, D', lieutenant-colonel, sent to the English concerning the
+terms of capitulation for Louisbourg, II. 71; empowered to accept the
+capitulation for Louisbourg, II. 73, 74.
+"Apollon," the number of her guns, II. 54 note.
+Appendix A., II. 417, 418; references to, I. 67 note, 68 note, 78 note.
+Appendix B., II. 418-421; references to, I. 100 note, 104 note, 127
+note.
+Appendix C., II. 421-423; references to, I. 158 note, 161 note.
+Appendix D., II. 423-426; references to, I. 208 note, 215 note.
+Appendix E., II. 426-428.
+Appendix F., II. 428-431.
+Appendix G., II. 431-436; references to, II. 93 note, 113 note.
+Appendix H., II. 436-438.
+Appendix I., II. 438; reference to, II. 298 note.
+Appendix J., II. 438-441, 442; reference to, II. 326 note.
+Appendix K., II. 442-444; reference to, II. 359 note.
+Appleton, Nathaniel, his utterance after the fall of Canada, II. 379.
+Apthorp, a Boston merchant, I. 245; furnishes money for the English
+troops, I. 245.
+Arbuthnot, William, his attestation, I. 505 note.
+Arcadia, I. 258.
+"Aréthuse," the, II. 63; number of her guns, II. 54 note; fires upon the
+English, II. 64; withdrawn from her position, II. 65.
+Argens, D', letters from Frederick II., II. 387-389.
+Argenson, D', Minister of War, 1743-1747, I. 15, 355, 367, II. 44;
+writes to Montcalm of his appointment, I. 360; letter to, from Montcalm,
+I. 377; reinforcements sent to Canada, I. 467, 468.
+Armstrong, Colonel George, I. 423, II. 158; the attack upon Kittanning,
+I. 423-427; receives a medal from the Council of Philadelphia, I. 426.
+Army, the English, matters pertaining to the troops, I. 383-387;
+discipline in, II. 119. See English.
+Army, the French, description of French troops, I. 368-373; number of
+troops in Canada, I. 368, I. 368 note. See French.
+Army, the Provincial, I. 290, 291; manners and morals of, I. 292;
+preaching on Sunday to, I. 295, 296.
+Army chaplains, II. 116, 117.
+Arnoux, Surgeon, II. 308; Montcalm carried to his house, II. 308, 441.
+Arthur's Club, I. 7.
+Artillery Cove, I. 498.
+Artois, batallion of, I. 368, II. 54, 73; ordered to America, I. 182.
+Ashley, Dr., his death, II. 120.
+Ashley, John, difficulties among the war committees, I. 387.
+Asia, diplomatic and political position of France and England towards,
+I. 3, 4; the power of England over, II. 400.
+Assemblies of the English colonies, the, neglect their own interests, I.
+86; instructions from the Lords of Trade, I. 172, 173; matters to be
+laid before, I. 195.
+Assembly of Massachusetts, the, dealings of Governor Shirley with, I.
+168, 169; grants money to aid the English in Maine, I. 169; plans of
+Shirley laid before, I. 241; money and supplies voted by, for the
+expedition against Crown Point, I. 285, 286.
+Assembly of New York, the, I. 59; quotation from Governor Clinton
+concerning their neglect in protecting Indian trade, II. 61, 62; apathy
+of, I. 73; address of, to Lieutenant-Governor Delancey, cited, I. 168;
+results of the meeting of, with the Governor of New York, I. 168, 169;
+its hostility to Johnson, I. 328; political difficulties, I. 350.
+Assembly of Pennsylvania, the, I. 59, 141, 142, 426; refuses the request
+of the Indians to build a trading-house on the Ohio, I. 60; unwilling to
+aid Dinwiddie, I. 142; letter from the Earl of Holdernesse laid before,
+I. 165; persons composing, I. 165, 166; result of the meeting with the
+Governor, I. 165-168; quarrels with the Governor, I. 191, 340-342, 348,
+349, 350 note, 351 note, II. 131, 135; needs of the people laid before,
+I. 336; causes of military paralysis, I. 337, 338; question of taxing
+proprietary lands, I. 337-341, 344-347; Benjamin Franklin leader in, I.
+338; relations of, with the people, I. 339-350; relations of, with
+Governor Morris, I. 339-350; contentions with the Quakers and the
+Governor, I. 340, 341; desires to issue bills of credit, I. 344-346; the
+paper called a "Representation" sent to the House, I. 346; anger of the
+Quakers, I. 346, 347; deputations from the people and from friendly
+Indians seeking aid, I. 347; growing unpopularity of, I. 347, 348; a
+militia law passed, I. 348; the proprietaries of Pennsylvania offer to
+raise money for defence, I. 349; difficulties in quartering the troops,
+I. 439, 440.
+Assembly of Virginia, I. 137; efforts of Dinwiddie to repel the French
+in the West, I. 137-140; aid voted to Dinwiddie, i, 139, 140, 233;
+slowness of movement of, I. 144; speech of Dinwiddie to, I. 163, 164,
+165; result of the meeting with Dinwiddie, I. 165, 233; the distress of
+the people, I. 332, 333; the needs of Washington, I. 332, 333; needs of
+the people laid before, I. 336.
+Atlantic Ocean, the, I. 4, 87, 123, 205, 469, II. 176, 412; the United
+States, II. 413; English possessions bordering on, I. 20.
+Attiqué, village of, I. 45; French name of Kittanning, I. 426. See
+Kittanning.
+Aubry, II. 244; the engagement at Niagara, II. 244-249; taken prisoner,
+II. 248.
+Augsburg, II. 394.
+Augusta, Fort, II. 147.
+"Auguste," fate of the, II. 384, 385.
+Augustus the Strong, I. 10.
+Aulac, inhabitants removed from, I. 255; the declaration of Monckton, I.
+254.
+Austria, effects of the French alliance, I. 2; succession of Maria
+Theresa, I. 18; political alliances sought, I. 353, 354; a Catholic
+country, I. 355; troops sent against, I. 363; position of affairs in
+Europe, II. 38, 39; policy of George III., II. 393; hostile to Prussia,
+II. 399; the treaty of Hubertsburg, II. 407.
+Austria, House of, its rule, I. 16, 17; enmity of France towards, I. 19.
+Austrian Succession, the war of, I. 19.
+Austrians, the, II. 40; the battle of Prague, II. 39; routed at Leuthen,
+II. 46; fly before Frederic, II. 386.
+Auxerrois, I. 359.
+Avery, Ensign, the expedition against the Abenakis, II. 255-257.
+Avon River, the former name of, I. 268.
+Awe River, the, II. 433.
+
+
+B.
+
+Babiole, I. 354.
+Baby, a Canadian officer, I. 330 note.
+Babylon, II. 89, 378, 384.
+Bagley, Colonel Jonathan, II. 76, 77, 115, 117; commands at Fort William
+Henry, I. 388; preparations for attacking Ticonderoga, I. 388, 389;
+extracts from his letters, I. 389.
+Bahama Islands, the, I. 421.
+Baker, a soldier, I. 424.
+Bald Mountain, I. 477.
+Ball, a dog, II. 189.
+Ballads, II. 233 note.
+Barachois, II. 63, 67; approach of the English, II. 64.
+Barbadoes, Island of, II. 190.
+Barnsley, Thomas, II. 124 note.
+Barré, II. 46, 268.
+Barrington, Viscount, II. 398, 432; replaces Chancellor Legge, II. 393.
+Bassignac, De, curious incident in the attack on Montcalm, at
+Ticonderoga, II. 107.
+Bastille, the, I. 15, II. 385.
+Bath, Lady, I. 189.
+Bath, Lord, II. 404 note.
+Bath, England, I. 7, 188, 311, II. 190.
+Batiscan, I. 371, II. 332.
+Bavaria, the Elector of, I. 19.
+Béarn, the battalion of, I. 374, II. 104, 109, 230; ordered to America,
+I. 182; uniform of the battalion of, I. 368 note; encamped before
+Niagara, I. 376; capture of Oswego, I. 408; preparations to attack Fort
+William Henry, I. 477; advance of Montcalm upon Fort William Henry, I.
+491; mutiny at Montreal, II. 10; attack upon Quebec, II. 292.
+Beaubassin, Madame de, suppers given by, I. 458.
+Beaubassin, I. 94; English occupation of, I. 115, 116-120; the parish
+fired by Le Loutre, I. 116; departure of Major Lawrence from, and return
+of, I. 116, 117.
+Beauce, I. 76.
+Beauchamp, merchant, I. 271.
+Beaucour, La Roche, I. 457, II. 428.
+Beaujeu, Captain, at Fort Duquesne, I. 208, II. 423; encounter of the
+French with the English, I. 210-227; death of, I. 215.
+Beaumont, II. 225.
+Beauport, the village of, II. 200, 212, 228, 265, 274, 303; Montcalm
+stations his camp here at the siege of Quebec, II. 200, 201, 208, 209,
+292, 298 note, 305; attack of Wolfe on the French camp, II. 230-233;
+approach of Wolfe's fleet, II. 282, 288; flight of the French army, II.
+300-302, 307; the French supplies plundered, II. 311; return of the army
+to Quebec, II. 313.
+Beauport, River of, II. 201, 208, 209.
+Beauséjour, Fort, I. 122, II. 181; erected by the French, I. 119, 120,
+235; an attack upon, planned by the English, I. 192-194, 196, 236, 239,
+241, 245; strength of the fort, I. 238, 241; M. Vergor commandant of, I.
+239, 241, 242; official corruption at, I. 242, 243, 245, 250, 251;
+encounter of the French with the English, I. 247-253, 260; capitulation
+offered by the French, I. 251; escape of Le Loutre, I. 252; capture of,
+I. 253, 256, II. 193, 278; became Fort Cumberland, I. 253; encampment of
+Monckton, I. 254; the declaration of Monckton, I. 254; inhabitants
+removed from, I. 255; departure of Winslow from, I. 267.
+Beauséjour, hill, I. 116, 118.
+Beaver, King, Indian chief, II. 145.
+Beaver. See Fur-trade.
+Beaver Creek, II. 145.
+Becancour, M. de, I. 71.
+Becancour, I. 485.
+Bedford, Duke of, II. 393; sent to Paris to negotiate for peace, II.
+403.
+Bedford, Fort, erection of, II. 141.
+Bedford, town of, II. 133.
+Belcher, Governor of New Jersey, I. 392; declares war against the
+Indians, I. 392; postpones his action, I. 393.
+Belêtre conducts a war-party, I. 74; the attack at German Flats, II. 6,
+7.
+Belknap, his "History of New Hampshire" cited, I. 510 note.
+Bellamy, George Anne, story of Braddock in regard to, I. 190, 190 note.
+Bellaston, Lady, I. 6.
+Belleisle, Maréchal de, minister of war, 1758-1761, II. 35, 176;
+double-dealing and boasting of Vaudreuil, II. 171-173, 198; his letter
+to Montcalm, II. 176, 177; plans of war enjoined upon Montcalm, II. 177,
+178; letter from Vaudreuil to, II. 319.
+Belleisle, II. 401, 405.
+Bellona, I. 480.
+Bengal, II. 406.
+Bennington, I. 291.
+Benoît, II. 28.
+Berkeley, Sir William, his opinion of education for the people, I. 29.
+Berks, I. 347.
+Berlin, II. 388.
+Bernard, Governor of Massachusetts, II. 376, 377.
+Bernès, II. 99.
+Berniers, commissary-general, II. 259, 260, 438; the state of Quebec
+described after the siege, II. 328.
+Bernis, Abbé de, minister of foreign affairs, II. 393.
+Berry, battalion of, II. 87, 88, 99, 100, 104, 105.
+Berryer, minister of marine and colonies, 1758-1761, II. 175; official
+corruption in Canada, II. 31-33; ministerial rebukes sent to officials
+in Canada, II. 31-37; letters from Vaudreuil, II. 141, 142, 173, 318,
+319; boasting and jealousy of Vaudreuil, II. 164, 171; prepossessed
+against Bouganville, II. 173, 175; reproof given to Vaudreuil, II. 375.
+Biddle, Edward, letter from Reading, I. 344.
+"Biche" number of her guns, II. 54 note.
+"Bienfaisant," II. 67; number of her guns, II. 54 note; seized by the
+English, II. 68, 69.
+Bienville, Céloron de. See Céloron.
+Bigot, François, Intendant of Canada, I. 65 note, 67, 67 note, 77 note,
+80, 81, 242, II. 9, 17; his official corruption, I. 80, 81, 87, 88, 242,
+462, II. 22-38; his plans against the English, I. 101; the Indians
+encouraged to butcher the English, I. 103; sails for Europe, I. 242;
+returns to Canada, I. 253; defends Vergor, I. 253, II. 278; his
+character and office, I. 376, II. 17, 18, 32, 33; his popularity, I.
+466; relates the cruelties of the Indians, II. 4, 5; his relations with
+Vaudreuil, II. 18, 319, 323; his birth, II. 18; his official journeys
+and pleasure-excursions, II. 18-21; his manner of life, II. 18-22,
+28-30, 203; his houses and palace, II. 21, 22; his gambling, and frauds
+in trade, II. 21, 22-28; his circle of friends, II. 22-30; the lover of
+Madame Péan, II. 28; receives ministerial rebukes, II. 31-37; promissory
+notes issued, II. 32; revelations of his stealings, II. 34-37, 37 note;
+breaks with Cadet, II. 36; statistics concerning the rations at Fort
+Duquesne, II. 152 note; the dissensions between Montcalm and Vaudreuil,
+II. 167; the siege and reduction of Quebec, II. 202, 234, 259, 326 note;
+Vaudreuil holds a council of war, II. 218, 219, 305, 306; forces at
+Quebec, II. 298 note, 437; French troops available after the battle, II.
+305 note; returns with the army to Quebec, II. 313, 314; arrested, and
+thrown into the Bastille, II. 385; his trial, II. 385, 386; his
+sentence, II. 386; his letters, II. 438.
+"Billy" assists Surgeon Williams, I. 306; sickness in the army, II. 120.
+"Bizarre," number of her guns, II. 54 note.
+Black Hole of Calcutta, the, II. 45.
+Black Hunter, the, I. 204.
+Black Mountain, I. 430.
+Black Point, II. 53.
+Black Rifle, the, I. 204.
+Blanchard, Colonel, defends Fort Lyman, I. 294; a letter of warning sent
+to, I. 296.
+Blodget, Samuel, I. 301 note; his view of the battle at Lake George, I.
+306; prospective plan, etc., of the battle near Lake George, etc., I.
+316 note, 317 note.
+Blomedon, Cape, I. 268, 269.
+"Bloody morning scout," the, I. 303.
+Bloody Pond, origin of its name, I. 309.
+Blue Ridge, panic among the settlers, I. 331.
+Bœufs, Rivière aux, I. 128.
+Boishébert, a French officer, I. 265, 266, 420, 436; to induce the
+Acadians to leave their home, I. 99; troops sent to watch the English
+frontier, I. 116; letter to Manach quoted, I. 266; leads the attack at
+Peticodiac, I. 276; forces of, I. 276 note; approaches Louisbourg, II.
+66; tried for peculation, II. 170; his dealings with the Acadians, II.
+170.
+Bolling, a Virginia gentleman, I. 226, 226 note.
+Bolton, I. 492 note.
+Bonaventure, I. 125.
+Bond, Dr., I. 228.
+Bonhomme, Michel, II. 309.
+Bonnecamp, Father, a Jesuit priest, I. 52, 53; extract from his journal,
+I. 39, 45, 62 note; his map, I. 62 note; at Detroit, I. 76; his opinion
+of Céloron, I. 77.
+Bordeaux, I. 457, II. 18, 23.
+Boscawen, Admiral, ordered to intercept the French fleet, I. 184-186;
+takes charge of the fleet sent against Louisbourg, II. 49, 51, 56-74; at
+Halifax, II. 56, 57; siege and capitulation of Louisbourg, II. 57-75;
+the correspondence with Drucour, II. 71, 72, 74, 81 note; unwilling to
+follow Amherst's wishes, II. 79.
+Boston, I. 239, 245, 317 note, II. 77, 79; relative size of, I. 31;
+rules laid down for the soldiers on the Sabbath Day, I. 246; departure
+of the English troops for Nova Scotia, I. 247; transport-vessels to be
+hired to convey the Acadians from Nova Scotia, I. 266, 276; treatment
+received by the Acadian exiles, I. 282; winter-quarters found for the
+troops, I. 439, 440; rejoicing at the fall of Louisbourg, II. 78; taxes
+levied to pay the war-debt, II. 85; news of the fall of Canada, II. 377.
+"Boston Evening Post," article upon provincial soldiery, II. 118, 119.
+Botwood, Edward, killed, II. 233 note; "Hot Stuff," II. 234 note.
+Bougainville, I. 376, 407, 454; aide-de-camp to Montcalm, I. 282, 361;
+his description of the Acadian exiles, I. 282, 283; his youth, I. 363;
+friendly relations with Montcalm, I. 363, 456, 465; terms of
+capitulation proposed to the English, at Oswego, I. 413; joins the
+war-party of Perière, I. 429-431; his description of the Indians and
+their cruelties, I. 430, 431, 465, 478, 479, 483, 484, 506, 507, II. 4,
+5, 10, 11, 145 note; perplexity at finding the boats of Rogers, I. 437;
+praised by Bourlamaque, I. 455; life during Lent, I. 458; the
+ships-of-war at Louisbourg, I. 473 note; seeks to gain Indian allies, I.
+475, 476; sings the war-song, I. 476; the "St. Bartholomew of the oxen,"
+I. 479; his diary quoted, I. 503, 513 note; sent as a messenger to
+Montreal from Fort William Henry, I. 508; evidence concerning the
+massacre at Fort William Henry, I. 514 note; official knavery commented
+upon, II. 27; double-dealing of Vaudreuil, II. 173; extract from,
+concerning Vaudreuil's plans, II. 86, 87; slightly wounded, II. 110;
+expedition of, to France, II. 173-176; his efforts to gain aid for
+Canada, II. 173-175; his promotion, II. 174; to negotiate the marriages
+of the children of Montcalm, II. 176; return to Canada, II. 176, 177,
+197, 198; sad news brought to Montcalm, II. 179; his opinion of the
+strength of Quebec, II. 209; sent from Beauport to oppose the English,
+II. 263; precautions taken to watch the shore of Quebec, II. 275, 276;
+at Cap-Rouge, II. 276; Holmes's vessels sail up the river, II. 278, 279;
+deceived by a feint of Wolfe, II. 279, 280; deceived by the movement of
+Holmes's vessels, II. 283; supply-boats to be sent to Montcalm, II. 283,
+286; neglects to follow Holmes's vessels, II. 285; danger of Wolfe's
+position, II. 288, 289; attacks the light infantry, II. 290; repulsed,
+II. 290; statistics of the forces at Quebec, II. 298 note; the fall of
+his friends, II. 304; council of war held, II. 305; his forces, II. 305,
+305 note; question of capitulation for Quebec, II. 305-307; remains at
+Cap-Rouge, II. 313, 314; follows the army to Quebec, II. 314; the fall
+of Canada, II. 360-382; at Isle-aux-Noix, II. 361; ordered to stop
+Haviland's progress, II. 367; at Montreal, II. 372; articles of
+capitulation carried to Amherst, II. 372-373; Montreal capitulates, II.
+372-374.
+Boundary, questions of, I. 37, 61, 79, 122, 123-128, 168, 184, 236-238,
+259; the matter discussed at Paris, I. 86.
+Bouquet, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry, II. 133; serves in reducing Fort
+Duquesne, II. 133, 163; interview with Washington, II. 133; his
+soldiers, II. 133; the expedition against Fort Duquesne, II. 133-163;
+justice of his opinion of Washington, II. 134; relations with Forbes,
+II. 134, 135; extracts from his correspondence with Forbes, II. 136-138,
+142, 154, 155; his tact with the Indians, II. 139, 140; forward movement
+of, II. 141; the road over Alleghanies, II. 141; Grant's expedition, II.
+151-155; retreat of Major Grant, II. 154; sufferings of Forbes's troops,
+II. 157; letter to Chief Justice Allen quoted, II. 161, 161 note.
+Bourbon, house of, I. 9, 41, 42, 76, 453, II. 397, 408; triumphs of, I.
+10; the Family Compact, II. 396.
+Bourbon, Island of, I. 10.
+Bourgogne, battalion of, I. 368, II. 54; ordered to America, I. 182.
+Bourlamaque, Chevalier de, I. 373, II. 96, 212, 308; named as the third
+officer of Montcalm, I. 360, II. 87; embarks for America, I. 363, 364;
+extracts from his correspondence with Montcalm, I. 454, 455, 457-459,
+466, II. 7, 8, 167-169, 275, 427, 428, 438; encampment of, I. 477;
+preparations to attack Fort William Henry, I. 477; his efforts to save
+the English, I. 510; Montcalm's position near Ticonderoga, II. 99; the
+battle of Ticonderoga, II. 104; wounded, II. 110; his promotion, II.
+174; ordered to hold Ticonderoga, II. 195; troops ordered to Quebec, II.
+198; letter from Vaudreuil, II. 233; Amherst attacks him, II. 237, 238;
+retires before Amherst, II. 238; at Isle-aux-Noix, II. 238, 239, 249,
+265; letter from Lévis quoted, II. 252; retreat of, II. 265; letter from
+Vaudreuil, II. 275; his troops advance upon Montreal, II. 364, 365; his
+troops thinning out, II. 365, 366; joined by the French, II. 368;
+movements of Amherst, II. 369, 370; at Montreal, II. 372; letter from
+Montcalm given in the original, II. 427, 428.
+Braddock, Major-General, I. 181, 286, 318; ordered to America with
+regiments, I. 181-183; his arrival at Hampton, I. 187; opinion of,
+expressed by Dinwiddie, I. 187, 188; opinions of, held by different
+persons, I. 187-190; characteristics of, I. 187-191; anecdotes of, I.
+188-190; story told of duel with Colonel Gumley, I. 189; beloved as
+Governor of Gibraltar, I. 189, 190; interview with Dury, I. 190; parting
+visit to George Anne Bellamy, I. 190; doubts concerning the office held
+at Gibraltar, I. 190 note; position held by, in the Coldstream Guards,
+I. 191; arrival of the regiments at Hampton, I. 191; opinion of, held by
+Horace Walpole, I. 191; sends for the governors of the colonies to meet
+in council, I. 191-195; his instructions laid before the council at
+Albany, I. 193, 194; in sympathy with Shirley's plans, I. 193, 194; to
+lead the expedition against Fort Duquesne, I. 194; decisions of the
+Council at Albany, I. 194, 195; suggestions of, approved by the Council
+at Albany, I. 195; matters to be laid before the colonial Assemblies, I.
+195; suggestions of, with regard to ship-building, I. 195; error in
+regard to his campaign, I. 196; lands in Virginia, I. 196; supplies
+scarce, I. 197-199; aided by Franklin, I. 198, 199; his expedition
+against Fort Duquesne, I. 198, 227-233, II. 423-426; need of wagons, I.
+199; his troops, I. 200, 214, 220 note; his estimate of the provincial
+troops, I. 200, 201; relations with Washington, I. 201; his horses and
+wagons, I. 199, 201; invites Washington to become his aide-de-camp, I.
+203; tries to secure the aid of Indians, I. 203, 204; his reception of
+Captain Jack and his company, I. 204; departure of his expedition for
+the scene of action, I. 204, 205; his scorn of Indians, I. 204, 205;
+road made for his expedition, I. 204-206, II. 133, 137, 161;
+difficulties of the march, I. 205, 206; consultation with Washington, I.
+206; his forces reach Little Meadows, I. 206; illness among his men, I.
+206; his mode of advance, I. 206, 207; fords the Monongahela, I. 207,
+212; rumors of his approach reach Fort Duquesne, I. 210, 211; nature of
+the country through which he passed, 213-216; destructive fire of the
+French and Indians, I. 216, 217; confusion among the English troops, I.
+216, 218; his ignorance of American warfare, I. 217; horrors of the
+battle, I. 217-219; number of his army lost in the battle of the
+Monongahela, I. 219, 220, 220 note; shot in the lungs, I. 220; his
+papers left to the Indians, I. 220; retreat of his troops, I. 220-227;
+his defeat, I. 220-227, 221 note, 293, 322, 323, 329, 340, 414, II. 221,
+423-426; plans drawn by Mackellar for his expedition, I. 221 note;
+condition of, I. 223; his sufferings, I. 224; reinforcements for, under
+Dunbar, I. 223, 224; confusion in his camp, I. 225; panic among the
+troops, I. 225; his death, I. 225, 226, 323, 328, II. 134; remarks
+concerning the soldiery, I. 225, 226; buried in the road, I. 226;
+mentioned in Campbell's letter, I. 227; letter from Washington quoted,
+concerning, I. 230; Shirley made commander-in-chief, I. 233; the Council
+at Alexandria, I. 234, 286; letters of, warn Dieskau of danger, I. 288,
+289; his dead soldiers left to the wolves, but afterwards buried, I.
+312, II. 159, 160; his captured papers reveal the plans of the English,
+I. 324; his instructions to Major-General Shirley, I. 326 note; his
+roads used by the invaders, I. 331; his battalions, I. 382; journal of
+his expedition, I. 196 note; compared with Forbes, II. 134.
+Braddock, Fanny, stories of, I. 188, 189; her death, I. 188, 189.
+Bradstreet, Lieutentant-Colonel John, men placed under, by Shirley, I.
+393; his boatmen carry provisions to Oswego, I. 393, 394; action with
+Villiers' forces, I. 394-396; his success, I. 395-397; his boatmen sent
+to Oswego, I. 405; serves under Abercromby, II. 93; reconnoitres the
+landing, II. 94; his action after the death of Lord Howe, II. 98; his
+armed boatmen, II. 105; troops given him to conquer Fort Frontenac, II.
+127, 128; conquest of Fort Frontenac, II. 127-129; mercy shown to his
+prisoners, II. 128, 129; advances towards Albany, II. 129; his return to
+Oswego, II. 129; Fort Frontenac dismantled, II. 129; importance of his
+conquest, II. 129; supplies destroyed by, II. 155; reported to advance
+upon Lake Ontario, II. 197.
+Brandenburg, House of, promoted to royalty, I. 17.
+Brest, I. 182, 184, 288, 362; embarkation of Dieskau's expedition, I.
+182, 183; French armament at, I. 183.
+Bréard, his official knavery, II. 23, 24; accused of fraud in Canada,
+II. 385.
+"Britannia," ship, II. 33; captured by privateers, II. 33.
+British colonies. See English colonies.
+British ministry, the, I. 199, 285, II. 40, 397; the plan for building a
+naval station at Chebucto, I. 92, 93; attitude of, toward the Indians,
+I. 171; the French forts to be attacked, I. 240, 241; hostility to
+Shirley in New York, I. 328; the removal of Shirley from his command, I.
+383, 384; ill effect of a letter from Wolfe, II. 323; changes in, II.
+393; Newcastle resigns his position, II. 400; plans of Pitt laid before,
+II. 397.
+British Museum, the, I. 126 note, 202.
+British Provinces, the, I. 283.
+Britons, II. 208.
+Broadway, II. 76.
+Broglie, I. 10.
+Brown, Lieutenant, the attack on Louisbourg, II. 59-61; aids Wolfe when
+shot, II. 296.
+Brunswick, II. 47.
+Brunswick, Ferdinand of, II. 399, 400.
+Buchanan, letter to, from John Campbell, I. 227.
+Buchannon. See Buchanan.
+Buffaloes, I. 56.
+Buisson, the, II. 370.
+Bull, Fort, I. 374; attacked and reduced by Léry, I. 374, 375.
+Bullitt, Captain, expedition of Major Grant, II. 152, 154.
+Burd, Colonel, his mode of warfare, II. 135; interview with Forbes, II.
+138; Indian allies join the army, II. 139, 140.
+Burgesses slow to enforce obedience among the Virginia troops, I. 331.
+Burghers, the, of France, I. 14.
+Burgoyne, John, II. 102; his expedition, II. 402; mention made of
+Langlade, in connection with Braddock's defeat, II. 426.
+Burke, Captain, cruelly treated by Indians, I. 511; his remarks
+concerning Wolfe quoted, II. 267, 268.
+Burnaby, "Travels in North America" cited, I. 163 note.
+Burned Camp, I. 490, II. 94; origin of name, I. 489.
+Burney, Thomas, escapes from Indians, I. 85.
+Burton, Lieutenant-Colonel, his encounter with the French in Braddock's
+expedition, I. 218; his report concerning the provincial camp, I. 401,
+402; orders given to bring his men to the Point of Orleans, II. 281; his
+men embark for the heights, II. 288; dying command of Wolfe, II. 297.
+Bury, Viscount, his charges against Massachusetts refuted, II. 84, 85;
+his "Exodus of the Western Nations" cited, II. 84 note.
+Bussy, M. de, comes to London as envoy, II. 395.
+Bute, Earl of, II. 393, 397; made secretary of state, II. 393;
+propositions made by Choiseul to Pitt, II. 395; comes into power, II.
+398; anecdote for the dislike of the people for, II. 398; succeeds
+Newcastle as First Lord of the Treasury, II. 400; desires peace with
+France, II. 402, 403; peace made between France and England, II. 405.
+Buttes-à-Neveu, II. 290, 345, 354.
+Byng, Admiral, I. 36, II. 46.
+
+
+C.
+
+Cabinet, the. See British Ministry.
+Cadet, Joseph, II. 175; official knavery, II. 22-28, 30, 319, 358, 385;
+ministerial rebukes administered to, II. 31-33; oppresses the Canadians,
+II. 169, 170; supply-boats sent to Quebec, II. 198; relations with
+Vaudreuil, II. 199, 319, 323; his manner of living, II. 203; thrown into
+the Bastille, II. 385; his trial, II. 385, 386.
+Cæsar, dog owned by Wolfe, II. 189.
+Cahokia, French settlement at, I. 41.
+Caldwell, site of, I. 498.
+Calvin, John, I. 27; his doctrines preached to the army, I. 295, 296,
+II. 120, 121.
+Cambis, batallion of, II. 54.
+Campbell, Lieutenant Alexander, II. 435.
+Campbell, Major Colin, sent for news by Dinwiddie, I. 229.
+Campbell, Donald, II. 433.
+Campbell, Duncan, II. 93; his premonitions of death, II. 93, 435; his
+death and burial, II. 109, 433, 435, 436; the legend of Inverawe, II.
+433-436; vision of the child, II. 435, 436.
+Campbell, James, II. 433; vision seen by the child, II. 435, 436.
+Campbell, John, letter from, to Buchanan, quoted, I. 227.
+Campbell, Captain John, his death, II. 109.
+Canada, I. 24, 38, 39, 67 note, 76, 91, 111, 239, 319, 326, 376, II. 23,
+389; conquest of, by England, I. 2, 3; plans and political intentions of
+England with regard to, I. 1-3; censuses of, I. 20, 94 note; French
+possessions in, I. 20; difference in the political and religious
+systems, from those of the English colonies, I. 20, 21; Catholicism in,
+I. 21, II. 412; aspects of, under the Church and King, I. 22-24; lack of
+popular legislation in, I. 35; the governors largely naval officers, I.
+36; line of military posts connecting with Louisiana, I. 36-40, 80;
+methods of warfare and organization, I. 62, 143, 144; mission of Piquet,
+I. 67; method of building up a town, I. 77; La Jonquière succeeds La
+Galissonière as governor of, I. 82; importance of Fort Chartres, I. 84;
+internal disorders of, I. 86, 87; official knavery and stealing, I. 87,
+88, II. 22-38, 171, 319, 321, 322, 358, 385, 386; confines of, I. 125;
+enmity towards New England, I. 169, 170, 176; Governor de Vaudreuil
+despatched to, I. 182; French expedition sails for, under Dieskau, I.
+182, 183; plans of Shirley in regard to, I. 192, 193; plans of the
+English to repel the French in, I. 234; importance of the possession of
+Acadia, I. 237; return of Bigot, I. 253; conditions leading to the
+removal of the Acadians, I. 253-266 (see Acadia and Acadians); the
+governor of, depends on the priests for aid, I. 260; the Great Company,
+I. 283; the English victorious, I. 307-309; importance of the position
+of Niagara, I. 318, II. 249; the fur-trade, I. 320; growth of political
+parties in, I. 367, 368, 466; the French troops and the militia, I. 368,
+368 note, 370, 371, 372, 467, 468, II. 178, 360; descriptions given by
+Montcalm, I. 372, 373; descriptions given by Duchat, I. 379, 380;
+causes of the English losses, I. 417-420; life at Montreal, I. 453; its
+government, II. 17, 18; social and official life, II. 18-22, 28-30;
+financial condition, II. 31-33; efforts of Massachusetts to subdue, II.
+84, 85, 115; mission settlements of the Jesuits, I. 144, 145; appeal
+made to court for assistance and troops, II. 173-177; fall of Quebec,
+195-234, 259-326 (see Quebec); effect of losing Fort Niagara, II. 249;
+the result of Amherst's campaign, II. 252, 253; Montcalm's position, II.
+262; authorities concerning the history of, II. 325 note, 326 note;
+English rule, II. 332; its winter, II. 333; passes to the British crown,
+II. 360-382, 395; Montreal capitulates, II. 372-374; return of the
+troops to France, II. 374, 383, 384; utterances from the pulpits after
+the fall of, II. 377-379; her natural defences, II. 380; end of the war,
+II. 378-382; aided by Indians, II. 381, 382; question of restoration to
+France, II. 403, 407; predictions of Choiseul, II. 403, 404; retention
+of, by England, approved by Pitt, II. 407; the peace signed at Paris,
+II. 407.
