FRANCIS PARKMAN

MONTCALM AND WOLFE

With a New Introduction by

SAMUEL ELIOT MORISON

COLLIER BOOKS

NEW YORK, N. Y. 

This Collier Book is set from the 1884 edition

Collier Books is a division of The Crowell-Collier Publishing Company

First Collier Books Edition 1962

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 62:16974

Copyright (c) 1962 by The Crowell-Collier Publishing Company All RightsReserved Hecho en los E. E. U. U. Printed in the United States of America

 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 nationswhose final contest for the control of North America is the subject ofthe book. 

A very large amount of unpublished material has been used in itspreparation, consisting for the most part of documents copied from thearchives and libraries of France and England, especially from theArchives de la Marine et des Colonies, the Archives de la Guerre, andthe Archives Nationales at Paris, and the Public Record Office and theBritish Museum at London, the papers copied for the present work inFrance alone exceed six thousand folio pages of manuscript, additionaland supplementary to the "Paris Documents" procured for the State of NewYork under the agency of Mr. Brodhead, the copies made in England formten volumes, besides many English documents consulted in the originalmanuscript. Great numbers of autograph letters, diaries, and otherwritings of persons engaged in the war have also been examined on thisside of the Atlantic. 

I owe to the kindness of the present Marquis de Montcalm the permissionto copy all the letters written by his ancestor, General Montcalm, whenin America, to members of his family in France. General Montcalm, fromhis first arrival in Canada to a few days before his death, also carriedon an active correspondence with one of his chief officers, Bourlamaque, with whom he was on terms of intimacy. These autograph letters are nowpreserved in a private collection. I have examined them, and obtainedcopies of the whole. They form an interesting complement to the officialcorrespondence of the writer, and throw the most curious side-lights onthe 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 Americanpart of the Seven Years' War, is varied and abundant; and I believe Imay safely say that nothing in it of much consequence has escaped me. The liberality of some of the older States of the Union, especially NewYork and Pennsylvania, in printing the voluminous records of theircolonial history, has saved me a deal of tedious labor. 

The whole of this published and unpublished mass of evidence has beenread and collated with extreme care, and more than common pains havebeen taken to secure accuracy of statement. The study of books andpapers, however, could not alone answer the purpose. The plan of thework was formed in early youth; and though various causes have longdelayed its execution, it has always been kept in view. Meanwhile, Ihave visited and examined every spot where events of any importance inconnection with the contest took place, and have observed with attentionsuch scenes and persons as might help to illustrate those I meant todescribe. In short, the subject has been studied as much from life andin the open air as at the library table. 

These two volumes are a departure from chronological sequence. Theperiod between 1700 and 1748 has been passed over for a time. When thisgap is filled, the series of "France and England in North America" willform a continuous history of the French occupation of the continent. 

BOSTON, Sept. 16, 1884. 

Contents

Author's Introduction

 CHAPTER I 1745-1755 The Combatants

England in the Eighteenth Century. Her Political and Social Aspects. HerMilitary 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 ofEurope. War of the Austrian Succession. American Colonies of France andEngland. Contrasted Systems and their Results. Canada. Its StrongMilitary Position. French Claims to the Continent. British Colonies. NewEngland. Virginia. Pennsylvania. New York, Jealousies, Divisions, Internal Disputes, Military Weakness. 

 CHAPTER 2 1749-1752 Céloron de Bienville

La Galissonière. English Encroachment. Mission of Céloron. The GreatWest. Its European Claimants. Its Indian Population. EnglishFur-Traders. Céloron on the Alleghany. His Reception. His Difficulties. Descent of the Ohio. Covert Hostility. Ascent of the Miami. LaDemoiselle. Dark Prospects for France. Christopher Gist. George Croghan. Their Western Mission. Pickawillany. English Ascendency. EnglishDissension and Rivalry. The Key of the Great West. 

 CHAPTER 3 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. LaJonquiére. His Intrigues. His Trials. His Death. English Intrigues. Critical State of the West Pickawillany Destroyed. Duquesne. His GrandEnterprise. 

 CHAPTER 4 1710-1754 Conflict for Acadia

Acadia ceded to England. Acadians swear Fidelity. Halifax founded. French Intrigue. Acadian Priests. Mildness of English Rule. CovertHostility of Acadians. The New Oath. Treachery of Versailles. Indiansincited to War. Clerical Agents of Revot. Abbé Le Loutre. Acadiansimpelled to emigrate. Misery of the Emigrants. Humanity of Cornwallisand Hopson. Fanaticism and Violence of Le Loutre. Capture of the "St. Francois. " The English at Beaubassin. Le Loutre drives out theInhabitants. Murder of Howe. Beauséjour. Insolence of Le Loutre. HisHarshness to the Acadians. The Boundary Commission. Its Failure. Approaching War. 

 CHAPTER 5 1753, 1754 Washington

The French occupy the Sources of the Ohio. Their Sufferings. Fort LeBoeuf. Legardeur de Saint-Pierre. Mission of Washington. RobertDinwiddie. He opposes the French. His Dispute with the Burgesses. HisEnergy. His Appeals for Help. Fort Duquesne. Death of Jumonville. Washington at the Great Meadows. Coulon de Villiers. Fort Necessity. 

 CHAPTER 6 1754, 1755 The Signal of Battle

Troubles of Dinwiddie. Gathering of the Burgesses. Virginian Society. Refractory Legislators. The Quaker Assembly It refuses to resist theFrench. Apathy of New York. Shirley and the General Court ofMassachusetts. Short-sighted Policy. Attitude of Royal Governors. IndianAllies waver. Convention at Albany. Scheme of Union. It fails. Dinwiddieand Glen. Dinwiddie calls on England for Help. The Duke of Newcastle. Weakness of the British Cabinet. Attitude of France. MutualDissimulation. Both Powers send Troops to America. Collision. Capture ofthe "Alcide" and the "Lis. "

 CHAPTER 7 1755 Braddock

Arrival of Braddock. His Character. Council at Alexandria. Plan of theCampaign. Apathy of the Colonists. Rage of Braddock. Franklin. FortCumberland. Composition of the Army. Offended Friends. The March. TheFrench Fort. Savage Allies. The Captive. Beaujeu. He goes to meet theEnglish. Passage of the Monongahela. The Surprise. The Battle. Rout ofBraddock. His Death. Indian Ferocity. Reception of the Ill News. Weakness of Dunbar. The Frontier abandoned. 

 CHAPTER 8 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. FrenchTreatment of the Acadians. John Winslow. Siege and Capture ofBeauséjour. Attitude of Acadians. Influence of their Priests. Theyrefuse the Oath of Allegiance. Their Condition and Character. PretendedNeutrals. Moderation of English Authorities. The Acadians persist intheir Refusal. Enemies or Subjects? Choice of the Acadians. TheConsequence. Their Removal determined. Winslow at Grand Pré. Conferencewith Murray. Summons to the Inhabitants. Their Seizure. TheirEmbarkation. Their Fate. Their Treatment in Canada. Misapprehensionconcerning them. 

 CHAPTER 9 1755 Dieskau

Expedition against Crown Point. William Johnson. Vaudreuil. Dieskau. Johnson and the Indians. The Provincial Army. Doubts and Delays. Marchto Lake George. Sunday in Camp. Advance of Dieskau. He changes Plan. Marches against Johnson. Ambush. Rout of Provincials. Battle of LakeGeorge. Rout of the French. Rage of the Mohawks. Peril of Dieskau. Inaction of Johnson. The Homeward March. Laurels of Victory. 

 CHAPTER 10 1755, 1756 Shirley. Border War

The Niagara Campaign. Albany. March to Oswego. Difficulties. TheExpedition abandoned. Shirley and Johnson. Results of the Campaign. TheScourge of the Border. Trials of Washington. Misery of the Settlers. Horror of their Situation. Philadelphia and the Quakers. Disputes withthe Penns. Democracy and Feudalism. Pennsylvanian Population. Appealsfrom 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 11 1712-1756 Montcalm

War declared. State of Europe. Pompadour and Maria Theresa. Infatuationof the French Court. The European War. Montcalm to command in America. His early Life. An intractable Pupil. His Marriage. His Family. HisCampaigns. Preparation for America. His Associates. Lévis, Bourlamaque, Bougainville. Embarkation. The Voyage. Arrival. Vaudreuil. Forces ofCanada. Troops of the Line, Colony Troops, Militia, Indians. TheMilitary Situation. Capture of Fort Bull. Montcalm at Ticonderoga. 

 CHAPTER 12 1756 Oswego

The new Campaign. Untimely Change of Commanders. Eclipse of Shirley. Earl of Loudon. Muster of Provincials. New England Levies. Winslow atLake 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 attacksOswego. Its Fall. 

 CHAPTER 13 1756, 1757 Partisan War

Failure of Shirley's Plan. Causes. Loudon and Shirley. Close of theCampaign. The Western Border. Armstrong destroys Kittanning. The Scoutsof 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 14 1757 Montcalm and Vaudreuil

The Seat of War. Social Life at Montreal. Familiar Correspondence ofMontcalm. His Employments. His Impressions of Canada. His Hospitalities. Misunderstandings with the Governor. Character of Vaudreuil. HisAccusations. Frenchmen and Canadians. Foibles of Montcalm. The openingCampaign. Doubts and Suspense. London's Plan. His Character. FatalDelays. Abortive Attempt against Louisbourg. Disaster to the BritishFleet. 

 CHAPTER 15 1757 Fort William Henry

Another Blow. The War-song. The Army at Ticonderoga. Indian Allies. TheWar-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. Murderof Wounded Men. A Scene of Terror. The Massacre. Efforts of Montcalm. The Fort burned. 

 CHAPTER 16 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 Relationswith the Governor. Famine. Riots. Mutiny. Winter at Ticonderoga. Adesperate Bush-fight. Defeat of the Rangers. Adventures of Roche andPringle. 

 CHAPTER 17 1753-1760 Bigot

His Life and Character. Canadian Society. Official Festivities. A Partyof Pleasure. Hospitalities of Bigot. Desperate Gambling. Château Bigot. Canadian Ladies. Cadet. La Friponne. Official Rascality. Methods ofPeculation. 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 ofBigot. Threats of the Minister. Evidence of Montcalm. Impending Ruin ofthe Confederates. 

