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A very large amount of unpublished material has been used in its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.