+Canadians, the, I. 22, 23, 68, 79; their missions and religion, I. 22,
+23, 64, 67, 72; sent to watch the English frontier, I. 116; join the
+expedition of Duquesne to the Ohio, I. 128-135, 143-161; at Fort
+Duquesne, I. 208; number of, fighting under the French flag, I. 211;
+their cowardly action, I. 215; losses of, at the battle of the
+Monongahela, I. 223, 223 note; a litigious race, I. 259; rapacity of, I.
+283; harsh treatment of the Acadians, I. 283; under Dieskau, I. 296,
+299, 303, 304, 307; the battle of Lake George, I. 299, 304-317; attacked
+by a party from Fort Lyman, I. 308, 309; troops at Fort Frontenac, I.
+324; political parties among, I. 367, 368; join the expedition of Léry,
+I. 374, 375; guard Fort Frontenac, I. 376; mode of fighting, I. 377; at
+Ticonderoga, I. 378, 442; harass the English, I. 388, 393; evils of long
+encampments, I. 402; under Rigaud, I. 408; capture of Oswego, I.
+409-420; under Montcalm, I. 421; join the war-party of Perière, I.
+429-431; disguised as Indians, I. 429, II. 221; fight with Rogers'
+rangers, I. 445; the attack upon Fort William Henry, I. 447, 448, 476,
+477, 490-513, 514 note; exaggerated praise given by Vaudreuil, I.
+460-462; their sentiment towards Montcalm, I. 463, 464; fortified camps
+of, I. 477; dash at Fort Edward, I. 485; orders of Vaudreuil in relation
+to the return of, II. 3, 4; the fight at German Flats, II. 6, 7; join
+Hebecourt, II. 12; official knavery, II. 22-38; outrages practised upon
+the Acadians, II. 26; loss of Louisbourg, II. 52-81; under Montcalm at
+Ticonderoga, II. 104; under Lévis, II. 109; meet the war-party of
+Rogers, II. 124; encounter with Major Grant, II. 152-154; sent to
+Montcalm, II. 165, 166; comments of Montcalm concerning, II. 168, 169;
+their sufferings, II. 169, 170; their loyalty and courage, II. 169, 170;
+their alarm and discontent, II. 171, 172; siege and fall of Quebec, II.
+195-234, 259-326; first proclamation issued by Wolfe, II. 213, 214;
+desert the French, II. 219, 222, 223, 264, 265, 365, 366; fight like
+Indians, II. 221; coureurs-de-bois, II. 221; their dread of the Indians,
+222, 223; Wolfe's second proclamation, II. 225, 226; the siege of
+Niagara, II. 243-249; the third proclamation of Wolfe to, II. 261; dread
+of losing their supplies, II. 264; defend Cap-Rouge, II. 279; last
+movement of Wolfe, II. 280-297; rally at Côte Ste.-Geneviève, II. 300,
+301; panic stricken, II. 302; the army to return to Quebec, II. 310-314;
+bring news to Quebec of promised help, II. 315, 316; the capitulation of
+Quebec, II. 316; the ladies, II. 329; befriended by Murray, II. 331;
+kindness to some wounded officers, II. 332; threatened the English, II.
+335, 336; encounter with Major Dalling, II. 336; fresh efforts to attack
+Quebec, II. 338, 340, 341-358; the winter, II. 339, 340; at Sainte-Foy,
+II. 342, 442-444; the fall of Canada, II. 360-382; Murray advances upon
+Montreal, II. 363-366; proclamation of Vaudreuil, II. 366; their
+privileges as set down in the capitulation of Canada, II. 374; kindly
+treated by the English, II. 374, 375; skilful leadership of, II. 381.
+Canard River, I. 268; reconnoissance of, I. 272; the inhabitants
+summoned by Winslow to hear the King's orders, I. 271, 272.
+Candiac, château of, I. 356, 453; family seat of Montcalm, I. 356, 359,
+II. 317; departure of Montcalm from, I. 360.
+Canidia, I. 438.
+Cannibalism among the Indians, I. 85, 478, 480, 483, 484, II. 339.
+Canseau, garrison at, I. 92; destroyed by the French, I. 93.
+Canseau, Straits of, I. 109.
+Cap-Rouge, II. 209, 224, 271, 276, 278, 288, 332, 342, 357; held by
+Dumas, II. 228; defended by the French, II. 279, 280, 282, 283; the fall
+of Quebec, II. 304; expedition of Lévis, II. 343, 344.
+Cap-Santé, II. 19.
+Cape Breton, I. 28, 91, 95 note, 98, 105, 108, 178, II. 384, 385;
+restoration of, by England to France, I. 2, 3; the Acadians transported
+to, I. 235, 235 note; importance of the possession of Acadia to the
+French, I. 237; papers and writings relating to, I. 243 note; plans of
+the English with regard to the Acadians, I. 264, 265 (see Acadia and
+Acadians); description of, II. 52-54; arrival of Boscawen's expedition,
+II. 56; the capitulation of Louisbourg, II. 74, 75; given up to England,
+II. 405.
+"Capricieux," the, II. 81 note; number of her guns, II. 54 note; burned
+at anchor, II. 67.
+Card-playing, I. 270.
+Carillon (see Ticonderoga), II. 435.
+Carleton, Sir Guy, II. 190, 440; lands at Point-aux-Trembles, II. 224;
+drives the Indians from Point-aux-Trembles, II. 225.
+Carlisle, Penn., I. 227, II. 135; village of, II. 136; departure of
+Forbes, II. 136.
+Carlos III., secret negotiations of Choiseul with, II. 396; succeeds to
+the throne of Spain, II. 396; the Family Compact, II. 396.
+Carter, Colonel Charles, letter to, cited, I. 229.
+Carter, Landon, quoted, concerning the service of the country, I. 331.
+Carteret, Earl Granville. See Granville.
+Carthage, I. 192, 419, II. 377.
+Carthagena, attack on, I. 245.
+Cartier, Jacques, II. 339.
+Carver, Jonathan, his version of the massacre at Fort William Henry, I.
+511; his narrow escape, I. 511, 512; his "Travels," I. 514 note.
+Cascades, the, II. 370.
+Casgrain, Abbé, cited, I. 330 note, II. 341 note.
+Castor, Isle au, II. 20.
+Caswell, Jonathan, his letter concerning the expedition sent against
+Crown Point, I. 292.
+Catawbas, their service sought by the English army, II. 139, 140.
+Catherine II., reigns in Russia, II. 399; conciliated by Frederic, II.
+399.
+Catholicism, I. 64, 359; II. 412; the tithes of, I. 13; policy of rule
+held by, I. 21, 22; in Maryland, I. 33; freedom of, accorded to the
+Acadians, I. 91, 112; evil influence of the priests upon the Acadians,
+II. 91, 94, 98, 102, 103, 106, 107, 243, 244, 257, 260-266, 283; in the
+English colonies, I. 193; in Pennsylvania, I. 339; in Europe, I. 355;
+influence over the Indians, I. 479, 480.
+Caughnawaga, I. 485; Indian mission at, I. 64, II. 144.
+Caughnawagas, the, I. 23, 209, 476, II. 123, 126.
+Cavaliers, the, I. 29.
+Cayugas, I. 391; efforts of the French to convert, I. 65.
+"Célèbre," the, number of her guns, II. 54 note; burned by the English,
+II. 66.
+Céloron de Bienville, I. 37, 77 note, 84 note, 128, 133; despatched to
+the West to hold the land for France, I. 37-62; at Ogdensburg and
+Niagara, I. 38; leaden plates buried by, I. 43, 48, 50, 62 note;
+inscription on the plates, I. 43, 48, 62 note; the plates discovered, I.
+48, 62 note; visits the Senecas, I. 44, 45; drives out the English from
+the West, I. 44-46; extract from his writings, I. 45 note, 50-53, 62
+note; encounter with Indians at Scioto, I. 48, 49; name given by, to the
+Kenawha River, I. 48 note; failure of his plans with regard to La
+Demoiselle, I. 51, 52; return of his party to Canada, I. 52, 53; journey
+to the Ohio, I. 65; visits the mission of Father Piquet, I. 65; at
+Detroit, I. 76, 77; his character, I. 77; ordered to attack
+Pickawillany, I. 81; orders from La Jonquière, I. 84.
+Celts in Pennsylvania, I. 31.
+Census, the, taken in Acadia and Canada, I. 20, 20 note, 94 note, 124,
+II. 178.
+"Centurion," the, II. 229, 231-233.
+Cerberus, dog belonging to Piquet, I. 69.
+Chambly, Fort, I. 453; abandoned by the French, II. 368.
+Chambord, I. 10.
+Champlain, Lake, I. 2, 23, 192, 289, 294, 298, 321, 378, 398, 399, 407,
+418, 428, 435, 442, 448, 453, 476, 477, II. 88, 99, 121, 178, 196, 238,
+249, 250, 252, 361, 362.
+Chandler, a chaplain, his diary quoted concerning the camp at Lake
+George, I. 314, 315.
+Chaplains, II. 116, 117; their pay, I. 386; their accommodations, I. 405
+note.
+Charles VI., his will, I. 18; death of, I. 18; his will set aside, I.
+18, 19.
+Charles River, II. 297.
+Charlesbourg, II. 21, 22, 265, 307.
+Charlestown, II. 256, 257; road built by Amherst, II. 241.
+Charlevoix, I. 360.
+Charters, I. 25.
+Chartres, Fort, I. 40, 41, 76; increasing power of the English, I. 83.
+Château battery, the, II. 208.
+Châtelet, the, II. 385.
+Chaudière River, the, I. 169, 381; fortifications on, I. 192.
+Chautauqua Lake, I. 39.
+Chebucto, plan for making a naval station by the English, I. 92; harbor
+of, I. 92. See Halifax.
+Chenitou (Chignecto), I. 117 note.
+Cherbourg, II. 47.
+Cherokees, the, I. 68, 139, 466, II. 417; their service sought by the
+English army, I. 139, 140.
+Chester County, I. 347.
+Chesterfield, Lord, I. 8; his opinion of Lord Albemarle, I. 180; acts as
+mediator, II. 41; his despondency, II. 45.
+"Chèvre," the number of her guns, II. 54 note.
+Chew, Ensign, II. 140 note.
+Chickasaws, the, I. 139.
+Chignecto, I. 117 note; preparations of the French to attack, I. 239;
+proposal to give the land to English settlers, I. 257.
+Chignecto Bay, I. 94, 120.
+Chignecto Channel, I. 267.
+Chiningué, I. 46, 53, 133.
+Chinodahichetha, name given by Céloron to the Kenawha River, I. 48 note.
+Chipody, I. 120, 121, 247, 254; news of disaster, I. 275.
+Choctaws, the, I. 68, 466.
+Choiseul, Duc de, II. 393; made minister of foreign affairs, II. 393;
+sketch of, by Stanley, II. 393, 394; his character, II. 394;
+propositions made to Pitt, II. 394, 395; terms of peace offered to
+England, II. 395; his forethought, II. 396; the Family Compact, II. 396;
+his negotiation with Pitt proves fruitless, II. 396; desires peace with
+England, II. 402, 403; his predictions concerning American possessions,
+II. 403, 404.
+Christ Church, Philadelphia, II. 162.
+Christianity, Indian followers of, I. 41, 42, 485, 487.
+Christmas Day, II. 335.
+Church of Notre Dame de Quebec, II. 442.
+Church of Rome. See Catholicism.
+Church of the Jesuits, the, after the siege, II. 328.
+Clare River, I. 283.
+Claverie, La Friponne, II. 24.
+Cleaveland, Miss Abby E., II. 117 note.
+Cleaveland, John, chaplain of Bagley's Massachusetts regiment, II. 76,
+115; extract from his diary, II. 115, 117 note, 127; report concerning
+the defences of Abercromby, II. 115, 116; extract from letters to his
+wife, II. 116, 117 note; preaching on Sunday, II. 117; his illness, II.
+120.
+Clergy, the, how considered during the reign of George II., I. 7; the
+condition of, in France, I. 12, 13, 14, 15; corruption of, I. 12;
+influence of, in regard to the oath of allegiance for the Acadians, I.
+106. See Acadians.
+Clergy battery, the, II. 208.
+Clerk, engineer under Abercromby, II. 103; reconnoitres the French
+works, II. 103.
+Clermont, I. 10; recalled, II. 47.
+Clinker, Humphrey, I. 178.
+Clinton, George, Governor of New York, I. 88 note; desirability of an
+Indian alliance, I. 59; invites commissioners from the provinces to meet
+the Indians at Albany, I. 61; quotation from, concerning the neglect of
+New York to protect Indian trade, I. 61, 62; Johnson's complaints of the
+French dealings with the Indians, I. 64; quarrels with the Assembly of
+New York, I. 73; complaints concerning invasions of territory by the
+French, I. 79.
+Clive, the victory of Plassey, II. 45.
+Cobequid, I. 106; formerly the name of Truro, I. 94; Acadian emigration
+from, I. 109; mountains of, I. 269; failure of the expedition to, I.
+280, 281.
+Cocquard, Father Claude Godefroy, I. 413; his remarks concerning the
+fall of Oswego, I. 413.
+Cod, Cape, I. 246; soldiers from, for the French campaigns, I. 246.
+Coffen, Stephen, deposition of, I. 131 note.
+Colbert, II. 410.
+Colden, Alexander, II. 432.
+Coldfoot, a Miami chief, I. 82.
+Coldstream Guards, the, I. 191.
+College of the Jesuits, the, after the siege, II. 3-8.
+"Comète," number of her guns, II. 54 note.
+Commissioners of boundary, I. 122, 123-128, 236-238; commissioners of
+Indian affairs, I. 172-176, 195.
+Condé, I. 10, II. 184.
+Conflans, Admiral, II. 401.
+Congregationalists in the army, II. 117.
+Congress at Albany, of Indians and English, I. 172-176.
+Connecticut, I. 61, 246, 286, 291, 304, 402; appointment of the governor
+of, I. 25; extent of the New England border, I. 28; soldiers in the
+expedition against Crown Point, I. 290, 291; recruits sent to Johnson,
+I. 313, 314; to provide an officer for the English garrison, I. 315;
+money granted to, from Parliament, I. 382 note; her sacrifices in times
+of war, II. 86; provincials under Abercromby, II. 93; men serving under
+Putnam, II. 122.
+Connecticut River, the, II. 254, 256.
+Conner, James, English scout, I. 415; visits Oswego, I. 415; the news of
+the loss carried to Fort Johnson, I. 416.
+Contades, I. 10; appointed to command, II. 47.
+Contrecœur, I. 429; succeeds Saint-Pierre in command, I. 143, 144;
+commandant at Fort Duquesne, I. 147, 208, II. 423; Jumonville sent on an
+expedition to warn the English to leave the West, I. 148; harangues the
+Indians, I. 154; consults with Beaujeu, I. 210, 211; his resolution to
+despatch forces to meet Braddock, I. 210, 211; waits at Fort Duquesne,
+I. 211, 212; return of the troops after defeating Braddock, I. 221, 222;
+Dumas succeeds at Fort Duquesne, I. 329, 330; orders concerning
+prisoners, I. 330 note; receives the cross of the Order of St. Louis,
+II. 426.
+Conway, General, letter from Walpole, II. 358.
+Cook, his voyages, II. 411.
+Cork, I. 182.
+Cope, Major Jean-Baptiste, Indian chief, I. 104; signs a treaty of peace
+with the English, I. 104, 105; the murder of Capt. Howe, I. 118, 119.
+Corbière, Colonel Parker's company taken, I. 484.
+Corlaer, Indian word for the English, I. 487.
+Corneille, II. 9.
+Cornier, Madame, I. 455.
+Cornwallis, Lord, I. 93.
+Cornwallis, Edward, uncle of Lord Cornwallis, I. 93; made governor of
+Acadia, I. 93; opinions of Wolfe and Horace Walpole concerning, I. 93,
+110; makes the oath of allegiance more strict for the Acadians, I.
+97-99; his successor, I. 104; efforts of, to compel the Acadians to
+swear fidelity to England, I. 105; discovers the treachery of the
+French, I. 107; misplaced confidence in the French crown, I. 111; angry
+letter written to the Bishop of Quebec, I. 107; relations with the
+French and Acadians, I. 107, 108, 110, 111; his speech to the Acadians,
+I. 110-112; mild rule of, in Nova Scotia, I. 113, 257; his opinion of Le
+Loutre, I. 114.
+Corpron, II. 30; his official knavery, II. 22-24; thrown into the
+Bastille, II. 385.
+Cortland, manor of, I. 32.
+Cosnan, Captain, II. 221.
+Côte d'Abraham, II. 342.
+Côte Ste.-Geneviève, II. 300, 301, 342.
+Côteau du Lac, the, II. 370.
+Coudres, Isle aux, II. 198, 260; ordered to be evacuated, II. 199;
+Admiral Durell, at, II. 203.
+Coureurs-de-bois, II. 178, 221.
+Courserac, II. 81 note; sent to the English camp from Louisbourg, II.
+73, 74.
+Courtemanche, his advance upon Fort William Henry, I. 491.
+Courts-martial in the English army, II. 236.
+Courval, the French firerafts commanded by, II. 227.
+Crawford, Chaplain William, letter to Timothy Paine, I. 404; his account
+of the provincial camp, I. 404, 405.
+Croghan, George, I. 42, 203; Indian trader, I. 54; expedition of, to the
+Ohio, I. 54-59; sent to the Miamis to promote friendly feelings, I. 59,
+60, 60 note; reward offered for his scalp, I. 79; accusations against,
+I. 80; brings Indians to Braddock's camp, I. 203.
+Crown Point, I. 24, 174, 289, 327, 378, 453, II. 87, 102; capture of,
+planned, I. 192-194, 285; expedition against, led by Colonel William
+Johnson, I. 194, 196, 285-317, 374, 382; French designs in relation to,
+I. 289, 293, 295; reached by Dieskau, I. 296; the battle, I. 303-316;
+result of the expedition, I. 313, 314; importance of, I. 378; plan of
+capture by Shirley, I. 381, 382, 384, 398; expeditions of Rogers'
+rangers, I. 433-437; Winslow's regret at the failures of the English, I.
+439; the scouting-party of Rogers, I. 441-445; captured by Amherst, II.
+235-240, 265; retreat of the French, II. 238, 239; new fort built by
+Amherst, II. 240, 241, 252; the situation between French and English,
+II. 361.
+Cruger, Mayor, difficulty in quartering the troops in New York, I. 440.
+Cruikshank, Captain, affront given to a provincial regiment, II. 119.
+Culloden, battle of, I. 6, 8, 19, II. 185.
+Cumberland, Duke of, I. 194, 253, II. 40, 41; his place as a soldier, I.
+179; his opinion of Major-General Braddock, I. 181, 182; military plans
+of, I. 234; his prejudice against Shirley, I. 421; miscarriage of his
+plans, II. 45; recalled from Germany, II. 47.
+Cumberland, Nova Scotia, I. 268.
+Cumberland, Penn., I. 423.
+Cumberland County laid waste, I. 344.
+Cumberland Fort, I. 203, 225-229, II. 133; erection of, I. 200; distance
+from Little Meadows, I. 206; Colonel James Innes, commander of, I. 226;
+Indians attack the frontier, and murder the settlers, I. 329-331, 342;
+name given to Beauséjour, I. 253, 255 (see Beauséjour), 267, 281, II.
+181; St. Patrick's Day celebrated, II. 182.
+Cummings, C. F. Gordon, II. 436.
+Cummings, Colonel, disgraceful order of Abercromby to, II. 114.
+
+
+D.
+
+Daine, Mayor of Quebec, II. 311.
+Dalling, Major, sent to occupy Port Espagnol, II. 78; Canadians taken
+prisoners, II. 225, 226; encounter with Canadians and Indians, II. 336;
+his light infantry, II. 347.
+Dalquier, Lieutentant-Colonel, II. 303; his leadership and bravery, II.
+348.
+Dalzell, Captain, skirmish in the woods, II. 122; his death, II. 122.
+Daniel, II. 149.
+Danvers, II. 116.
+Darby, Major, II. 368.
+Daudin, priest of Pisiquid, I. 244.
+Daun, the Austrian general, II. 387; his victory, II. 387.
+"Dauphin," escape of the, I. 185, 186.
+Dauphin's Bastion, the, II. 55; approach of Wolfe, II. 66; condition of
+the besieged, II. 69; the white flag, II. 71; to be opened to British
+troops, II. 74, 75.
+Dauphin's Battery, the, II. 208.
+Davison, a trader, I. 133.
+De Cosne, I. 184.
+Defiance, Mount, II. 102-104.
+Déjean, I. 361.
+Delancey, Lieutenant-Governor of New York, I. 316, 328, 440; asked to
+aid in repelling the French on the Ohio, I. 141; council of governors
+held with Braddock, I. 191-195; questions at issue in New York, I. 350;
+the cabal against Shirley, I. 328, 383; orders to fire upon deserters,
+II. 3.
+Delancey, Oliver, soldiers sent to lodge with, I. 440.
+Delaware, George, Indian chief, I. 145.
+Delaware, colony of, I. 33.
+Delaware River, the, I. 40, 45.
+Delawares, the, I. 46, 57, 60, 130; attitude towards the English, I. 59;
+efforts of the English to obtain allies from, I. 150; instigated to
+fight against the English, I. 203, 329, 343, 344; at Fort Duquesne, I.
+154; council held with Johnson, I. 391, 392; attack and reduction of
+Kittanning, I. 423-427; convention of Indians, II. 142, 143; wavering
+allies, II. 143; declare themselves allies of the English, II. 147, 148,
+150.
+Delouche commands the fireships, II. 210, 211.
+De Monts, commission of, I. 123 note.
+Denmark, I. 10.
+Denny, Governor, I. 426 note.
+De Noyan, commandant at Fort Frontenac, II. 128.
+Desandrouin, French engineer, II. 100-102.
+Desauniers, Demoiselles, I. 64.
+Deschambault, II. 8, 263, 341, 361.
+Deschamps, Chief Justice, diary found in his house, II. 82 note.
+Deschenaux, official corruption, II. 30.
+Descombles, French engineer, I. 408; reconnoitres the fort at Oswego, I.
+409; shot by an Indian, I. 409.
+Desgouttes withdraws the "Aréthuse," II. 65; considerations in regard to
+capitulation, II. 71-73; correspondence with Drucour, II. 81 note.
+Des Habitants River, the, I. 268; reconnoissance of, I. 272.
+Desherbiers, commandant at Louisbourg, I. 101; instructions in regard to
+the Acadians, I. 101, 102; his treachery, I. 102, 103; medals sent to,
+I. 102.
+Désirade Island, restored by England, II. 405.
+Desméloizes, Mademoiselle, wife of M. Péan, II. 28.
+Des Moines, I. 486.
+De Soto, I. 24.
+Detroit, I. 82, 209, 219, 485, II. 122, 142, 244; importance of the
+post, I. 75, 76, 80; population of, I. 76, 77 note; Céloron visits, with
+a royal commission, I. 76, 77; plan of, I. 76 note; efforts to build up,
+by the French, I. 77; small-pox at, I. 83; the English to be attacked,
+I. 84; danger to Fort Duquesne, II. 160; the coureurs-de-bois, II. 178;
+retreat to, of the French forces, II. 247; injured by the loss of
+Niagara, II. 248, 249.
+Dettingen, I. 19, II. 185, 391.
+Devonshire, Duke of, II. 41.
+Diamond, Cape, II. 208, 209, 212, 355.
+"Diana," the, II. 356.
+Diderot, I. 16, 288, 309 note; meeting with Dieskau, 308 note, 309 note,
+311.
+Dieskau, Baron, I. 285, 373, 376; made general in Canada, I. 182; letter
+of, quoted, I. 182, 183; his forces, I. 288, 296, 368; a letter of
+Braddock found, I. 288, 289; plans of, in regard to the French campaign,
+I. 288, 289; prepares an ambush for Johnson, I. 296, 300, 302, 303;
+advances through the forest, I. 297-299; news of the approach of the
+English, I. 300; success of the action against Whiting and Williams, I.
+303; the battle of Lake George, I. 304-317; badly wounded, I. 307, 308,
+311; carried to the English camp, and kindly cared for, I. 308, 309; his
+defeat, I. 308, 498, II. 88; his remarks concerning his surrender, and
+Johnson's soldiers, I. 308, 308 note, 310, 311; his interview with
+Diderot, I. 308 note, 309 note, 311; his life threatened by the Mohawks,
+I. 309, 310; his life saved by Johnson, I. 309; carried to Fort Lyman,
+I. 310; his service under Saxe, I. 310; his death, I. 311; his Indians
+tomahawk the Englishmen, I. 312; succeeded by Montcalm, I. 356; his
+salary, I. 361.
+Diet at Presburg, I. 19.
+Dinwiddie, Robert, Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, I. 42, 136, 137;
+letter to Hamilton quoted, I. 42 note; desirability of an Indian
+alliance, I. 59; difficulties of boundary, I. 61; letter from, to
+Saint-Pierre, introducing George Washington, I. 132, 134, 135; tries to
+repel the French aggression in the West, I. 132, 137, 139, 142, 176,
+193; answer sent to, from Saint-Pierre, I. 135; report of Washington
+made to, I. 136; orders received from the King, I. 137, 138; his
+dependence on the Assembly of Virginia, I. 137, 138, 163; Virginia
+refuses to pay certain fees, I. 138; sends Washington with a party to
+resist the French at Fort Duquesne, I. 138-161; orders sent to Indian
+tribes on the Ohio, I. 139; seeks aid from other colonies, I. 139;
+letter to Lord Fairfax, I. 139; a fort to be built on the Ohio, I. 139;
+letters to Hanbury quoted, I. 140, 141, 144, 144 note; invites the
+Indians to meet him at Winchester, I. 141; the governor's palace, I.
+142, 163; seeks to raise regiments, I. 142, 143; plans of the English
+blighted, I. 143, 144; good news from Washington, I. 145; letters from
+Druillon, I. 149; the defeat of Washington, I. 162; letter to a London
+correspondent quoted, I. 163; speech to the Assembly of Virginia, 164,
+165; exasperated at the French, I. 170, 171; letter to Lord Granville
+quoted, I. 176; correspondence with Glen, I. 176, 177; desired aid from
+the home government, I. 177; taxes recommended, I. 177; his opinion of
+Braddock, I. 187, 188; accompanies Braddock to Alexandria, I. 191;
+council of governors held with Braddock, I. 191-195; defends taxation by
+Parliament, I. 193; praises of the New England colonies, I. 197;
+supplies for the army scarce, I. 197, 198; greatly disturbed at the
+losses of the English, I. 228-235; correspondence with Orme quoted, I.
+229-233; correspondence with Washington, I. 229, 231; letter to Lord
+Halifax, I. 229; sends Major Colin Campbell for news, I. 229, 231;
+letter to Dunbar quoted, I. 231, 232; desires to renew offensive
+operations, I. 232, 233; his fears realized, I. 233; his view of
+Dunbar's conduct justified, I. 233 note; his plans of war, I. 332;
+relations with Washington, II. 131, 132; removed from office, II. 132;
+matters pertaining to the "assassination" of Jumonville, II. 421-423.
+Dobbs, Governor of North Carolina, I. 187; council of governors held
+with Braddock, I. 191-195.
+Dobson, Captain, I. 229.
+Dog tribe, the, I. 68.
+Dominica taken by England, II. 400; to belong to England, II. 405.
+Doreil, commissary of war, embarks with Dieskau, I. 182; letter from
+Montcalm to, II. 111, 112; letter to the minister of war, II. 162, 163;
+letter concerning the state of Canada, II. 171, 172; double-dealing of
+Vaudreuil, II. 173; appeal made to France, II. 173-175; matters
+pertaining to Ticonderoga, II. 431-436.
+Douville, orders concerning prisoners, I. 330 note; killed, I. 423.
+Dover, II. 403.
+Dresden taken from Frederic, II. 388.
+Drowned Lands, the, I. 298, 302.
+Drucour, Governor at Louisbourg, II. 56; the siege and reduction of
+Louisbourg, II. 56-81, 81 note; statistics of troops, II. 59 note; his
+effort to protect the harbor of Louisbourg, II. 64; courtesies between
+the commanders, II. 64, 65; his lodgings in flames, II. 67; Amherst
+promises to spare the sick, II. 70 note; terms of capitulation extended
+to, II. 71-74; signs the capitulation, II. 75.
+Drucour, Madame, her heroism, II. 65.
+Druillon, letters sent to Dinwiddie, I. 149.
+"Dublin," the ship, Amherst embarks in her, II. 51.
+Dublin, I. 419 note, II. 190.
+Dubrowski, II. 37 note.
+Du Cayla, II. 427.
+Duchat, Captain, his description of Canadian life, I. 379, 380.
+Duchesnaye, II. 20.
+Dufferin, Lord, II. 37 note.
+Dumas has charge of the youth of Montcalm, I. 356; letter of, concerning
+Montcalm's education, I. 357, 358.
+Dumas, Captain, I. 208, II. 361; at Fort Duquesne, I. 208; encounter
+with Braddock, I. 215-227; returns to Fort Duquesne, I. 220, 221; the
+border warfare encouraged by, I. 329, 330; quoted concerning his
+influence over the Indians, I. 329, 330; succeeds Contrcœur at Fort
+Duquesne, I. 329, 426; efforts of the French to prevent the torture of
+prisoners, I. 330; commands the party to attack the English at Point
+Levi, II. 215; his failure to dislodge the English, II. 219; holds
+Cap-Rouge, II. 228; to prevent Murray moving up the St. Lawrence, II.
+361; advances upon Montreal, II. 364, 365; matters relating to a pension
+for, II. 423, 424; receives the cross of the Order of St. Louis, II.
+426.
+Dumont, II. 347, 348.
+Dunbar, Colonel Thomas, his troops, I. 200, 220 note, II. 256; to take
+command of the rear division of Braddock's expedition, I. 206;
+reinforcements for Braddock, I. 223, 224; arrival at his camp, of a
+portion of Braddock's army, I. 224, 225; his course of action blamed by
+the colonies, I. 225; encamped at Great Meadows, I. 226; retreat of, I.
+226, 329; arrival of his train at Fort Cumberland, I. 227; letter to,
+from Dinwiddie, quoted, I. 231, 232; exhorted to retrieve the English
+losses, I. 231, 232; his conduct wanting in courage, and condemned by
+Dinwiddie, I. 231-233, 233 note; instructions from his superior officers
+neglected, I. 233.
+"Dunkirk," the, chases the French vessels, I. 185, 186.
+Dunkirk, II. 395; fortress of, II. 395; the fortress to be destroyed,
+II. 405, 406.
+"Dunkirk of America," the, II. 52.
+Duquesne, Marquis, Governor of Canada, I. 41 note, 239; his opinion of
+Piquet, I. 67 note; his character and personal appearance, I. 85, 86;
+prepares to secure the upper part of the Ohio Valley, I. 86, 87;
+influenced by unworthy motives, I. 88; landing of his force at
+Presquisle, I. 128; instructions to Marin, I. 129; a fort to be built on
+French Creek, I. 130; plans of the expedition thwarted, I. 130, 131;
+return of a part of the expedition to Montreal, I. 131; letters of,
+compared with other writings, I. 131 note; Contrecœur succeeds
+Saint-Pierre, I. 143, 144; succeeded by De Vaudreuil, I. 182, 288;
+orders sent to, from France, I. 183, 184; letter to Le Loutre concerning
+Acadia, I. 239; relations with Le Loutre, I. 239, 242; his harsh
+treatment of the Acadians, I. 244, 245; resigns his government, I. 288;
+his discipline over troops, I. 369.
+Duquesne, Fort, I. 147, 325, II. 131; built by the French, I. 143, 144,
+337 note; expedition of Jumonville, I. 148; reinforcements sent to, I.
+152, 153; French force at, I. 159, 206; exultant return of Villiers to,
+I. 161; Braddock to lead the expedition against, I. 194, 196; parties
+sent out to interrupt General Braddock's march, I. 205, 206; Braddock's
+expedition against, I. 206-209, 214-233, II. 423-426; situation and
+appearance of, I. 207, 208; command held by Contrecœur, I. 208; number
+of Indians and Canadians at, I. 208, 209; Indians and French depart
+from, to fight with Braddock's expedition, I. 210-213, II. 423-426;
+return of the French troops, I. 221; desire to attack a second time, I.
+233; Dumas succeeds Contrecœur in command, I. 329; plan of capture, I.
+381; the attack abandoned, I. 382; report of the affair of Kittanning,
+I. 426, 427; the war-policy of Pitt, II. 48, 131, 132; importance of
+position, II. 48; expedition against, fitted out by the English, II. 49,
+129; approached by General Forbes's army, II. 130-134, 138, 140, 141; M.
+de Ligneris, commandant of, II. 141; French reinforcements sent to, II.
+141, 142; Indians near, sought as allies by English and French, II. 142,
+143; the missions of Frederic Post, II. 144-151; Post invited to go
+thither, II. 145; Grant's expedition, II. 151-155; statistics concerning
+the daily rations, II. 152 note; desperate condition of the French, II.
+155, 156; evacuated by the French, II. 158, 159; garrison left by the
+English under Lieutenant-Colonel Mercer, II. 160; effect of the English
+victory, II. 162, 235; letter from Montcalm referring to matters there,
+II. 168, 169.
+Durell, Admiral, II. 192, 198; at Isle-aux-Coudres, II. 203; arrival of
+his fleet in the St. Lawrence, II. 203-206; ruse to obtain a pilot, II.
+204.
+Dürer, I. 433.
+Durham Terrace, II. 355.