 CHAPTER 18 1757, 1758 Pitt

Frederic of Prussia. The Coalition against him. His desperate Position. Rossbach. Leuthen. Reverses of England. Weakness of the Ministry. AChange. Pitt and Newcastle. Character of Pitt. Sources of his Power. HisAims. Louis XV. Pompadour. She controls the Court, and directs the War. Gloomy Prospects of England. Disasters. The New Ministry. InspiringInfluence of Pitt. The Tide turns. British Victories. Pitt's Plans forAmerica. Louisbourg, Ticonderoga, Duquesne. New Commanders. NavalBattles. 

 CHAPTER 19 1758 Louisbourg

Condition of the Fortress. Arrival of the English. Gallantry of Wolfe. The English Camp. The Siege begun. Progress of the Besiegers. Sallies ofthe French. Madame Drucour. Courtesies of War. French Ships destroyed. Conflagration. Fury of the Bombardment. Exploit of English Sailors. TheEnd near. The White Flag. Surrender. Reception of the News in Englandand America. Wolfe not satisfied. His Letters to Amherst. He destroysGaspé. Returns to England. 

 CHAPTER 20 1758 Ticonderoga

Activity of the Provinces. Sacrifices of Massachusetts. The Army at LakeGeorge. Proposed Incursion of Lévis. Perplexities of Montcalm. His Planof Defence. Camp of Abercromby. His Character. Lord Howe, HisPopularity. Embarkation of Abercromby. Advance down Lake George. Landing. Forest Skirmish. Death of Howe. Its Effects. Position of theFrench. The Lines of Ticonderoga. Blunders of Abercromby. The Assault. AFrightful Scene. Incidents of the Battle. British Repulse. Panic. Retreat Triumph of Montcalm. 

 CHAPTER 21 1758 Fort Frontenac

The Routed Army. Indignation at Abercromby. John Cleaveland and hisBrother Chaplains. Regulars and Provincials. Provincial Surgeons. FrenchRaids. Rogers defeats Marin. Adventures of Putnam. Expedition ofBradstreet. Capture of Fort Frontenac. 

 CHAPTER 22 1758 Fort Duquesne

Dinwiddie and Washington. Brigadier Forbes. His Army. Conflicting Views. Difficulties. Illness of Forbes. His Sufferings. His Fortitude. HisDifference with Washington. Sir John Sinclair. Troublesome Allies. Scouting Parties. Boasts of Vaudreuil. Forbes and the Indians. Missionof Christian Frederic Post. Council of Peace. Second Mission of Post. Defeat of Grant. Distress of Forbes. Dark Prospects. Advance of theArmy. Capture of the French Fort. The Slain of Braddock's Field. Deathof Forbes. 

 CHAPTER 23 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 CanadiansDespondent. Devices to encourage them. Gasconade of the Governor. Deplorable State of the Colony. Mission of Bougainville. Duplicity ofVaudreuil. Bougainville at Versailles. Substantial Aid refused toCanada. A Matrimonial Treaty. Return of Bougainville. Montcalm abandonedby the Court. His Plans of Defence. Sad News from Candiac. Promises ofVaudreuil. 

 CHAPTER 24 1758, 1759 Wolfe

The Exiles of Fort Cumberland. Relief. The Voyage to Louisbourg. TheBritish Fleet. Expedition against Quebec. Early Life of Wolfe. HisCharacter. His Letters to his Parents. His Domestic Qualities. Appointedto command the Expedition. Sails for America. 

 CHAPTER 25 1759 Wolfe at Quebec

French Preparation. Muster of Forces. Gasconade of Vaudreuil. Plan ofDefence. 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 FutileNight Attack. Quebec bombarded. Wolfe at the Montmorenci. Skirmishes. Danger of the English Position. Effects of the Bombardment. Desertionof Canadians. The English above Quebec. Severities of Wolfe. AnotherAttempt to burn the Fleet. Desperate Enterprise of Wolfe. The Heights ofMontmorenci. Repulse of the English. 

 CHAPTER 26 1759 Amherst. Niagara

Amherst on Lake George. Capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. Delaysof 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. TheEnterprise abandoned, Rogers attacks St. Francis. Destroys the Town. Sufferings of the Rangers. 

 CHAPTER 27 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. FaintHope of Success. Wolfe's Last Despatch. Confidence of Vaudreuil. LastLetters of Montcalm. French Vigilance. British Squadron at Cap-Rouge. Last Orders of Wolfe. Embarkation. Descent of the St. Lawrence. TheHeights scaled. The British Line. Last Night of Montcalm. The Alarm. March of French Troops. The Battle. The Rout. The Pursuit. Fall of Wolfeand of Montcalm. 

 CHAPTER 28 1759 Fall of Quebec

After the Battle. Canadians resist the Pursuit. Arrival of Vaudreuil. Scene in the Redoubt. Panic. Movements of the Victors. Vaudreuil'sCouncil of War. Precipitate Retreat of the French Army. Last Hours ofMontcalm. His Death and Burial. Quebec abandoned to its Fate. Despair ofthe Garrison. Lévis joins the Army. Attempts to relieve the Town. Surrender. The British occupy Quebec. Slanders of Vaudreuil. Receptionin England of the News of Wolfe's Victory and Death. Prediction ofJonathan Mayhew. 

 CHAPTER 29 1759, 1760 Sainte-Foy

Quebec after the Siege. Captain Knox and the Nuns. Escape of FrenchShips. Winter at Quebec. Threats of Lévis. Attacks. Skirmishes. Feat ofthe Rangers. State of the Garrison. The French prepare to retake Quebec. Advance of Levis. The Alarm. Sortie of the English. Rash Determinationof Murray. Battle of Ste. -Foy. Retreat of the English. Lévis besiegesQuebec. Spirit of the Garrison. Peril of their Situation. Relief. Quebecsaved. Retreat of Lévis. The News in England. 

 CHAPTER 30 1760 Fall of Canada

Desperate Situation. Efforts of Vaudreuil and Lévis. Plans of Amherst. ATriple Attack. Advance of Murray. Advance of Haviland. Advance ofAmherst. Capitulation of Montreal. Protest of Lévis. Injustice of LouisXV. Joy in the British Colonies. Character of the War. 

 CHAPTER 31 1758-1763 The Peace of Paris

Exodus of Canadian Leaders. Wreck of the "Auguste. " Trial of Bigot andhis Confederates. Frederic of Prussia. His Triumphs. His Reverses. HisPeril. His Fortitude. Death of George II. Change of Policy. Choiseul. His Overtures of Peace. The Family Compact. Fall of Pitt. Death of theCzarina. 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 32 1763-1884 Conclusion

Results of the War. Germany. France. England. Canada. The BritishProvinces. 

Appendix

Index

Author's Introduction

It is the nature of great events to obscure the great events that camebefore them. The Seven Years War in Europe is seen but dimly throughrevolutionary convulsions and Napoleonic tempests; and the same contestin America is half lost to sight behind the storm-cloud of the War ofIndependence. Few at this day see the momentous issues involved in it, or the greatness of the danger that it averted. The strife that armedall the civilized world began here. "Such was the complication ofpolitical interests, " says Voltaire, "that a cannon-shot fired inAmerica could give the signal that set Europe in a blaze. " Not quite. Itwas not a cannon-shot, but a volley from the hunting-pieces of a fewbackwoodsmen, commanded by a Virginian youth, George Washington. 

To us of this day, the result of the American part of the war seems aforegone conclusion. It was far from being so; and very far from beingso regarded by our forefathers. The numerical superiority of the Britishcolonies was offset by organic weaknesses fatal to vigorous and unitedaction. Nor at the outset did they, or the mother-country, aim atconquering Canada, but only at pushing back her boundaries. Canada--using the name in its restricted sense--was a position of greatstrength; and even when her dependencies were overcome, she could holdher own against forces far superior. Armies could reach her only bythree routes, --the Lower St. Lawrence on the east, the Upper St. Lawrence on the west, and Lake Champlain on the south. The first accesswas guarded by a fortress almost impregnable by nature, and the secondby a long chain of dangerous rapids; while the third offered a series ofpoints easy to defend. During this same war, Frederic of Prussia heldhis ground triumphantly against greater odds, though his kingdom wasopen on all sides to attack. 

It was the fatuity of Louis XV. And his Pompadour that made the conquestof Canada possible. Had they not broken the traditionary policy ofFrance, allied themselves to Austria, her ancient enemy, and plungedneedlessly into the European war, the whole force of the kingdom wouldhave been turned, from the first, to the humbling of England and thedefence of the French colonies. The French soldiers left dead oninglorious Continental battle-fields could have saved Canada, andperhaps made good her claim to the vast territories of the West. 

But there were other contingencies. The possession of Canada was aquestion of diplomacy as well as of war. If England conquered her, shemight restore her, as she had lately restored Cape Breton. She had aninterest in keeping France alive on the American continent. More thanone clear eye saw, at the middle of the last century, that thesubjection of Canada would lead to a revolt of the British colonies. Solong as an active and enterprising enemy threatened their borders, theycould not break with the mother-country, because they needed her help. And if the arms of France had prospered in the other hemisphere; if shehad gained in Europe or Asia territories with which to buy back what shehad lost in America, then, in all likelihood, Canada would have passedagain into her hands. 

The most momentous and far-reaching question ever brought to issue onthis continent was: Shall France remain here, or shall she not? If, bydiplomacy 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 thespread of the English-speaking races; there would have been noRevolutionary War; and for a long time, at least, no independence. Itwas not a question of scanty populations strung along the banks of theSt. Lawrence; it was--or under a government of any worth it would havebeen--a question of the armies and generals of France. America owes muchto the imbecility of Louis XV. And the ambitious vanity and personaldislikes of his mistress. 

The Seven Years War made England what she is. It crippled the commerceof her rival, ruined France in two continents, and blighted her as acolonial power. It gave England the control of the seas and the masteryof North America and India, made her the first of commercial nations, and prepared that vast colonial system that has planted new Englands inevery quarter of the globe. And while it made England what she is, itsupplied to the United States the indispensable condition of theirgreatness, if not of their national existence. 