+Dury, interview with Braddock, I. 190.
+Dussieux, I. 514 note.
+Dutch, the, I. 287; in Pennsylvania, I. 31; trading interests at Albany,
+I. 32, 33, 65, 193, 195, 319, 320, 327; alienate the Mohawks, I. 171;
+their language, I. 221; at Schenectady, I. 321; hostile to Johnson, I.
+328.
+Dutch Reformed Church, the, I. 32.
+Duvivier to accept the terms of capitulation for Louisbourg, II. 73, 74.
+
+
+E.
+
+Easton, Indian convention at, II. 143, 147-150, 161.
+"Écho," the, number of her guns, II. 54 note; captured by the English,
+II. 63.
+Edinburgh, the University of, II. 285.
+Edward, grandson of George II., name given to Fort Edward, I. 315.
+Edward, Fort, in Nova Scotia, I. 268, 270, 272, 275, 280.
+Edward, Fort, in New York, I. 388, 406, 441, 452, II. 121, 432, 435;
+name given to Fort Lyman, I. 294, 315; winter life of the garrison, I.
+350; difficulties of carrying stores to, I. 388; forces stationed here,
+I. 401; its condition, I. 401, 402, 403; Earl Loudon stationed at, I.
+421; exposed condition of, I. 474, II. 3; attacked by a party under
+Marin, I. 485; position of General Webb, I. 496, 497, 501, II. 2;
+arrival of soldiers escaping from Fort William Henry, I. 511-513, II.
+428, 431; mutiny among the troops, II. 2, 3; arrival of troops to aid
+Monro, II. 2, 3; omission of Montcalm to attack, after his success at
+Fort William Henry, II. 4, 167, 168; commanded by Captain Haviland, II.
+11; expedition of Rogers' rangers, II. 11-16, 124; fortified by the
+English, II. 237.
+Edwards, Jonathan, I. 27.
+Egmont, Cape, II. 194.
+Elder, John, letter from, quoted, I. 344.
+Elizabeth of Russia, I. 18, II. 389, 393, 409; her hatred of Frederic
+the Great, I. 353, II. 389, 399; her death, II. 399.
+Elizabeth Castle, I. 252.
+Emerson, Rev. Mr., II. 120.
+England, I. 67, 310; her possessions in America, and questions of
+boundary, I. 1-3, 20-37, 56, 79, 90-92, 122-128, 132, 161, 168, 184,
+236-238, 243; restoration of Cape Breton, by, I. 2, 3; result of the
+subjection of Canada, I. 3; her commerce, I. 3, 4; influence of the
+Seven Years War, I. 3, 4, II. 38-40, 386, 408-414; religion, morals, and
+society under George II., I. 5-11; decline of the Tory power, I. 6; fall
+of the Stuarts, I. 6; service rendered by Pitt, I. 9, II. 40-47,
+395-398, 400, 401; the army and navy, I. 9, 180, 181, II. 380, 381, 400,
+411; conditions of, after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, I. 9; question
+of the mastery of India, I. 10; action taken by, at the time of the
+succession of Maria Theresa, I. 19 French and English population in
+America in 1754, compared, I. 20; success of, in establishing her
+colonies, and their condition, I. 22, 25, 29, 30, 33, 56, 126, 127, II.
+175-177, 401, 403, 411; importance of Pique Town and of Oswego, I. 52,
+68, 70, 72, 325, 398, 399, 415; seeks to repel the French aggressions in
+the West, I. 53, 132-142; importance of securing the Iroquois Indians as
+allies, I. 63-65, 125, 372, 374; neglect of the British Assemblies, of
+their interests, I. 86, the possession of Acadia, I. 90, 93, 94, 123,
+236, 253; conditions imposed on French inhabitants of Acadia, I. 90, 91;
+hostility of the Acadians and Indians encouraged by the French, I. 91,
+94, 98-108, 235-240, 242-245, 264; the oath of allegiance to be taken by
+the Acadians, I. 91, 92, 97, 98, 106, 107, 235, 260, 265; bound by
+treaty to allow the Acadians freedom in religion, I. 95, 107; mildness
+of her rule over the Acadians, I. 95, 96, 121, 122, 261, 262; pretended
+peace made by the Indians, I. 104, 105; relations of Cornwallis with the
+Acadians, I. 107, 108; commissioners appointed to decide upon the
+boundaries of possessions in America, I. 123-127; the question of the
+pistole fee, I. 138, 140; attitude and policy of the home government, I.
+171, 177-181; the southern department held by Sir Thomas Robinson, I.
+179; regiments ordered to America, I. 181, 182; diplomatic
+correspondence of, I. 183; warlike intentions concealed from France, I.
+183, 184; the plans of France known to, I. 184-186; Braddock despatched
+to America to take military command, I. 189-191; plans of Shirley laid
+before the government, I. 192, 193; supplies for Braddock's campaign
+scarce, I. 197, 198; questions of policy for the French and English in
+Acadia, I. 236-241; desire of the Acadians to return to their
+allegiance, I. 238, 244, 245; conditions leading to the removal of the
+Acadians from their home, I. 253-266, 284 (see Acadians); results of the
+campaign of 1755, I. 328, 329; attitude of the population of
+Pennsylvania towards, I. 339; preys on French commerce, I. 352; declares
+war, I. 352; political outlook, I. 353, 354; Protestant country, I. 355;
+money granted by Parliament to the colonies, I. 382, 382 note; an
+armament fitted out for the reduction of Louisbourg, I. 469, 470, 472;
+the fleet of Holbourne wrecked, I. 472; disasters and victories in
+Europe, II. 45-47; preparations to attack Louisbourg, II. 49; prisoners
+of war sent to, II. 76; rejoicing at the fall of Louisbourg, II. 76, 77;
+preparations made to attack Quebec, II. 176, 178, 193, 194; siege of
+Quebec, II. 195-233, 259-325, 325 note, 326 note; news of Wolfe's death
+and his heroism, II. 323, 324; the fall of Canada, II. 360-382; end of
+the war in America, II. 379-382; death of George II., II. 390, 391;
+succession of George III., II. 391; growth of a peace party, II. 391,
+392; changes among the officials, II. 392, 393; the policy of George
+III., II. 393-395, 400; terms of peace offered to, II. 395; the
+negotiations of Choiseul with Pitt, II. 395, 396; need of a peace with
+France, II. 396; the Family Compact, II. 396; the secret treaty made by
+Choiseul, II. 396, 397; the policy of Bute, II. 400; victories gained
+through the influence of Pitt, II. 400-402; the conflict for colonial
+ascendancy, II. 401, 403; expedition against Havana, II. 401, 402;
+negotiations with France for peace, II. 403-407; cessions made by
+France, II. 405; restores Belleisle II. 405; the treaty of peace signed
+at Paris, II. 407, 408; results of the war, II. 408-414; the growth of
+the United States, II. 411-413.
+English, the, I. 52, 54; driven from the West by the French, I. 44-47,
+59, 63-89; the French combine with the Indians to injure, I. 47, 64, 67,
+68, 70, 72, 82, 83, 99, 100, 101, 104, 105, 113, 114, 130, 161, 171,
+184, 203, 235, 236-239, 243-245, II. 421; matters of interest concerning
+trade and traders, I. 50, 69, 70, 72-74, 79, 86, 87; orders given to the
+French governor with regard to, I. 78-82; attacked at Pickawillany, I.
+84, 85; treatment of the Acadians, I. 91, 92, 95 (see Acadia and
+Acadians); the fortress of Louisbourg restored to France, I. 92;
+occupation of Beaubassin, I. 115-120; successful encounter with the
+French, I. 147, 148; the fight at Great Meadows, I. 156-161; results of
+the meeting of the colonial Assemblies with their governors, I. 163-169;
+rights of, on the Ohio River, I. 177; to intercept the French fleet, I.
+185, 186; arrival of Braddock in America, I. 187, 191; matters
+pertaining to Braddock's expedition, I. 187, 191, 195, 197-200, 204-216;
+expedition given in charge to Johnson, I. 195; the battle of the
+Monongahela, I. 215-220, 223, 223 note; defeat of Braddock, and retreat
+of his troops, I. 220-235; death and burial of Braddock, I. 220,
+224-226; Shirley made commander-in-chief of the army, I. 233; loyalty of
+the troops, I. 238, 239; plans of, in regard to the French, I. 239, 240;
+capture of Fort Beauséjour, I. 240-253; surrender of French forts, I.
+253; removal of the Acadians from their homes, I. 254, 255, 265-284 (see
+Acadians); plan to increase the English population in Acadia, I. 257;
+disaster at Peticodiac, I. 275; expedition against Crown Point, I.
+285-317; character of the army in the expedition, I. 290-292; preaching
+on Sunday to the army, I. 295, 296; an ambush prepared for, by Dieskau,
+I. 300; the battle of Lake George, I. 302-317; expedition of Shirley
+against Niagara, I. 318-329; arrive at Fort Oswego, I. 322; lack of
+supplies, I. 325, 326; Shirley leaves Oswego, I. 326; results of the
+campaign against the French, I. 328, 329; border warfare encouraged by
+the French, I. 329-350; conditions in Pennsylvania, I. 336-350; forts
+built to guard the Great Carrying Place, I. 374; prepare to attack
+Ticonderoga, I. 377-380, 387, 388; receive discouraging reports from
+Ticonderoga, I. 389, 390; the appointment of Earl Loudon as
+commander-in-chief, I. 383; payment of troops, and other matters
+pertaining to soldiers, I. 384-388; forest war, I. 389; action between
+Villiers and Bradstreet, I. 394-396; royal orders concerning provincial
+officers, I. 399, 400; condition of the New England troops, I. 401, 402;
+the loss of Oswego, I. 405-420; the Indians butcher the prisoners, I.
+413, 414, 414 note; difficulties in the French war, I. 414-417; number
+of men under Earl Loudon, I. 421; the attack made on Kittanning,
+423-427; despatches sent by Vaudreuil to France, concerning, I. 427;
+scouting-parties, I. 428, 429; at Fort William Henry, I. 428; the
+war-party of Perière, I. 429-431; exploits of Rogers' rangers, I.
+433-437 (see Rogers); the difficulty in quartering the troops in winter,
+I. 439, 440; party sent by Vaudreuil to attack Fort William Henry, I.
+447-451; capture French stores, I. 457; number of their antagonists, I.
+468; plan for the reduction of Louisbourg, I. 468; delay in starting the
+fleet for Halifax, I. 469, 470, 472; fleet of Holbourne wrecked, I. 472;
+the attack and massacre of, at Fort William Henry, I. 474-478, 485-513,
+514 note, II. 4, 5, 237, 428-431; the tide turning, II. 46; Loudon
+succeeded by Abercromby, in office, II. 48; the Scotch Highlanders join
+the army, II. 49; the typical British naval officer, II. 50; the siege
+and reduction of Louisbourg, II. 48, 49, 51, 55-82 note (see
+Louisbourg); expedition fitted out against, to serve under Abercromby,
+II. 83-113 note; reforms in the army introduced by Lord Howe, II. 90;
+effect of the death of Lord Howe, II. 97, 98; the assault at
+Ticonderoga, II. 103-107, 110-113; matters pertaining to life in the
+army, II. 116, 117, 119, 120, 264, 334, 335, 339, 366; gain possession
+of Fort Frontenac, II. 127-129; the reduction of Fort Duquesne, II.
+131-163; need of Indian allies, II. 139, 140, 142-148; use of Western
+lands, II. 146; expedition of Major Grant, II. 151-155; burial of
+Braddock's slain, II. 159, 160; Lieutenant-Colonel Mercer to hold Fort
+Duquesne, II. 160, 161; the situation in 1758, II. 162; expedition
+fitted out to serve under General Wolfe, II. 182-184, 192-207; the siege
+and reduction of Quebec, II. 207-234, 259-326 note (see Wolfe and
+Quebec); statistics concerning the army at the battle of Quebec, II. 298
+note, 305, 305 note, 442, 443, 436-438; bravery of the sailors, II. 227,
+228; capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point by Amherst, II. 235-240;
+spruce beer made in the army, II. 236, 237; Fort Edward fortified, II.
+237; their general humanity, II. 261, 262, 309; council of war held, II.
+272, 273; action of Holmes's squadron, II. 278-280; love of the soldiers
+for their officers, II. 281, 294, 295; loss of General Wolfe, II.
+294-297; the precision of their fire, II. 295, 296; rule in Canada, II.
+332; skirmish at Lorette, II. 337, 338; the battle of Sainte-Foy, II.
+342, 347-359, 442-444; the fall of Canada, II. 360-382; embark for
+Montreal, II. 363-366; passage of the rapids, II. 370, 371; numerical
+superiority of their troops, II. 381; recapture St. John's, II. 402.
+English colonies, the, condition of, as compared with French
+possessions, I. 1-3, 20, 21; inhabitants of, I. 20-22, 25; government
+of, I. 25, 26, 170, 171, 349, 350, 419; compared and examined, I. 25-36,
+62, 126, 127; means of travel, I. 33; politics and religion in, I.
+33-35, 137, 139, 170, 171, 349, 350, 419; plan of France to unite
+Louisiana and Canada against, I. 36, 37; hampered by the Assemblies, I.
+137, 139; efforts to repel the French in the West, I. 137-141, 169, 175;
+plan of union of Franklin, I. 175; council of governors held with
+Braddock, I. 191-195; slaves in, I. 193; the frontier left unguarded, I.
+227, 231, 232; distribution of the exiled Acadians, I. 282; mode of life
+of the frontier settler, I. 334-336; united against Canada, II. 175;
+prediction of Mayhew for, II. 325; predictions of several persons
+concerning their future in America, II. 403, 404; symptoms of revolt
+shown, II. 413.
+English ministry. See British Ministry.
+"Entreprenant," the number of her guns, II. 54 note; burned at anchor,
+II. 66.
+Epicurus, II. 389.
+Episcopalians in the army, II. 117.
+Erie, town of, I. 89.
+Erie, Lake, I. 38, 52, 486, II. 247; the passage to Lake Huron, I. 75;
+desirability of erecting forts near, I. 80, 132.
+Esopus, I. 422 note.
+Espagnol, Port, II. 78.
+Espineuse, Madame, d', II. 176.
+Estève, secretary of Montcalm, I. 361; his voyage, I. 364; his marriage,
+II. 426.
+Etechemin River, the, II. 274.
+Etechémins, the, I. 23.
+Eugene, Prince, I. 18; remark of, concerning the result of Charles VI.'s
+death, I. 18.
+Europe, I. 479, II. 133, 186; complication of political interests, I.
+1-4, 353-355, II. 175; the Seven Years War, I. 1, 18, II. 38, 39, 386,
+405, 406; power of the House of Bourbon, I. 9; power of Frederic II. of
+Prussia, I. 17; rule of the House of Austria, I. 16, 17; the peace of
+Aix-la-Chapelle, I. 19; power and influence of Peter the Great, I. 17,
+18; the princes pledged to sustain the will of Charles VI., I. 18, 19;
+the balance of power, I. 18, 126; grains and fruit of, growing in
+America, I. 76; question of American boundary, I. 123-128; war commenced
+between the powers of, I. 186; the peace of Paris, II. 383-408; the
+conflict for colonial ascendancy, II. 401; results of the victory of
+Plassey, II. 408; the mastery of India, II. 410; Catholicism in, II.
+412.
+Exchequer, the, II. 393.
+Eyre, Major, occupies Fort William Henry, I. 439-441; party sent by
+Vaudreuil to reduce the fort, I. 447-451; requested to give up Fort
+William Henry, I. 449; his answer, and the result thereof, I. 449-451.
+
+
+F.
+
+Fabius, II. 209.
+Fairfax, Lord, letter from Dinwiddie, I. 139; letters from Colonel
+Innes, I. 226, 228.
+Falmouth, I. 169, 310.
+Falstaff, I. 142.
+Family Compact, the, I. 396.
+Faneuil Hall, II. 377.
+Fare, Marquis de la, I. 358.
+Feather dance, a, description of, I. 58.
+Ferdinand, Price of Brunswick, appointed to command, II. 47; generalship
+of, II. 47; action with Clermont, II. 47.
+Ferdinand VI. of Spain, death of, II. 396.
+Ferguson, II. 57.
+Feudalism, I. 10; in Canada and in the British colonies, I. 22, 31-33.
+"Fidèle," the, number of her guns, II. 54 note.
+Fiedmont, II. 314.
+Fielding, I. 6, 189.
+Fifty-eighth Regiment, the, II. 298 note.
+Fireships, II. 201, 203; descend upon the English, II. 210-212.
+First Lord of the Treasury, the, II. 400.
+Fish, Jane. See Pompadour.
+Fisheries, the, II. 405, 407, 410.
+Fitch, Colonel, letter to Winslow, I. 388; his regiment, II. 94;
+encounter with Langy in the woods, II. 97.
+Five Mile Point, I. 442, II. 102.
+Five Nations, the, I. 38, 40, 45, 49, 67, 68, 130, II. 7, 86; dialects
+of, I. 44; adopt Catharine Montour, I. 54; efforts of the French to gain
+as allies, and to cause the destruction of the English, I. 59, 64, 78,
+203, 371, 372, 466, II. 143, 144; their influence and position, I.
+63-65, 125, 372, 374; power of Johnson over, I. 64, 172, 195, 287, 288,
+390-393; their missionary, I. 68, 487, II. 418; their country disposed
+of in the treaty of Utrecht, I. 79, 125, 126 note; range of their
+war-parties, I. 125; orders sent from Dinwiddie, I. 139; at Fort
+Duquesne, I. 154; the congress at Albany, I. 173-176; Indian
+commissioners treated by, I. 195; Johnson made Indian superintendent, I.
+287, 288, 390; homes of, I. 319; the fur trade, I. 320; conferences held
+with, by Shirley, I. 327; border warfare, I. 329; the spies, I. 374;
+council called by Montcalm, I. 485-489; join in the attack upon Fort
+William Henry, I. 490; Indian convention, II. 142, 143; declare their
+alliance with the English, II. 148, 244; the fight at Niagara, II. 247;
+their totems on a flag at Piquet, II. 418.
+Flanders, II. 184.
+Flat Point, II. 57.
+Flat Point Cove, II. 61.
+Flatheads, the, I. 68.
+Fleurimont, I. 486.
+Flogging, II. 236.
+Florence, II. 323.
+Florida, I. 20; ceded by Spain to England, II. 405, 406.
+Foligny, M. de, his journal, II. 438, 441; matters relating to the death
+of Montcalm, II. 441, 442.
+Folsom, Captain, I. 308, 309.
+Fontbrune, aide-de-camp of General Montcalm, I. 498.
+Fontenoy, battle of, I. 8, 19.
+Forbes, Rev. Eli, pastor at Brookfield, II. 378, 379; his sermon on the
+fall of Canada, II. 378, 379.
+Forbes, Brigadier John, II. 49; the reduction of Fort Duquesne, II. 49,
+130-163; his early life, II. 132; his route and plan of attack, II.
+133-147, 156, 157; compared with Braddock, II. 134; his relations with
+Washington, II. 134, 137, 138; his relations with Bouquet, II. 134, 135;
+letter to Pitt concerning his provincials, II. 135; his sickness, II.
+135-137, 157, 161, 162; his letters to Bouquet quoted, II. 136-138, 142,
+157; erects Fort Bedford, II. 141; messages of peace sent to the
+Indians, II. 144-151; Grant's expedition, II. 151-155; names the
+settlement of Pittsburg, II. 159, 244; finds Fort Duquesne evacuated,
+II. 159; letter to Amherst, II. 161; leaves Fort Duquesne, II. 161; the
+homeward march retarded by illness, II. 161, 162; effect of his
+expedition, II. 162; his death and burial, II. 162.
+Forests in the West, the, I. 205.
+Fort Hill, II. 76.
+Forty-fourth Regiment, the, I. 219 note.
+Forty-seventh Regiment, the, II. 298 note.
+Forty-third Regiment, the, II. 182, 298 note.
+"Foudroyant," the, captured by the English, II. 49, 50.
+Fox, Henry, I. 8, 179.
+Foxcroft, Thomas, pastor of the "Old Church" in Boston, II. 377; his
+sermon on the occasion of the fall of Canada, II. 377.
+Foxes, the, called to a council by Montcalm, I. 486-489.
+France, I. 9, 67, 148, 243, 353, 365, 377, 456, 486, 491, II. 29, 43,
+49, 286, 401, 402; alliance with Austria, I. 2; her possessions in
+America, I. 1-3, 20, 24, 25, 37, 40, 41, 43, 45, 59, 62-67, 76, 79 note,
+122-128, 318, II. 403, 404, 410; influence of the Seven Years War upon,
+I. 3, 4, II. 410; condition of, under Louis XV., I. 9-16; her
+commanders, I. 10; her army and navy, I. 10, 180, 181, 368-373, 461,
+462, II. 380, 381, 401, 410; the persecution of the Huguenots, I. 14,
+21, 22; growing disrespect for the clergy and ministry, I. 15; takes
+part with Bavaria, I. 19; French and English populations in America in
+1754 compared, I. 20, 21; rule established by, in Canada, I. 22; forts
+held by, in America, I. 40, 41, 75, 76, 318; leaden plates given to
+Céloron to bury in America, I. 43, 45, 48, 62 note; missions established
+by, among the Indians, I. 64-67; the treaty of Utrecht, I. 79; cession
+of Acadia to England, I. 90, 93, 94; French maxims of duty to the King,
+I. 106; the Acadians ordered to swear allegiance to, I. 120, 121;
+balance of power, I. 127; the marine and colonial department, I. 179;
+conditions of rule in, I. 179, 180; diplomatic representatives of, I.
+179, 180, 183; expedition of war ordered to America, I. 182; her naval
+and military plans, I. 183-186; the Acadians French at heart, I.
+235-237; questions of policy for the French and English in Acadia, I.
+236-241; corruption among the officials, I. 242, II. 22-28, 44, 385,
+386; conditions leading to the expulsion of the Acadians from their
+home, I. 253-266 (see Acadians); expedition fitted out against Crown
+Point, I. 285, 286; expedition sent to America under Dieskau, I. 288;
+results of the campaign, I. 328, 329; attitude of Pennsylvania towards,
+I. 339; war declared between England and, I. 352, 353; political
+combinations in Europe, I. 353-356; alliance sought by Maria Theresa, I.
+354; Montcalm to succeed Dieskau, I. 356; paucity of troops sent to
+America, I. 363; troops sent against Austria, I. 363; attitude of
+Governor Vaudreuil towards, I. 366-368; growth of political parties in
+Canada, I. 367, 368; Indian allies, I. 372, 466, 467, II. 142-145, 162,
+381; her communication with the West, I. 415; causes of the English
+losses, I. 417-419; information from England obtained through Florence
+Hensey, I. 469; the war with England subordinate to personal politics,
+I. 469; prospects at the time of Pitt, II. 45; loss of Louisbourg, II.
+71-75; inhabitants of Louisbourg sent to, II. 76; victory of Montcalm at
+Ticonderoga, II. 111, 112; appeals made in behalf of Canada, II.
+173-176; promotions of Montcalm and others, II. 174; scant assistance
+given to Canada, II. 175; the loss of Quebec, II. 195-234, 259-326 note;
+funeral of Montcalm, II. 309, 310; Lévis sends for aid, II. 354; loss of
+Montreal and Canada, II. 373, 374; return of the troops, II. 374, 383,
+384; end of the war in America, II. 379-382; her victories, II. 381;
+trial of those accused of peculation in Canada, II. 385, 386; political
+situation in 1761, II. 393-395; terms of peace offered to England, II.
+395; the negotiations of Choiseul, II. 395, 396; provisions of the
+Family Compact, II. 396; her enemies in Europe, II. 399, 400; her
+financial condition in 1762, II. 402, 403; negotiations with England for
+peace, II. 403-407; possessions ceded by, II. 405; privileges of
+fishing, II. 405, 407; the fortress of Dunkirk to be destroyed, II. 406;
+a secret agreement made with Spain, II. 406; the treaty of peace signed
+at Paris, II. 407; her influence in the East, II. 410; under Colbert,
+II. 410; her power on the continent of Europe, II. 410, 411.
+Franklin, Benjamin, I. 27; his plan of union for the colonies, I. 175;
+his relations with Braddock, I. 188, 198, 199; his position in the
+Assembly of Pennsylvania, I. 198, 199, 338; account of Braddock's death,
+I. 225, 226; the defeat of the English, I. 228; bill drawn by, I. 348
+note; his policy, I. 349; his opinion of Shirley and of Loudon, I. 421,
+470; remark of, concerning the union of the British colonies, II. 404.
+Franquet, II. 70, 71; sent to strengthen Louisbourg, II. 18; his
+journal, II. 18; his account of a travelling party in Canada, II. 18-21.
+Fraser, his trading-house, I. 133 note, 213; Washington at his house, I.
+136.
+Fraser, Colonel, his Highlanders serve under Wolfe, II. 59, 231, 298
+note, 443; Canadian prisoners, II. 226.
+Fraser, Hon. Malcolm, anecdote of Montcalm, II. 297 note.
+Frederic William of Prussia, I. 17.
+Frederic II. of Prussia, I. 2, 17, II. 38; his youth and training, I.
+17; seizes the province of Silesia, I. 19; political conditions in his
+realm, I. 353, 354; combination against, I. 355, 356, II. 38-40; the
+Seven Years War, II. 38-40, 409; the battle of Prague, II. 39;
+confidence felt in Pitt, II. 46; his glory in 1758, II. 386; his
+reverses and trials, II. 387-389, 398, 399; his letters to D'Argens, II.
+387-389, 390; the campaigns of 1760 and 1761, II. 387-390; letter to
+Voltaire, II. 388; Russia becomes the ally of, II. 399; the treaty of
+Hubertsburg, II. 407; his dominions intact, II. 409; numbers lost in the
+Seven Years War, II. 409.
+Frederic, Fort, I. 24, 378.
+French, the, I. 28; effect of the Seven Years War upon, I. 1, 3, II. 40,
+409; their efforts to gain and retain Indian allies, I. 28, 41, 42, 47,
+48, 57, 63, 65, 130, 135, 161, 171, 175, 328-330, 374, 423, 425, 467,
+478, 479, 484-487, II. 4, 5, 143, 149-151; attacks made on New England,
+I. 28, 168; fur-trade, the, I. 37; New France connected by forts, I. 40,
+41; desire to control the West, I. 16, 53, 72, 73, 86-88, 169, 170, 176,
+197, 233, II. 146; missions among the Indians, I. 41, 42, 64, 65-67;
+matters relating to trade, I. 64, 65, 69-73, 86, 399; methods of warfare
+and organization, I. 73, 143, 144, 409, 472; the attack at Pickawillany,
+I. 84, 85; conditions of residence of, in Acadia, I. 90, 91; injurious
+influence of, upon the Acadians, I. 91, 96, 97, 99-108, 109, 121,
+235-238, 243-245, 248, 257, 258, 265, 266, 266 note; officials and
+priests aid the Indians to destroy the English, I. 98-108, 113, 114,
+168, 236, 329-350, II. 248, 374, 421; double-dealing, I. 103, 104, 105
+note, 106 note, 115; relations with Cornwallis, I. 107, 108; occupation
+of Beaubassin by the English, I. 115-120; the murder of Captain Howe, I.
+118, 119; questions of boundary, I. 122-127, 184, 236-238; forts erected
+by, I. 128, 130, 143; expedition of Duquesne to the Ohio, I. 128-135,
+143-161; efforts of Dinwiddie to repel, in the West, I. 132-161; prepare
+for war, I. 143, 144, 150, 154, 155, 169; alleged causes of Jumonville's
+expedition, I. 147-149; fight between Washington and Villiers, I.
+153-161; opinions expressed by the Indians concerning, I. 173, 174; aid
+to be expected from the Catholics, I. 193; try to interrupt Braddock's
+march, I. 205, 206; the encounter with Braddock's forces, I. 210-227;
+their method of warfare, I. 215-219; death of Braddock, I. 220, 225,
+226; return of the troops, I. 221; treatment of their prisoners, I. 222,
+223; losses of, in the battle of the Monongahela, I. 223; their standard
+planted on Beauséjour, I. 235, 247; matters pertaining to the army, I.
+238, 241, 247, 368, 368 note, 421, 439, 461-465, 468, II. 54, 55, 364,
+373, 374, 383, 384; hostile designs of, I. 243; encounter with the
+English at Beauséjour, I. 248-253; burn Fort St. John, I. 253;
+conditions leading to the expulsion of the Acadians, examined, I.
+253-266 (see Acadia and Acadians); expedition fitted out against Crown
+Point, I. 285, 286; prepare to defend Crown Point, I. 288, 289, 293;
+advance of Dieskau's forces to meet Johnson, I. 296, 297, 299; the
+battle of Lake George, I. 304-317; their losses, I. 312, 312 note, 313;
+occupy Ticonderoga, I. 313, 389, 390, 442, 478, II. 104; strength of
+their position at Niagara, I. 318, 325; expedition of Shirley against
+Niagara, I. 318-329; the troops at Fort Frontenac, I. 324, 408; results
+of the campaign, I. 328, 329; building of Fort Duquesne, I. 337 note;
+their settlements on the Ohio molested, I. 340; on the march against
+Virginia, I. 343; arrival of Montcalm, I. 365, 366; camps of Montcalm,
+I. 373; Fort Bull taken by, I. 374, 375; letter of Montreuil quoted, I.
+376, 377; expedition fitted out to defend Ticonderoga, I. 377, 378;
+preparations of Shirley for war, I. 384; action between Villiers and
+Bradstreet, I. 394-396; the capture of Oswego, I. 397-420; their losses,
+I. 414; rumors of attack at Lake George, I. 422; reduction of Fort
+Granville, I. 423; their war-parties, I. 429-431, 437, 438; dealings of
+Rogers' rangers with, I. 431, 432, 443, 444, II. 122-124, 256, 257; a
+war-party sent to attack Fort William Henry, I. 446-451; the seat of
+war, I. 453, 454; their ships-of-war, I. 473 note; the capture of Fort
+William Henry, I. 474-513, 514 note, II. 428-431; officers of the
+Indians, I. 486; circular letter sent by Montcalm to the officers, I.
+489; official knavery, II. 22-38; routed at Rossbach, II. 46; change of
+commanders, II. 47; the siege and reduction of Louisbourg, II. 48, 49,
+51-82 note (see Louisbourg); their ships burned off Louisbourg, II. 66,
+67, 69; treatment received by prisoners from the English, II. 81, 128;
+expedition against Ticonderoga, II. 86-113 note (see Ticonderoga);
+losses of, II. 110; mistake occurring from the waving of a handkerchief,
+II. 107; serve under Marin, II. 122; loss of Fort Frontenac, II.
+127-129; vessels on Lake Ontario taken by the British, II. 128; loss of
+the command of Lake Ontario, II. 129; loss of Fort Duquesne, II.
+131-163; reinforcements sent to Fort Duquesne, II. 141, 142; loss of
+Indian allies, II. 143, 149-151; encounter with Major Grant, II.
+151-155; retreat from Fort Duquesne, II. 158, 159; effect of the Indian
+conference at Easton, II. 161; effect of the loss of Fort Duquesne, II.
+162; the situation in 1758, II. 162; letter from Doreil to the minister
+of war, II. 162, 163; Montcalm desires his recall, II. 164; alarming
+condition of Canada, II. 169-173; danger to the shipping, II. 172; siege
+and reduction of Quebec, II. 195-234, 259-299, 325, 326 note (see Quebec
+and Wolfe); measures of defence taken by Montcalm, II. 198-203; the
+camp, II. 208, 209; the fireships let loose upon the enemy, II. 210-212;
+opposition to the work at Point Levi, II. 215; Dumas' expedition
+unsuccessful, II. 215; preserve the defensive, II. 219; the Canadians
+desert their cause, II. 219, 222, 223, 366; Niagara attacked and
+captured, II. 222, 238, 242-249; affair of the Montmorenci, II. 228,
+233, 259; at Isle-aix-Noix, II. 238, 239, 241, 249, 250; loss of
+Ticonderoga, II. 239, 265; Crown Point abandoned, II. 240, 241, 265;
+effort to recover Pittsburg, II. 244; their fear of the Indians, II.
+248, 374; parishes laid waste, II. 260, 261; barbarities of Vaudreuil,
+II. 262; fear of losing supplies, II. 264, 293; Montcalm poorly
+supported, II. 281, 281 note, 292, 293; the army routed, II. 297-302,
+307, 308; statistics concerning the army at the Battle of Quebec, II.
+298 note, 305, 436-438; the protecting care of Montcalm, II. 309; the
+death and burial of Montcalm, II. 309, 310; confusion in the army, II.
+312; Lévis assumes command, II. 313; the army to retrace their steps,
+II. 313, 314; the campaign and its actors misrepresented by Vaudreuil,
+II. 318-323; the English threatened, I. 335, 336; at Le Calvaire, II.
+336; encounter with the English under Major Dalling, II. 336; skirmish
+at Lorette, II. 337; efforts to renew the conflict at Quebec, II. 338;
+the troops during the winter, II. 339, 340; Lévis's expedition to attack
+Quebec, II. 341-358; occupy Sainte-Foy, II. 344, 345, 442-444; the
+battle between Murray and Lévis, II. 347-350; the English retreat, II.
+350-352; available force of fighting men, II. 360; small resources left
+in Canada, II. 360; fall of Canada, II. 360-382; plans of Amherst, II.
+361, 362; the English fleet sails for Montreal, II. 363-366; advance
+upon Montreal, II. 365; Fort Lévis captured, II. 369, 370; the articles
+of capitulation for Montreal, II. 372, 373; cruelties of the Indians
+encouraged by, II. 373; Canada passes to the crown of England, II. 374;
+return of the troops to France, II. 374, 383, 384; fly before Frederic,
+II. 386; driven from Pondicherry, II. 400; capture St. John's, and lose
+it again, II. 402; payment offered for English scalps, II. 421.
+French Academy, the, I. 357.
+French Catharine's Town, I. 54 note.
+French Creek, I. 45, 130, 133, 168; former name of, I. 128.
+French Indians, I. 58; narrow escape of Washington, I. 136.
+French Mountain, I. 300, 309, II. 92.
+French Revolution, the, I. 18.
+Freshwater Cove, II. 57, 58; attacked and taken by the English, II.
+58-61; known by other names, II. 59 note.
+Friponne, La, II. 24.
+Frontenac, Fort, I. 38, 68, II. 114, 155; return of Céloron de
+Bienville, I. 52; action of the French in regard to ship-building, I.
+72, 73; reception offered to Father Piquet, I. 74; proposed capture of,
+I. 323, 324, 374, 381, 393; position of, I. 324; held by the French, I.
+374, 376, 415; the attack abandoned, I. 399; arrival of Montcalm, I.
+407; taken by the British, II. 127-130; dismantled, II. 129, 162.
+Fry, Joshua, Colonel, I. 142, 145; despatches from Washington, I. 151;
+illness of, I. 151; his death, I. 151.
+Frye, Colonel, I. 405 note; disaster to the English, I. 275; number
+killed at Fort Edward, I. 485 note; sent with a detachment to Fort
+William Henry, I. 496; the massacre at Fort William Henry, I. 508-513,
+513 note, 514 note, II. 429, 430.
+Fundy, Bay of, I. 237, 239, 247, 261, 268, II. 78, 87; dikes on, I. 258.
+Fur-trade, the, I. 37, 41, 50, 64, 72, 76, 103, 320, 369, II. 24, 27,
+403.
+
+
+G.
+
+Gabarus Bay, II. 57.
+Gage, Lieutenant-Colonel, I. 212; in Braddock's expedition, I. 214, 216;
+in the battle of the Monongahela, I. 219; rallies his troops, I. 224;
+his infantry under Abercromby, II. 93; letter from Amherst, II. 240,
+241; sent to supersede Johnson, II. 249.
+Galissonière, Comte de la, governor of Canada, I. 43, 45, 53 note;
+effort to have the population of Canada increased, I. 21; his plans for
+uniting Canada and Louisiana, I. 36, 37; his personal appearance, I. 36;
+message given to the Indians, I. 47; soldiers sent to protect Piquet's
+mission, I. 66, 68; honorably recalled from office, I. 77; persons
+induced to settle at Detroit, I. 77 note; questions of boundary, I. 122,
+123.
+Ganouskie Bay, I. 490.
+Gardiner, Captain, captures the ship "Foudroyant," II. 49, 50; mortally
+wounded, II. 50.
+Gardner, I. 443.
+Garneau, II. 443, 444.
+Gasconade, II. 171, 194 note, 204.
+Gaspé, I. 125, 491, II. 80, 81, 354.
+Gaspereau, Fort, at Baye Verte, I. 253; surrender of, to the English, I.
+253.
+Gates wounded in battle, I. 219.
+General Court of Massachusetts, the, I. 26, 290, 404; method of raising
+troops, I. 384-387.
+General Hospital of Quebec, the, II. 441, crowded with sick, II. 265,
+304, 305; the nuns care for the sick, II. 330, 331-335.
+Genesee, I. 71.
+Genesee Falls, I. 71.
+George II., King of England, I. 288, 316, 320, 321, 332, II. 40, 81,
+191; society, morals, and religion during his reign, I. 5-9; his
+possessions in the West, I. 53, 133, 134, 141; the oath of allegiance to
+be taken by the Acadians, I. 91, 92-98, 265; forts to be erected on the
+Ohio, I. 137; plans of colonial union, I. 175, 176; his speech
+concerning America, I. 181; American regiments to be taken into his pay,
+I. 194; remark concerning Governor Sharpe, I. 201, 202; his orders to
+the Acadians, I. 270, 273, 274; the Acadians disloyal to, I. 260; the
+Acadians declared prisoners, I. 274; his name given to Lake George, I.
+295, 315; the rank of provincial officers, I. 399; the fall of
+Louisbourg, II. 76; troops called for, II. 83; secret instructions to
+Wolfe, II. 194 note; the victory at Quebec, II. 323, 324, 340; the fall
+of Canada, II. 360; Louisbourg to be abandoned, II. 363; his death, II.
+390, 391.
+George III., succeeds to the throne of England, II. 391; his character
+and opinions, II. 391-394, 397; growth of a peace-party, II. 391, 392;
+the negotiation with France broken off, II. 396; quarrels with
+Newcastle, II. 400; desires peace with France, II. 402; resistance of
+the British colonies, II. 413.
+George, Fort, II. 76, 237; erection of, I. 295; condition of, I. 411.
+George, Lake, I. 294, 296, 380, 388, 401, 421, 441, 446, 448, 452, II.
+12, 14, 15, 76, 80, 115, 129; its beauty of scenery, I. 295; the name
+given to, by Johnson, I. 295, 315; advance of Dieskau's army, I. 299;
+conditions at the camp of, I. 314, 315; its former name, 315; winter
+life of the garrisons, I. 350; scouting-party sent out, I. 427-429;
+exploits of Rogers' rangers, I. 433-437; the French camp, I. 438, 477,
+478; the English camp, I. 440, 441; exposed condition of the forts, I.
+474, 475; position of Ticonderoga, I. 477, II. 99; advance of Montcalm's
+forces upon Fort William Henry, I. 485-491; voyage of the troops on
+their way to attack Ticonderoga, II. 86-88, 92, 94; arrangement of
+Montcalm's troops, II. 104; mustering-place of the armies at the head
+of, II. 236.
+George, Lake, the battle of, I. 291 note, 304-317, 328.
+Georgia, I. 33; English possessions, I. 20; distribution of the exiled
+Acadians, I. 282.
+Germain, Father, efforts against the English, I. 100, 101, 103; the
+fight at Beaubassin, I. 117.
+German Flats, I. 321, 406; attacked by Vaudreuil, II. 6, 7.
+German States, the, II. 38, 39.
+German War, the, II. 405.
+Germanic Empire, the, I. 16, 17, II. 38; decay of, I. 17; hostile to
+Frederic II., II. 399.
+Germans, the, II. 6, 45, 47, 132; in Pennsylvania, I. 31, 166, 193, 339,
+347, 348; their language spoken in New York, I. 32.
+Germany, II. 117; destiny of, involved with that of Prussia, I. 17;
+intrigue formed by France, concerning, I. 19; the convention of
+Kloster-Zeven, II. 45; political situation in 1761, II. 391-395;
+recreation of, II. 408; results of the Seven Year War, II. 409.
+Gethan, Captain, I. 227.
+Gibraltar, garrisons of, I. 9; governorship of General Braddock, I. 189,
+190, 190 note.
+Gibraltar, Straits of, II. 49.
+Giddings, Captain, II. 123 note.
+Gilchrist, II. 435, 436.
+Gilson, George, I. 227.
+Girard, priest at Cobequid, I. 106, II. 427; oath required of, I. 106,
+107; his honorable action, I. 107; correspondence with Longueuil, I.
+107; quotation from, concerning the Acadian emigrants, I. 109, 110.
+Gist, Christopher, I. 42, 133; sent to select land for settlers, I. 53,
+54-59; his expedition to Ohio, I. 53; his description of a feather
+dance, I. 58; adventure with Indians, I. 136; his journal, I. 136 note;
+joins Washington, I. 146, 151; his settlement, I. 151, 157; council held
+by Washington, I. 153; his buildings burned, I. 161; reached by the
+retreating troops of Braddock, I. 224; orders given by Braddock to, I.
+226.
+Gladwin, wounded in the battle of the Monongahela, I. 219.
+Glasgow, II. 185.
+Glasier, Colonel, I. 404.
+Glen, Governor of South Carolina, I. 176; correspondence with Dinwiddie,
+I. 176, 177.
+Gnadenhütten settlement destroyed by the Indians, I. 347.
+Goat Island, II. 53.
+Goldsmith, his Life of Nash, I. 188.
+"Goodwill," the, II. 204.
+Gordon, Mr., I. 403; engineer in Braddock's expedition, I. 215.
+Gorée II. 400; Island of, restored to France, II. 406.
+Gorham, Captain, reconnoitres Louisbourg, I. 471.
+Governor's Palace, the, I. 142, 163.
+Governors of America, the, position of, I. 170, 171, 282; matter of
+raising money for the campaigns, I. 195; council held with Braddock, I.
+191-195; jealousies between the Assemblies and, I. 419, 420.
+Gradis and Son, II. 23; official knavery, II. 23, 24.
+Graham, Rev. John of Suffield, Conn., I. 402; his accounts of the
+condition of the provincial camp, I. 402-404; his Diary quoted, I. 403,
+404.
+Grand Battery, the, II. 55; abandoned by the French, II. 61.
+Grand Menan, the, II. 183.
+Grand Pré, the, I. 94, 106, 260, 263; its inhabitants, I. 264, 269, 270;
+meadows of, I. 268; origin of its name, I. 269; encampment of Winslow,
+I. 269; the inhabitants summoned to hear the King's orders, I. 271,
+272-276; the removal of the Acadians, I. 277-279.
+Grant, Ensign, the attack upon Louisbourg, II. 59.
+Grant, Major, his expedition, II. 151-155; surrounded and captured, II.
+153-155.
+Grant, Mrs. Anne, recollections of Albany, I. 320; her "Memoirs of an
+American Lady," cited, I. 320, II. 91 note.
+Grant's Hill, II. 140; origin of the name, II. 151.
+Granville, Earl, I. 8, II. 397; letter from Dinwiddie to, quoted, I.
+176; angry reply given to Pitt, II. 397, 398; remarks on his death-bed,
+II. 408.
+Granville, Fort, attacked by the French and Indians, I. 423.
+Gray, words of Wolfe concerning the Elegy, II. 285, 286.
+Gray, Sergeant James, letter to his brother quoted, I. 321.
+Gray, John, letter from James Gray, I. 321.
+Great Carrying Place, the, I. 293, 321, 393, II. 242; guarded by the
+English, I. 374; fort rebuilt by Shirley, I. 384; the fort burned, I.
+406; new fort to be erected, II. 129.
+Great Company, the, in Canada, I. 283.
+Great Cove, the settlement destroyed, I. 343.
+Great Kenawha, the, I. 48; plate buried by the French near, I. 48.
+Great Lakes, the, I. 75, 124.
+Great Meadows, the, I. 145; Washington assembles his force, I. 146, 151,
+153; the fight at, I. 157-159, 161; encampment of Dunbar, I. 226.
+Great Miami, the, I. 50, 55; neighboring country described, I. 55, 56.
+Great Savage Mountain, the, I. 205.
+Greeks, the, I. 407, II. 323.
+Green and Russell, Messrs., II. 442.
+Green, his "History of the English People" cited, II. 408, 408 note.
+Green Bay, I. 84; fraudulent trade, II. 27.
+Green Mountains, I. 453.
+Grenada, II. 401; ceded by France, II. 405.
+Grenadines, the, II. 405.
+Grenville, Mr., II. 194 note.
+Gridley, Colonel, I. 401.
+Grignon, Pierre, II. 425.
+Guadeloupe, II. 400; question of its comparative value with that of
+Canada, II. 403; restored by England, II. 405.
+Guienne, the battalion of, I. 182, II. 104, 109, 230, 232; advances upon
+Fort William Henry, I. 491; guards Fort Frontenac, I. 376; the capture
+of Oswego, I. 408; camp of, I. 477; ordered to encamp on the Plains of
+Abraham, II. 276; encamps by the St. Charles, II. 285, 290, 292.
+Guinea, the French driven from, II. 47.
+Gumley, Colonel, I. 189.
+
+
+H.
+
+Hague, I. 428.
+Hainaut, I. 358.
+Haldimand, Colonel, II. 242; attacked by the French, II. 242, 243.
+Hale, George S., I. 404 note.
+Half-King, chief of the Indians on the Ohio, I. 130; aids and
+accompanies Washington, I. 133, 145, 146, 151, 152, 160; efforts of
+Saint-Pierre to entice away his Indians, I. 135; council held with
+Half-King by Washington, I. 146, 147; boast concerning the death of
+Jumonville, I. 151 note; his comments on the fight at Great Meadows, I.
+160.
+Half-Moon, I. 384, 452, II. 119.
+Haliburton, statement from, I. 277 note.
+Halifax, Lord, on the Board of Trade, I. 179; letter from Dinwiddie to,
+I. 229; letter from Winslow, I. 278.
+Halifax, I. 93, 101, 104, 106, 113, 115, 196, 239, 243, 255, II. 1, 277;
+foundation and growth of, I. 92, 93; meeting of deputies from Acadia
+with Cornwallis, I. 97, 98; questions of ownership, I. 124; hearing
+given to the Acadians, I. 260-265; destined port of the English fleet,
+I. 469, 470; fleet sails for, under Admiral Boscawen, II. 51; departure
+of Boscawen's ships, II. 56; arrival of Admiral Saunders, II. 192.
+Halifax, Fort, I. 183, 184 note.
+Halket, Sir Peter, attacked by the French, I. 216-219; shot in battle,
+I. 219, 227; burial of his remains, II. 160.
+Halket, son of Sir Peter, shot in battle, I. 219; his remains
+discovered, II. 160.
+Halket, Major, II. 432; discovers his father's body, II. 160; letter
+from Tomahawk Camp, II. 161, 162.
+Hamilton, James, Governor of Pennsylvania, I. 42, 54, 56; his opinion of
+English traders, I. 42; correspondence with Dinwiddie, I. 42 note, 141;
+receives a message from the Miamis and Hurons, I. 57 note; desirability
+of an Indian alliance, I. 59; tries to build a trading-house on the
+Ohio, I. 59, 60; result of the meeting of, with the Assembly of
+Pennsylvania, I. 165-168; succeeded by Governor Morris, I. 167.
+Hampton, arrival of Braddock, I. 187; arrival of regiments at, I. 191.
+Hanbury, John, I. 140; stockholder in the Ohio Company, I. 53, 196;
+extracts from his correspondence with Dinwiddie, I. 140, 141, 144; error
+ascribed to, I. 196.
+Hanbury, Mrs., I. 144.
+Hancock, a Boston merchant, I. 245; furnishes money for the English
+troops, I. 245.
+Handfield, Major, in command at Annapolis, I. 267; instructions to expel
+the Acadians, I. 267; letter from, to Winslow, I. 274, 275; letter of
+Winslow concerning the removal of the Acadians, I. 277, 277 note.
+Hannibal, II. 209.
+Hanover, I. 5, 8, 353, II. 40, 47, 49, 391, 392, 400; possessions of
+England in, I. 19; restorations made by France, II. 405.
+Hardy, Major, to hold the Point of Orleans, II. 216, 217, 219.
+Hardy, Sir Charles, Governor of New York, I. 383, 470; opposition to
+Shirley, I. 383; orders issued to scatter the Nova Scotia settlers, II.
+80, 81.
+Harris, John, sufferings of the settlers, I. 343.
+Harris, Mary, story of, I. 55.
+Harris, Thomas, English scout, I. 415, 416.
+Harry, II. 390.
+Hartwell Library, the, II. 219 note.
+Hauteur-de-la-Potence, II. 66.
+Havana, expedition of Pococke, II. 401; conquered, II. 402; returned to
+Spain, II. 405.
+Haviland, Colonel, commander at Fort Edward, II. 11; the fall of Canada,
+II. 361-382; opens communication with Murray, II. 368; encamped near
+Montreal, II. 372.
+Hawke, Sir Edward, II. 50; his character, II. 50, 51.
+Hawley, Elisha, his wounds, I. 302, 311; his last letter to his brother
+quoted, I. 302.
+Hawley, Joseph, I. 302.
+Hay, Ensign, killed at Beauséjour, I. 250.
+Hay, Sir Charles, I. 471.
+Hazen, Captain Moses, II. 351; the encounter at Beauséjour, I. 249; his
+courage, I. 428; skirmish at Lorette, II. 337; the battle between Lévis
+and Murray, II. 347-350.
+Hebecourt, Captain, stationed at Ticonderoga, II. 11; receives a
+reinforcement of Indians, II. 12; Bourlamaque leaves him in charge, II.
+238, 239.
+Helots, I. 465.
+Henderson, II. 296.
+Hendrick, chief of the Mohawks, I. 301; his arrival at New York, I. 171,
+172; speech made at Albany, I. 173, 174; his advice to Johnson, I. 301;
+encounter with Dieskau, I. 301, 302; killed in battle, I. 302, 303, 309.
+Henry IV., II. 9.
+Hensey, Florence, a spy at London, I. 469.
+Herbin, I. 486; skirmish with Captain MacDonald, II. 336, 337.
+Herkimer, Fort, II. 7.
+Hermitage, the, II. 21.
+"Héros," the, ship, I. 362.
+Hertel, I. 486.
+Highlanders, the, II. 93, 151, 185; their bravery, II. 109, 232; serve
+under Forbes, II. 132-163; their comrades exposed on poles, II. 159;
+action at Quebec, II. 232, 233, 261, 262, 286, 437; the slogan, II. 296;
+encounter with the Canadians, II. 300; their costume insufficient in
+Canada, II. 334, 335; encounter with the French, II. 336.
+Hobbs, Captain, I. 270, 272.
+Hocquart, Captain, fate of the "Alcide," I. 185, 186; encounter with
+Captain Howe, I. 186.
+Hocquart, Intendant, financial condition of Canada, II. 32.
+Hodges, Captain, I. 429.
+Hogarth, I. 6.
+Holbourne, Admiral Francis, ordered to intercept the French fleet, I.
+184, 185; commands the English fleet to sail for America, I. 469, 470;
+his arrival at Halifax, I. 470; approaches Louisbourg, I. 471; his fleet
+wrecked, I. 472.
+Holdernesse, Earl of, I. 310, II. 358; letter laid before the Assembly
+of Pennsylvania, I. 165; letter from Wolfe concerning Quebec, II. 271,
+272; visited by Walpole, II. 358; supplanted by the Earl of Bute, II.
+393.
+Holdernesse, Lady Emily, II. 358.
+Holland, Lieutenant, his report of Duquesne's war-party, I. 88, 89.
+Holland, II. 286; her rank in maritime enterprise, II. 411.
+Holmes, Admiral, sails for New York, II. 192; his squadron, II. 263,
+273; attacked by the French, II. 264; the ships carefully watched by the
+French, II. 274-276; his fleet prepares for service, II. 278-282; feint
+to deceive Bougainville, II. 279, 280; the final attack on Quebec, II.
+281.
+Hopkins, Lieutenant, the attack on Louisbourg, II. 59-61.
+Hopson, Governor of Acadia, I. 104, 112, 113, 257; succeeded by
+Lawrence, I. 113.
+Horseflesh eaten at Montreal, II. 10.
+Hospital battery, the, II. 208.
+"Hot Stuff," II. 234 note.
+Hôtel-Dieu, II. 265; its condition after the siege, II. 328; care of the
+sick, II. 331.
+Houllière, commander of French regulars, II. 71.
+House of Burgesses, the, I. 137, 138.
+House of Commons, the, II. 41, 410; influence of the Duke of Newcastle
+in, I. 179; debate concerning the peace between France and England, II.
+406, 407.
+Howard the philanthropist, I. 7.
+Howe, Captain, II. 127; the encounter with Hocquart, I. 185, 186.
+Howe, Captain, the Heights of Abraham scaled by his men, II. 282, 283,
+290.
+Howe, Brigadier-Lord, II. 48; effort made to assist the settlement at
+German Flats, II. 7; united with Abercromby in command, II. 48; the
+expedition against Ticonderoga, II. 89-97; his leadership, II. 89, 90;
+reforms introduced into the army by, II. 90; his characteristics, II.
+90, 91; tablet erected to, in Westminster Abbey, II. 91; passage of the
+expedition across Lake George, II. 92-94; reconnoitres the landing, II.
+94; the meeting of the forces in the woods, II. 96; effect of his death
+on the army, II. 97, 103.
+Howe, Captain Edward, an English officer, I. 118; treacherously
+murdered, I. 118, 119.
+Hubbard, Thomas, II. 429.
+Hubertsburg, the treaty of, II. 407.
+Hudson Bay, English possessions near, I. 20.
+Hudson River, the, I. 28, 32, 193, 289, 319, 321, 384, 387, 391, 452,
+II. 2, 116, 119, 165; Dutch proprietors on the, I. 32, 33; parties sent
+to explore, II. 241.
+Huguenots, the, persecution of, I. 14, 21, 22; the language of, spoken
+in New York, I. 32.
+Hugues, plan of defence proposed by, II. 99, 100.
+Hungary, appeal made to the nobles of, by Maria Theresa, I. 19; action
+of the nobles, I. 19.
+Hungary, the Queen of, II. 389.
+"Hunter," the, II. 286.
+Hurons, the, I. 125, 154, 209; their Christianity, I. 41; assist the
+French, I. 371, II. 142; called to a council by Montcalm, I. 485-489;
+their savagery, II. 145 note.
+Huske, map of North America, I. 126 note.
+Hutchins, Ensign, II. 250, 272.
+Hutchinson, Indian cruelties, II. 5 note.
+
+
+I.
+
+Illinois, I. 125, 486, II. 142; French claims in, I. 40, 41; two maps
+of, I. 41.
+Illinois Indians, home of, I. 40.
+Illinois River, the, I. 56, 83, II. 155, 244; French interests, II. 248,
+249.
+"Illustre," the, I. 362.
+Independents, the, I. 32.
+India, I. 4, II. 396; results of the Seven Years War, I. 4; the mastery
+of, I. 10; French colonies in, I. 356; the power of Pitt, II. 43, 44;
+losses to be sustained by France, II. 406, 410.
+Indians, the, I. 93, II. 86; influenced by the French to fight the
+English, I. 28, 37, 47, 48, 84, 99-108, 110, 111, 115, 119, 152, 161,
+171, 175, 184, 211-213, 236, 238, 239-241, 325, 371, 372, 392, 434, 467,
+475, 476, 478, 479, 486, II. 142, 144, 145, 381; population in the Ohio
+Valley, I. 40, 50, 60, 130, 139; allies of the English, I. 42, 392, II.
+139, 140, 143, 147, 148, 150, 151, 162, 372; visited by Bienville, I.
+44, 45; hostile encounter with Bienville, I. 48, 49; village of, on
+Loramie Creek, I. 51; importance of Pique Town, I. 52; matters
+pertaining to trade and missions, I. 54, 62-71, 485, 487, II. 27, 144,
+145; councils held with Gist by Old Britain and his followers, I. 56,
+57; invite the English to a feather dance, I. 58; power of Sir William
+Johnson over, I. 64, 172-175, 194, 195, 287, 295, 390-392; at Oswego, I.
+72; their treachery, I. 80; rumors of plots among, I. 82-84; attacked at
+Pickawillany, I. 84, 85; cannibalism among, I. 85, 478, 480, 483, 484;
+relations with the Acadians, I. 96, 97-108, 264, II. 420, 421; plans of
+the French in Duquesne's expedition, thwarted, I. 130, 131; parleys,
+held with Washington, I. 133; assist Washington, 145, 146, 151; account
+of the conduct of Washington's band, I. 149, 150; at Great Meadows, I.
+151; under Coulon de Villiers, I. 153, 155; harangued by Contrecœur, I.
+154; tribes at Fort Duquesne, I. 154; sent out as scouts by the French,
+I. 156; attack Washington, I. 156, 157-161; attitude of the British
+cabinet towards, I. 171; complaints of the Mohawks, I. 172; forces under
+Sir William Johnson, I. 301, II. 104, 369; commissioners at Albany, I.
+172; their opinions of the French, I. 173, 174; meeting at Albany for
+conference, I. 173-176; estimate of, held by Braddock, I. 188; Johnson
+made sole superintendent of the Northern Tribes, I. 195, 390; joins
+Braddock's expedition, I. 203, 204; try to interrupt General Braddock's
+march, I. 205, 206; tribes at Fort Duquesne, I. 208, 209; cruelties
+practised by, on prisoners and others, I. 209, 210, 221-223, 330;
+cruelties of, I. 331, 339, 342, 343, 347, 373, 380, 422, 423, 482, 483,
+505-513, 514 note, II. 4, 5, 14, 171, 218, 124-126, 222, 223, 232, 248,
+258, 262, 333-336, 351, 352, 370, 373, 374, 428-431; depart from Fort
+Duquesne to fight the English, I. 211-213; their mode of warfare, I.
+215-219, II. 134, 135; the encounter with Braddock, I. 215-227, II. 381;
+the battle at Beauséjour, I. 248; attack the English at Peticodiac, I.
+275, 276; speeches made by, I. 288; sent as scouts to Canada, I. 293;
+under Dieskau, I. 296, 299; demands made by, I. 297; the battle of Lake
+George, I. 303-317; the fur-trade, I. 320; under Governor Shirley, I.
+325, 326; efforts of the French to prevent the prisoners being tortured,
+I. 330; feelings of the Quakers towards, I. 337, 339, 344; petition sent
+to the Assembly of Pennsylvania, I. 347; policy of Franklin, I. 349;
+described by Montcalm, I. 372, 373, 456, 463-465; relations of Montcalm
+with, I. 372, 373, 379, 463-465, 474-476; join the expedition of Léry,
+I. 374, 375; bring to the French rumors of the attack upon Ticonderoga,
+I. 377; their ways described by Duchat, I. 379, 380; trouble by the
+English in their transportation of stores, I. 388; sent to harass
+Oswego, I. 393, 394; join the French at Montreal, I. 407; capture of
+Oswego, I. 408-420; the attack upon Kittanning, I. 423-427; assist the
+English at Fort William Henry, I. 428; join the war-party of Perière, I.
+429-431; sent to Ticonderoga, I. 437, 438, 442; with Rogers' rangers, I.
+443, 445, II. 122-124; join Vaudreuil's war-parties, I. 447, 448;
+exaggerated accounts of Vaudreuil in relation to, I. 461, 462; ceremony
+of the war-song, I. 476; fortified camps of, I. 477; described by
+Bouganville, I. 478, 479; their ornaments and dress, I. 478, 480; their
+Manitou, I. 479; their rations, I. 479; their religion, I. 479; their
+war-feast described, I. 480-482; capture of Colonel Parker's company, I.
+484; scalping-party at Fort Edward, I. 485; a council called by
+Montcalm, I. 485-489; French officers having command of, I. 486;
+speeches made by the chiefs, I. 487; their interpreters, I. 487; the
+attack and massacre at Fort William Henry, I. 490-513, 514 note, II.
+428-431; encounter on Lake George, I. 492, 493; death and burial of a
+chief, I. 493, 494; interview with Montcalm, I. 499-501; prisoners
+bought from, II. 6; the fight at German Flats, II. 6, 7; brutal murder
+of Lieutenant Phillips, II. 14; sent to guard Louisbourg, II. 56; serve
+under Marin, II. 122; carry off Major Putnam, II. 123; Bradstreet
+forbids cruelty, II. 128, 129; effect of the French victory at
+Ticonderoga, II. 128; serve under Forbes, II. 139, 140, 142; convention
+of, II. 142, 143, 147-150, 161; influence and visit of Post the
+Moravian, II. 144-150; effect of the victory at Fort Duquesne, I. 162;
+sent to Montcalm, II. 165, 166; Vaudreuil's admiration for, II. 171;
+number ready to defend Canada, II. 178; resolutions of Vaudreuil, II.
+180; assist in the defence of Quebec, II. 201, 202, 215, 218, 294,
+312-314; complaints of British soldiers, II. 221; encounter with
+Carleton, II. 225; the siege of Niagara, II. 243-249; expedition of
+Rogers against the village of St. Francis, II. 253-258; expedition of
+Lévis against Quebec, II. 341-358; the attack on Montreal, II. 367, 371.
+Indian corn, I. 208, 335.
+Innes, Colonel James, I. 162, 227, 228, 470; commander at Fort
+Cumberland, I. 226; plans of Dinwiddie, I. 332.
+Inverawe, II. 93, 109; castle of, II. 433; legend of, II. 433-436.
+Inverness, II. 185.
+Iowas, the, their language, I. 478; called to a council by Montcalm, I.
+486-489.
+Ipswich, II. 115.
+Ireland, II. 401; the regiments arrive at Hampton, I. 191.
+Irish, the, in Pennsylvania, I. 31, 54, 339, 446, 447.
+Iroquois Indians, the. See Five Nations.
+Iroquois mission, the, I. 64, 65.
+Irwin, Lieutenant, serves with Rogers, II. 122.
+Island Battery, the, II. 55, 62, 63.
+Italy, the Family Compact, II. 396.
+
+
+J.
+
+Jack, Captain, story of, I. 204.
+Jacobites, the, I. 5, 193.
+Jacobs, Captain, Indian chief, I. 423; the reduction of Kittanning, I.
+423-427.
+Jacques-Cartier, II. 275, 304, 305, 308, 312, 318, 341, 361, 363.
+James II., plan for uniting the northern colonies in America, I. 34.
+James River, I. 422 note.
+Jefferson, I. 163.
+Jersey, Island of, I. 252.
+"Jersey Blues," the, I. 320, 382.
+Jervis, John, with Wolfe in the "Sutherland," II. 284.
+Jesuits, the, I. 64, II. 144, 208; settlements of, II. 144.
+Joannès, his efforts to save Quebec, II. 315, 316.
+Johnson, Sergeant John, loyalty of the British soldiers, II. 281, 339,
+352, 353; fight of Murray with, I. 349, 443; the assault on Quebec made
+by Lévis, II. 352-359; his writings on Quebec, II. 440.
+Johnson, Sir William, I. 62 note; 319, 325, II. 104; his influence over
+the Indians, I. 64, 172, 174, 194, 287, 288, 390-393, II. 142, 143, 244;
+Indian treachery, I. 80; appointed leader of the expedition against
+Crown Point, I. 194, 196, 286, 288; made Indian commissioner, I. 195,
+288, 390; his birth and characteristics, I. 286, 287, 294; his troops,
+I. 286-290, 294, 295, 301, 301 note, 310, 384; encamps near Albany, I.
+289; the expedition marches on to Lake George, I. 294, 295; gives the
+name to Lake George, I. 295; ambush prepared for, by Dieskau, I. 296,
+300; sends letter of warning to Colonel Blanchard, I. 296; movements of
+Dieskau, I. 296-300; forces sent in advance repelled by Dieskau, I.
+301-305; the battle of Lake George, I. 304-317, II. 88; wounded, I. 306,
+308; Dieskau brought into camp, and kindly treated, I. 308, 309; the
+English and French losses, I. 312 note; his camp at Lake George, I. 313,
+314; fails to capture Crown Point, I. 313-316, 382; a council of war
+held, I. 314; urged to attack Ticonderoga, I. 314; raised to the rank of
+baron, I. 316, 390; eulogies of, I. 316; cause of the quarrel with
+Shirley, I. 327; his letter to the Lords of Trade, I. 327; the loss of
+Fort Bull, I. 375; difficulties thrown in his path, I. 392, 393; joins
+Webb at Fort Edward, II. 2; money expended by Massachusetts on his
+expedition, II. 84, 85; Indian convention at Easton, II. 147, 148; takes
+command in Prideaux's place, II. 245; Pouchot's allies cut to pieces,
+II. 246, 247; his fight at Niagara, II. 247, 248; restrains the Indians
+from cruelty, II. 248, 370, 374; superseded by Gage, II. 249; the army
+embarks for Montreal, II. 369.
+Johnson, Fort, I. 288, 321, 391, 415, 416.
+Johnstone, II. 81 note, 102; aide-de-camp to Lévis, II. 217; description
+of the attack on the French camp, II. 232; despatched to assemble the
+troops, II. 291; fired upon by the British, II. 301, 302; the general
+disorder of the troops at Quebec, II. 302, 303; the death of Montcalm,
+II. 303, 304, 309, 310, 441, 442; his opinion of the French retreat, II.
+307; his opportunities for observation, II. 440; his "Dialogue in
+Hades," II. 440.
+Joncaire-Chabert, I. 392, II. 244; able to converse in the Indian
+dialects, I. 44; discovers an intended Indian attack, I. 46, 47; sent as
+a messenger by Céloron, I. 48, 49; meets with hostile treatment, I. 49,
+50; his influence over the Indians, I. 59, 63, 64, 171, II. 143, 144;
+anti-English speeches made to the Ohio Indians, I. 59 note; leaden plate
+stolen from, I. 62 note; at Niagara, I. 70; assists Father Piquet, I.
+70, 71, 75; report concerning the Ohio Indians, I. 83; in command at
+Venango, I. 133; invites Washington to supper, I. 133, 134.
+Joncaire-Clauzonne, II. 244.
+Jonquière, Marquis de la, governor of Canada, I. 77, 117; illegal trade
+of Tournois stopped, I. 65 note; his character and description of, I.
+77, 78, 81; his instructions with regard to injuring the English, I.
+78-81; his unhappiness, sickness, and death, I. 81, 81 note, 82; orders
+given to Céloron, I. 84; report of, concerning the Acadians, I. 95, 103,
+104; a despatch sent to the colonial minister, I. 98, 99; assists the
+Indians to harass the English, I. 100, 103, 104; his efforts to regain
+the Acadians for French subjects, I. 103, 104; issues a proclamation, I.
+120.
+Joseph, I. 361; his voyage, I. 364.