Before entering on the story of the great contest, we will look at theparties to it on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Montcalm and Wolfe

Chapter 1

1745-1755

The Combatants

The latter half of the reign of George II. Was one of the most prosaicperiods in English history. The civil wars and the Restoration had hadtheir enthusiasms, religion and liberty on one side, and loyalty on theother; but the old fires declined when William III. Came to the throne, and died to ashes under the House of Hanover. Loyalty lost half itsinspiration when it lost the tenet of the divine right of kings; andnobody could now hold that tenet with any consistency except thedefeated and despairing Jacobites. Nor had anybody as yet proclaimed therival dogma of the divine right of the people. The reigning monarch heldhis crown neither of God nor of the nation, but of a parliamentcontrolled by a ruling class. The Whig aristocracy had done a pricelessservice to English liberty. It was full of political capacity, and by nomeans 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. Ithad done its great work when it expelled the Stuarts and placed Williamof Orange on the throne; its ascendency was now complete. The Stuartshad received their death-blow at Culloden; and nothing was left to thedominant party but to dispute on subordinate questions, and contend foroffice among themselves. The Troy squires sulked in theircountry-houses, hunted foxes, and grumbled against the reigning dynasty;yet hardly wished to see the nation convulsed by a counter-revolutionand another return of the Stuarts. 

If politics had run to commonplace, so had morals; and so too hadreligion. Despondent writers of the day even complained that Britishcourage had died out. There was little sign to the common eye that undera dull and languid surface, forces were at work preparing a new life, material, moral, and intellectual. As yet, Whitefield and Wesley had notwakened the drowsy conscience of the nation, nor the voice of WilliamPitt 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 ParsonAdams; of the "Rake's Progress" and "Marriage à la Mode;" of the lordsand 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 doublemeanings. Beau Nash reigned king over the gaming-tables of Bath; theostrich-plumes of great ladies mingled with the peacock-feathers ofcourtesans in the rotunda at Ranelagh Gardens; and young lords in velvetsuits and embroidered ruffles played away their patrimony at White'sChocolate-House or Arthur's Club. Vice was bolder than to-day, andmanners more courtly, perhaps, but far more coarse. 

The humbler clergy were thought--sometimes with reason--to be no fitcompany for gentlemen, and country parsons drank their ale in thesquire's kitchen. The passenger-wagon spent the better part of afortnight in creeping from London to York. Travellers carried pistolsagainst footpads and mounted highwaymen. Dick Turpin and Jack Sheppardwere popular heroes. Tyburn counted its victims by scores; and as yet noHoward had appeared to reform the inhuman abominations of the prisons. 

The middle class, though fast rising in importance, was feebly andimperfectly represented in parliament. The boroughs were controlled bythe nobility and gentry, or by corporations open to influence orbribery. Parliamentary corruption had been reduced to a system; andoffices, sinecures, pensions, and gifts of money were freely used tokeep ministers in power. The great offices of state were held by mensometimes of high ability, but of whom not a few divided their livesamong politics, cards, wine, horse-racing, and women, till time and thegout sent them to the waters of Bath. The dull, pompous, and irascibleold King had two ruling passions, --money, and his Continental dominionsof Hanover. His elder son, the Prince of Wales, was a centre ofopposition to him. His younger son, the Duke of Cumberland, a characterfar more pronounced and vigorous, had won the day at Culloden, and lostit at Fontenoy; but whether victor or vanquished, had shown the samevehement bull-headed courage, of late a little subdued by fast growingcorpulency. The Duke of Newcastle, the head of the government, hadgained power and kept it by his rank and connections, his wealth, hiscounty influence, his control of boroughs, and the extraordinaryassiduity and devotion with which he practised the arts of corruption. Henry Fox, grasping, unscrupulous, with powerful talents, a warm friendafter his fashion, and a most indulgent father; Carteret, with hisstrong, versatile intellect and jovial intrepidity; the two Townshends, Mansfield, Halifax, and Chesterfield, --were conspicuous figures in thepolitics of the time. One man towered above them all. Pitt had manyenemies and many critics. They called him ambitious, audacious, arrogant, theatrical, pompous, domineering; but what he has left forposterity is a loftiness of soul, undaunted courage, fiery andpassionate eloquence, proud incorruptibility, domestic virtues rare inhis day, unbounded faith in the cause for which he stood, and abilitieswhich without wealth or strong connections were destined to place him onthe height of power. The middle class, as yet almost voiceless, lookedto him as its champion; but he was not the champion of a class. Hispatriotism was as comprehensive as it was haughty and unbending. Helived for England, loved her with intense devotion, knew her, believedin her, and made her greatness his own; or rather, he was himselfEngland incarnate. 

The nation was not then in fighting equipment. After the peace ofAix-la-Chapelle, the army within the three kingdoms had been reduced toabout eighteen thousand men. Added to these were the garrisons ofMinorca and Gibraltar, and six or seven independent companies in theAmerican colonies. Of sailors, less than seventeen thousand were left inthe Royal Navy. Such was the condition of England on the eve of one ofthe most formidable wars in which she was ever engaged. 

Her rival across the Channel was drifting slowly and unconsciouslytowards the cataclysm of the Revolution; yet the old monarchy, full ofthe germs of decay, was still imposing and formidable. The House ofBourbon held the three thrones of France, Spain, and Naples; and theirthreatened union in a family compact was the terror of Europeandiplomacy. At home France was the foremost of the Continental nations;and she boasted herself second only to Spain as a colonial power. Shedisputed with England the mastery of India, owned the islands of Bourbonand Mauritius, held important possessions in the West Indies, andclaimed all North America except Mexico and a strip of sea-coast. Hernavy was powerful, her army numerous, and well appointed; but she lackedthe 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 ofgallantry, and more famous for conquests of love than of war. The bestgenerals of Louis XV. Were foreigners. Lowendal sprang from the royalhouse of Denmark; and Saxe, the best of all, was one of the threehundred and fifty-four bastards of Augustus the Strong, Elector ofSaxony and King of Poland. He was now, 1750, dying at Chambord, his ironconstitution ruined by debaucheries. 

The triumph of the Bourbon monarchy was complete. The government hadbecome one great machine of centralized administration, with a king forits head; though a king who neither could nor would direct it. Allstrife was over between the Crown and the nobles; feudalism was robbedof its vitality, and left the mere image of its former self, withnothing alive but its abuses, its caste privileges, its exactions, itspride and vanity, its power to vex and oppress. In England, the nobilitywere a living part of the nation, and if they had privileges, they paidfor them by constant service to the state; in France, they had nopolitical life, and were separated from the people by sharp lines ofdemarcation. From warrior chiefs, they had changed to courtiers. Thoseof them who could afford it, and many who could not, left their estatesto the mercy of stewards, and gathered at Versailles to revolve aboutthe throne as glittering satellites, paid in pomp, empty distinctions, or rich sinecures, for the power they had lost. They ruined theirvassals to support the extravagance by which they ruined themselves. Such as stayed at home were objects of pity and scorn. "Out of yourMajesty's presence, " said one of them, "we are not only wretched, butridiculous. "

Versailles was like a vast and gorgeous theatre, where all were actorsand spectators at once; and all played their parts to perfection. Hereswarmed by thousands this silken nobility, whose ancestors rode cased iniron. Pageant followed pageant. A picture of the time preserves for usan evening in the great hall of the Château, where the King, with pilesof louis d'or before him, sits at a large oval green table, throwing thedice, among princes and princesses, dukes and duchesses, ambassadors, marshals of France, and a vast throng of courtiers, like an animated bedof tulips; for men and women alike wear bright and varied colors. Aboveare the frescos of Le Brun; around are walls of sculptured and inlaidmarbles, with mirrors that reflect the restless splendors of the sceneand 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 itsearnings; and it was never full. 

Here the graces and charms were a political power. Women had prodigiousinfluence, and the two sexes were never more alike. Men not only dressedin colors, but they wore patches and carried muffs. The robust qualitiesof 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 notlost courage. They fought as gayly as they danced. In the halls whichthey haunted of yore, turned now into a historical picture-gallery, onesees them still, on the canvas of Lenfant, Lepaon, or Vernet, facingdeath with careless gallantry, in their small three-cornered hats, powdered perukes, embroidered coats, and lace ruffles. Their valetsserved them with ices in the trenches, under the cannon of besiegedtowns. 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 abattle. Saxe, however, himself a sturdy German, while he recognizedtheir fighting value, and knew well how to make the best of it, sometimes complained that they were volatile, excitable, and difficultto manage. 

The weight of the Court, with its pomps, luxuries, and wars, bore on theclasses least able to support it. The poorest were taxed most; therichest not at all. The nobles, in the main, were free from imposts. Theclergy, who had vast possessions, were wholly free, though theyconsented to make voluntary gifts to the Crown; and when, in a time ofemergency, the minister Machault required them, in common with allothers hitherto exempt, to contribute a twentieth of their revenues tothe charges of government, they passionately refused, declaring thatthey would obey God rather than the King. The cultivators of the soilwere ground to the earth by a threefold extortion, --the seigniorialdues, the tithes of the Church, and the multiplied exactions of theCrown, enforced with merciless rigor by the farmers of the revenue, whoenriched themselves by wringing the peasant on the one hand, andcheating the King on the other. A few great cities shone with all thatis most brilliant in society, intellect, and concentrated wealth; whilethe country that paid the costs lay in ignorance and penury, crushed anddespairing. Of the inhabitants of towns, too, the demands of thetax-gatherer were extreme; but here the immense vitality of the Frenchpeople bore up the burden. While agriculture languished, and intolerableoppression turned peasants into beggars or desperadoes; while the clergywere sapped by corruption, and the nobles enervated by luxury and ruinedby extravagance, the middle class was growing in thrift and strength. Arts and commerce prospered, and the seaports were alive with foreigntrade. Wealth tended from all sides towards the centre. The King did notlove his capital; but he and his favorites amused themselves withadorning it. Some of the chief embellishments that make Paris what it isto-day--the Place de la Concorde, the Champs Elysées, and many of thepalaces of the Faubourg St. Germain--date from this reign. 

One of the vicious conditions of the time was the separation insympathies and interests of the four great classes of thenation, --clergy, nobles, burghers, and peasants; and each of these, again, divided itself into incoherent fragments. France was an aggregateof disjointed parts, held together by a meshwork of arbitrary power, itself touched with decay. A disastrous blow was struck at the nationalwelfare when the Government of Louis XV. Revived the odious persecutionof the Huguenots. The attempt to scour heresy out of France cost her themost industrious and virtuous part of her population, and robbed her ofthose most fit to resist the mocking scepticism and turbid passions thatburst out like a deluge with the Revolution. 

Her manifold ills were summed up in the King. Since the Valois, she hadhad no monarch so worthless. He did not want understanding, still lessthe graces of person. In his youth the people called him the"Well-beloved;" but by the middle of the century they so detested himthat 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 ofall effort, his profound selfishness, his listless disregard of publicduty, and his effeminate libertinism, mixed with superstitious devotion, made him no less a national curse. Louis XIII. Was equally unfit togovern; but he gave the reins to the Great Cardinal. Louis XV. Abandonedthem to a frivolous mistress, content that she should rule on conditionof amusing him. It was a hard task; yet Madame de Pompadour accomplishedit by methods infamous to him and to her. She gained and long kept thepower that she coveted: filled the Bastille with her enemies; made andunmade ministers; appointed and removed generals. Great questions ofpolicy were at the mercy of her caprices. Through her frivolous vanity, her personal likes and dislikes, all the great departments ofgovernment--army, navy, war, foreign affairs, justice, finance--changedfrom hand to hand incessantly, and this at a time of crisis when thekingdom needed the steadiest and surest guidance. Few of the officers ofstate, except, perhaps, D'Argenson, could venture to disregard her. Sheturned out Orry, the comptroller-general, put her favorite, Machault, into his place, then made him keeper of the seals, and at last ministerof 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 andlast, she is reckoned to have cost him thirty-six millionfrancs, --answering now to more than as many dollars. 

The prestige of the monarchy was declining with the ideas that had givenit life and strength. A growing disrespect for king, ministry, andclergy was beginning to prepare the catastrophe that was still someforty years in the future. While the valleys and low places of thekingdom were dark with misery and squalor, its heights were bright witha gay society, --elegant, fastidious, witty, --craving the pleasures ofthe mind as well as of the senses, criticising everything, analyzingeverything, believing nothing. Voltaire was in the midst of it, hating, with all his vehement soul, the abuses that swarmed about him, andassailing them with the inexhaustible shafts of his restless andpiercing intellect. Montesquieu was showing to a despot-ridden age theprinciples of political freedom. Diderot and D'Alembert were beginningtheir revolutionary Encyclopaedia. Rousseau was sounding the first notesof his mad eloquence, --the wild revolt of a passionate and diseasedgenius 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 playwith fire, thinking no danger; as time went on, even embraced them in agenuine spirit of hope and goodwill for humanity. The Revolution beganat the top, --in the world of fashion, birth, and intellect, --andpropagated itself downwards. "We walked on a carpet of flowers, " CountSégur afterwards said, "unconscious that it covered an abyss;" till thegulf yawned at last, and swallowed them. 

Eastward, beyond the Rhine, lay the heterogeneous patchwork of the HolyRoman, or Germanic, Empire. The sacred bonds that throughout the MiddleAges had held together its innumerable fragments, had lost theirstrength. The Empire decayed as a whole; but not so the parts thatcomposed it. In the south the House of Austria reigned over a formidableassemblage of states; and in the north the House of Brandenburg, promoted to royalty half a century before, had raised Prussia into animportance far beyond her extent and population. In her dissevered ragsof territory lay the destinies of Germany. It was the late King, thathonest, thrifty, dogged, headstrong despot, Frederic William, who hadmade his kingdom what it was, trained it to the perfection of drill, andleft it to his son, Frederic II. The best engine of war in Europe. Frederic himself had passed between the upper and nether millstones ofpaternal discipline. Never did prince undergo such an apprenticeship. His father set him to the work of an overseer, or steward, flung platesat his head in the family circle, thrashed him with his rattan inpublic, bullied him for submitting to such treatment, and imprisoned himfor trying to run away from it. He came at last out of purgatory; andEurope felt him to her farthest bounds. This bookish, philosophizing, verse-making cynic and profligate was soon to approve himself the firstwarrior 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 atitanic life. His daughter Elizabeth had succeeded to histhrone, --heiress of his sensuality, if not of his talents. 

Over all the Continent the aspect of the times was the same. Power hadeverywhere left the plains and the lower slopes, and gathered at thesummits. Popular life was at a stand. No great idea stirred the nationsto their depths. The religious convulsions of the sixteenth andseventeenth centuries were over, and the earthquake of the FrenchRevolution had not begun. At the middle of the eighteenth century thehistory of Europe turned on the balance of power; the observance oftreaties; inheritance and succession; rivalries of sovereign housesstruggling to win power or keep it, encroach on neighbors, or preventneighbors from encroaching; bargains, intrigue, force, diplomacy, andthe musket, in the interest not of peoples but of rulers. Princes, greatand small, brooded over some real or fancied wrong, nursed some dubiousclaim born of a marriage, a will, or an ancient covenant fished out ofthe abyss of time, and watched their moment to make it good. The generalopportunity came when, in 1740, the Emperor Charles VI. Died andbequeathed his personal dominions of the House of Austria to hisdaughter, Maria Theresa. The chief Powers of Europe had been pledged inadvance to sustain the will; and pending the event, the veteran PrinceEugene had said that two hundred thousand soldiers would be worth alltheir guaranties together. The two hundred thousand were not there, andnot a sovereign kept his word. They flocked to share the spoil, andparcel out the motley heritage of the young Queen. Frederic of Prussialed the way, invaded her province of Silesia, seized it, and kept it. The Elector of Bavaria and the King of Spain claimed their share, andthe Elector of Saxony and the King of Sardinia prepared to follow theexample. France took part with Bavaria, and intrigued to set theimperial crown on the head of the Elector, thinking to ruin her oldenemy, the House of Austria, and rule Germany through an emperor tooweak to dispense with her support. England, jealous of her designs, trembling for the balance of power, and anxious for the Hanoverianpossessions of her king, threw herself into the strife on the side ofAustria. It was now that, in the Diet at Presburg, the beautiful anddistressed Queen, her infant in her arms, made her memorable appeal tothe 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_, --one of the most dramatic scenes inhistory; not quite true, perhaps, but near the truth. Then came thatconfusion worse confounded called the war of the Austrian Succession, with its Mollwitz, its Dettingen, its Fontenoy, and its Scotch episodeof 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 RockyMountains, and from Mexico and Florida to the North Pole, except onlythe ill-defined possessions of the English on the borders of Hudson Bay;and to these vast regions, with adjacent islands, they gave the generalname of New France. They controlled the highways of the continent, forthey held its two great rivers. First, they had seized the St. Lawrence, and then planted themselves at the mouth of the Mississippi. Canada atthe north, and Louisiana at the south, were the keys of a boundlessinterior, 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 themiddle of the century they numbered in all, from Georgia to Maine, abouteleven hundred and sixty thousand white inhabitants. By the census of1754 Canada had but fifty-five thousand. [1] Add those of Louisiana andAcadia, and the whole white population under the French flag might besomething more than eighty thousand. Here is an enormous disparity; andhence it has been argued that the success of the English colonies andthe failure of the French was not due to difference of religious andpolitical systems, but simply to numerical preponderance. But thispreponderance itself grew out of a difference of systems. We have saidbefore, and it cannot be said too often, that in making Canada a citadelof the state religion--a holy of holies of exclusive Roman Catholicorthodoxy, --the clerical monitors of the Crown robbed their country of atrans-Atlantic empire. New France could not grow with a priest on guardat the gate to let in none but such as pleased him. One of the ablest ofCanadian governors, La Galissonière, seeing the feebleness of the colonycompared with the vastness of its claims, advised the King to send tenthousand peasants to occupy the valley of the Ohio, and hold back theBritish swarm that was just then pushing its advance-guard over theAlleghanies. It needed no effort of the King to people his waste domain, not with ten thousand peasants, but with twenty times ten thousandFrenchmen of every station, --the most industrious, most instructed, mostdisciplined by adversity and capable of self-rule, that the countrycould boast. While La Galissonière was asking for colonists, the agentsof the Crown, set on by priestly fanaticism, or designing selfishnessmasked with fanaticism, were pouring volleys of musketry into Huguenotcongregations, imprisoning for life those innocent of all but theirfaith, --the men in the galleys, the women in the pestiferous dungeons ofAigues Mortes, --hanging their ministers, kidnapping their children, andreviving, in short, the dragonnades. Now, as in the past century, manyof the victims escaped to the British colonies, and became a part ofthem. The Huguenots would have hailed as a boon the permission toemigrate under the fleur-de-lis, and build up a Protestant France in thevalleys of the West. It would have been a bane of absolutism, but anational glory; would have set bounds to English colonization, andchanged the face of the continent. The opportunity was spurned. Thedominant Church clung to its policy of rule and ruin. France built itsbest colony on a principle of exclusion, and failed; England reversedthe system, and succeeded. 

[Footnote 1: _Censuses of Canada_, iv. 61. Rameau _(La France auxColonies, _ ii. 81) estimates the Canadian population, in 1755, atsixty-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 theold European tree was set to grow in the wilderness. The militaryGovernor, holding his miniature Court on the rock of Quebec; the feudalproprietors, whose domains lined the shores of the St. Lawrence; thepeasant; the roving bushranger; the half-tamed savage, with crucifix andscalping-knife; priests; friars; nuns; and soldiers, --mingled to form asociety the most picturesque on the continent. What distinguished itfrom the France that produced it was a total absence of revolt againstthe laws of its being, --an absolute conservatism, an unquestioningacceptance of Church and King. The Canadian, ignorant of everything butwhat the priest saw fit to teach him, had never heard of Voltaire; andif 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 ifhis instincts rebelled, his mind and soul were passively submissive. Theunchecked control of a hierarchy robbed him of the independence ofintellect and character, without which, under the conditions of modernlife, a people must resign itself to a position of inferiority. YetCanada had a vigor of her own. It was not in spiritual deference onlythat she differed from the country of her birth. Whatever she had caughtof its corruptions, she had caught nothing of its effeminacy. The massof her people lived in a rude poverty, --not abject, like the peasant ofold France, nor ground down by the tax-gatherer; while those of thehigher ranks--all more or less engaged in pursuits of war or adventure, and inured to rough journeyings and forest exposures--were rugged astheir climate. Even the French regular troops, sent out to defend thecolony, caught its hardy spirit, and set an example of stubborn fightingwhich their comrades at home did not always emulate. 