+Jumonville, Coulon de, I. 147; matters pertaining to his alleged
+assassination, I. 147, 148-150, 153, 158, II. 421-423; his summons and
+instructions, I. 148, 148 note, 149; his widow receives a pension, I.
+151 note.
+Jumonville, Charlotte, I. 151 note.
+Juniata River, the, I. 204, 423.
+
+
+K.
+
+Kalm, II. 404; his prediction concerning the British colonies in
+America, II. 404.
+Kanaouagon, the, I. 43.
+Kanon, II. 197, 198, 326 note; his fleet, II. 201.
+Karl, Prince, II. 40.
+Kaskaskia, French settlement at, I. 41.
+Kaunitz, I. 354.
+Kenawha River, the, I. 48, 50.
+Kennebec River, the, I. 28, 184, 192, 245, II. 250; forts to be built
+upon, by the English, I. 169.
+Kennedy, Lieutenant, consults with Captain Murray, I. 271, 272; his
+exploits against the French, I. 428; adventures of a scouting-party of
+Rogers, I. 441-445; killed by the French, I. 443.
+Kennedy, Captain, sent to the Abenakis of St. Francis, II. 251.
+Kennington Cove, II. 59 note.
+Keppel, Commodore, his arrival at Hampton, I. 187; accompanies Braddock
+to Alexandria, I. 191; sailors furnished by, for Braddock, I. 201.
+Kikensick, chief of the Nipissings, speech of, I. 487, 488.
+Kilgore, Ralph, I. 79 note.
+Killick, master of an English transport, II. 205; passage of the
+Traverse, II. 204-206.
+King's Bastion, the, II. 53, 55; the Governor's dwelling, II. 67-69.
+Kingston, I. 68.
+Kirkland, Dr., a surgeon, I. 394, 395.
+Kittanning, I. 24, 423; attack upon, I. 423-427.
+Kloster-Zeven, convention of, II. 45.
+Knox, Captain John, II. 56 note; character of Le Loutre described, I.
+252 note; at Annapolis, II. 77; rejoicing at the fall of Louisbourg, II.
+77, 78; his regiment ordered to Louisbourg, II. 181, 182; his
+impressions of Wolfe, II. 184; account of the Canadian coasts, II. 205;
+description of the scenery on the St. Lawrence River, II. 207; visits
+the Church of Saint-Laurent, II. 207, 208; description of the fireships,
+II. 211, 212, 227; his view of Quebec from Point Levi, II. 214; visits
+the falls, II. 220; reports obtained from a Canadian, II. 222, 223; his
+account of Canadian prisoners, II. 226; losses reported, II. 233; the
+illness of Wolfe, II. 266, 267; the defence of Cap-Rouge, II. 279; the
+dying words of Wolfe, II. 297 note; describes Quebec after the siege,
+II. 329, 330; his stay in the General Hospital, II. 330, 331; the troops
+described by, II. 333, 334; skirmish at Lorette, II. 337, 338; action
+between Lévis and Murray, II. 347-350; arrival of aid, II. 355, 356; the
+troops of Murray sail for Montreal, II. 363-366; death of Montcalm, II.
+441.
+Kolin, II. 39.
+Kunersdorf, the allies attacked, II. 387.
+Kushkushkee, II. 145.
+
+
+L.
+
+La Barolon, I. 458.
+La Chine, I. 38, 458, II. 6, 9, 371, 372.
+La Clue, Admiral, II. 49; imprisoned by Osborn, II. 49, 50.
+La Corne, Saint-Luc de, I. 486, 503, II. 121, 431; sent to Acadia to
+watch the frontier, I. 103, 116, 117; circumstances attending the
+massacre at Fort William Henry, I. 498, 507, 509; ordered to Quebec, II.
+195, 198, 242; to defend the rapids, II. 361, 371; shipwrecked, II. 384,
+385.
+La Demoiselle (Old Britain), an Indian chief, I. 51, 83; his course of
+action with Céloron, I. 51, 52; his village, I. 56; councils held with
+Gist, I. 56, 57; the English invited to a feather dance, I. 57, 58;
+devoured by the Indians, I. 84, 85.
+La Galette, II. 369.
+Lainé, II. 28.
+Lalerne, fight at Beaubassin, I. 117.
+"La Liberté" ship, I. 457.
+La Motte, Dubois de, French admiral, I. 469, 471-473 note; commands the
+French fleet for America, I. 182, 183; effort of Boscawen to intercept
+his fleet, I. 185; the English fleet wrecked, I. 471, 472.
+La Motte, Captain, II. 302.
+"La Mutine," frigate, I. 102.
+Lauder, Sir Thomas Dick, II. 433.
+Langlade, Charles, a French trader, I. 62, 84, II. 218, 372 note, 425;
+to receive a pension, I. 85; the Ojibwas led to attack the Miamis, I.
+209; his Indian wife, I. 486; matters in relation to Braddock's defeat,
+II. 425, 426.
+Languedoc, I. 456; battalion of, I. 182, 186, 298, 379, 477; stationed
+at Ticonderoga, I. 376, II. 104; the advance upon Fort William Henry, I.
+491; the fall of Quebec, II. 292.
+Langy, rangers captured by, II. 87; reports the approach of the English,
+II. 87, 88; meeting with the English in the woods, II. 94-97; detachment
+of, II. 110.
+La Paille Coupée, village of, I. 43.
+La Pause, M. de, II. 373.
+La Perade, Chevalier de, I. 210.
+La Plante, I. 486.
+La Prairie, I. 457.
+La Présentation, I. 70, 154, 372, 485, II. 369; description of, I.
+65-67; effort of Piquet to gain converts, I. 70, 71, 74, 75; Jesuit
+influence, II. 144.
+La Reine, battalion of, I. 182, 186, 298, 477, II. 104; to defend
+Ticonderoga, I. 376; the advance upon Fort William Henry, I. 491.
+La Sarre, battalion of, I. 363, 408, 477; encamped at Fort Frontenac, I.
+376; advances upon Fort William Henry, I. 491; serves under Montcalm,
+II. 104; the fall of Quebec, II. 292.
+Lascelles' regiment, II. 233 note.
+La Suède, II. 342.
+"La Superbe," ship, I. 457.
+Laurel Hill, I. 145, 146, 151, 155, II. 141.
+Lawrence, Brigadier, Governor of Nova Scotia, I. 239, II. 48, 194 note;
+succeeds Hopson in office, I. 113; his treatment of the Acadians, I.
+113; the occupation of Beaubassin, I. 115-120; the attack on Beauséjour,
+I. 192, 239, 240, 245; his characteristics, I. 257; quoted concerning
+the Acadians, I. 257, 263, 264, 269, 270, 282; exacts the oath of
+allegiance from the Acadians, I. 260; a memorial sent to, from the
+Acadians, I. 260-263; matters pertaining to the expulsion of the
+Acadians, I. 263-267, 273, 274, 282; serves in the expedition against
+Louisbourg, II. 48, 57.
+Lawrence, Fort, erected, I. 118, 239, 241, 243; demands of Le Loutre, I.
+121; encampment of the English, I. 248.
+Le Bâtard, Étienne, the murder of Captain Howe, I. 118, 119.
+Le Bœuf, Fort, I. 130, 213, II. 160, 244; erection of, I. 128; garrison
+at, I. 131; arrival of Washington, I. 133, 134, 297; burned, II. 247.
+Le Borgne, II. 28, 425.
+Le Brun, I. 11.
+Le Calvaire, II. 336.
+Legge, chancellor of the exchequer, II. 393.
+Le Guerne, a priest, I. 281; his description of the embarkation of the
+Acadians, I. 281.
+Le Loutre, Joseph Louis, vicar-general of Acadia, I. 99, 104, 113;
+instigates the Indians to murder the English, I. 99, 100, 103-105, 235;
+injures the Acadians by his machinations, I. 101, 113, 114, 122, 238,
+243; letter of, concerning Halifax, I. 101; pension received by, I. 105;
+his dealings discovered by Cornwallis, I. 107; encourages the Acadians
+to leave their farms, I. 108, 109, 110, 120, 243, 244, 250, 255, 260;
+his double-dealing and cruelty, I. 114, 243, 252 note, II. 421; arrival
+of, at Beaubassin, I. 116; treacherous murder of Captain Howe, I. 118,
+119; his letter in answer to Lawrence's proclamation, I. 121; letters
+from officials, urging dishonest conduct, I. 239, 242; relations with
+Vergor, I. 242-244; siege and capitulation of Beauséjour, I. 244-253;
+imprisoned by the English, I. 252; departs for France, I. 252.
+Le Marchant, Sir Denis, II. 295 note.
+Le Mercier, Chevalier, I. 157, 158, 461, II. 20, 87; plans of, to attack
+the English, I. 153-155; serves as messenger between the French and
+English, I. 449; his fraudulent contracts, II. 35, 36, 385.
+Lenisse, Madame de, I. 458.
+"Léopard," the, ship, I. 362.
+Lepaon, I. 12.
+"Le Prudent," II. 54 note.
+Léry, a French officer, I. 374, 375; his plan of Detroit, I. 76 note.
+Leslie, Lieutenant, I. 219 note.
+Les Mines, I. 108.
+Leuthen, II. 40.
+Le Verrier, in command at Michillimackinac, II. 31.
+Levi, Point, II. 213-216, 220, 222, 224, 229, 274, 277, 281; position of
+Wolfe's army, II. 219, 228, 230-233; held by the English at, II. 263,
+270; embarkation of the artillery, II. 274, 275, 280.
+Lévis, Chevalier de, I. 150, 360, 482, II. 360; opinion of, in regard to
+the killing of Jumonville, I. 150; beloved by Montcalm, I. 363, 378,
+379, 455, II. 308; embarks for America, I. 363, 364; joins Montcalm, I.
+373; at Montreal, I. 376; his command at Ticonderoga, I. 377-379, 407;
+his description of Montcalm, I. 379; his manner of life at Montreal, I.
+455, 457, II. 29, 426-428; treatment received from Vaudreuil, I. 463,
+464, II. 10, 312, 375; his characteristics and popularity, I. 466, 478,
+II. 312, 353, 361; encampment of, I. 477; matters pertaining to the
+attack of Fort William Henry, I. 485, 490-499, 510, 512, 514 note; his
+account of the slaughter at German Flats, II. 7 note; quiets the mutiny
+at Montreal, II. 10; statements concerning the fight at Rogers Rock, II.
+16 note; the victory at Ticonderoga, II. 86-89, 103-113, 431-436; his
+promotion, II. 174; the siege and fall of Quebec, II. 216-233, 259-325;
+attacked by Wolfe, II. 230-233; sent to protect Montreal, II. 250, 251,
+265; assumes the command after Montcalm's death, II. 308, 312, 313, 318,
+335; letter to Bourlamaque, II. 314; his scaling-ladders, II. 338, 356,
+357; his expedition to attack Quebec, II. 341-358; the encounter at
+Ste.-Foy, II. 342-347, 442-444; the courtesies of war, II. 354; the
+terms of capitulation for Montreal, II. 372-374; tries to preserve the
+honor of France, II. 373, 375; escapes from shipwreck, II. 384; his
+letters, II. 438.
+Lévis, Fort, II. 369, 374; attacked by Amherst, II. 369, 370.
+Lewis, Major, II. 139; the expedition of Major Grant, II. 151-155.
+"Licorne," the, ship, I. 363.
+Liegnitz, successes of Frederic, II. 388.
+Lighthouse Point, II. 53, 62.
+Ligneris, Captain, II. 244, 245; at Fort Duquesne, I. 208; encounter
+with the English under Braddock, I. 216; orders concerning prisoners, I.
+330 note; attack expected from Forbes, II. 141; danger of starvation at
+the fort, II. 155, 156; Fort Duquesne abandoned, II. 159; at Venango,
+II. 161; letter of Montcalm concerning, II. 169; departs from
+Presquisle, II. 245; taken prisoner, II. 248; matters pertaining to a
+pension for, II. 423, 424; receives the cross of the Order of St. Louis,
+II. 426.
+Ligonier, General, I. 178.
+Ligonier Bay, II. 251.
+"Lis," the, fate of, I. 185.
+L'Isle-Dieu, Abbé de, I. 106; assertion concerning Jumonville, I. 151
+note.
+Lismahago, I. 159.
+Little Meadows, arrival of Braddock's army at, I. 206.
+Little Niagara, Fort, II. 243, 244.
+Livingston, William, I. 419; manor of, I. 32.
+Logstown, I. 46, 47, 53, 60, 133.
+"London Chronicle," the article upon provincial soldiery, II. 118.
+Long Saut, the, II. 370.
+Longueuil, Baron de, Governor of Canada, I. 82, 103, 486, II. 86, 258
+note; complains of English traders, I. 83, 84; correspondence with
+Girard, I. 106, 107; paper drawn up by, I. 154, 155; seeks to secure
+Indian allies, I. 475, 476.
+Loppinot, sent from Louisbourg for terms of capitulation, II. 71-74.
+Loramie Creek, the, I. 51.
+Lords of Trade, the, instructions to the colonial Assemblies, I. 172,
+173; leadership of Lord Halifax, I. 179; quoted concerning the Acadians
+and their want of loyalty, I. 257, 258; complaints of Johnson, I. 327.
+Lorette, I. 209, 371, 485, II. 284, 293, 307, 342, 357; mission of, II.
+145 note; English outpost at, II. 335; skirmish at, II. 337.
+Lorimier, I. 486.
+Loring, Captain, the navy built by order of Amherst, II. 241, 242, 251,
+252.
+Lotbinière, a Canadian engineer, I. 374, II. 87; his work at
+Ticonderoga, I. 378.
+Loudon, Earl, to be the commander-in-chief of the American troops, I.
+383; difficulties in providing for the soldiers, I. 387, 439, 440;
+arrives at Albany, I. 399; royal orders concerning military rank, I.
+399, 400; the provincial forces examined, I. 401; sends reinforcements
+to Oswego, I. 405; orders Winslow to abandon Ticonderoga expedition, I.
+406; his charges against Shirley, I. 413 note, 420; English losses, I.
+419, 420; his campaign, I. 421, 422; his orders to Winslow, I. 438;
+exaggeration of Vaudreuil, I. 460, 461; his plans for reducing
+Louisbourg, I. 468-471, 473 note, 496, II. 131; soldiers drawn from New
+York, I. 474, 475; frontier exposed to attack, I. 496; letters sent from
+Webb, I. 498 note, 501; despatches sent to Webb, II. 1; his plan of
+action, II. 2; plans an attack upon Ticonderoga, II. 11; his failures,
+II. 45; recalled from his command, II. 48, 83; money expended by
+Massachusetts on this expedition, II. 84; consulted by Bradstreet, II.
+127; his influence on the army, II. 380; letters concerning the massacre
+at Fort William Henry, II. 428, 429.
+Louis XIII., I. 14, 15.
+Louis XIV., I. 284 note, II. 409.
+Louis XV., I. 43, 66, 67, 70, 71, 75, 129, 361; possibility of the
+conquest of Canada, I. 2, 3; condition of France during his reign, I.
+9-16; scenes at Versailles, I. 11, 12; adornments given to Paris, I. 13,
+14; feeling towards, I. 14; position of Madame de Pompadour, I. 15, 179;
+subjects of, in Acadia, I. 91, 94-96, 102, 105, 235, 238, 260, 284; the
+English denounced by, I. 115; political alliances with, I. 354; his
+detestation of Frederic the Great, I. 355; the promotion of Montcalm, I.
+360; troops sent against Austria, I. 363; troops sent to reinforce New
+France, I. 363; instructions sent to Vaudreuil, I. 367, 368; expenses in
+Canada, I. 370, 372, 453, II. 17-38, 169-172, 321, 322; sends the cordon
+rouge to Montcalm, I. 454; his portrait on Indian medals, I. 480;
+promises of the Indians, I. 488; corruption at court, II. 44, 45;
+Vaudreuil's efforts to slander Montcalm, II. 164-167, 321, 322; the
+refusal of forces from France to Canada, II. 174-178; the loss of New
+France, II. 375, 376.
+Louisbourg, I. 29, 105, 107, 109, 185, 239, 242, 251, 290, 291; fortress
+of, I. 92, 93, 368, II. 52-55; restored to the French, I. 92; commanders
+at, I. 101, 102, 104; aid refused to Beauséjour, I. 250; plan of Loudon
+for the reduction of, I. 468, 469, 471, 474; the English fleet wrecked,
+I. 472; policy of Pitt regarding, II. 47, 48; the siege and reduction
+of, by the English, II. 48, 49, 51-82 note, 112, 129, 162, 177, 190;
+inhabitants of the town, II. 54; the batteries silenced by the enemy,
+II. 61, 62; Drucour's efforts to protect the harbor, II. 64; the
+shipping burned, II. 65-67, 69; the Governor's lodgings in flames, II.
+67, 68; position of the besieged, II. 69, 70; the terms of capitulation
+finally accepted, II. 71-74, 75 note; statistics of prisoners, cannon,
+etc., II. 75, 76; Governor Drucour succeeded by Governor Whitmore, II.
+76; rejoicing at the fall of, II. 76-78; Wolfe ordered to scatter the
+neighboring settlers, II. 80, 81; arrival of 43d Regiment, II. 183;
+departure of the fleet with Gen. Wolfe, II. 193; dismantled and
+abandoned, II. 363.
+Louisbourg Grenadiers, the, at Quebec, II. 298 note.
+Louisiana, I. 72, 73, 366, II. 2, 155; French possessions in, I. 20, 24,
+39; communication with Canada, I. 36, 37, 39, 40, 80, 83; arrival of the
+exiles from Acadia, I. 283; proposal of Montcalm concerning, II. 179;
+given to Spain, II. 406.
+Louisville, I. 58.
+Louvigny, I. 458.
+Lowendal, I. 10.
+"Lowestoffe," the, II. 355, 356.
+Lowry, I. 79.
+Lowther, Miss Katherine, II. 190; Wolfe's last message to, II. 284.
+Loyalhannon, II. 149, 151, 154-156.
+Loyalhannon Creek, II. 141.
+Lusignan, commandant at Ticonderoga, I. 445.
+Lutherans, the, I. 31, 32.
+Lutterberg, battle of, II. 47.
+Lycurgus, II. 91.
+Lydius, a trader, I. 435.
+Lyman, Phineas, in the expedition against Crown Point, I. 290, 313, 314;
+origin of Fort Lyman, I. 294; takes command of Johnson's troops, I. 306;
+conflicting reports concerning, I. 316; at Fort Edward, I. 401, 402; his
+chaplain, I. 402; report concerning the camp, I. 403, 404; regiment of,
+II. 95; meeting with Langy in the woods, II. 97.
+Lyman, Fort, I. 295-297, 300, 301, 308-310; building of, I. 294;
+afterwards called Fort Edward, I. 294, 315.
+Lyon's Cove, I. 268.
+
+
+M.
+
+Macartney, Captain, his humanity, II. 343, 344.
+McBryer, Andrew, I. 85.
+Macdonald, Captain, serves in the expedition of Major Grant, II. 152;
+his death, II. 153.
+MacDonald, Captain Donald, sent to attack the French at Le Calvaire, II.
+336; his death, II. 349.
+McDonough, Thomas, II. 440.
+McGinnis, Captain, I. 308, 309.
+Machault d'Arnouville, minister of marine and colonies (1754-1757), I.
+13, 15, 179, 367, II. 44.
+Machault, Fort, II. 159.
+Mackay, Captain, I. 152; at Great Meadows, I. 152, 159, II. 421-423.
+Mackellar, Patrick, serves as an engineer under Braddock and Wolfe, I.
+221 note, II. 208; to strengthen Fort Ontario, I. 420, 420 note.
+Mackenzie, Captain, II. 152-155.
+Macleane, Allan, II. 245 note.
+McMullen, Lieutenant, sent to Crown Point, II. 254.
+Macnamara, Admiral, accompanies La Motte's expedition, I. 182, 183.
+MacVicar, Anne, recollections of Albany, I. 319, 320.
+Madawaska, I. 283.
+Madeira, I. 287.
+Mahon, Lord, I. 179.
+Maillard, missionary at Cape Breton, I. 105, 119.
+Maillebois, I. 10, 359.
+Maine, English possessions in, I. 20, 124.
+Maître Abraham, II. 289.
+Manach, Father, I. 252; letter of Boishébert to, quoted, I. 265, 266.
+Manila, II. 401, 402.
+Manitou, the, I. 479, 487, 489.
+Mann, Sir Horace, letters from Horace Walpole quoted, I. 188; ambassador
+at Florence, II. 323.
+Mansfield, I. 8.
+Mante, Major Thomas, II. 82 note, 97; statistics of the force sent
+against Louisbourg, II. 56 note.
+Maps of the Illinois colony, I. 41 note; map of Bonnecamp, I. 62 note;
+of French and British dominion in North America, I. 126 note.
+Maria Theresa, her inheritance from Charles VI., I. 18; her heritage
+taken from her, I. 19, 353, 354; the enemy of Frederic the Great, I.
+353; flatters Pompadour, I. 354, 355; the war in Europe, II. 38-40, 409;
+condition of France, II. 393.
+Marietta, I. 48.
+Marigalante Island, restored by England, II. 405.
+Marin, I. 486, II. 20, 30, 122, 244; promotion of, I. 88; commander of
+Duquesne's expedition to the Ohio, I. 129-131, 137; his sickness and
+death, I. 129-131.
+Marin joins the war-party of Perière, I. 429-431; the slaughter at Fort
+Edward, I. 485; official knavery, II. 27; victory over, II. 122-127;
+taken prisoner, II. 248.
+Marin, Madame, II. 20.
+Marlborough, Duke of, I. 316.
+Marolles, correspondence of, II. 81 note.
+Martel, the King's storekeeper, II. 20, 30.
+Martin, Father, evidence in relation to the massacre at Fort William
+Henry, I. 514 note.
+Martin, Abraham. See Abraham.
+Martin, Sergeant Joshua, one of Rogers' rangers, I. 444.
+Martinique, II. 401, 405.
+Maryland, I. 332, II. 132; government and characteristics of, I. 25, 33;
+aid asked from, by Dinwiddie, I. 139; aids Virginia, I. 168;
+commissioners sent to Albany for an Indian congress, I. 173-176; council
+of governors held with Braddock, I. 191-196; sufferings caused by Indian
+warfare, I. 329, 330, 422.
+Massachusetts, I. 168, 260, 315, 480, II. 93; religion, finance, and
+politics of, I. 25-29, II. 84, 85 (see Assembly of Massachusetts);
+commissioners sent to meet the Indians at Albany, I. 61; council of
+governors held with Braddock, I. 191-195; characteristics of the
+officers from, I. 272, 273; distribution of the exiled Acadians, I. 282;
+the Crown Point expedition fitted out, I. 285, 286, 291, 292, 313, 314;
+money received from Parliament, I. 382 note, II. 85; method of raising
+and paying troops, I. 384-387, II. 84, 85; tablet erected to Lord Howe,
+in Westminster Abbey, II. 91; utterances from the pulpits after the fall
+of Canada, II. 377-379.
+Massachusetts Historical Society, the, I. 316 note; portrait of Captain
+Winslow in, I. 273 note.
+Massey, Colonel, II. 247.
+Mathevet missionary for the Nipissings, I. 487.
+Maumee River, the, I. 40, 51, 52, 82, 84.
+Maurault, Abbé, II. 255 note.
+Maurepas, Comte de, I. 259 note.
+Maurin, François, II. 20; official knavery, II. 22-24, 30; thrown into
+the Bastille, II. 385.
+Mauritius, Island of, I. 10.
+Maxen, II. 388.
+Maxwell, Thomas, II. 258 note.
+Mayhew, Jonathan, his prediction for the American colonies, II. 325.
+Maynard, Captain, II. 123 note.
+Mazade, Madame, I. 361.
+Mediterranean Sea, the, II. 49.
+Meech, Lieutenant, his encounter with the enemy, II. 207.
+Mellen, Reverend John, pastor of the Second Church in Lancaster, II.
+377; his sermon on the fall of Canada, II. 378.
+Memeramcook, I. 120, 122.
+Memphremagog, Lake, II. 254, 256.
+Menomonies, the, I. 407; called to council by Montcalm, I. 486-489.
+Mercer, Colonel, commandant at Oswego, I. 397, 410; his death, I. 412,
+413.
+Mercer, Lieutenant-Colonel, to hold the new Fort Duquesne, II. 160.
+"Mermaid," the, I. 247.
+Messalina, I. 353.
+Mexico, I. 20.
+Mexico, Gulf of, I. 40, 205.
+Miami confederacy, the, I. 40, 52.
+Miami Indians, the, I. 51, 79, 83, 209; their chief (see La Demoiselle),
+home of, I. 40, 51, 52, 55, 56, 58, 84; visited by Céloron, I. 51, 52;
+visited by Gist, I. 55-58; their feeling towards the English, I. 59,
+130; attacked and killed at Pickawillany, I. 84, 85, 130; called to a
+council by Montcalm, I. 486-489; become allies of the French, I. 130,
+II. 142.
+Miami River, the, I. 40, 51, 56, 83.
+Michigan Lake, I. 75, 407, 437, 486.
+Michillimackinac, I. 75, 84, 486, II. 248, 249.
+Micmacs, the, I. 23, 107, II. 181, 194; their missionary, I. 113, 121
+(see Le Loutre); disposition and characteristics of, I. 113; at
+Beaubassin, I. 116; murder of Captain Howe, I. 118, 119; chief of,
+killed, I. 252; called to a council by Montcalm, I. 486-489; under
+Boishébert, II. 66.
+Middle Ages, the, I. 17.
+Milbank, Mr., II. 358.
+Mildmay, questions of boundary, I. 123.
+Miller, Captain, I. 428, II. 332.
+Mines, district of, I. 235; population of, I. 264; the people summoned
+to hear the mandate of the King, I. 271, 272. See Acadians.
+Mines, basin of, I. 94, 237, 240, 241, 260, 267-269, 276.
+Mingoes, the, I. 40, 46, 60, 209; attitude towards the English, I. 59,
+II. 150, 151; border warfare of, I. 329.
+Minorca, I. 36, II. 40; garrisons of, I. 9; restored by France, II. 405.
+Miquelon Island given to France, II. 405.
+Miramichi, II. 25, 80.
+Mirepoix, French ambassador at London, I. 180; correspondence of, I.
+183.
+Missaguash River, the, I. 116, 118, 120, 235, 241, 248, II. 181.
+Mission Indians, the illegal traffic carried on by the French, by means
+of, I. 65; allies of the French, I. 371, 372, 475, 479, 480, II. 12;
+their ferocity, II. 144, 145.
+Missionaries, their work among the Indians, I. 25, 64, 65, 75, 243-245,
+429, II. 412; intrigues with regard to the Indians, Acadians, and
+English, I. 99, 100, 102, 103, 243-245, II. 420, 421.
+Missisqui, I. 485.
+Missisquoi Bay, II. 254.
+Mississagas, the, I. 70, 486.
+Mississippi, the, I. 20, 24, 40, 42, 124, 125, 130, 170, 335, 372, II.
+179, 405, 406.
+Mitchell, his map of the British and French Dominions, I. 126 note.
+Moccasons, I. 259.
+Mohawk River, the, I. 28, 32, 62 note, 64, 80, 287, 319, 321, 374, 375,
+393, 406, II. 6, 86, 116, 128, 240.
+Mohawks, the, I. 28, 65, 73, 88, 287, 296, 321, 327, 467, II. 2, 417;
+complaints of the tribe, I. 171, 172; joins Johnson's expedition, I.
+289, 295-310; their chief, I. 301, 303, 309; their bravery and ferocity,
+I. 303, 309, 310; council held with Johnson, I. 391, 392.
+Mohegans, the, I. 391, II. 256; council held with Johnson, I. 392; ally
+themselves with the English, II. 148.
+Mollwitz, battle of, I. 19.
+Monckton, Robert, I. 246; appointed leader of the expedition against
+Acadia, I. 194, 196; the capture of Beauséjour, I. 196, 239, 248, 254,
+260, II. 193; the Acadians removed from their homes, I. 254, 266-284
+(see Acadians); despatched to the Bay of Fundy, II. 78; serves under
+Wolfe, at the siege of Quebec, II. 193, 213, 226, 231-233, 266, 267,
+274, 290, 295, 295 note, 298 note, 309, 438; disabled by his wounds, II.
+309, 317; joins Rodney, II. 401.
+"Monmouth," the, II. 49, 50.
+Monongahela River, the, I. 136, 144, 145, 155, 207, 208, II. 138, 152,
+159, 160.
+Monongahela River, the battle of the, I. 210-213, 221, 221 note, 223,
+223 note, 328.
+Monro, Lieutenant-Colonel, commandant at Fort William Henry, I. 495,
+496; his danger, I. 496-498; his correspondence with Webb concerning
+aid, I. 497, 502, 503; his correspondence with Montcalm, I. 493, 499;
+his brave resistance, I. 502-505, II. 88; the garrison capitulates, I.
+505-507; the massacre, I. 505, 507-513, 513 note, 514 note, II. 428-431.
+Montagu, George, letter from Walpole, II. 390, 391.
+Montcalm, father of Louis, the Marquis, I. 357; death of, I. 358.
+Montcalm, brother of Louis, his prodigious knowledge and early death, I.
+358.
+Montcalm, Chevalier de, son of the Marquis, appointed to command a
+regiment in France, I. 360; his marriage, II. 176.
+Montcalm, Marquis de (1884), I. 366 note.
+Montcalm-Gozon de Saint-Véran, Louis Joseph, Marquis de, I. 150, 356,
+489; his aides-de-camp, I. 282, 363; succeeds Dieskau in command, I.
+356; birth, education, and traits of character, I. 356-358, 366, 367,
+413, 414, 465, 466, 483, 489, II. 167, 318-322; the letter from
+D'Argenson, I. 360; his wife and family, I. 359, II. 317; his military
+service, I. 358-360; his letters to his mother quoted, I. 360-362, 372,
+373, 453-457, 464, II. 112 note, 113 note, 164, 174, 176, 275, 426-428;
+his salary, I. 361; letters to his wife quoted, I. 362, 364-366,
+453-456, 474, II. 111, 179; embarks for America, I. 362-365; his
+relations with Bougainville, I. 363; his opinion of Lévis, I. 363, 378,
+379, 455, II. 308; his arrival in Canada, I. 365, 366; his relations
+with Vaudreuil, I. 366-368, 377, 460, 462-466, II. 3, 4, 8-10, 164-175,
+179, 180, 197, 202, 203, 293, 301, 317-323; his relations with his
+troops, I. 368, 369, 421, 464, 465, 502, II. 121, 208, 209, 228, 260,
+281; his relations with the Indians, I. 372, 373, 379, 456, 463-465,
+474-476, 487, 488, 499-501; life at Montreal and Quebec, I. 376, 407,
+453, 455-459, II. 7, 8; letters to the minister of war, I. 377, 463-465;
+hastens to the defence of Ticonderoga, I. 378; his victory at Oswego, I.
+405-416, 419, 420, 460-465, 467, 475, II. 127, 292, 320; his situation
+at Ticonderoga, I. 421, 422; his descriptions of men and things, I.
+453-456; receives the cordon rouge, I. 454; letters to Bourlamaque
+quoted, I. 454, 455, 457-459, 466, II. 7-9, 167-169, 212, 275; plans a
+new attack, I. 472; the French troops at Ticonderoga, I. 477, 478; calls
+a council of Indians, I. 485-489; joined by Lévis, I. 492; prisoners
+taken on the lake, I. 492, 493; his letter to Monro, I. 498, 499; the
+attack and conquest of Fort William Henry, I. 499-513, 514 note, II.
+167, 168, 428-431; his position in relation to Fort Edward, II. 3, 4,
+167, 168; retires to Quebec, II. 7 meeting at Montreal, II. 10; reveals
+the frauds in trade, II. 35, 36, 321, 322; expedition against
+Ticonderoga, II. 86-113 note, 238, 240, 431-436; joined by Lévis, II.
+103; the fight with Abercromby, II. 105-112; letter to Doreil, II. 111,
+112; the cross planted on the battlefield, II. 112; parties sent to
+harass Abercromby, I. 121, 122; questions Major Putnam, II. 126; his
+camp broken up, II. 130, 167-169, 175; his condition after the battle of
+Ticonderoga, II. 164-169; resolves to stand by Canada, II. 172, 173; his
+promotion, II. 174; the refusal of forces from France, II. 174-178;
+marriage of his children, II. 176; letter from Belleisle, II. 176, 177;
+his plans for a final effort for Canada, II. 178, 179; death of a child
+of, II. 179; his arrival at Quebec, II. 198, 199; the siege and
+reduction of Quebec by Wolfe, II. 199-233, 259-325, 325 note, 326 note;
+his headquarters and camp, II. 200, 201, 208, 209; his plan of battle
+and course of action, II. 209, 210, 218, 219, 222, 224, 228, 260,
+262-270; condition of Canadians, II. 225, 226; Montmorenci evacuated,
+II. 273, 274; deceived as to Wolfe's movements, II. 282-285; the English
+army ascends the Heights, I. 286-290; the night before the battle, II.
+290, 291; his last words to the army, and the final attack, II. 291-300,
+346; his wounds, II. 297, 303, 304; his remarks to the people, II. 297,
+297 note; his death and burial, II. 305-307, 309, 310, 317, 326 note,
+441, 442; his protecting care for the Canadians and French, II. 309; his
+last letter to Townshend, II. 309; papers given to Roubaud, II. 321,
+322, 325 note, 326 note.
+Montcalm, Madame de, mother of the Marquis. See Saint-Véran.
+Montcalm, Madame de, wife of the Marquis, I. 361, II. 168; her family,
+I. 358; letters from her husband quoted, I. 362, 454, 474, II. 111, 112,
+426, 427.