Canada lay ensconced behind rocks and forests. All along her southernboundaries, between her and her English foes, lay a broad tract ofwilderness, shaggy with primeval woods. Innumerable streams gurgledbeneath their shadows; innumerable lakes gleamed in the fiery sunsets;innumerable mountains bared their rocky foreheads to the wind. Thesewastes were ranged by her savage allies, Micmacs, Etechémins, Abenakis, Caughnawagas; and no enemy could steal upon her unawares. Through themidst of them stretched Lake Champlain, pointing straight to the heartof the British settlement, --a watery thoroughfare of mutual attack, andthe only approach by which, without a long _détour_ by wilderness orsea, a hostile army could come within striking distance of the colony. The French advanced post of Fort Frederic, called Crown Point by theEnglish, barred the narrows of the lake, which thence spread northwardto the portals of Canada guarded by Fort St. Jean. Southwestward, somefourteen hundred miles as a bird flies, and twice as far by thepracticable routes of travel, was Louisiana, the second of the two headsof New France; while between lay the realms of solitude where theMississippi rolled its sullen tide, and the Ohio wound its belt ofsilver through the verdant woodlands. 

To whom belonged this world of prairies and forests? France claimed itby right of discovery and occupation. It was her explorers who, after DeSoto, first set foot on it. The question of right, it is true, matteredlittle; for, right or wrong, neither claimant would yield herpretensions so long as she had strength to uphold them; yet one point isworth a moment's notice. The French had established an excellent systemin the distribution of their American lands. Whoever received a grantfrom the Crown was required to improve it, and this within reasonabletime. If he did not, the land ceased to be his, and was given to anothermore able or industrious. An international extension of her ownprinciple would have destroyed the pretensions of France to all thecountries of the West. She had called them hers for three fourths of acentury, and they were still a howling waste, yielding nothing tocivilization but beaver-skins, with here and there a fort, trading-post, or mission, and three or four puny hamlets by the Mississippi and theDetroit. We have seen how she might have made for herself anindisputable title, and peopled the solitudes with a host to maintainit. She would not; others were at hand who both would and could; and thelate claimant, disinherited and forlorn, would soon be left to count thecost of her bigotry. 

The thirteen British colonies were alike, insomuch as they all hadrepresentative governments, and a basis of English law. But thedifferences among them were great. Some were purely English; others weremade up of various races, though the Anglo-Saxon was always predominant. Some had one prevailing religious creed; others had many creeds. Somehad charters, and some had not. In most cases the governor was appointedby the Crown; in Pennsylvania and Maryland he was appointed by a feudalproprietor, and in Connecticut and Rhode Island he was chosen by thepeople. The differences of disposition and character were still greaterthan those of form. 

The four northern colonies, known collectively as New England, were anexception to the general rule of diversity. The smallest, Rhode Island, had features all its own; but the rest were substantially one in natureand origin. The principal among them, Massachusetts, may serve as thetype of all. It was a mosaic of little village republics, firmlycemented together, and formed into a single body politic throughrepresentatives sent to the "General Court" at Boston. Its government, originally theocratic, now tended to democracy, ballasted as yet bystrong traditions of respect for established worth and ability, as wellas by the influence of certain families prominent in affairs forgenerations. Yet there were no distinct class-lines, and popular power, like popular education, was widely diffused. Practically Massachusettswas almost independent of the mother-country. Its people were purelyEnglish, of sound yeoman stock, with an abundant leaven drawn from thebest of the Puritan gentry; but their original character had beensomewhat modified by changed conditions of life. A harsh and exactingcreed, with its stiff formalism and its prohibition of wholesomerecreation; excess in the pursuit of gain--the only resource left toenergies robbed of their natural play; the struggle for existence on ahard and barren soil; and the isolation of a narrow villagelife, --joined to produce, in the meaner sort, qualities which wereunpleasant, and sometimes repulsive. Puritanism was not an unmixedblessing. Its view of human nature was dark, and its attitude towards itone of repression. It strove to crush out not only what is evil, butmuch that is innocent and salutary. Human nature so treated will takeits revenge, and for every vice that it loses find another instead. Nevertheless, while New England Puritanism bore its peculiar crop offaults, it produced also many good and sound fruits. An uncommon vigor, joined to the hardy virtues of a masculine race, marked the New Englandtype. The sinews, it is true, were hardened at the expense of blood andflesh, --and this literally as well as figuratively; but the staple ofcharacter was a sturdy conscientiousness, an undespairing courage, patriotism, public spirit, sagacity, and a strong good sense. A greatchange, both for better and for worse, has since come over it, duelargely to reaction against the unnatural rigors of the past. Thatmixture, which is now too common, of cool emotions with excitablebrains, was then rarely seen. The New England colonies abounded in highexamples of public and private virtue, though not always under the mostprepossessing forms. They were conspicuous, moreover, for intellectualactivity, and were by no means without intellectual eminence. Massachusetts had produced at least two men whose fame had crossed thesea, --Edwards, who out of the grim theology of Calvin mounted to sublimeheights of mystical speculation; and Franklin, famous already by hisdiscoveries in electricity. On the other hand, there were few genuineNew Englanders who, however personally modest, could divest themselvesof the notion that they belonged to a people in an especial manner theobject of divine approval; and this self-righteousness, along withcertain other traits, failed to commend the Puritan colonies to thefavor of their fellows. Then, as now, New England was best known to herneighbors by her worst side. 

In one point, however, she found general applause. She was regarded asthe most military among the British colonies. This reputation was wellfounded, and is easily explained. More than all the rest, she lay opento attack. The long waving line of the New England border, with itslonely hamlets and scattered farms, extended from the Kennebec to beyondthe Connecticut, and was everywhere vulnerable to the guns andtomahawks of the neighboring French and their savage allies. Thecolonies towards the south had thus far been safe from danger. New Yorkalone was within striking distance of the Canadian war-parties. Thatprovince then consisted of a line of settlements up the Hudson and theMohawk, and was little exposed to attack except at its northern end, which was guarded by the fortified town of Albany, with its outlyingposts, and by the friendly and warlike Mohawks, whose "castles" wereclose at hand. Thus New England had borne the heaviest brunt of thepreceding wars, not only by the forest, but also by the sea; for theFrench of Acadia and Cape Breton confronted her coast, and she was oftenat blows with them. Fighting had been a necessity with her, and she hadmet the emergency after a method extremely defective, but the best thatcircumstances would permit. Having no trained officers and nodisciplined soldiers, and being too poor to maintain either, sheborrowed her warriors from the workshop and the plough, and officeredthem with lawyers, merchants, mechanics, or farmers. To compare themwith good regular troops would be folly; but they did, on the whole, better than could have been expected, and in the last war achieved thebrilliant success of the capture of Louisburg. This exploit, due partlyto native hardihood and partly to good luck, greatly enhanced themilitary repute of New England, or rather was one of the chief sourcesof it. 

The great colony of Virginia stood in strong contrast to New England. Inboth the population was English; but the one was Puritan with Roundheadtraditions, and the other, so far as concerned its governing class, Anglican with Cavalier traditions. In the one, every man, woman, andchild could read and write; in the other, Sir William Berkeley oncethanked God that there were no free schools, and no prospect of any fora century. The hope had found fruition. The lower classes of Virginiawere as untaught as the warmest friend of popular ignorance could wish. New England had a native literature more than respectable under thecircumstances, while Virginia had none; numerous industries, whileVirginia was all agriculture, with but a single crop; a homogeneoussociety and a democratic spirit, while her rival was an aristocracy. Virginian society was distinctively stratified. On the lowest level werethe negro slaves, nearly as numerous as all the rest together; next, theindented servants and the poor whites, of low origin, good-humored, butboisterous, and some times vicious; next, the small and despised classof tradesmen and mechanics; next, the farmers and lesser planters, whowere mainly of good English stock, and who merged insensibly into theruling class of the great landowners. It was these last who representedthe colony and made the laws. They may be described as English countrysquires transplanted to a warm climate and turned slave-masters. Theysustained their position by entails, and constantly undermined it by thereckless profusion which ruined them at last. Many of them were wellborn, with an immense pride of descent, increased by the habit ofdomination. Indolent and energetic by turns; rich in natural gifts andoften poor in book-learning, though some, in the lack of good teachingat 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 pompwhere the fashions of St. James were somewhat oddly grafted on theroughness of the plantation, --what they wanted in schooling was suppliedby an education which books alone would have been impotent to give, theeducation which came with the possession and exercise of politicalpower, and the sense of a position to maintain, joined to a bold spiritof independence and a patriotic attachment to the Old Dominion. Theywere few in number; they raced, gambled, drank, and swore; they dideverything that in Puritan eyes was most reprehensible; and in the dayof need they gave the United Colonies a body of statesmen and oratorswhich had no equal on the continent. A vigorous aristocracy favors thegrowth of personal eminence, even in those who are not of it, but onlynear it. 

The essential antagonism of Virginia and New England was afterwards tobecome, and to remain for a century, an element of the first influencein American history. Each might have learned much from the other; butneither did so till, at last, the strife of their contending principlesshook the continent. Pennsylvania differed widely from both. She was aconglomerate of creeds and races, --English, Irish, Germans, Dutch, andSwedes; Quakers, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Romanists, Moravians, and avariety of nondescript sects. The Quakers prevailed in the easterndistricts; quiet, industrious, virtuous, and serenely obstinate. TheGermans were strongest towards the centre of the colony, and werechiefly peasants; successful farmers, but dull, ignorant, andsuperstitious. Towards the west were the Irish, of whom some wereCelts, always quarrelling with their German neighbors, who detestedthem; but the greater part were Protestants of Scotch descent, fromUlster; a vigorous border population. Virginia and New England had eacha strong distinctive character. Pennsylvania, with her heterogeneouspopulation, had none but that which she owed to the sober neutral tintsof Quaker existence. A more thriving colony there was not on thecontinent. Life, if monotonous, was smooth and contented. Trade and thearts grew. Philadelphia, next to Boston, was the largest town in BritishAmerica; and was, moreover, the intellectual centre of the middle andsouthern 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 andcharacter, she was under feudal superiors in the persons of therepresentatives of William Penn, the original grantee. 

New York had not as yet reached the relative prominence which hergeographical position and inherent strength afterwards gave her. TheEnglish, joined to the Dutch, the original settlers, were the dominantpopulation; but a half-score of other languages were spoken in theprovince, the chief among them being that of the Huguenot French in thesouthern parts, and that of the Germans on the Mohawk. In religion, theprovince was divided between the Anglican Church, with governmentsupport and popular dislike, and numerous dissenting sects, chieflyLutherans, Independents, Presbyterians, and members of the DutchReformed Church. The little city of New York, like its great successor, was the most cosmopolitan place on the continent, and probably thegayest. It had, in abundance, balls, concerts, theatricals, and eveningclubs, with plentiful dances and other amusements, for the poorerclasses. Thither in the winter months came the great hereditaryproprietors on the Hudson; for the old Dutch feudality still held itsown, and the manors of Van Renselaer, Cortland, and Livingston, withtheir seigniorial privileges, and the great estates and numeroustenantry of the Schuylers and other leading families, formed the basisof an aristocracy, some of whose members had done good service to theprovince, and were destined to do more. Pennsylvania was feudal in form, and not in spirit; Virginia in spirit, and not in form; New England inneither; and New York largely in both. This social crystallization had, it is true, many opponents. In politics, as in religion, there weresharp antagonisms and frequent quarrels. They centred in the city; forin the well-stocked dwellings of the Dutch farmers along the Hudsonthere reigned a tranquil and prosperous routine; and the Dutch bordertown of Albany had not its like in America for unruffled conservatismand 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 decisivein features; Delaware, a modest appendage of Pennsylvania; wild and rudeNorth Carolina; and, farther on, South Carolina and Georgia, too remotefrom the seat of war to take a noteworthy part in it. The attitude ofthese various colonies towards each other is hardly conceivable to anAmerican of the present time. They had no political tie except a commonallegiance to the British Crown. Communication between them wasdifficult and slow, by rough roads traced often through primevalforests. Between some of them there was less of sympathy than ofjealousy kindled by conflicting interests or perpetual disputesconcerning boundaries. The patriotism of the colonist was bounded by thelines of his government, except in the compact and kindred colonies ofNew England, which were socially united, through politically distinct. The country of the New Yorker was New York, and the country of theVirginian was Virginia. The New England colonies had once confederated;but, kindred as they were, they had long ago dropped apart. William Pennproposed a plan of colonial union wholly fruitless. James II. Tried tounite all the northern colonies under one government; but the attemptcame to naught. Each stood aloof, jealously independent. At rareintervals, under the pressure of an emergency, some of them would try toact in concert; and, except in New England, the results had been mostdiscouraging. Nor was it this segregation only that unfitted them forwar. They were all subject to popular legislatures, through whom alonemoney and men could be raised; and these elective bodies were sometimesfactious and selfish, and not always either far-sighted or reasonable. Moreover, they were in a state of ceaseless friction with theirgovernors, who represented the king, or, what was worse, the feudalproprietary. These disputes, though varying in intensity, were foundeverywhere except in the two small colonies which chose their owngovernors; and they were premonitions of the movement towardsindependence which ended in the war of Revolution. The occasion ofdifference mattered little. Active or latent, the quarrel was alwayspresent. In New York it turned on a question of the governor's salary;in Pennsylvania on the taxation of the proprietary estates; in Virginiaon a fee exacted for the issue of land patents. It was sure to arisewhenever some public crisis gave the representatives of the people anopportunity of extorting concessions from the representative of theCrown, or gave the representative of the Crown an opportunity to gain apoint for prerogative. That is to say, the time when action was mostneeded was the time chosen for obstructing it. 

In Canada there was no popular legislature to embarrass the centralpower. The people, like an army, obeyed the word of command, --a militaryadvantage 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 theexecutive, and, by the fermentation of internal politics, blinded to anoutward danger that seemed remote and vague, --such were the conditionsunder which the British colonies drifted into a war that was to decidethe fate of the continent. 

This war was the strife of a united and concentred few against a dividedand discordant many. It was the strife, too, of the past against thefuture; of the old against the new; of moral and intellectual torporagainst moral and intellectual life; of barren absolutism against aliberty, crude, incoherent, and chaotic, yet full of prolific vitality. 

Chapter 2

1749-1752

Céleron de Bienville

When the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed, the Marquis de laGalissonière ruled over Canada. Like all the later Canadian governors, he was a naval officer; and, a few years after, he made himself famousby a victory, near Minorca, over the English admiral Byng, --anachievement now remembered chiefly by the fate of the defeatedcommander, judicially murdered as the scapegoat of an imbecile ministry. Galissonière was a humpback; but his deformed person was animated by abold spirit and a strong and penetrating intellect. He was the chiefrepresentative of the American policy of France. He felt that, cost whatit might, she must hold fast to Canada, and link her to Louisiana bychains of forts strong enough to hold back the British colonies, andcramp their growth by confinement within narrow limits; while Frenchsettlers, sent from the mother-country, should spread and multiply inthe broad valleys of the interior. It is true, he said, that Canada andher dependencies have always been a burden; but they are necessary as abarrier against English ambition; and to abandon them is to abandonourselves; for if we suffer our enemies to become masters in America, their trade and naval power will grow to vast proportions, and they willdraw from their colonies a wealth that will make them preponderant inEurope. [2]

[Footnote 2: La Galissonière, _Mémoire sur les Colonies de la Francedans l'Amêrique septentrionale_. ]

The treaty had done nothing to settle the vexed question of boundariesbetween France and her rival. It had but staved off the inevitableconflict. Meanwhile, the English traders were crossing the mountainsfrom Pennsylvania and Virginia, poaching on the domain which Franceclaimed as hers, ruining the French fur-trade, seducing the Indianallies of Canada, and stirring them up against her. Worse still, Englishland speculators were beginning to follow. Something must be done, andthat promptly, to drive back the intruders, and vindicate French rightsin the valley of the Ohio. To this end the Governor sent Céloron deBienville 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 hundredand eighty Canadians, and a band of Indians, all in twenty-threebirch-bark canoes. They left La Chine on the fifteenth of June, andpushed up the rapids of the St. Lawrence, losing a man and damagingseveral canoes on the way. Ten days brought them to the mouth of theOswegatchie, where Ogdensburg now stands. Here they found a Sulpitianpriest, Abbé Piquet, busy at building a fort, and lodging for thepresent under a shed of bark like an Indian. This enterprising father, ostensibly a missionary, was in reality a zealous political agent, benton winning over the red allies of the English, retrieving Frenchprestige, and restoring French trade. Thus far he had attracted but twoIroquois to his new establishment; and these he lent to Céloron. 

Reaching Lake Ontario, the party stopped for a time at the French fortof Frontenac, but avoided the rival English post of Oswego, on thesouthern shore, where a trade in beaver skins, disastrous to Frenchinterests, was carried on, and whither many tribes, once faithful toCanada, now made resort. On the sixth of July Céloron reached Niagara. This, the most important pass of all the western wilderness, was guardedby a small fort of palisades on the point where the river joins thelake. Thence, the party carried their canoes over the portage road bythe cataract, and launched them upon Lake Erie. On the fifteenth theylanded on the lonely shore where the town of Portland now stands; andfor the next seven days were busied in shouldering canoes and baggage upand 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, inthe stillness and solitude of the leafy hills, till they came to theoutlet, and glided down the peaceful current in the shade of the tallforests that overarched it. This prosperity was short. The stream waslow, in spite of heavy rains that had drenched them on the carryingplace. Father Bonnecamp, chaplain of the expedition, wrote, in hisJournal: "In some places--and they were but too frequent--the water wasonly two or three inches deep; and we were reduced to the sad necessityof dragging our canoes over the sharp pebbles, which, with all our careand precaution, stripped off large slivers of the bark. At last, tiredand worn, and almost in despair of ever seeing La Belle Rivière, weentered it at noon of the 29th. " The part of the Ohio, or "La BelleRivière, " which they had thus happily reached, is now called theAlleghany. The Great West lay outspread before them, a realm of wild andwaste fertility. 

French America had two heads, --one among the snows of Canada, and oneamong the canebrakes of Louisiana; one communicating with the worldthrough the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the other through the Gulf ofMexico. These vital points were feebly connected by a chain of militaryposts, --slender, and often interrupted, --circling through the wildernessnearly three thousand miles. Midway between Canada and Louisiana lay thevalley of the Ohio. If the English should seize it, they would sever thechain of posts, and cut French America asunder. If the French held it, and entrenched themselves well along its eastern limits, they would shuttheir rivals between the Alleghanies and the sea, control all the tribesof the West, and turn them, in case of war, against the Englishborders, --a frightful and insupportable scourge. 

The Indian population of the Ohio and its northern tributaries wasrelatively considerable. The upper or eastern half of the valley wasoccupied by mingled hordes of Delawares, Shawanoes, Wyandots, andIroquois, or Indians of the Five Nations, who had migrated thither fromtheir ancestral abodes within the present limits of the State of NewYork, and who were called Mingoes by the English traders. Along withthem were a few wandering Abenakis, Nipissings, and Ottawas. Fartherwest, on the waters of the Miami, the Wabash, and other neighboringstreams, was the seat of a confederacy formed of the various bands ofthe 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 theMaumee, there was a small wooden fort, another on the St. Joseph, andtwo on the Wabash. On the meadows of the Mississippi, in the Illinoiscountry, stood Fort Chartres, --a much stronger work, and one of thechief links of the chain that connected Quebec with New Orleans. Itsfour stone bastions were impregnable to musketry; and, here in thedepths of the wilderness, there was no fear that cannon would be broughtagainst it. It was the centre and citadel of a curious little forestsettlement, the only vestige of civilization through all this region. AtKaskaskia, extended along the borders of the stream, were seventy oreighty French houses; thirty or forty at Cahokia, opposite the site ofSt. Louis; and a few more at the intervening hamlets of St. Philippe andPrairie à la Roche, --a picturesque but thriftless population, mixed withIndians, totally ignorant, busied partly with the fur-trade, and partlywith the raising of corn for the market of New Orleans. Theycommunicated with it by means of a sort of row galley, of eighteen ortwenty oars, which made the voyage twice a year, and usually spent tenweeks on the return up the river. [3]

[Footnote 3: Gordon, _Journal_, 1766, appended to Pownall, _Topographical Description_. In the Dépôt des Cartes de la Marine atParis, C. 4, 040, are two curious maps of the Illinois colony, made alittle after the middle of the century. In 1753 the Marquis Duquesnedenounced 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, theHurons or Wyandots alone were Christian. [4] The devoted zeal of theearly missionaries and the politic efforts of their successors hadfailed alike. The savages of the Ohio and the Mississippi, instead ofbeing tied to France by the mild bonds of the faith, were now in a statewhich the French called defection or revolt; that is, they received andwelcomed the English traders. 