+Montcalm, Mademoiselle de, daughter of the Marquis, her marriage, II.
+176.
+Montcalm, Mirète de, II. 179.
+Montesquieu, I. 16.
+Montgomery, Captain Alexander, II. 261.
+Montgomery, Colonel, his regiment, II. 132; advance of Forbes's army,
+II. 158.
+Montgomery, General Richard, II. 261.
+Montguet, II. 302.
+Montguy, II. 99.
+Montigny, taken prisoner, II. 248.
+Montmorenci, the heights of, II. 200, 209; the cataract, II. 207, 220,
+436; position occupied by Wolfe, II. 216-221; the disaster and
+evacuation of, II. 228-233, 259, 268, 269, 273, 274, 381.
+Montour, Andrew, the expedition with Gist, I. 54-59.
+Montour, Catharine, I. 54.
+Montpellier, I. 366, 457.
+Montreal, I. 52, 64, 66, 88, 129, 131, 366, 407, 414, 418, 428, 453,
+467, 474, 483, 513, II. 4-7, 87, 126, 251, 318, 338; social life among
+the officials, I. 453, 457, 458, II. 18-22; scarcity of flour, II. 10;
+La Friponne, II. 24; census of, II. 178; call to arms, II. 195, 198;
+approach of Amherst, II. 236, 265, 361-371; Lévis sent to protect, II.
+250; supplies sent to Quebec, II. 264; Lévis departs for Quebec, II.
+312; preparations to attack Quebec, II. 340; the fall of Canada, II.
+360-382; the city described, II. 371, 372; capitulation of, II. 372,
+373, 383, 403; the French soldiers return to France, II. 374, 383.
+Montreuil, Adjutant-General, I. 376; aids Dieskau, I. 307; his letter
+concerning Montcalm, quoted, I. 376, 377; delay in sending aid to
+Montcalm, II. 301; his letters, II. 438.
+Moore, Colonel William, letter to Governor Morris, I. 347.
+Moravian brotherhood, the, II. 144.
+Moravians, the, I. 31, 54, 347; mission of Frederic Post, II. 144-149.
+Moro Castle, II. 401, 402.
+Morris, Robert Hunter, Governor of Pennsylvania, I. 167, 228, 233 note,
+439, 440, II. 131, 144; correspondence with the younger Shirley quoted,
+I. 188, 201, 202, 323, 324, 340, 343; council of governors held with
+Braddock, I. 191-195; relations of the Penns with, I. 338; question of
+taxing proprietary lands, I. 337-341, 344-347, 349; his relations with
+the Assembly, I. 339-350; letter to, from William Moore, I. 347;
+declares war against the Indians, I. 392; sends Colonel Armstrong to
+attack Kittanning, I. 423; Indian convention held at Easton, II. 147,
+148.
+Morris, Captain Roger, aide-de-camp to General Braddock, I. 202, 203;
+wounded in the battle of the Monongahela, I. 219, 229.
+Murdering Town, hamlet of, I. 136.
+Murray Captain Alexander, I. 268; a memorial sent to, from the Acadians,
+I. 260-263; his relations and correspondence with Colonel Winslow, I.
+268-271, 278; the removal of the Acadians, from their homes, I. 269-272,
+275, 278-281. See Acadians.
+Murray, James, II. 351; serves under Wolfe at the reduction of Quebec,
+II. 193, 216, 217, 263, 266, 267, 274, 290 (see Quebec); his character,
+II. 193, 331, 332, 345, 346; remains in command at Quebec, II. 317, 331,
+332; an attack expected from the French, II. 335-338; expedition of
+Lévis against Quebec, II. 340-358, 442-444; his relations with his
+soldiers, II. 351, 352, 365; the courtesies of war, II. 354; the fall of
+Canada, II. 360-382; ascends the St. Lawrence to Montreal, II. 361-366,
+368, 371, 372.
+Muskingum River, the, I. 48, 55.
+
+
+N.
+
+Naples, I. 9.
+Napoleon I., I. 1.
+Narrows, of Lake George, the, I. 430, 434, 441, 491, II. 92, 93.
+Necessity, Fort, I. 151, 156, II. 277; retreat of Washington's forces,
+I. 160, 161; matters pertaining to the capitulation of, II. 421-423.
+Negroes, I. 29, 193, 228-230.
+"Neptune," the, II. 192.
+Netherlands, the, II. 404.
+New Brunswick, I. 90, 123, 124.
+New England, I. 55, 123, 291; characteristics of her colonies, I. 25-29,
+31, 33, 246, 273, 284, 286, II. 89, 116, 117, 377; confederation of the
+colonies, I. 34; the provincial troops, I. 384-387, 399-402, II. 338;
+rejoicing at the fall of Louisbourg, II. 76-78; her joy over the
+victories in Canada, II. 324, 325, 377-379.
+New France, character of the country with regard to attack and defence,
+I. 23, 24; extent of, in America, I. 23, 24, 39-43, 53, 71, 72, 75, 79,
+II. 129, 316; the downfall of, II. 378-382. See Canada.
+New Hampshire, II. 120; invaded by parties from Canada, I. 176; the
+expedition sent against Crown Point, I. 286, 290, 291; money granted to,
+by Parliament, I. 382 note; Rogers' rangers, I. 431, 432; her sacrifices
+in time of war, II. 86.
+New Haven, I. 291.
+New Jersey, I. 139, 327, 419, II. 93; characteristics of, I. 33; aids
+Virginia, I. 168; Crown Point to be seized, I. 194; the "Jersey Blues,"
+I. 320; money granted to, by Parliament, I. 382 note; Indian warfare, I.
+422, 484.
+New Orleans, II. 405; chain of forts connecting the city with Quebec, I.
+36, 39-41; in the possession of France, II. 405; given to Spain, II.
+406.
+New Oswego, I. 398, 411.
+New York, I. 40, 124, 141, 292, 310, 315, II. 2, 3, 79, 162, 248, 402;
+questions of boundary, I. 28, 79, 195; matters of interest concerning
+the people and the place, I. 32-35, 59, 61, 328, 349, 350; expeditions
+of war fitted out by, I. 142, 144, 162, 173, 286, 292, 383, 474, II. 93,
+192; Indian complaints, I. 172, 176; council of governors held with
+Braddock, I. 191-195; plans of Shirley to repel French invasion, I. 193
+(see Shirley); orders for the removal of the Protestant population of,
+I. 284 note; attitude of the Five Nations in time of war, I. 372;
+council of war held, I. 381; money granted to, by Parliament, I. 382
+note; expeditions of war planned, I. 384, 469, 470; Indian warfare, I.
+422; difficulty in quartering the troops in winter, I. 439, 440; exposed
+condition of the forts, I. 474, 475; rejoicing at the fall of
+Louisbourg, II. 76.
+Newcastle, Duke of, I. 8, 194, II. 40, 41, 397; at the head of the
+English government, I. 177, 178; error in Braddock's campaign, I. 196,
+197; his influence over England, II. 41, 43; blight of his
+administration, II. 46; his idea of promotion in the army, II. 191;
+influence upon the army, II. 380-382; disliked by George III., II. 392,
+400.
+Newell, Chaplain, preached to the army before Lake George, I. 296.
+Newfoundland, I. 185, 471, II. 402; the fisheries, II. 405, 410.
+Niagara, Fort, I. 70, 75, 80, II. 10, 127, 142, 160, 242, 370; situation
+and importance of the post, I. 75, 76, 79, 318, 324, II. 243, 244, 248,
+249; expedition against, I. 192, 194, 195, 233, 318-329, 373-376, 399,
+II. 222, 381, 393; capture of, by Prideaux, II. 242-249, 253.
+Niagara River, the, II. 243.
+Niaouré Bay, I. 408, 409.
+Nicholson, conquest of Acadia, I. 90.
+Nîmes, I. 356.
+Nipissing Lake, I. 485.
+Nipissings, the, I. 40, 74, 154, 485-489; their missionary, I. 487;
+death of a chief, I. 493, 494.
+Nivernois, Duc de, sent to London to negotiate for peace, II. 403.
+Niverville, I. 486.
+Noix, Isle aux, II. 178, 195, 308, 367; the French entrenched at, II.
+238, 239, 241, 249, 265; the French retreat from, II. 251-253.
+Normanville, brothers, I. 210.
+North America, I. 10. See America.
+North Carolina, I. 33, 187, 382, II. 132; answers the appeal of
+Dinwiddie, I. 139, 142; condition of forces from, I. 162, 163; council
+of governors held with Braddock, I. 191-195; effect of the victory at
+Fort Duquesne, II. 162.
+North pole, the, I. 20.
+Northampton, I. 290.
+Northern Department, the, II. 393.
+Northwest Bay, I. 490.
+Nova Scotia, I. 239, 249, II. 1, 181, 183, 192, 381; matters pertaining
+to Acadia, I. 90 (see Acadia and Acadians); rejoicing at the fall of
+Louisbourg, II. 77; solitude of the forts, II. 77, 78.
+Nuns, the, at Quebec, II. 330. See Ursulines.
+
+
+O.
+
+Oath of allegiance. See Acadians.
+Obadiah, name used in New England, I. 246.
+O'Callaghan, I. 514 note.
+Ochterlony, Captain, escapes from Indians' cruelty, II. 232.
+Œdipus, II. 9.
+Ogden, Captain, II. 256; sufferings of the rangers, II. 257.
+Ogdensburg, I. 38.
+Ohio Company, the, I. 53, 142, 155, 196; their trading-houses, I. 59,
+132, 144, 145, 200.
+Ohio Indians, the, I. 59 note, 150, 153.
+Ohio River, the, I. 21, 24, 37, 39, 42, 43, 50, 60, 61, 63, 65, 86, 127,
+128, 176, 207, 209, II. 20, 21, 142-144; valley of, controlled by the
+French, I. 76 (see French); conflict of French and English for the
+surrounding territory, I. 128-134, 142-161, 318, 329-350, II. 144-151,
+244, 247; forts on, I. 137-139, 142, 143.
+Ojibwas, I. 130, 209, 486-489.
+Oneida Lake, I. 322, II. 242.
+Oneidas, the, I. 288, 392, II. 6, 128, 129; in the Iroquois mission, I.
+65.
+Onondaga, I. 172, 173, 395; the Iroquois capital, I. 66; council held by
+Johnson, I. 391, 392.
+Onondaga River, the, I. 73, 322, II. 128, 242.
+Onondagas, the, I. 392, II. 246; efforts of the French to convert, I.
+65, 171.
+Onontio, the, I. 67, 154.
+Ontario, Fort, I. 398, 410, 411, 420; burned to the ground, I. 415, 416.
+Ontario, Lake, I. 38, 65, 72, 75, 195, 289, 321, 322, 374, 376, 381, 382
+note, 384, 398, 399, 408, 415, 418, II. 127-129, 162, 195, 243, 249,
+361; journey of Father Piquet, I. 69.
+Ord, Captain, mentioned in Campbell's letter, I. 227.
+Orléans, Isle d', II. 199, 204, 207, 216, 229, 344, 362; position of
+Wolfe, II. 213.
+Orléans, Point of, II. 203, 211, 216, 219, 222, 270, 274, 281.
+Orme, Captain Robert, aide-de-camp of Braddock, I. 191, 202, 203, 224;
+wounded in the battle of the Monongahela, I. 219, 225; his account of
+Braddock's death, I. 225, 226; correspondence with Dinwiddie, I.
+229-233.
+Orry, I. 15.
+Osages, the, I. 43, 83.
+Osborn, Admiral, expedition under, II. 49, 50.
+Osgood, Captain, I. 270, 272.
+Oswegatchie, I. 52, II. 369; La Présentation, I. 65-67.
+Oswegatchie River, the, I. 38.
+Oswego, I. 38, 52, 70, 73, 74, 79, 88, 195, 321, 374, 467, II. 128, 242,
+369, 418; life of the garrison at, I. 62, 68, 69, 73, 350, 397, 398;
+French enmity towards, I. 78, 78 note, 288, 324-327, 374, 393, 405-416;
+arrival of Shirley's expedition, I. 322, 381, 384; importance of, I.
+398, 399; account of the capture by the French, I. 405-416, 419, 420,
+460-467, 475, II. 127, 292, 320; murders committed by the French, II. 2;
+return of Bradstreet, II. 129; to be re-established, II. 235; plans of
+Amherst, II. 249.
+Ottawa River, the, I. 125-154, 372, II. 369.
+Ottawas, the, I. 40, 57, 84, 209, 487 note; village of, I. 76; their
+cannibalism, I. 483; called to a council by Montcalm, I. 486-489; French
+allies, II. 142.
+Otter Creek, II. 241.
+Otway, his regiment at Albany, I. 399.
+Oudenarde, battle of, II. 391.
+Oueskak, inhabitants removed from, I. 255.
+Oxford, I. 142.
+
+
+P.
+
+Pacific Ocean, the, II. 406.
+Paine, Timothy, I. 404.
+Panama, II. 401.
+Panet, Jean Claude, II. 439.
+Parfouru, Madame de, II. 427.
+Paris, I. 13, 14, 16, 186, 192, 311, 360, 361, 457, II. 47, 322, 374;
+questions of American boundary, I. 86 (see France); trial of the
+dishonest officials, II. 385, 386.
+Paris, the peace of, II. 383-408.
+Parker, Colonel, his party captured by Indians, I. 484, 489.
+Parkman, Rev. Ebenezer, II. 89 note.
+Parkman, George Francis, II. 440.
+Parkman, William, opinion of Abercromby, II. 89.
+Parliament, the, I. 6, 7, 167, 170, 181, II. 41, 83, 84; taxation by, I.
+171, 177, 193, II. 413; raises money for campaigns in America, I. 195,
+316, 382; money paid to Massachusetts, II. 85; elections in 1761, II.
+392; the peace between England and France, II. 406; resistance of the
+British colonies, II. 413.
+Parliament of Paris, the, I. 363.
+Passamaquoddy Bay, II. 183.
+Patten, Captain, assists Bradstreet, I. 395.
+Patterson's Creek, I. 342.
+Patton, John, I. 80.
+Paxton, town of, I. 344.
+Peabody, his bravery, I. 428.
+Péan, I. 458, II. 8, 20; his wife, I. 87, 88, II. 9, 19, 28, 29;
+promotion of, I. 88; his official knavery, I. 129, II. 22-24, 28, 31-33,
+37 note; letter to Duquesne, I. 129; effort to descend the Ohio
+thwarted, I. 130, 131; at La Chine, II. 9; thrown into the Bastille, II.
+385.
+Péan, Madame, I. 87, 88, II. 9, 19, 28, 29.
+Peleus, II. 184.
+Penisseault, Antoine, II. 20; official knavery, II. 23, 24; thrown into
+the Bastille, II. 385.
+Penisseault, Madame, II. 29.
+Penn, Richard, proprietary of Pennsylvania, I. 338.
+Penn, Thomas, proprietary of Pennsylvania, I. 338.
+Penn, William, his plan of union for the colonies, I. 34; first
+proprietary of Pennsylvania, I. 338, 339.
+Pennahouel, chief of the Ottawas, I. 487; his speech, I. 487-489.
+Pennoyer, Jesse, II. 258 note.
+Pennsylvania, I. 227, II. 130; matters of interest concerning the people
+and the place, I. 25, 31-33, 35, 37, 42, 45, 54, 59, 60, 86, 193-198,
+339; efforts of Dinwiddie to obtain help from, I. 139-141; relations of
+the Assembly with the people, I. 142, 165-168, 337, 339-350, 422, 423,
+II. 131; commissioners sent to Albany, I. 173-176; German population, I.
+193; sufferings of the settlers, 329, 330, 336-350, 365, 422, 423, II.
+131, 132; questions of taxing proprietary lands, I. 337-341, 344-347,
+349; a militia law passed, I. 348; roads to be made by the army, II.
+132-134; Indian allies sought for, II. 142-147; expedition of Major
+Grant, II. 152.
+Penobscot River, the, I. 485.
+Penobscots, I. 514 note.
+Pepperell, his regiment, I. 194, 320, 382, 398, 410.
+Pepperell, Fort, condition of, I. 411.
+Perière, war-party sent out under, I. 429.
+Peronney, Captain, killed in battle, I. 230.
+Perrot, Isle, II. 371.
+Persians, II. 323.
+Perth, II. 185.
+Peter the Great, I. 17, 18.
+Peter III., II. 399.
+Peter, Captain, the mission of Frederic Post, II. 149, 150.
+Peticodiac, disaster to the English, I. 275, 276.
+Petrie, Johan Jost, taken prisoner, II. 7.
+Peyroney, Ensign, I. 158. See Peronney.
+Peyton, Lieutenant, his escape from Indians, II. 232.
+Philadelphia, I. 196, 219 note, 228, 231, 233, II. 132, 161; relative
+size of, I. 31; its prosperity, I. 336, 337; influence of the Quakers,
+I. 336, 337, 339; council of, I. 426; difficulty in quartering the
+troops, I. 439, 440; rejoicing at the fall of Louisbourg, II. 76-78.
+Philippines, the, II. 401.
+Philipsbourg, siege of, I. 358.
+Philistines, II. 126.
+Phillips, governor of Acadia, I. 97, 101 note.
+Phillips, Lieutenant, surrender of, II. 13, 14.
+Phipps, Governor, letter from John Ashley to, I. 387.
+Piacenza, I. 359.
+Piankishaws, the, I. 83.
+Pichon, Thomas, commissary at Fort Beauséjour, I. 243; his treachery, I.
+243, 243 note; his writings, I. 243 note, 251 note, 266, II. 81 note.
+Pickawillany, I. 52, 55-58, 81, 209; the Indians cajoled by the English,
+I. 82, 83; the town attacked, and the English traders slaughtered, I.
+84, 85.
+Pique Town (Pickawillany), I. 52; his importance of, I. 52.
+Piquet, Abbé, I. 65 note, 392; his mission and plans, I. 38, 52, 65-75,
+78, 171, 414, 487, II. 242, 369, 417, 418; his banners, II. 418.
+Pisiquid, I. 94, 244.
+Pisiquid River, the, I. 268.
+Pitt, William, I. 6, 408, II. 40, 190, 432; his characteristics and his
+politics, I. 8, 9, II. 42-49, 391, 392, 398, 400, 407; his relations
+with Newcastle, I. 179, 400; his decline in power, I. 469, 470 note, II.
+41, 44, 45, 398, 399, 401; his views and plans for war, II. 47, 48,
+83-85, 89, 118, 131, 132, 141, 157, 193, 235, 236, 240, 391, 392, 400,
+401, 408; report made by Pownall, II. 84, 85; naming of Pittsburg, II.
+159; the expeditions against Louisbourg and Quebec, II. 191-193, 194
+note, 268-271, 323, 345; disliked by George III., II. 391, 392, 397;
+negotiations with Choiseul, II. 393-397; an explanation demanded of
+Spain, II. 396, 397; the peace of Paris, II. 400-407; carried into the
+House of Commons, II. 406, 407.
+Pitt, Fort, built by Stanwix, II. 159.
+Pittsburg, II. 235, 236, 244; site of, I. 46, 60, 142, 143, 207; naming
+of the place, II. 159.
+Plassey, the victory of, II. 45, 408.
+Plates, leaden, bearing inscriptions, I. 43. See Céloron.
+Plymouth Colony, the, I. 245.
+Pococke, Admiral, Sir George, II. 401, 402.
+Pointe-aux-Trembles, II. 19, 224, 263, 278, 341, 361.
+Poisson, Jeanne. See Pompadour.
+Poland, I. 10.
+Polson, Captain, I. 227, 230.
+Pomeroy, Abigail, II. 237.
+Pomeroy, Rev. Benjamin, II. 237, 238.
+Pomeroy, Daniel, in the expedition against Crown Point, I. 291, 311.
+Pomeroy, Rachel, I. 311.
+Pomeroy, Lieutenant-Colonel Seth, I. 290; in the expedition against
+Crown Point, I. 290, 291; quotations from his letters, I. 291-294, 311,
+312, 316 note; the battle of Lake George, I. 303, 305, 312 note.
+Pomeroy, Seth, jr., I. 291.
+Pomeroy, Theodore, I. 316 note.
+Pompadour Madame de (Jeanne Poisson), I. 2, 353, II. 44, 394; her
+political influence, I. 2, 3, 15, 179, 354, 355, 363, II. 38-45, 173,
+174, 393, 409.
+Pondicherry, II. 389, 402.
+Pont-à-Buot, I. 248.
+Pontbriand, Bishop, II. 265, 309.
+Pontiac, I. 209, 347 note, II. 122.
+Pontleroy, II. 100.
+"Porcupine," the, II. 284.
+Port Royal (Annapolis), I. 108.
+Portland, former name of, I. 169.
+Portland, town on Lake Erie, I. 38.
+Portneuf, to build a trading-house at Toronto, I. 69, 70.
+Portugal, II. 402, 411.
+Post, Christian Frederic, II. 144; his mission, II. 144-149; sent as
+envoy to the hostile tribes, II. 144-151; his journal, II. 147 note, 163
+note.
+Potomac River, the, I. 59, 191, 200.
+Pottawattamies, the, I. 76, 130, 209, 437, 438, 486-489, II. 142.
+Pouchot, Captain, I. 374, II. 10, 11; the attack on Oswego, I. 409, 410;
+arrives at the camp of Montcalm, II. 103; attacked, and surrenders at
+Niagara, II. 242, 249; the surrender of Fort Lévis, II. 370.
+Poulariez, Colonel, the capitulation of Quebec, II. 291, 303.
+Pownall, Thomas, Governor of Massachusetts, I. 513 note, II. 84, 430,
+431; despatch sent to Loudon, II. 1; statement concerning the war-debt
+of Massachusetts, II. 84-86.
+Prague, the battle of, II. 39.
+Prairie à la Roche, I. 41.
+Preble, Major Jedediah, I. 275, 276.
+Presburg, the Diet at, I. 19.
+Presbyterians, the, I. 32, II. 116, 117; in Pennsylvania, I. 31,
+336-339, 347.
+Presquisle, I. 89, 128, 131, 137, 144, II. 159, 160, 244; the fort
+burned, II. 247.
+Prévost, the intendant at Louisbourg, I. 104, 105, II. 72, 81 note;
+memorial brought to Drucour, II. 72-74.
+Prideaux, Brigadier, II. 235, 236; the capture at Fort Niagara, II.
+242-249, 253; his death, II. 245, 249.
+Prince Edward's Island, I. 98, II. 74, 75.
+Princess's Bastion, the, II. 55, 64.
+Pringle, Captain, joins a scouting-party, II. 12; his bravery, II.
+13-16.
+Protestantism, I. 31, 355.
+Province Arms, the, II. 76.
+Provincial troops, the, II. 116, 119. See Army.
+"Prudent," the, II. 67-69.
+Prussia, political condition of, I. 2, 17, 19, 353-355, II. 399, 400,
+405, 409; the Seven Years War, II. 38, 39, 409; successes of, II. 46;
+campaigns under Frederic, II. 387, 388; policy of George III., II. 393;
+number of lives lost in the war, II. 409.
+Puritans, the, i, 26, 29; the settlers in Massachusetts, I. 26; the
+class holding Roundhead traditions, I. 29; dislike of the ways of the
+Virginians, I. 30.
+Putnam, Israel, in the expedition against Crown Point, I. 291; his
+bravery, I. 428, 429; meeting with Langy's men, II. 96, 97; his
+biography, II. 123; taken prisoner, II. 123, 124; his adventures, II.
+123-126; tortures inflicted upon, II. 124-126; exchanged, II. 126, 127.
+Puysieux, Marquis de, I. 15.
+Pygmalion, I. 465.
+Pynchon, Doctor, I. 306.
+Pyrrhic dance, the, I. 407.
+Pythoness, the, I. 438.
+
+
+Q.
+
+Quakers, the, their attitude towards the Indians, and their influence in
+Pennsylvania, I. 31, 32, 141, 166, 193, 196, 337-341, 344-347, 349, 422,
+II. 142; their trades, I. 339.
+Quebec, I. 126 note, 184 note, 244, 282, 468, II. 18, 212, 224, 250,
+261, 306; rule of the military governor, I. 22; chain of French forts
+connecting the city with New Orleans, I. 36, 39-41; priests of Acadia
+controlled by the diocese of, I. 94, 255, 256; relations with the
+Acadians, I. 242, 282, 283 (see Acadians); questions of French conquest,
+I. 238; described by Montcalm, I. 456; the Lenten season, I. 458;
+Montcalm retires to, II. 7, 8; social life among the officials, II.
+18-30; La Friponne, II. 24; war-policy of Pitt, II. 47, 48; preparations
+for an English attack, II. 79, 176; the expedition fitted out against,
+II. 191-194; the siege and reduction of, II. 195-233, 299-325, 325 note,
+326 note, 436-438, 442; census of, II. 178; natural defences of, II.
+178, 209, 289; preparations for the defence of, II. 198-200, 209, 210,
+215 (see Montcalm); the fireships, II. 201, 210-212, 227; the Palace
+Gate, II. 201; scarcity of food, II. 203; the Cathedral, II. 208; the
+Seminary garden, II. 208; the Recollets, II. 208; the Ursulines, II.
+208; the Jesuits, II. 208; the proclamations issued by Wolfe, II. 213,
+214, 223, 225, 226, 261; the town bombarded, and dwellings burned, II.
+214, 215, 261, 262, 265; the disaster of Montmorenci, II. 228-233, 259,
+268, 269; the siege continued, II. 259-272; the Upper and Lower Towns,
+II. 267; despatches sent from Wolfe to England, II. 270, 272, 323; the
+Heights of Abraham ascended, II. 272-288; action of Holmes's squadron,
+II. 278, 280; the last battle between Wolfe and Montcalm, I. 288-297,
+298 note, 305; the Plains of Abraham, II. 289; the death of Wolfe, II.
+297; the French routed, II. 299-305; the town abandoned by the army, II.
+307-310; the death of Montcalm, II. 308, 309; the grief and poverty of
+the people, II. 310, 311; Lévis attempts to save the city, II. 312-315;
+the capitulation, of, II., 315-318; the city left in command of Murray,
+II. 317; the rejoicing over the victory, II. 323-325; authorities for
+information concerning, II. 325 note, 326 note; drawings made of the
+ruins, II. 327; confusion after the siege, II. 327-331; kindness of the
+nuns, II. 330, 331, 335; the rule of Murray, II. 331-333; rumors of an
+attack from the French, II. 335-340; the expedition of Lévis against,
+and the battle of Ste.-Foy, II. 340-358, 442-444; arrival of the British
+squadron, II. 355, 356; the siege raised, II. 357, 358; the fall of
+Canada, ii, 360-382; self-devotion of the missionaries, II. 412; maps
+referring to, II. 440, 441.
+Quebec, basin of, II. 213, 282.
+Quebec, Bishop of, I. 106, 255, 260.
+Queen's Bastion, the, II. 55, 68.
+Queen's Battery, the, at Quebec, II. 208.
+Querdisien-Tremais, to investigate the frauds in Canada, II. 36.
+
+
+R.
+
+Race, Cape, I. 185.
+"Racehorse," the, II. 343, 358.
+Rameau, his estimate concerning Canadian population, I. 20 note; Acadian
+emigrants, I. 235 note.
+Ramesay, Chevalier de, II. 202; his battery refused to Montcalm, II.
+292, 293, 346; his field-pieces in action, II. 294; his last interview
+with Montcalm, II. 308; at Montcalm's funeral, II. 309, 310; left in
+charge at Quebec, without supplies, I. 310-314; calls a council of war,
+II. 311, 312; the capitulation of Quebec, II. 315-318; his sister, II.
+331.
+Ranelagh Gardens, the, I. 7.
+Rapide Plat, the, II. 370.
+Rascal, Fort, I. 398, 411, 415.
+Raymond, Comte de, commandant at the post on the Maumee, I. 52, 82;
+command taken at Louisbourg, I. 102; royal instructions given to, with
+regard to the Indians and Acadians, I. 102, II. 420, 421.
+Raynal, Abbé, his ideal picture of the Acadians, I. 258.
+Raystown, II. 133, 135, 137, 141, 154, 156.
+Rea, Dr. Caleb, his religious views, II. 116-118.
+Reading, I. 344.
+Recollets, the, II. 208, 328.
+Redstone Creek, I. 145, 155; English storehouse on, I. 144; the
+storehouse burned, I. 161.
+Rehoboam, II. 115.
+Rennes, I. 362.
+Repentigny, II. 28, 218, 316.
+Restoration, the, I. 5.
+Revolution, the, in America, I. 3, 4, 34, 164 note, 219, 319, II. 119,
+351.
+Revolution, the French, I. 14.
+Reynolds, Sir Joshua, I. 202.
+Rhine, the, I. 16, II. 400.
+Rhode Island, I. 382 note, II. 93; the colony compared with others, I.
+25; men voted for the expedition against Crown Point, I. 286; character
+of the troops from, I. 292.
+Richelieu, I. 10, II. 47; power given to, by Louis XIII., I. 15.
+Richelieu River, the, I. 289, 378, 428, 453, II. 249, 332.
+"Richmond," the, frigate, II. 205.
+Rickson, Lieutenant-Colonel, II. 190.
+Rigaud de Vaudreuil, brother of Governor Vaudreuil, I. 408, 463, 485,
+II. 86; capture of Oswego, I. 408-420; his party attacks Fort William
+Henry, I. 448-451, 456; festivities given to his officers, I. 457; seeks
+to gain Indian allies, I. 475; his command, I. 458, 459, 477; frauds in
+trade, II. 27.
+Rigaud, Madame de, II. 20.
+Rimouski, country of, I. 125.
+Roanoke, return of Gist, I. 58.
+Robison, Professor John, II. 285.
+Robinson, Sir Thomas, I. 201, 241; in the House of Commons, I. 179;
+correspondence of, I. 183, 239, 240.
+Roche, Lieutenant, II. 12, 13; his adventures, and escape from death,
+II. 14-16.
+Rochbeaucourt, stationed at Pointe-aux-Trembles, II. 361.
+Rochefort, I. 182, 183, 184, II. 48-51; the expedition against, II. 189.
+Rochester, I. 71.
+Rocky Mountains, the, I. 20, 129, 130.
+Rodney, Admiral, sails for Martinique, II. 401.
+Rogers, Richard, I. 432; his corpse outraged, II. 5 note.
+Rogers, Robert, I. 389, 390, II. 5 note; exploits of his rangers, I.
+431, 432, 437-446, 471, II. 11-16, 90-94, 97, 121-124, 165, 221, 251-258
+note, 261, 347, 362, 368; his portrait, I. 431; his character and
+bravery, I. 431-433, II. 254, 257; sent to destroy the Abenakis town,
+II. 251-258; suffers from hunger, II. 254-257.
+Rogers Rock, I. 429, 441, 478, 490, II. 12, 15, 94, 95.
+Rollo, Lord, II. 78; follows Murray, II. 363.
+Roma, quotation from, I. 96, 97.
+Roman Empire, the, I. 16, 17.
+Roman politique, disquisition entitled, I. 126.
+Romans, II. 323.
+Rome, I. 321.
+Roquemaure, I. 298; joined by Bougainville, II. 367, 368; at Montreal,
+II. 372.
+Rose, Captain, I. 227.
+Rossbach, II. 39, 46, 408.
+Rostaing killed, I. 186.
+Roubaud, Jesuit missionary, I. 480, 487; his description of an Indian
+war-feast, I. 480-482; Indian cruelty described, I. 482, 483, 493, 505,
+506; statements in relation to the massacre at Fort William Henry, I.
+512, 514 note; the dishonesty in Canada, II. 321, 322; papers given to,
+by Montcalm, II. 321, 322, 325 note, 326 note.
+Rouillé, De, colonial minister at Versailles, I. 105 note; instructions
+given to La Jonquière injurious to the English, I. 78-81, 84, 105 note;
+instructions to Duquesne, I. 86, 87; official documents relating to the
+Acadians, I. 95, 96; aids the French to destroy the English, I. 101,
+102, II. 418; treachery and double-dealings of, I. 105 note, 106 note.
+Rous, Captain, fires on the "St., François," I. 115; in the expedition
+sent against Nova Scotia, I. 247-250, 253.
+Rousseau, I. 16; philosophy of, I. 126.
+Roussillon, Royal, battalion of, I. 363, II. 104, 107, 230; sent to
+defend Ticonderoga, I. 377, 378; advance of the French upon Fort William
+Henry, I. 477, 491; the fall of Quebec, II. 292.
+Royal Americans, the, II. 93, 132, 133, 232; serve in the expedition of
+Forbes, II. 132-163; in Grant's expedition, II. 151; at the siege of
+Quebec, II. 230-233, 290.
+Royal battery, the, II. 208.
+Royal William, the, II. 317.
+Royale, l'Isle, I. 109.
+Ruggles, the battle at Lake George, I. 307; his regiment, II. 378.
+Russell, II. 442.
+Russia, influence of Peter the Great, I. 17, 18; political outlook of,
+I. 353, 354, II. 38-40, 386, 387, 393; peace with Prussia and Sweden,
+II. 399, 400.
+Ryswick, the treaty of, I. 43.
+
+
+S.
+
+S------, Miss Sylvia, I. 188.
+Sabbath, the, observance of, I. 240, 295, 296.
+Sabrevois, I. 486.
+Sackett's Harbor, former name of, I. 408.
+Sacs, the, I. 130, 486-489.
+Saint-Andrew, II. 126.
+Saint-Ange, I. 83.
+St. Augustin, II. 307, 314, 336, 342.
+Saint-Blin, II. 37 note.