[Footnote 4: "De toutes les nations domiciliées dans les postes des paysd'en haut, il n'y a que les hurons du détroit qui aient embrassé laRéligion chretienne. " _Mémoirs du Roy pour servir d'instruction au S'r. Marqius 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 bein general a set of abandoned wretches;" and Hamilton, governor ofPennsylvania, replies: "I concur with you in opinion that they are avery licentious people. [5] Indian traders, of whatever nation, arerarely models of virtue; and these, without doubt, were rough andlawless men, with abundant blackguardism and few scruples. Not all ofthem, 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 theAlleghanies with goods packed on the backs of horses, descended into thevalley of the Ohio, and journeyed from stream to stream and village tovillage along the Indian trails, with which all this wilderness wasseamed, and which the traders widened to make them practicable. Morerarely, they carried their goods on horses to the upper waters of theOhio, and embarked them in large wooden canoes, in which they descendedthe main river, and ascended such of its numerous tributaries as werenavigable. They were bold and enterprising; and French writers, withalarm and indignation, declare that some of them had crossed theMississippi and traded with the distant Osages. It is said that aboutthree hundred of them came over the mountains every year. 

[Footnote 5: _Dinwiddie to Hamilton, 21 May, 1753. Hamilton toDinwiddie, --May, 1753. _]

On reaching the Alleghany, Céleron de Bienville entered upon the workassigned him, and began by taking possession of the country. The menwere drawn up in order; Louis XV. Was proclaimed lord of all thatregion, the arms of France, stamped on a sheet of tin, were nailed to atree, a plate of lead was buried at its foot, and the notary of theexpedition drew up a formal act of the whole proceeding. The leadenplate was inscribed as follows: "Year 1749, in the reign of LouisFifteenth, King of France. We, Céleron, commanding the detachment sentby the Marquis de la Galissonière, commander-general of New France, torestore tranquillity in certain villages of these cantons, have buriedthis plate at the confluence of the Ohio and the Kanaouagon_[Conewango], _ this 29th July, as a token of renewal of possessionheretofore taken of the aforesaid River Ohio, of all streams that fallinto it, and all lands on both sides to the source of the aforesaidstreams, as the preceding Kings of France have enjoyed or ought to haveenjoyed 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 thecurrent, and passing from time to time rough openings in the forest, with clusters of Indian wigwams, the inmates of which showed a stronginclination to run off at their approach. To prevent this, Chabert deJoncaire was sent in advance, as a messenger of peace. He was himselfhalf Indian, being the son of a French officer and a Seneca squaw, speaking fluently his maternal tongue, and, like his father, holding animportant place in all dealings between the French and the tribes whospoke dialects of the Iroquois. On this occasion his success was notcomplete. It needed all his art to prevent the alarmed savages fromtaking to the woods. Sometimes, however, Céloron succeeded in gainingan audience; and at a village of Senecas called La Paille Coupée he readthem a message from La Galissonière couched in terms sufficientlyimperative: "My children, since I was at war with the English, I havelearned that they have seduced you; and not content with corrupting yourhearts, have taken advantage of my absence to invade lands which are nottheirs, but mine; and therefore I have resolved to send you Monsieur deCéloron to tell you my intentions, which are that I will not endure theEnglish on my land. Listen to me, children; mark well the word that Isend you; follow my advice, and the sky will always be calm and clearover your villages. I expect from you an answer worthy of truechildren. " And he urged them to stop all trade with the intruders, andsend them back to whence they came. They promised compliance; "and, "says the chaplain, Bonnecamp, "we should all have been satisfied if wehad thought them sincere; but nobody doubted that fear had extortedtheir answer. "

Four leagues below French Creek, by a rock scratched with Indianhieroglyphics, they buried another leaden plate. Three days after, theyreached the Delaware village of Attiqué, at the site of Kittanning, whose twenty-two wigwams were all empty, the owners having fled. Alittle farther on, at an old abandoned village of Shawanoes, they foundsix English traders, whom they warned to begone, and return no more attheir 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 Englishmentrespassing on the domain of France. "I know, " concluded the letter, "that our Commandant-General would be very sorry to be forced to useviolence; but his orders are precise, to leave no foreign traders withinthe limits of his government. "[6]

[Footnote 6: Céloron, _Journal_. Compare the letter as translated in_N. Y. Col. Docs_. , VI. 532; also _Colonial Records of Pa_. , V. 325. ]

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. BothQueen and subjects had fled; but among the deserted wigwams were sixmore Englishmen, whom Céloron warned off like the others, and who, likethem, pretended to obey. At a neighboring town they found only twowithered ancients, male and female, whose united ages, in the judgmentof the chaplain, were full two centuries. They passed the site of thefuture Pittsburg; and some seventeen miles below approached Chininguée, 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 theinhabitants, lining the shore, greeted their visitors with a salute ofmusketry, --not wholly welcome, as the guns were charged will ball. Céloron threatened to fire on them if they did not cease. The Frenchclimbed the steep bank, and encamped on the plateau above, betwixt theforest and the village, which consisted of some fifty cabins andwigwams, grouped in picturesque squalor, and tenanted by a mixedpopulation, chiefly of Delawares, Shawanoes, and Mingoes. Here, too, were gathered many fugitives from the deserted towns above. Céloronfeared a night attack. The camp was encircled by a ring of sentries; theofficers walked the rounds till morning; a part of the men were keptunder arms, and the rest ordered to sleep in their clothes. Joncairediscovered through some women of his acquaintance that an attack wasintended. Whatever the danger may have been, the precautions of theFrench averted it; and instead of a battle, there was a council. Célorondelivered to the assembled chiefs a message from the Governor moreconciliatory 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 theEnglish against your lands. The establishments they mean to make, and ofwhich you are certainly ignorant, tend to your complete ruin. They hidefrom you their plans, which are to settle here and drive you away, if Ilet them. As a good father who tenderly loves his children, and thoughfar away from them bears them always in his heart, I must warn you ofthe danger that threatens you. The English intend to rob you of yourcountry; 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 themto retire. "

[Footnote 7: There was another Chiningué, the Shenango of the English, on the Alleghany. ]

The reply of the chiefs, though sufficiently humble, was not all thatcould be wished. They begged that the intruders might stay a littlelonger, since the goods they brought were necessary to them. It was infact, these goods, cheap, excellent, and abundant as they were, whichformed the only true bond between the English and the Western tribes. Logstown was one of the chief resorts of the English traders; and atthis moment there were ten of them in the place. Céloron warned themoff. "They agreed, " says the chaplain, "to all that was demanded, wellresolved, no doubt, to do the contrary as soon as our backs wereturned. "

Having distributed gifts among the Indians, the French proceeded ontheir way, and at or near the mouth of Wheeling Creek buried anotherplate of lead. They repeated the same ceremony at the mouth of theMuskingum. Here, half a century later, when this region belonged to theUnited States, a party of boys, bathing in the river, saw the plateprotruding from the bank where the freshets had laid it bare, knocked itdown with a long stick, melted half of it into bullets, and gave whatremained to a neighbor from Marietta, who, hearing of this mysteriousrelic, inscribed in an unknown tongue, came to rescue it from theirhands. [8] It is now in the cabinet of the American AntiquarianSociety. [9] On the eighteenth of August, Céloron buried yet anotherplate, at the mouth of the Great Kenawha. This, too, in the course of acentury, was unearthed by the floods, and was found in 1846 by a boy atplay, by the edge of the water. [10] The inscriptions on all these plateswere much alike, with variations of date and place. 

[Footnote 8: O. H. Marshall, in _Magazine of American History, March, _1878. ]

[Footnote 9: For papers relating to it, see _Trans. Amer. Antiq. Soc_. , II. ]

[Footnote 10: For a facsimile of the inscription on this plate, see_Olden Time, _ I. 288. Céloron calls the Kenawha, _Chinodahichetha_. Theinscriptions as given in his Journal correspond with those on the platesdiscovered. ]

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 themouth of the river which bears the same name. Greatly doubting whatwelcome awaited them, they filled their powderhorns and prepared for theworst. Joncaire was sent forward to propitiate the inhabitants; but theyshot 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 Iroquoissaved him; and at length they let him go. Céloron was very uneasy at thereception of his messenger. "I knew, " he writes, "the weakness of myparty, two thirds of which were young men who had never left homebefore, and would all have run at the sight of ten Indians. Still, therewas nothing for me but to keep on; for I was short of provisions, mycanoes were badly damaged, and I had no pitch or bark to mend them. So Iembarked 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 theusual salute of musketry. "They fired, " says Céloron, "full a thousandshots; for the English give them powder for nothing. " He prudentlypitched his camp on the farther side of the river, posted guards, andkept close watch. Each party distrusted and feared the other. At length, after much ado, many debates, and some threatening movements on the partof the alarmed and excited Indians, a council took place at the tent ofthe French commander; the chiefs apologized for the rough treatment ofJoncaire, and Céloron replied with a rebuke, which would doubtless havebeen less mild, had he felt himself stronger. He gave them also amessage from the Governor, modified, apparently, to suit thecircumstances; for while warning them of the wiles of the English, itgave no hint that the King of France claimed mastery of their lands. Their answer was vague and unsatisfactory. It was plain that they werebound to the enemy by interest, if not by sympathy. A party of Englishtraders were living in the place; and Céloron summoned them to withdraw, on pain of what might ensue. "My instructions, " he says, "enjoined me todo this, and even to pillage the English; but I was not strong enough;and as these traders were established in the village and well supportedby the Indians, the attempt would have failed, and put the French toshame. " The assembled chiefs having been regaled with a cup of brandyeach, --the only part of the proceeding which seemed to pleasethem, --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 leadenplates. They now bade farewell to the Ohio, or, in the words of thechaplain, to "La Belle Rivière, --that river so little known to theFrench, and unfortunately too well known to the English. " He speaks ofthe multitude of Indian villages on its shores, and still more on itsnorthern branches. "Each, great or small, has one or more Englishtraders, 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 tothem, and whose number increases daily. "

The course of the party lay up the Miami; and they toiled thirteen daysagainst the shallow current before they reached a village of the MiamiIndians, lately built at the mouth of the rivulet now called LoramieCreek. Over it ruled a chief to whom the French had given the singularname of La Demoiselle, but whom the English, whose fast friend he was, called Old Britain. The English traders who lived here had prudentlywithdrawn, leaving only two hired men in the place. The object ofCèloron was to induce the Demoiselle and his band to leave this newabode and return to their old villages near the French fort on theMaumee, where they would be safe from English seduction. To this end, hecalled them to a council, gave them ample gifts, and made them anharangue in the name of the Governor. The Demoiselle took the gifts, thanked his French father for his good advice, and promised to follow itat a more convenient time. [11] In vain Céloron insisted that he and histribesmen should remove at once. Neither blandishments nor threats wouldprevail, and the French commander felt that his negotiation had failed. 