+St. Charles River, the, II. 21, 200, 201, 285, 289, 300, 302, 307, 314,
+348, 436; the French camp, II. 208, 209.
+St.-Denis, Ruisseau, II. 287.
+Saint Florentine, Marquis de, I. 15.
+St. Francis, the mission of, I. 209, 371, 480, 485, II. 251, 321; Jesuit
+influence, II. 144; the Abenakis attacked by Rogers, II. 251, 253-258
+note.
+St. Francis River, the, II. 254.
+"St. François," brig, I. 115.
+St. George, I. 470, II. 75, 355.
+St. Germain, I. 14.
+St. Helen, Island of, I. 458, II. 375.
+Saint-Ignace, Mére Aimable Dubé de, II. 442.
+St. James, I. 30.
+St. Jean, Isle, I. 98, 107, 109, 110, 235, 281, II. 74, 75, 78.
+St. Jean River, the, I. 115, 241-253, 282, 283, II. 78, 368, 385.
+St. Joachim burned by order of Wolfe, II. 261.
+St. John, city, I. 428, II. 301, 367, 368.
+St. John, Fort, I. 24, 453; abandoned by the French, II. 368.
+Saint John's taken by the French, and retaken by the English, II. 402.
+Saint Joseph River, the, I. 40.
+Saint-Julien, Lieutenant-Colonel de, the defence of Louisbourg, II. 59.
+St.-Laurent, visit of Knox to the church of, II. 207, 208.
+St. Lawrence, Gulf of, I. 39, 115, 123, II. 79, 80, 384; islands in,
+ceded to Great Britain, II. 405.
+St. Lawrence River, the, I. 3, 4, 20, 22, 38, 65, 68, 123, 124, 365,
+453, II. 8, 79, 172, 175, 176, 179, 182, 192-195, 249-253, 368; rapids
+of, II. 178, 242, 370, 371; measures of defence taken during the siege
+of Quebec, II. 200, 201, 204, 208-213, 219, 289, 304; danger in passing
+through the Traverse, II. 204-206; steepness of the banks, II. 228;
+action of the fleet of Holmes, II. 278-285; expedition of Lévis, II.
+341; humanity rewarded, II. 343, 344; arrival of the "Lowestoffe," II.
+355; the river blockaded, II. 360; islands ceded to Great Britain, II.
+405.
+St. Louis, I. 37, II. 28.
+St. Louis, the cross of the Order of, II. 174, 426.
+St. Louis, site of, I. 41.
+St. Louis, Lake, II. 371.
+St. Lucia, II. 401, 405.
+St. Malo, II. 33, 47.
+St. Michael, II. 267.
+St. Nicolas, II. 279, 280.
+Saint-Ours, I. 491.
+Saint-Ours, Madame de, I. 458.
+St. Patrick's Day, I. 446; at Fort Cumberland, II. 182.
+St. Paul, village sacked and burned, II. 261.
+St. Paul's Church, II. 76, 398.
+St. Phillippe, a French hamlet, I. 41.
+Saint-Pierre, Legardeur de, I. 129, 143, 144; journey of exploration
+made by, I. 130-138; letter from Governor Dinwiddie introducing
+Washington, I. 132, 133-135; his dealings with Washington, I. 134, 135,
+138; leads the Indians in the expedition of Dieskau, I. 297; his death,
+I. 303.
+St. Pierre Island, given to France, II. 405.
+St. Roch, II. 222, 300, 311, 344.
+St. Sacrament, Lac, name of, changed to Lake George, I. 315.
+St.-Servan, capture of, II. 47.
+Saint-Véran, Madame de, the mother of Montcalm, I. 356, 359; letters
+from her son quoted, I. 360-362, 372, 373, 454, 457, II. 112 note, 164,
+174, 176.
+St. Vincent, II. 401, 405.
+St. Yotoc, I. 48.
+Sainte Anna-de-la-Pérade, II. 19.
+Sainte-Claude, Mère de, II. 331.
+Sainte-Foy, II. 306, 327-358, 381; Quebec after the siege, II. 321-333;
+occupied by the English, II. 335, 342; expedition of Lévis against
+Quebec, II. 342-358, 442, 444.
+Sainte-Marie, Fort, garrison at, I. 75.
+Sainte-Thérèse, II. 366.
+Samos, post of, II. 276, 288, 291.
+Sander. See Lauder.
+Saratoga, I. 387, 401, 452; the fort burned, I. 174.
+Sardanapalus, II. 44.
+Sardinia, I. 19.
+Saul, George, commissary of supplies, I. 278, 279.
+Saunders, Admiral, II. 192; aids Wolfe in the reduction of Quebec, II.
+192, 194 note, 268, 272-274, 282, 290; his fleet sails for England, II.
+317.
+"Sauvage," the, ship, I. 363.
+Saxe, Marshall, I. 12, 180, 182, 310; his death, I. 10, 181.
+Saxony, I. 10, II. 38; joins the league against Prussia, I. 355.
+Saxony, Elector of, the, I. 10.
+Scarroyaddy, Indian chief, I. 204.
+Schenectady, village of, I. 321, 322, II. 7, 86.
+Schuyler, General, I. 319, II. 98, 126, 127; action between Bradstreet
+and Villiers, I. 394-396.
+Schuyler, Mrs., I. 319; her affection for Lord Howe, II. 91, 98.
+Schuyler, Pedrom, II. 98.
+Schuyler family, the, I. 32, 33.
+Scioto, town of, I. 48, 49.
+Scioto River, the, I. 55.
+Scipio, I. 420.
+Scotch, the, in Pennsylvania, I. 31, 339.
+Scotland, II. 49, 185.
+Scott, Lieutenant-Colonel George, I. 246; the siege of Beauséjour, I.
+249-253; his gallant action, II. 60.
+Scurvy, I. 131, II. 339, 352.
+Ségur, Count, quotation from, I. 16.
+Seneca, Lake, I. 54.
+Senecas, the, I. 44; visited by Bienville, I. 44, 45; efforts of the
+French to convert, I. 65, 70, 71, 171; their alliances, II. 142-144.
+Senegal, II. 47, 400, 406.
+Senezergues, mortally wounded, II. 303.
+Seven Years War, the, I. 3, 4, II. 38, 39, 405-407, 409; deportment of
+British officers, II. 119.
+Seventy-eighth Regiment, the, at Quebec, II. 298 note.
+Sewell, Colonel Matthew, I. 310; letter to Holdernesse quoted, I. 310.
+Sharpe, Governor of Maryland, I. 191, 201, 202; council of governors
+held with Braddock, I. 191-195.
+Shawanoes, the, I. 40, 45, 46, 48, 57, 130, 209, 391, 392; their
+attitude towards the English, I. 59, 203, 329, 343, 344, II. 150, 151;
+present at a convention of Indians, II. 142, 143.
+Shebbeare, Dr., I. 196 note, 197 note.
+Shepherd, Captain, I. 434; his capture and escape, I. 434, 435.
+Sheppard, Jack, I. 7.
+Sherbrooke, II. 258 note.
+Shingas, Indian chief, II. 145.
+Ship, sign of the, a tavern, I. 227.
+Ship-building, I. 72, 73.
+Shippensburg, II. 136, 142.
+Shirley, Captain John, son of Governor Shirley, I. 323, 326; extracts
+from his letter to Governor Morris, I. 323, 324; a victim of the war, I.
+324 note; his popularity, I. 324 note.
+Shirley, William, Governor of Massachusetts, I. 123, 168; tries to repel
+the French invasions, I. 141, 170, 171, 192, 234; his dealing with the
+Assembly of Massachusetts, I. 168, 169, 241, 285 note; council held with
+Braddock, I. 191-195; his French wife, I. 192; defends taxation by
+Parliament, I. 193; his troops, I. 194, 246, 320, 326, II. 380; the
+decisions of the council at Albany, I. 194, 195; leads the expedition
+against Niagara and Fort Frontenac, I. 194-196, 318-329, 374, II. 127;
+desires Mackellar to draw plans for Braddock's expedition, I. 221 note;
+his view of Dunbar's conduct, I. 233 note; becomes commander-in-chief of
+the troops in America, I. 233, 245, 328; his correspondence with
+Governor Lawrence quoted, I. 239; his plan with regard to expelling the
+French from Nova Scotia, I. 234, 239-241, 245-247, 257; the expedition
+sent against Crown Point, I. 285-317; his campaigns boldly planned, I.
+318; border warfare, I. 318-350; at Fort Oswego, I. 322-324; loss of his
+sons, I. 323, 324 note; councils of war called, I. 325, 326; the Niagara
+expedition abandoned, I. 326, 381; his quarrels with Johnson and with
+Delancey, I. 327, 328; letters from Governor Morris quoted, I. 340, 343;
+plans for a new campaign, I. 381, 382, 393, 447; renews his expedition
+against Niagara, and Frontenac, I. 381-383, 393; recalled from command,
+I. 383, 399, 400, 420; a cabal formed against, I. 383; his zeal and
+courage, I. 384, 400; his boatmen placed under Bradstreet, I. 393, 405;
+sends men to defend Oswego, I. 393-398, 405, 413 note, 420; interview
+with Loudon, I. 399; Oswego seized by the French, I. 407-416; vindicates
+himself, I. 413 note, 420, 420 note; causes leading to his failure, I.
+417, 418; Loudon prejudiced against, I. 420, 468; sails for England, I.
+421; made governor of the Bahamas, I. 421; the opinion of Franklin
+concerning, I. 421; succeeded by Governor Pownall, II. 84.
+Shirley, William, son of the governor, secretary of Braddock, I. 187,
+188, 191; letter quoted concerning Braddock's expedition, I. 201, 202;
+shot through the head, I. 219, 229, 323; letter to Governor Morris
+quoted, I. 323.
+Shirley, Fort, I. 423.
+Short, Richard, drawings of Quebec after the siege, II. 327 note.
+Shubenacadie River, the, I. 113.
+Shute, John, I. 444.
+Silesia, I. 19, 353, 345, II. 40, 388.
+Silhouette, I. 122, 123.
+Sillery, II. 215, 274, 276, 288, 333, 344, 346, 347, 444.
+Sinclair, Sir John, quartermaster-general, I. 198, II. 133, 137; in
+Braddock's expedition, I. 214; wounded in the battle of the Monongahela,
+I. 219, 227; despatch sent from General Forbes, II. 137; his
+peculiarities, II. 138, 139; his dealings with Lieutenant-Colonel
+Stephen, II. 138, 139.
+Small-pox, the, I. 83.
+Smith, Colonel James, I. 211; cruelties practised by the Indians upon,
+I. 209, 210; his statement concerning the defeat of Braddock's army, I.
+221-223.
+Smith, John, I. 227.
+Smith, William, his remark concerning the provincial army, I. 292.
+Smith, William, a Rhode Island soldier, his bravery, II. 108.
+Smollett, I. 6, 159, 178.
+Smyth, and English traveller, I. 164 note.
+"Siren," the, I. 247.
+"Sirène," the ship, I. 363.
+Six Nations, the, I. 57; desire to remain neutral, I. 390. See Five
+Nations.
+Sodus Bay, I. 72.
+Sorel, II. 364, 365.
+Soubise, I. 10.
+South Bay, I. 295, 296, 298, 301, 313, 388, 435, 496, II. 121, 241.
+South Carolina, I. 33, 139, 151, 152, 176; commissioners sent to meet
+the Indians at Albany, I. 61; extent of British frontier, II. 381.
+Spain, I. 9, 19, II. 49, 395; succession of Carlos III., II. 396; the
+Family Compact, II. 396, 397; change of rulers, II. 396, 399; influence
+of Pitt, II. 400, 401; expedition of Pococke, II. 401, 402; receives
+Havana from England, II. 405; the peace of Paris, II. 405, 406;
+acquisitions in America, II. 406, 413; sinking into decay, II. 411.
+Speakman, Captain, despatches sent to Winslow, I. 276.
+Spikeman, Captain, one of Rogers' scouting-party, I. 441; adventures of
+the expedition, I. 441-445.
+Spithead, embarkation of Wolfe, II. 192.
+Split, Cape, I. 268.
+Spruce-beer, I. 259, II. 236, 237, 354.
+Stanhope, Earl, II. 194 note.
+Stanley, his sketch of the Duc de Choiseul, II. 393, 394; at Versailles,
+II. 395.
+Stanley, Dean, II. 433.
+Stanwix, Brigadier, new fort to be erected at the Great Carrying Place,
+II. 129; builds Fort Pitt, II. 159; to relieve Pittsburg, II. 236;
+Pittsburg endangered, II. 244.
+Stanwix, Fort, II. 242.
+Stark, John, I. 432, 446; his celebrity, I. 291; in the expedition
+against Crown Point, I. 291; adventures in a scouting-party of Rogers,
+I. 441-445; wounded, I. 451 note; serves under Abercromby, II. 94.
+Stephen, Adam, matters pertaining to Washington and Jumonville, I. 151
+note, II. 422; trouble with Sir J. Sinclair, II. 138, 139; sent to
+succor Rogers, II. 256, 257.
+Sterne, I. 6.
+Stevens, the Indian interpreter, I. 288; escapes from Quebec, II. 278.
+Stewart, Captain, I. 220.
+Still, Isaac, II. 149, 150.
+Stillwater, I. 387, 452.
+Stirling, II. 185.
+Stobo, Major Robert, I. 159, II. 277; detained at Quebec as a hostage,
+II. 277; his escape, II. 277, 278; gives Wolfe the result of his
+knowledge of Quebec, II. 277, 278; his memoirs, II. 278 note.
+Stockbridge, II. 256.
+Stone, William L., I. 316 note, II. 237 note.
+Stuarts, the, I. 6, II. 49, 392.
+"Success," the, I. 247.
+Suffield, I. 402.
+Sugar-trade, the, II. 403.
+Sulpitian priests, the, I. 38, 52, 66, 458, II. 144.
+Superior, Lake, I. 75, 372, 486.
+Susquehanna River, the, I. 342, 343, 391, II. 143.
+"Sutherland," the, II. 224, 280, 284.
+Sweden joins the league against Prussia, I. 355; the Seven Years War,
+II. 38, 39; peace with Prussia, II. 399.
+Swedes in Pennsylvania, I. 31.
+Sydney, II. 78.
+
+
+T.
+
+Tadoussac, I. 126 note.
+Talon du Boulay, Angélique Louise, I. 358.
+Tantemar, I. 120, 241, 254, 255, II. 181.
+Tassé, citation from, I. 67 note.
+Tatten, Captain, I. 227.
+Taxation, I. 171, 193, 337, 338, 344-347, II. 392, 402, 413.
+Teedyuscung, Indian chief, II. 143.
+Temple, Lord, II. 194 note, 397.
+Thames River, the, II. 206.
+Thirty-fifth Regiment, the, II. 298 note.
+Thomas, Surgeon John, his diary quoted, I. 250.
+Thompson, James, II. 351; diary of, II. 439.
+Thousand Islands, the, I. 68, II. 369.
+Three Rivers, I. 485, 486, II. 20, 264, 312, 341, 360, 363; census of,
+II. 178.
+Ticonderoga, I. 350, 453, II. 2, 16 note, 83, 102, 119, 162, 166, 180,
+212, 292; camp at, I. 373; advance of Dieskau, I. 297-299; occupied by
+the French, I. 313, 314; attempt against, I. 374; held by the French, I.
+374, 376, 390, 415, 442; it importance and position, I. 377, 378, 427,
+428, 477, II. 99, 100; plans of the English to capture, I. 381, 382,
+387-389, 399, 405, 406, 447; war-parties sent out from, I. 429-431;
+exploits of Rogers' rangers, I. 433-437, 441-445, II. 11-16; a small
+party left in charge, I. 439, 448; preparations to attack Fort William
+Henry, I. 477; held by Montcalm's forces, I. 490, 491; expedition
+against, led by General Abercromby, II. 86-113 note; the battle and
+Montcalm's victory, II. 104-113 note; 128, 164, 431-436; war-parties
+sent from, by the French, II. 121-124; Putnam carried to, II. 126;
+question of renewing the attack upon, by the English, II. 129, 130, 197;
+Bourlamaque established at, II. 195; approach of Amherst, II. 210, 222;
+captured by the English, II. 235-240; blown up by the French, II. 239,
+265; the legend of Inverawe, II. 433-436.
+Titcomb, Colonel Moses, I. 290; his service at Louisbourg, I. 290; the
+battle at Lake George, I. 307.
+Tobacco, I. 30, 33.
+Tobago Island, to belong to England, II. 405.
+Tomahawk Camp, II. 161.
+Tongue Mountain, I. 491.
+Tories, the, I. 6, 392, 398.
+Toronto, I. 83; trading-house at, I. 70, 72.
+Toronto, Fort, I. 69, 70; plan of capture by the English, I. 381.
+Toulon, II. 49, 50.
+Touraine, I. 76.
+Tourmente, Cape, II. 204, 206, 261.
+Tournois, Father, I. 64, 65; his illegal trade, I. 65 note.
+Townshend Captain, his efforts to assist the German settlement, II. 7;
+his death, II. 239.
+Townshend, Charles, secretary of war, I. 8, II. 393.
+Townshend, George, his character, II. 193; serves under Wolfe at the
+siege of Quebec, II. 193, 216, 217, 266, 267, 274, 289, 290, 294, 298
+note, 314; succeeds Monckton in command, II. 304; note sent from the
+dying Montcalm, II. 308, 309; the terms of capitulation for Quebec, II.
+315, 316; returns to England, II. 317.
+Tracy, Lieutenant, II. 123.
+Trading-posts, I. 25, 70, 87, 192, 193; at Will's Creek, I. 59, 132,
+142, 199, 200.
+Trent, William, I. 42, 138, 342; at Pickawillany, I. 85 note; in
+Washington's expedition to the West, I. 138; his band of backwoodsmen,
+I. 142, 145; sufferings of the people, I. 342.
+Trepezec, II. 94, 95.
+Troupes de terre, I. 368, 369.
+Trout Brook, II. 12, 94-96.
+Truro, I. 94.
+Tulpehocken, settlement destroyed by the Indians, I. 347.
+Turenne, I. 10.
+Turkey Creek, II. 158.
+Turner, Lieutenant, II. 255; attacked by the French, II. 256.
+Turpin, Dick, I. 7.
+Turtle, the, clan of, I. 476.
+Turtle Creek, I. 207.
+Tuscaroras join the Five Nations, I. 63.
+Twenty-eighth Regiment, the, II. 298 note.
+Two Mountains, the, I. 372.
+Two Mountains, Lake of the, I. 154, 474, 475, 485, 486.
+Two Mountains, mission of, I. 65 note; ceremony in the Mission Church
+of, I. 476 note.
+Tyburn, I. 7.
+Tyrrell, name applied to Thomas Pichon, I. 243 note.
+
+
+U.
+
+Ulster, I. 31.
+United States, the, I. 48, 193; her growth and opportunities, I. 4, II.
+408, 411, 413, 414.
+Upton, Mrs., I. 189.
+Ursuline Convent, the, II. 309.
+Ursulines, the, I. 282, II. 208, 222, 309, 442; at the General Hospital,
+II. 265; matters pertaining to the burial of Montcalm, II. 317, 441,
+442.
+Utrecht, the treaty of, I. 43, 79, 90-92, 94, 123-127, 236-238.
+
+
+V.
+
+Valtry, M. de, I. 74.
+Vanbraam, I. 135; interpreter for Washington, I. 133, 158; matters
+pertaining to the alleged assassination of Jumonville, I. 158, 159, II.
+421-423.
+"Vanguard," the, II. 356.
+Vannes, the siege at Beauséjour, I. 249, 251.
+Van Renselaer, I. 32.
+Varin, naval commissary, II. 20; number of French in the fight at Great
+Meadows, I. 160 note; official knavery, II. 29, 30, 385.
+Varin, Madame, I. 457, II. 428.
+Vaudreuil, Madame de, joins in the quarrel of her husband with Montcalm,
+II. 168.
+Vaudreuil, Phillippe de, early governor of Canada, I. 366.
+Vaudreuil, Pierre François Rigaud, Marquis de, governor of New France,
+I. 182, 288, 289; his estimate concerning the population of Canada, I.
+20 note; his friendship for Vergor, I. 253, II. 278; his traits of
+character, and his double-dealing, I. 366-368, 376, 388 note, 445,
+460-466, II. 7, 20-31, 154 note, 167, 169-171, 173, 196-199, 258 note,
+307, 319, 322, 376; life at Montreal, I. 366, 455, 456, II. 8-10, 18-22,
+339; his relations with Montcalm, I. 366-368, 377, 456, 460, 462-466,
+II. 3, 8-10, 35, 36, 164-169, 173, 175, 179, 180, 202, 203, 292, 293,
+300, 301, 315-323; his plans for defence, I. 374, 376; induces the
+Indians to fight against the English, I. 392, 437, 438, 467, II. 4, 5,
+262; party sent to cut off the supplies from Oswego, I. 393, 394; at
+Fort Frontenac, I. 407, 408; the French victorious at Oswego, I. 413;
+despatches sent to Versailles, I. 427; war-party sent to reduce Fort
+William Henry, I. 447-451; his choice of Rigaud for commander, I. 458,
+459; detractions made in regard to the French regulars, I. 461-463;
+calls for troops, I. 467, 468 the attack on Fort William Henry planned,
+I. 472, 514 note (see William Henry, Fort); animus of Loudon towards,
+II. 1, 2; the affair at German Flats, II. 6, 7; his relations with
+Bigot, II. 17, 18, 323; his official corruption, II. 20-31, 171, 319;
+receives ministerial rebukes, II. 32-35; his plans in regard to
+Ticonderoga, II. 86, 87, 164, 165; provides for the defence of Fort
+Duquesne, II. 141, 142; extracts from his letters to the colonial
+minister, II. 141, 142, 172-175; letters blaming Montcalm, II. 164-166,
+172, 173; the loyalty of the Canadians, II. 169; appeal made at court,
+for aid for Canada, II. 171-173; receives the grand cross of the Order
+of St. Louis, II. 174; a census of Canada made, II. 178; ordered to
+defer to Montcalm, II. 179, 180; circular letter issued by, II. 195,
+196; the siege and reduction of Quebec, II. 195-233, 259-325, 325 note,
+326 note, 437; measures taken by, in the defence of Quebec, II. 198-203,
+206, 209, 218, 222, 264, 265, 274, 276, 287, 291, 292, 301, 302; his
+friendship for Cadet, II. 199, 323; tries to burn the English fleet, II.
+210-212, 227; proclamations of Wolfe, II. 213, 214, 223, 225, 226, 261,
+262; councils of war held, I. 218, 219, 305; his delight over the
+English disaster at Montmorenci, II. 233; the siege of Niagara by the
+English, II. 235, 243-249; his orders to Bourlamaque, II. 238, 239; the
+final battle and the death of Montcalm, II. 292-297, 308-310; the
+question of capitulation discussed at Quebec, II. 303-307; orders a
+retreat, II. 307; his flight, II. 308, 310; summons Lévis to his
+assistance, II. 312; steps taken to repair his errors, II. 312-314;
+Quebec surrenders, II. 314-316; defames Ramesay, II. 318; his
+correspondence, II. 322, 325 note, 438; his hope of retaking Quebec
+through the expedition of Lévis, II. 340-358; his spirit, and chances of
+success, II. 361, 362, 366, 367, 376; his proclamation to the Canadians,
+II. 366; orders given to Bougainville, II. 367, 368; the English encamp
+near Montreal, II. 372; the articles of capitulation for Montreal drawn
+up and signed, II. 372-374; repairs to France, II. 375, 376, 384;
+reproved for his action at Montreal, II. 375, 376; imprisoned and tried,
+II. 385, 386; acquitted, II. 386; matters relating to Dumas and
+Ligneris, II. 423, 424.
+Vaudreuil, Rigaud de. See Rigaud.
+Vauquelin, his bravery at Louisbourg, II. 63, 341; attacked by the
+English, II. 356, 357.
+Vauvert, I. 366.
+Venango, I. 133, 135, 423, II. 159-161, 244; the fort burned, II. 247.
+Vendôme, I. 10.
+Verchères, M. de, I. 74.
+Vergor, Duchambon de, commandant at Beauséjour, I. 239-242; sustains Le
+Loutre, I. 242-244; letter from Bigot advising official corruption, I.
+242; the siege of Beauséjour, I. 247-253; capitulation of the fort, I.
+251; tried and acquitted, I. 253, II. 278; his command on the Heights of
+Abraham, II. 276-278; chances of success for Wolfe in his last venture,
+II. 278, 284, 285; shot in the heel, II. 287.
+Vermont, I. 290; new road made across, II. 241.
+Vernet, I. 12.
+Verreau, Abbé H., II. 37 note, 326 note.
+Versailles, I. 11, 12, 80, 81, 87, 96, 101, 111, 180, 182, 253, 361,
+474, II. 32, 354, 395; corruption at court, II. 44; arrival of the
+envoys from Canada, II. 174.
+Verte, Baye, I. 252-255.
+Vicars, Captain John, I. 375 note, 398 note; at Albany, I. 397.
+Viger, Hon. D. B., II. 438.
+Viger, Jacques, II. 418.
+Villars, I. 10.
+Villejoin, I. 458.
+Villeray, commandant at Fort Gaspereau, I. 253; surrenders to the
+English, I. 253; brought to trial, I. 253.
+Villiers, Coulon de, sent to Fort Duquesne, I. 153; the fight at Great
+Meadows, I. 153-155, 157-161, II. 421-423; the fight with Bradstreet's
+boatmen, I. 393-396; condition of his camp, I. 402; encamped at Niaouré
+Bay, I. 408; taken prisoner, II. 248.
+Vincennes, I. 83.
+Vincent, Earl St., II. 284.
+Virginia, I. 68, 69, 142, 163, 181, 182, 382, 423; manners, customs, and
+other matters of interest, pertaining to, I. 29-35, 42, 60, 86, 164
+note, 165, 196, II. 22; questions of boundary, I. 37, 53, 61, 174;
+unpopularity of Lord Albemarle, I. 136, 137; the settlers need
+protection from the Indians, I. 139, 140, 329-333, 336, 343, 365, 380,
+422, II. 131, 132; meeting of the Assembly with Dinwiddie, I. 164, 165;
+enlistments in and preparations for Braddock's campaign, I. 196, 200;
+disposal of the Acadians, I. 283; fears of a slave insurrection, I. 331;
+condition of its forts, I. 422, 422 note; roads to Ohio, II. 133. See
+Assembly of Virginia.
+Virginia regiment, the, commanded by George Washington, I. 132, 142,
+151; distress of their marches, and difficulties of the service, I. 153,
+156-159, 163, 216, 217; the troops praised by Braddock and by
+Washington, I. 226, 230.
+Virginians, the, their service in the army, and merited commendation, I.
+152, 159, 200, 226, 230, II. 133, 138, 152, 160.
+Vitré, Denis de, pilots the English fleet, II. 203.
+Voltaire, I. 1, 16, 22; letter from Frederic II., II. 388.
+Voyageurs, I. 20 note.
+
+
+W.
+
+Wabash River, the, I. 40, 56, 83.
+Waggoner, Captain, I. 217, 331.
+Walker, Admiral, his fleet wrecked, II. 203.
+Walpole, Horace, I. 7; his opinion of Edward Cornwallis, I. 93, 110;
+remark and anecdote concerning the Duke of Newcastle, I. 177, 178;
+observation concerning Mirepoix, I. 180; sketch of General Braddock, I.
+188, 189, 191, 198; remark concerning George Townshend, II. 193; letters
+concerning Wolfe and Quebec, II. 323, 324, 358; recounts the death of
+George II., II. 390, 391; his writing concerns Pitt, II. 406, 407.
+War-songs, I. 474, 476, 481.
+Ward, Ensign, attacked by the French, and surrenders, I. 143.
+Warde, George, II. 190.
+Warren, Sir Peter, Admiral, I. 287.
+Washington, George, I. 53; sequence of events dating from the time of
+his youth, I. 1; enters upon his career, I. 132; adjutant-general of the
+Virginia militia, I. 132, 142, 151, 330; his embassy to Fort Le Bœuf,
+with letter of introduction to Saint-Pierre, I. 132-136, 297; his
+adventure at Murdering Town, I. 136; the site of Pittsburg examined by,
+I. 142; the battle at Great Meadows, and the alleged assassination of
+Jumonville, I. 145-162, II. 421-423; his traits of character, I. 146,
+147, 150, 213, 219, 331-334; at Fort Necessity, I. 156; the capitulation
+drawn up by Villiers, I. 158, 159; retreat from Fort Necessity, I. 160,
+161; opinion of, expressed by Half-King, I. 160 note; the Fourth of
+July, I. 161; quoted concerning Braddock, I. 201; serves as aide-de-camp
+to Braddock in his expedition against Fort Duquesne, I. 202, 203;
+consultation with Braddock, I. 206; letter to his brother quoted, I.
+206, 207; crosses the Monongahela, I. 212, 213; battle of the
+Monongahela, and retreat of the English troops, I. 214-233; letter
+quoted concerning the defeat, I. 220, 230; quoted concerning the
+suffering of the people, I. 331-333, II. 131, 132; his relations with
+Dinwiddie, I. 332, 333, II. 131, 132; report of the affair at
+Kittanning, by Dumas, I. 426, 427; his relations with General Forbes, in
+his expedition against Fort Duquesne, II. 134, 137, 138, 158.
+Waterbury, I. 428.
+Webb, Colonel Daniel, I. 439; resigns his position as
+commander-in-chief, I. 383; arrives at Albany, I. 399; sent to reinforce
+Oswego, I. 405, 406, 415; at Fort Edward, I. 496-498 note, II. 2-4; his
+correspondence with Munro, I. 496, 497; his lack of support for Munro,
+at Fort William Henry, I. 496, 497, 501, 502, 513 note, II. 1-3, 428,
+429; his regiment at the siege of Quebec, II. 297.
+Wedell, General, II. 387.
+Weiser, Conrad, I. 66, 73, 160; letter to Governor Morris, I. 347.
+Weld, Chaplain, I. 404, 405 note.
+Wentworth, Governor, I. 510 note.
+Wesley, John, I. 6.
+West, Captain, leads a party to bury the dead, II. 159, 160.
+West, Benjamin, II. 159.
+West, the conflict for, of the French and the English, I. 2, 63-90, 132,
+134, 137-141, 170, 192, 231, 232, 318, 329, 415; the forests, I. 205;
+French and English settlements compared, II. 146.
+West Indies, the, I. 10, 137, 230, 356, II. 65, 192, 401; power of
+England over, II. 400, 405.
+West Mountain, I. 300.
+Westminster Abbey, tablet erected to Lord Howe, II. 91.
+Wheeling Creek, I. 48.
+Whigs, the, I. 6, 179, II. 40, 392, 400.
+White Mountains, I. 453.
+White Point, II. 57.
+White Woman's Creek, I. 55.
+Whitefield, I. 6.
+Whitehall, I. 298, II. 121, 252.
+White's Chocolate-House, I. 7.
+Whiting, Lieutenant-Colonel, I. 302; his men fall into Dieskau's ambush,
+I. 302, 303.
+Whitmore, brigadier, serves in the expedition against Louisbourg, II.
+48, 57-76; becomes the governor of Louisbourg, II. 76.
+Whitworth, Dr. Miles, I. 508; summons to the Acadians drawn up, I. 271,
+272; present at the massacre at Fort William Henry, I. 509, 514, II.
+430, 431.
+Wiggins, George, II. 82 note.
+Wilhelmina, death of, II. 389.
+William, Duke of Cumberland, son of George II., I. 8.
+William III., his accession to the throne of England, I. 5, 6.
+William and Mary College, I. 163.
+William Henry, Fort, I. 388, 452, 457, II. 88, 114; its situation, I.
+316, 492; winter life of the garrison, I. 350; its condition, I. 401,
+402, 493, 495; exploits of Lieutentant Kennedy and Captain Hodges, I.
+428, 429; exploits of Rogers' rangers, I. 433-437, 441, 445; attacked by
+Vaudreuil's war-party, I. 446-451, 456-458; a new attack planned, and
+the expedition prepared by the French, I. 472, 474-494; besieged and
+conquered by the French, I. 494-513, 514 note, II. 1, 2, 5, 6, 237, 292,
+320, 321, 381, 428-431; some of the garrison massacred by the Indians,
+I. 505-513, 514 note, II. 428-431.
+William Henry Hotel, I. 401.
+Williams, Colonel Ephraim, I. 290; origin of Williams College, I. 290;
+serves in the expedition against Crown Point, I. 290-311; his wounds and
+death, I. 302, 303, 311.
+Williams, Colonel Israel, II. 120 note; letters to, quoted, I. 292, 293,
+II. 114, 115.
+Williams, Josiah, I. 311.
+Williams, Stephen, a chaplain, I. 290; preaches to the army at Lake
+George, I. 295, 296.
+Williams, Thomas, a surgeon, serves in the expedition sent against Crown
+Point, I. 290-293; letters from, quoted, I. 294, 311, 316 note, 406; his
+account of the battle of Lake George, I. 306, 312 note; his anxiety for
+Oswego, I. 405, 406.
+Williams, Colonel William, account of the loss of Oswego, I. 406, 407;
+letters quoted concerning the army and the battle at Ticonderoga, II.
+114, 115, 119, 120.
+Williams College, I. 290.
+Williams, Fort, I. 374, 375.
+Williamsburg, I. 136, 142, 163, 228, 332; society at, I. 163, 164.
+Will's Creek, I. 59, 139, 142-144, 151, 161; the trading-station
+established on, I. 132, 199, 260.
+Winchester, I. 141, 330.
+Windsor, I. 94, 268.
+Winnebagoes, the, I. 486.
+Winslow, John, I. 169, 495; his education and circumstances, I. 245,
+246; his letters and journal quoted concerning the Acadians, I. 249,
+250, 252, 253 note, 254, 255, 266 note, 267, 269-271, 274, 275, 277, 277
+note, 278, 279; the siege of Fort Beauséjour, I. 247-253; circumstances
+with regard to the removal of the Acadians, I. 249-253, 266-284;
+relations with Captain Murray, I. 269, 275, 278; delivers the orders of
+George II. to the Acadians, I. 272-274; his portrait, I. 273; his
+quarters at Half-Moon, I. 387; letter to Colonel Fitch, I. 388; letters
+hastening the preparations for an attack on Ticonderoga, I. 388, 389,
+405, 438; difficulty concerning the rank of provincials and regulars, I.
+399, 400; his camp at Lake George, I. 401, 421, 438; his opinion of
+Israel Putnam, I. 428; his Letter Book cited, I. 429; prisoners brought
+into camp, I. 431; his sentinels killed, I. 437; ordered to remain in a
+defensive attitude, I. 438; his letter to Shirley concerning the failure
+of the campaign, I. 438, 439; his troops garrisoned in winter-quarters,
+I. 439; money expended on his expedition, II. 84.
+Wisconsin, I. 486.
+Wisconsin Historical Society, the, II. 426.
+Wolf Island, I. 409.
+Wolfe, Mrs., the filial devotion of her son, II. 185-190, 192; last
+letter from General Wolfe, II. 269, 270; mourns his loss, II. 324.
+Wolfe, Major-General Edward, II. 184.
+Wolfe, James, II. 48, 345; his opinion of Cornwallis, I. 93; serves in
+the expedition against Louisbourg, II. 48, 57-81; his characteristics
+and ill health, II. 48, 58, 78-81, 183-188, 190-192, 219, 221-225, 262,
+266-270, 272, 277, 281, 288, 289, 294, 295; his age, II. 184;
+confidential relation existing with his mother, II. 185-190, 192, 269,
+270; plans of attack at Louisbourg, II. 57, 58; the Island Battery
+silenced, II. 62, 63; the French ships burned, II. 66, 67, 69; the
+capitulation of Louisbourg, II. 71-75; ordered to disperse the French
+settlers, II. 80, 81; sails for England, II. 81; his opinion of
+Abercromby and of Lord Howe, II. 89; an expedition fitted out to serve
+under, II. 181-184; his rank and campaigns, II. 185, 189, 191; the
+Rochefort expedition, II. 189; letters to Major Wolfe and
+Lieutenant-Colonel Rickson, II. 190-192; his betrothed, II. 190, 284; to
+command the expedition against Quebec, II. 191-193; embarks for America,
+II. 192; authorities on his life, II. 194 note; siege and reduction of
+Quebec, II. 195-233, 259-299, 436-441; arrival of the fleet in the St.
+Lawrence, and passage of the Traverse, II. 203-206; at the Island of
+Orléans, II. 208; his view of the French camp, II. 208, 209; the descent
+of the fireships, II. 210-212, 227; seizes Point Levi, II. 213; his
+proclamations to the Canadians, II. 213, 214, 223, 225, 226, 260, 261;
+his position at Montmorenci, II. 216-220; Quebec bombarded, II. 216,
+217, 228; his determination to persevere in the siege, II. 228; the
+disaster at Montmorenci, II. 228-233, 259, 260, 268, 269; ballads
+written concerning, II. 233 note; the expected aid from Amherst, II.
+240, 241, 250, 272; proposes to fortify Isle-aux-Coudres, II. 260; plans
+of attack considered by, II. 260, 266-272; despatches sent to Pitt, II.
+268-272, 323; the discovery of the path ascending the heights, II. 272,
+278; his determination to climb the heights, and attack the French, II.
+272-280; movements of the squadron under Holmes, II. 278-285; his last
+orders from the "Sutherland," II. 280, 281; statistics of his troops,
+II. 281, 283, 290, 298 note, 437, 438, 444; assisted by Saunders, II.
+282; the pretended attack at Beauport, II. 282, 283; makes use of the
+French provision-boats, II. 283, 284, 286; his presentiment, II. 284;
+his chances of success, II. 284, 285; the ascent of the heights, II.
+284-289; remark concerning Gray's Elegy, II. 285; the challenge to the
+boats, II. 286; his troops drawn up ready for action, II. 289-292; the
+charge and victory of the English, II. 295-297; his wounds, II. 296; his
+last words, II. 297, 297 note his death, II. 297, 317, 323, 324; his
+remains carried to England, II. 317; his death written upon by Walpole,
+II. 323, 324; the fruits of the victory, II. 325, 352, 400; remarks of
+the Rev. E. Forbes, II. 378; his "Instructions to Young Officers," II.
+439.
+Wolfe, Walter, the uncle of James Wolfe, II. 190, 192; letters from his
+nephew quoted, II. 191-193.
+Wolfe's Cove, II. 278.
+Wood Creek, I. 295, 297, 321, 374, 388, 406, II. 121.
+Wooden Horse, the, I. 386.
+Woolsey, Colonel, II. 432, 433.
+Wooster, Colonel David, I. 389.
+Worcester, I. 404.
+Wraxall, I. 301 note; eulogies of Johnson, I. 316.
+Wright, his Life of Wolfe, II. 82 note, 194.
+Wright, Dr., II. 120; sickness in the army, II. 120.
+Wyandot, I. 54, 76.
+Wyandots, the, I. 40, 41, 57.
+Wyoming, II. 143.
+
+
+Y.
+
+Yadkin, the, I. 58.
+Yale College, I. 290.
+York, I. 7.
+Youghiogany river, the, I. 145, 146, II. 138.
+Young, Lieutenant-Colonel, I. 496; sent to Montcalm for terms of
+capitulation, I. 505.
+
+
+Z.
+
+Zeisberger, David, I. 55 note.
+Zinzendorf, Count, I. 54, 55.
+
+
+
+
+Francis Parkman
+
+
+France and England in North America
+
+1.  Pioneers of France in the New World (1865)
+    Revised (1885)
+2.  The Jesuits in North America in the seventeenth century (1867)
+3.  The Discovery of the West (1869)
+    La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West (1879)
+4.  The Old Régime in Canada (1874)
+    Revised (1894)
+5.  Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV. (1877)
+6.  A Half Century of Conflict (1892)
+    Volume 1
+    Volume 2
+7.  Montcalm and Wolfe (1884)
+
+The year that each book was published is printed and enclosed by
+parenthesis after the title of each volume. In three cases, there are
+two listings for a line item. For those parts, Parkman issued a volume
+with major revisions subsequent to the initial release of the book.
+
+The revised version of Pioneers of France (Part One) contains new
+descriptions of Florida and some changes to the section on Samuel
+Champlain. Parkman revised Discovery of the West (Part Three) after
+obtaining access to Margry's collection. The revised version of The Old
+Régime (Part Four) includes three new chapters regarding La Tour and
+D'Aunay.
+
+Volume 3 was not only revised, but the title was altered. Parkman first
+released Volume 3 as The Discovery of the West. His updated version of
+Volume 3 was entitled La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West.
+Other Principal Works
+
+ •  The Oregon Trail (1849)
+ •  The Conspiracy of Pontiac (1851)
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes
+
+
+Introduction
+
+Welcome to Project Gutenberg's edition of Montcalm and Wolfe. While this
+book was the sixth part released by Francis Parkman in his seven-part
+series called France and England in North America, Parkman refers to
+this book as Part Seven. In the Preface to this book, Parkman noted that
+these two volumes were a departure from the chronological sequence of
+the series. The events of the epoch that was passed over formed the
+topics of A Half Century of Conflict, Part Six of this series. Parkman
+published both volumes of Part Six in 1892.
+
+The author was in poor health when he began work on these volumes, and
+wondered if he would only be able to write one more book. He chose to
+tell first the story that he most ardently wished to tell.
+
+Our version of Montcalm and Wolfe is based on the 1885 edition of this
+book, published by Little, Brown, and Company. This book is essentially
+the same book as the original work, published one year before by the
+same publisher. The 1884 book is of slightly better quality, but
+practical considerations factored into our decision to use the book
+available from Yale University. Future claims of errata may be consulted
+against the scanned pages of the 1885 book, available through
+Hathitrust.
+
+The footnotes have been produced using the Project Gutenberg™ standard.
+Footnotes follow the paragraph in which they were mentioned. Footnotes
+have been set in smaller print and have larger margins than regular
+text. Footnotes are numbered sequentially. There are a total of 877
+numbered footnotes in this book. There are also eleven end of chapter
+footnotes, which are in addition to the sequentially numbered footnotes.
+
+This text generally preserved the italicization of words, phrases, and
+the titles of references which are presented in italics in the printed
+book. The standard of the book is to not use italics on numbers. For
+example, it is easier to write: Webb to Loudon, 1 Aug. 1757, but the
+book displayed the content as follows: Webb to Loudon, 1 Aug. 1757. We
+have tried to match that policy in this e-book. Small capitalization has
+also been retained.
+
+The topics list in the Contents are supposed to match the topics list at
+the beginning of each chapter. The variances were most often present in
+the capitalization of words. There was one case of variance in
+punctuation, and another case where a word was changed. Our emendations
+in these matters made the topics list in the contents match the topics
+list at the beginning of each chapter. See the Detailed Notes for
+individual changes.
+
+Detailed notes describe problems or issues in transcribing a specific
+portion of the text. Emendations are listed, and described, in the
+Detailed Notes, as well as other issues in transcribing the text.
+
+You will see changed text underlined by dotted silver lines. In some
+versions (like the HTML version) of this document, you can hover your
+cursor over the changed text and see details in a small box. Those
+details are repeated, and sometimes elaborated upon, in the Detailed
+Notes Section of these Notes.
+
+
+Detailed Notes Section:
+
+
+Chapter 1:
+
+On Page 30, slave-masters is hyphenated and split between two lines.
+There are no other occurrences of the word in the book. We retained the
+hyphen in the sentence: They may be described as English country squires
+transplanted to a warm climate and turned slave-masters.
+
+On Page 32 and Page 372 in Vol II, non-combatants is hyphenated and
+split between two lines. The word is hyphenated and not split there on
+Page 141, Page 311, and Page 409. There are no occurrences of
+noncombatants without the hyphen. Therefore, we retained the hyphen in
+our transcription.
+
+
+Chapter 2:
+
+On Page 48, (and also Page 385), powder-horn is hyphenated and split
+between two lines. Powder-horn is used in three other instances: Page
+211, Page 291, and Page 306. There is no usage of powder-horn without
+the hyphen. Therefore, we retained the hyphen in our transcription in
+the two cases in question.
+
+
+Chapter 3:
+
+On Page 73 and Page 76, block-houses appear with a hyphen. Both words
+are written this way, in the middle of a line, in the text by Parkman.
+There are many other occurrences of the word blockhouse where the word
+is spelled without a hyphen. See the detailed notes of Chapter 8 for
+more information. We kept the transcription as it appears in the printed
+book, and simply advise readers that the author or the publisher, and
+not the transcriber, originated the inconsistency.
+
+On Page 75, in footnote 41, the word servir appears to have an accent
+over the r. The 1884 volume does not have the accent; therefore, the
+assumption is that the accent in the 1885 volume is an imperfection. We
+transcribed the word as 'servir,' without the accent over the r.
+
+On Page 85, verb tenses do not agree in the sentence: Seventy years of
+missionaries had not weaned them from cannibalism, and they boiled and
+eat the Demoiselle. Nevertheless, the sentence was transcribed as
+Parkman wrote it.
+
+
+Chapter 4:
+
+On Page 95 in footnote 75, Sa Ma jesté is split between two lines
+without a hyphen. We assume that the missing hyphen was a typo. The word
+was transcribed Majesté.
+
+On Page 101 remove period after Le in the clause: another from Le.
+Loutre, declaring that he and Father Germain were consulting together
+how to disgust the English with their enterprise of Halifax;.... This
+period did not exist in the 1884 version of this book.
+
+
+Chapter 5:
+
+On Page 132 pack-horses is hyphenated and split between two lines. On
+Page 205, Page 206, and Page 212, the author omitted the hyphen,
+spelling packhorses. Parkman retained the hyphen on Page 134 of Volume
+II. Also, on Page 214, pack horses was spelled as two words. We went
+with the majority vote and transcribed the word packhorses, without the
+hyphen, in the clause: and four or five white men with packhorses.	
+
+On Page 149 corrected the exotic spelling of Washington in the clause:
+that which the cruel Vvasinghton had promised himself. This error does
+not exist in the 1884 book.
+
+With seventeen other occurrences of storehouse spelled without the
+hyphen, and none with, the transcription of the hyphenated word on Page
+155 was an easy decision in the clause: and turned back for the
+storehouse. This logic also applies to the transcription on Page 374 in
+Chapter 11.
+
+
+Chapter 7:
+
+On Page 198, add missing period at the conclusion of the clause: as it
+was favorable to its political longings. This period was not missing in
+the 1884 edition.
+
+On Page 208, guard-house is hyphenated and split between two lines.
+Guard-houses of Page 328 in Volume II is also hyphenated and split
+between two lines. On Page 319 in Volume I, guard-house is hyphenated in
+the middle of a line. There are no other occurrences of the word.
+Therefore, we have transcribed the word guard-house, both here and on
+page 328 in Volume II.
+
+On Page 208, musket shot is spelled as two words, without the hyphen.
+There is some confusion as to whether shot is a noun or a verb, i.e., a
+musket-shot (noun) from the ramparts or a musket shot (verb) from the
+ramparts. There are eight other occurrences of the word spelled
+musket-shot, with a hyphen, in the book. In some of those instances, the
+word was split between two lines for spacing and transcribed as
+musket-shot. There is another instance where musket shot appears without
+the hyphen, on page 50 in Volume 2. The usage on page 50 appears to be a
+noun. We kept the transcription as it is in the printed book.
+
+On Page 214, pack horses was spelled as two words in the clause: the
+pack horses and cattle, with their drivers .... No change was made
+despite the spelling being inconsistent in this book. See the detailed
+notes of Chapter 5 for more details.
+
+
+Chapter 8:
+
+On Page 234, changed Persist to persist in The Acadians Persist in their
+Refusal in the topics list at the beginning of Chapter 8.
+
+On Page 248, block-house is hyphenated and split between two lines.
+There are ten other occurrences of blockhouse in the book, without the
+hyphen. There are two occurrences of block-house, on page 73 and page
+76, with the hyphen. Majority rules:--we have transcribed the word
+blockhouse, without the hyphen, in the clause: there was a large
+blockhouse and a breastwork of timber defended by ...
+
+On Page 256 in footnote 264, corrected the spelling of L'Évéque de
+Québec to L'Évêque de Québec. Footnote 75 and Footnote 106 opt for the
+circumflex in l'Évêque. The source for Footnote 75 is the same source as
+Footnote 264. The grave after v appears to be a typo. This error was
+also present in the 1884 version of the book.
+
+On Page 278 heart-sick is hyphenated and split between two lines. There
+are no other occurrences of the word in these two volumes. Heartsick
+without the hyphen may be found in Mr. Webster, but not the hyphenated
+word. Therefore, the hyphen was not retained in transcribing the clause:
+Winslow grew heartsick at the daily sight of miseries ...
+
+
+Chapter 9:
+
+On Page 290 in footnote 296, we have placed a period after VI in the
+source: Provincial Papers of New Hampshire, VI. 429. Footnote 393 and
+457 refer to the same source, and both other references have a period
+after VI.
+
+
+Chapter 10:
+
+On Page 326, Parkman uses a hyphen in whale-boat, which is inconsistent
+with his usage of the word in these two volumes. There are two other
+occurrences of whale-boat: 1) On Page 271, as part of a quote, and 2) On
+Page 323, as part of the quote. The presumption is that Parkman had no
+choice in the spelling of quoted text. There are twelve occurrences of
+whaleboat in the text without the hyphen. There was one additional case
+where whale-boat was hyphenated and split between two lines for spacing
+(see the detailed notes for Chapter 21). That word was transcribed as
+whaleboat. We made no change in the sentence: At the end of October,
+leaving seven hundred men at Oswego, Shirley returned to Albany, and
+narrowly escaped drowning on the way, while passing a rapid in a
+whale-boat, to try the fitness of that species of craft for river
+navigation. However, this usage is an outlier.
+
+
+Chapter 11:
+
+On Page 374, store-houses is split between two lines and hyphenated for
+spacing. We transcribed the word without the hyphen in the clause: Fort
+Bull, a mere collection of storehouses surrounded by a palisade .... See
+the detailed notes of Chapter 5 for a more detailed explanation.
+
+
+Chapter 12:
+
+On Page 385, powder-horn is split between two lines and hyphenated for
+spacing. We transcribed the word with the hyphen in the clause: A
+powder-horn, bullet-pouch, blanket, knapsack, and "wooden bottle," or
+canteen, were supplied by the province; .... See the detailed notes of
+Chapter 2 for a more detailed explanation.
+
+
+Chapter 13:
+
+On Page 417, bush-fight is hyphenated in the topics list of this
+chapter. Bushfighter, on Page 429, is not hyphenated. This inconsistency
+appears throughout the book with bushfight and its variants. Bushfighter
+appears on page 429 in volume 1, and page 123 in volume 2. Bushfighters
+appears on page 246 in volume 2, but on page 371 in volume 1, the hyphen
+is used in bush-fighters. Bushfight appears on page 381 of volume 2, but
+Bush-fight is hyphenated in the topics list of Chapters 13 and 16.
+Bush-fighting is hyphenated on pages 501 and 502 of volume 1.
+
+On Page 446, small-pox is hyphenated and split between two lines for
+spacing. There are six other occurrences of small-pox, spelled with a
+hyphen, in the middle of a line. There is no occurrence of smallpox,
+without the hyphen. We transcribed the word with the hyphen in the
+sentence: The effects of his wound and an attack of small-pox kept
+Rogers quiet for a time.
+
+On Page 446, changed gripe to grip in the clause: heralding that dismal
+season when winter begins to relax its gripe, but spring still holds
+aloof; This error is also found in the 1884 version of the book.
+
+
+Chapter 15:
+
+On Page 497, hard-pressed was hyphenated and split between two lines for
+spacing. There was no other usage of the word in both volumes. We
+transcribed the word with the hyphen in the clause: wrote the
+hard-pressed officer.
+
+
+Chapter 18:
+
+On Page 38, changed 1757-1758 to 1757, 1758 in the heading of Chapter
+18.
+On Page 38, capitalize new in the topic: The new Ministry. On Page 38,
+added comma after Court in the topic: She controls the Court and directs
+the War.
+
+On Page 48, short-coming is hyphenated and split between two lines for
+spacing. Shortcoming is spelled without the hyphen on page 50 and page
+227 in volume 2. Shortcomings is spelled without the hyphen on page 300
+in Volume 2. There are no occurrences of shortcoming or shortcomings
+with a hyphen in these volumes. We transcribed the word without the
+hyphen in the clause: and make amends for all shortcomings of his chief.
+
+On Page 50, musket shot is spelled as two words, without the hyphen.
+Shot is used as a noun in this clause: Gardiner was killed by a musket
+shot. The book, in other cases, spelled musket-shot with a hyphen when
+shot is used as a noun. See the note in Chapter 7 for more details. No
+changes were made, but in this case, the transcriber believes
+musket-shot, with the hyphen, is more consistent usage.
+
+
+Chapter 19:
+
+On Page 56, fire-ships is hyphenated in the clause: At the end of May
+Admiral Boscawen was at Halifax with twenty-three ships of the line,
+eighteen frigates and fire-ships, and a fleet of transports ...
+Fireships is used eight other times in these volumes without a hyphen.
+The inconsistency came from the publisher or author, not the
+transcriber.
+
+
+Chapter 20:
+
+On Page 83, capitalized Frightful of A frightful Scene in the topics
+list at the beginning of Chapter 20.
+
+On Page 89 in footnote 607, we have placed a comma after Parkman:
+Great-uncle of the writer, and son of the Rev. Ebenezer Parkman a
+graduate of Harvard, and minister of Westborough, Mass. This error is
+also found in the 1884 version of the book.
+
+
+Chapter 21:
+
+On Page 114, capitalized Routed in The routed Army in the topics list at
+the beginning of Chapter 21.
+
+On Page 114, a curious character appears after the y in the date of the
+letter of Colonel Williams. In a document in the Appendix, on Page 429,
+there is the clause "We did not march till ye 10th." Because of that
+document in the Appendix, we transcribed the date: "Lake George
+(sorrowful situation), July ye 11th,"
+
+On Page 128, whale-boats is hyphenated and split across two lines for
+spacing. We transcribed the word without the hyphen in the clause: On
+the twenty-second of August his fleet of whaleboats and bateaux pushed
+out on Lake Ontario; See the detailed notes in Chapter 10 for more
+details.
+
+
+Chapter 22:
+
+On Page 134, Parkman uses a hyphen in pack-horses, which is inconsistent
+with his usual spelling of the word. See the note in Chapter 5 for more
+details. We retained the spelling in the clause: as little impeded as
+possible with wagons and pack-horses.
+
+On Page 144, war-like is hyphenated and split between two lines for
+spacing. On six other occasions of the two volumes, Parkman used
+warlike, without the hyphen, in his text. We transcribed the word
+warlike in the clause ferocious instincts and warlike habits.
+
+
+Chapter 23:
+
+On Page 164, capitalized Despondent in The Canadians despondent in the
+topics list at the beginning of Chapter 23. Capitalized Matrimonial in A
+matrimonial Treaty in the topics list. Also changed Boasts of Vaudreuil
+to Promises of Vaudreuil. We used the topic name in the contents at the
+opening of volume 2 because there was already a topic named Boasts of
+Vaudreuil in Chapter 22.
+
+
+Chapter 24:
+
+On Page 181, capitalized Domestic in His domestic Qualities in the
+topics list at the beginning of Chapter 24.
+
+
+Chapter 25:
+
+On Page 195, capitalized Futile in A futile Night Attack in the topics
+list at the beginning of Chapter 25.
+
+On Page 198, the phrase ships-of-war is used. There are eight
+occurrences of ships of war, without the hyphens, and no other case
+where ships of war is used with the hyphens. The inconsistency is a
+function of the author or publisher.
+
+On Page 210, flat-boats is hyphenated in the clause: and destroyed many
+of the flat-boats from which the troops had just disembarked. Flatboat
+is used three times without the hyphen: on pages 92, 93, and 263 of
+volume 2. On page 274, flat-boats was hyphenated and split between two
+lines for spacing. That usage was transcribed as flatboat as per
+majority vote. The usage of a hyphen on page 210 is therefore the only
+outlier, but we did not change it.
+
+
+Chapter 26:
+
+On Page 246, deer-skin is spelled with a hyphen, although on Page 334 in
+volume 1, there is no hyphen in deerskin. We made no changes to either
+word.
+
+
+Chapter 27:
+
+On Page 259, capitalized New in A new Plan of Attack. Also capitalized
+Last in Wolfe's last Despatch. Both were changes in the topics list at
+the beginning of Chapter 27.
+
+On Page 274, flat-boat is hyphenated and split between two lines for
+spacing in the sentence: On the night of the fourth a fleet of flatboats
+passed above the town with the baggage and stores. We transcribed
+flatboats without the hyphen. See the detailed note in Chapter 25 for
+more details.
+
+On Page 293, field-pieces is hyphenated and split between two lines for
+spacing in the clause: for twenty-five field-pieces which were on the
+Palace battery. There are seven other occurrences of field-piece or
+field-pieces with the hyphen, and none without. We transcribed
+field-pieces with the hyphen.
+
+
+Chapter 28:
+
+On Page 301, horse-back is hyphenated and split between two lines for
+spacing. There are eleven other occurrences of the word in these two
+volumes, and all are spelled without the hyphen. We also did not use the
+hyphen in the clause: mounted on horseback.
+
+On Page 301, musket-shot is hyphenated and split between two lines for
+spacing in the clause: he saw within musket-shot a long line of British
+troops. We transcribed the word as musket-shot. See the notes in Chapter
+7 for more details.
+
+On Page 309, towns-people is hyphenated and split between two lines for
+spacing in the clause: a throng of towns-people. There is no occurrence
+of townspeople, towns-people or towns people in both volumes. We
+transcribed the word with the hyphen.
+
+
+Chapter 29:
+
+On Page 328, guard-house is hyphenated and split between two lines. See
+the Detailed Notes of Chapter 7 for our logic to determine that the
+hyphen should be kept in the transcription.
+
+On Page 333, bush-rangers is hyphenated and split between two lines for
+spacing. There are five other occurrences in the two volumes with
+bushrangers, and no occurrences with the hyphen. We transcribed the word
+without the hyphen in the clause: danger from Indians and bushrangers.
+
+On Page 335, add a period after services to conclude this sentence: At
+the same time a party of regulars, Canadians, and Indians took up a
+strong position near the church at Point Levi, and sent a message to the
+English officers that a large company of expert hairdressers were ready
+to wait upon them whenever they required their services.
+
+On Page 346-347, wind-mill is hyphenated and split between two pages.
+There are three other occurrences of windmill, all in volume 2, on pages
+207, 302, and 348. They are spelled without the hyphen. We transcribed
+windmill without the hyphen in the clause: was a house and a fortified
+windmill belonging to one Dumont.
+
+On Page 355, mast-head is hyphenated and split between two lines for
+spacing. There are two other occurrences of mast-head, both in volume 2,
+on pages 63 and 204, spelled with the hyphen. We have transcribed
+mast-head with the hyphen in the sentence: Slowly her colors rose to the
+mast-head and unfurled to the wind the red cross of St. George.
+
+
+Chapter 31:
+
+On Page 383, changed Signed to signed in The Treaty Signed in the topics
+list at the beginning of Chapter 31 to match the presentation in the
+contents.
+
+On Page 401, mid-summer was hyphenated and split between two lines in
+the sentence: The pitiless sun of the tropic midsummer poured its fierce
+light and heat on the parched rocks where the men toiled at the
+trenches. There are four other occurrences of midsummer in the text
+spelled without the hyphen, and none with, so midsummer was transcribed
+without the hyphen.
+
+On Page 405, pleni-potentiaries was hyphenated and split between two
+lines in the clause: the plenipotentiaries of England, France, and
+Spain. There is one other occurrence of plenipotentiary, on page 79 in
+volume 1, and it is spelled without the hyphen. Plenipotentiaries was
+transcribed without the hyphen.
+
+
+Index:
+
+We are more willing to make changes to the Index than we are in the text
+when we believe the reader may be better served by doing so. For
+instance, we will make emendations an Index entry when the word is
+spelled differently than it was in the text.
+
+Four times in the index, fireships was spelled with a hyphen. These
+hyphens were taken out to match the text. See the detailed notes for
+Chapter 19.
+
+The phrase ships-of-war, with hyphens, is used several times in the
+index, but only once in the text. The text most often uses the phrase
+ships of war, without hyphens. See the detailed notes in Chapter 25 for
+more information. We made no changes to the text or the index, and only
+point this out as a note of reference.
+
+Change spelling of Le Boeuf and Le Boêuf to Le Bœuf in the index to
+match the spelling of the fort used consistently in the text.
+
+Please note that supply-boats, used twice in the index, is not used in
+the text--but neither is supply boats.
+
+On Page 452, the index for Appendix I left out the location of the
+actual Appendix. Since all of the other entries indicated the location
+of the Appendix, we added the location here:
+Appendix I., II. 438; reference to, II. 298 note.
+
+On Page 452, we added note to a sub-reference for the index entry of
+Appendix K:
+reference to, II. 359 note.
+
+Beaucour, La Roche, an index entry on Page 453, and Rochbeaucourt, an
+index entry on Page 493, are probably the same person. Additional
+varieties of spelling this name, such as La Roche Beaucourt, and
+Rochebeaucourt, may also be found in the text. The village in the
+Province of Quebec named after this man is spelled yet another way.
+
+Beauport was spelled incorrectly in two places of the index: On Page
+455, under Bougainville, sent from Beaufort to oppose the English, and
+on Page 502, under Wolfe, the pretended attack at Beaufort. The spelling
+of both index entries was corrected to Beauport.
+
+On Page 460, add period after Penn in Carlisle, Penn index entry to make
+clear that Penn is short for Pennsylvania.
+
+On Page 461, change 106 note to 106 in entry influence of, in regard to
+the oath of allegiance for the Acadians, under Clergy. The note is a
+reference, but the paragraph beginning page 106 mentions that the
+Acadian clergy used their influence to prevent the residents from taking
+the oath.
+
+On Page 462, fire-raft is spelled with a hyphen in the topics under
+Courval. However, fireraft is used three times in the text, never with a
+hyphen. Therefore, we removed the hyphen from fireraft in the index
+entry.
+
+On Page 466, add acute accent to Écho in the index entry: "Écho," the,
+number of her guns, II. 54 note. This change makes the index entry match
+the name of the vessel used in the text.
+
+On Page 467, change Piquetown to Pique Town in the sub-entry:
+"importance of Pique Town and of Oswego" under index entry England.
+
+On Page 469, leave acute accent off the index entry Etechemin River, but
+retain the acute accent in the entry Etechémins.
+
+On Page 474, correct spelling of Gethan in the index entry: Gethen,
+Captain.
+
+On Page 479, change the reference for page 445 in volume 2 under the
+subentry 'with Rogers' rangers' to volume 1.
+
+On Page 481, correct spelling of M. de la Pause in the index entry La
+Panse, M. de la.
+
+On Page 483, correct spelling of Longueuil in the index entry Longueil,
+Baron de, Governor of Canada.
+
+On Page 484, change spelling of Lowestoffe in the index entry
+"Lowestoff," the. In David Copperfield, the town is spelled Lowestoff,
+but Parkman wrote Lowestoffe, with the e at the end, in the text for the
+name of the boat.
+
+On Page 486, correct spelling of Mollwitz in the index entry Mollnitz,
+battle of.
+
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOLFE AND MONTCALM *** 
+
+***** This file should be named 14517-8.txt or 14517-8.zip *****
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+
+https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/5/1/14517/
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will be
+renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one
+owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and
+you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission
+and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the
+General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and
+distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the Project
+Gutenberg™ concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered
+trademark, and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you
+receive specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of
+this eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this
+eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works,
+reports, performances and research. They may be modified and printed and
+given away--you may do practically anything with public domain eBooks.
+Redistribution is subject to the trademark license, especially
+commercial redistribution.
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+
+Please read this before you distribute or use this work.
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work (or
+any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg™ License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™
+electronic works
+
+1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ electronic
+work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to and accept
+all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all the
+terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy all
+copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your possession. If you
+paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project Gutenberg™
+electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the terms of this
+agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or entity to whom you
+paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be used
+on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who agree
+to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few things that
+you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works even without
+complying with the full terms of this agreement. See paragraph 1.C
+below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project Gutenberg™
+electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement and help
+preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. See
+paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you
+from copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating
+derivative works based on the work as long as all references to Project
+Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the
+Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting free access to electronic works
+by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ works in compliance with the terms
+of this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg™ name associated
+with the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg™ License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning the
+copyright status of any work in any country outside the United States.
+
+1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
+no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
+under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
+eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org.
+
+1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work with
+the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work,
+you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through
+1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project
+Gutenberg™ trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg ™ License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™.
+
+1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg™ License.
+
+1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg™
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works unless
+you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing access
+to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works provided that
+ •  You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method you
+already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed to the
+owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has agreed to donate
+royalties under this paragraph to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid within 60 days following each
+date on which you prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your
+periodic tax returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such
+and sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to the
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+ •  You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he does
+not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ License. You must
+require such a user to return or destroy all copies of the works
+possessed in a physical medium and discontinue all use of and all access
+to other copies of Project Gutenberg ™ works.
+ •  You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
+any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
+receipt of the work.
+ •  You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works.
+
+1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg™
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set forth
+in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from both the
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael Hart, the
+owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set
+forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg™ collection.
+Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ electronic works, and the
+medium on which they may be stored, may contain "Defects," such as, but
+not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or corrupt data, transcription
+errors, a copyright or other intellectual property infringement, a
+defective or damaged disk or other medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES: Except for the "Right of
+Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all liability
+to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal fees. You agree
+that you have no remedies for negligence, strict liability, breach of
+warranty or breach of contract except those provided in Paragraph F3.
+You agree that the Foundation, the trademark owner, and any distributor
+under this agreement will not be liable to you for actual, direct,
+indirect, consequential, punitive or incidental damages even if you give
+notice of the possibility of such damage.
+
+1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND: If you discover a defect
+in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a written
+explanation to the person you received the work from. If you received
+the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with your
+written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with the
+defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', with no other
+warranties of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to
+warranties of merchantibility or fitness for any purpose.
+
+1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6. INDEMNITY: You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg™
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™
+
+Project Gutenberg ™ is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg's™ goals
+and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will remain freely
+available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure and
+permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future generations. To learn
+more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and how
+your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 and the
+Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the state
+of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal Revenue
+Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification number is
+64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official page
+at https://pglaf.org.
+
+For additional contact information:
+
+   Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+   Chief Executive and Director
+   gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without wide spread
+public support and donations to carry out its mission of increasing the
+number of public domain and licensed works that can be freely
+distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest array of
+equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations ($1 to
+$5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt status with
+the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations where
+we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To send
+donations or determine the status of compliance for any particular state
+visit https://pglaf.org.
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make any
+statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from outside
+the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other ways
+including including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate.
+
+Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg™
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. unless
+a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily keep eBooks
+in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+    https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg™, including
+how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to subscribe to
+our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
\ No newline at end of file