[Footnote 11: Céloron, _Journal_. Compare _A Message from theTwightwees_ (Miamis) in _Colonial Records of Pa_. , V. 437, where theysay that they refused the gifts. ]

He was not deceived. Far from leaving his village, the Demoiselle, whowas Great Chief of the Miami Confederacy, gathered his followers to thespot, till, less than two years after the visit of Céloron, itspopulation had increased eightfold. Pique Town, or Pickawillany, as theEnglish called it, became one of the greatest Indian towns of the West, the centre of English trade and influence, and a capital object ofFrench jealousy. 

Céloron burned his shattered canoes, and led his party across the longand difficult portage to the French post on the Maumee, where he foundRaymond, 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 timeby a drunken debauch of his Indians, who are called by the chaplain "aspecies of men made to exercise the patience of those who have themisfortune to travel with them. " In a month more he was at FortFrontenac; and as he descended thence to Montreal, he stopped at theOswegatchie, in obedience to the Governor, who had directed him toreport the progress made by the Sulpitian, Abbé Piquet, at his newmission. Piquet's new fort had been burned by Indians, prompted, as hethought, by the English of Oswego; but the priest, buoyant andundaunted, was still resolute for the glory of God and the confusion ofthe heretics. 

At length Céloron reached Montreal; and, closing his Journal, wrotethus: "Father Bonnecamp, who is a Jesuit and a great mathematician, reckons that we have travelled twelve hundred leagues; I and my officersthink we have travelled more. All I can say is, that the nations ofthese countries are very ill-disposed towards the French, and devotedentirely to the English. "[12] If his expedition had done no more, it hadat least revealed clearly the deplorable condition of French interestsin the West. 

[Footnote 12: _Journal de la Campagne que moy Céloron, Chevalier del'Ordre Royal et Militaire de St. Louis, Capitaine Commandant undétachement envoyé dans la Belle Rivière par les ordres de M. Le Marquisde La Galissonière_, etc. 

_Relation d'un voyage dans la Belle Rivière sous les ordres de M. DeCéloron, par le Père Bonnecamp, en_ 1749. ]

While Céloron was warning English traders from the Ohio, a plan was onfoot in Virginia for a new invasion of the French domain. An associationwas formed to settle the Ohio country; and a grant of five hundredthousand acres was procured from the King, on condition that a hundredfamilies should be established upon it within seven years, a fort built, and a garrison maintained. The Ohio Company numbered among its memberssome 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 ofCéloron, its governing committee sent the trader Christopher Gist toexplore the country and select land. It must be "good level land, " wrotethe Committee; "we had rather go quite down to the Mississippi than takemean, broken land. "[13] In November Gist reached Logstown, the Chininguéof Céleron, where he found what he calls a "parcel of reprobate Indiantraders. " Those whom he so stigmatizes were Pennsylvanians, chieflyScotch-Irish, between whom and the traders from Virginia there was greatjealousy. Gist was told that he "should never go home safe. " He declaredhimself the bearer of a message from the King. This imposed respect, andhe was allowed to proceed. At the Wyandot village of Muskingum he foundthe trader George Croghan, sent to the Indians by the Governor ofPennsylvania, to renew the chain of friendship. [14] "Croghan, " he says, "is a mere idol among his countrymen, the Irish traders;" yet they metamicably, and the Pennsylvanian had with him a companion, AndrewMontour, the interpreter, who proved of great service to Gist. AsMontour 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 Frenchgovernor and an Indian squaw. His half-breed mother, Catharine Montour, was a native of Canada, whence she was carried off by the Iroquois, andadopted by them. She lived in a village at the head of Seneca Lake, andstill held the belief, inculcated by the guides of her youth, thatChrist was a Frenchman crucified by the English. [15] Her son Andrew isthus described by the Moravian Zinzendorf, who knew him: "His face islike that of a European, but marked with a broad Indian ring ofbear's-grease and paint drawn completely round it. He wears a coat offine cloth of cinnamon color, a black necktie with silver spangles, ared satin waistcoat, trousers over which hangs his shirt, shoes andstockings, a hat, and brass ornaments, something like the handle of abasket, suspended from his ears. "[16] He was an excellent interpreter, and held in high account by his Indian kinsmen. 

[Footnote 13: Instructions to Gist, in appendix to Pownall, _Topographical Description of North America_. ]

[Footnote 14: _Mr. Croghan's Transactions with the Indians_, in _N. Y. Col. Docs. , _ VII. 267; _Croghan to Hamilton, 16 Dec_. 1750. ]

[Footnote 15: This is stated by Count Zinzendorf, who visited her amongthe Senecas. 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 isstill called "French Catharine's Town. "]

[Footnote 16: Journal of Zinzendorf, quoted in Schweinitz, _Life ofDavid Zeisberger, 112, note_. ]

After leaving Muskingum, Gist, Croghan, and Montour went together to avillage on White Woman's Creek, --so called from one Mary Harris, wholived here. She was born in New England, was made prisoner when a childforty years before, and had since dwelt among her captors, finding suchcomfort as she might in an Indian husband and a family of younghalf-breeds. "She still remembers, " says Gist, "that they used to bevery religious in New England, and wonders how white men can be sowicked as she has seen them in these woods. " He and his companions nowjourneyed southwestward to the Shawanoe town at the mouth of theScioto, where they found a reception very different from that which hadawaited Céloron. Thence they rode northwestward along the forest paththat led to Pickawillany, the Indian town on the upper waters of theGreat Miami. Gist was delighted with the country; and reported to hisemployers that "it is fine, rich, level land, well timbered with largewalnut, ash, sugar trees and cherry trees; well watered with a greatnumber of little streams and rivulets; full of beautiful naturalmeadows, with wild rye, blue-grass, and clover, and abounding withturkeys, deer, elks, and most sorts of game, particularly buffaloes, thirty or forty of which are frequently seen in one meadow. " A littlefarther west, on the plains of the Wabash and the Illinois, he wouldhave found them by thousands. 

They crossed the Miami on a raft, their horses swimming after them; andwere met on landing by a crowd of warriors, who, after smoking withthem, escorted them to the neighboring town, where they were greeted bya fusillade of welcome. "We entered with English colors before us, andwere kindly received by their king, who invited us into his own houseand set our colors upon the top of it; then all the white men andtraders that were there came and welcomed us. " This "king" was OldBritain, or La Demoiselle. Great were the changes here since Céleron, ayear and a half before, had vainly enticed him to change his abode, anddwell in the shadow of the fleur-de-lis. The town had grown to fourhundred families, or about two thousand souls; and the English tradershad built for themselves and their hosts a fort of pickets, strengthenedwith logs. 

There was a series of councils in the long house, or town-hall. Croghanmade the Indians a present from the Governor of Pennsylvania; and he andGist delivered speeches of friendship and good advice, which theauditors received with the usual monosyllabic plaudits, ejected from thedepths of their throats. A treaty of peace was solemnly made between theEnglish and the confederate tribes, and all was serenity and joy; tillfour Ottawas, probably from Detroit, arrived with a French flag, a giftof brandy and tobacco, and a message from the French commandant invitingthe Miamis to visit him. Whereupon the great war-chief rose, and, with"a fierce tone and very warlike air, " said to the envoys: "Brothers theOttawas, we let you know, by these four strings of wampum, that we willnot hear anything the French say, nor do anything they bid us. " Thenaddressing the French as if actually present: "Fathers, we have made aroad to the sun-rising, and have been taken by the hand by our brothersthe English, the Six Nations, the Delawares, Shawanoes, andWyandots. [17] We assure you, in that road we will go; and as youthreaten us with war in the spring, we tell you that we are ready toreceive you. " Then, turning again to the four envoys: "Brothers theOttawas, you hear what I say. Tell that to your fathers the French, forwe speak it from our hearts. " The chiefs then took down the French flagwhich the Ottawas had planted in the town, and dismissed the envoys withtheir answer of defiance. 

[Footnote 17: Compare _Message of Miamis and Hurons to the Governor ofPennsylvania_ 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 thusdescribes: "It was performed by three dancing-masters, who were paintedall over of various colors, with long sticks in their hands, upon theends of which were fastened long feathers of swans and other birds, neatly woven in the shape of a fowl's wing; in this disguise theyperformed many antic tricks, waving their sticks and feathers about withgreat skill, to imitate the flying and fluttering of birds, keepingexact time with their music. " This music was the measured thumping of anIndian drum. From time to time, a warrior would leap up, and the drumand the dancers would cease as he struck a post with his tomahawk, andin a loud voice recounted his exploits. Then the music and the dancebegan anew, till another warrior caught the martial fire, and boundedinto the circle to brandish his tomahawk and vaunt his prowess. 

On the first of March Gist took leave of Pickawillany, and returnedtowards the Ohio. He would have gone to the Falls, where Louisville nowstands, but for a band of French Indians reported to be there, who wouldprobably have killed him. After visiting a deposit of mammoth bones onthe south shore, long the wonder of the traders, he turned eastward, crossed with toil and difficulty the mountains about the sources of theKenawha, and after an absence of seven months reached his frontier homeon the Yadkin, whence he proceeded to Roanoke with the report of hisjourney. [18]

[Footnote 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 outsidelurked hidden danger. The Miamis were hearty in the English cause, andso perhaps were the Shawanoes; but the Delawares had not forgotten thewrongs that drove them from their old abodes east of the Alleghanies, while the Mingoes, or emigrant Iroquois, like their brethren of NewYork, felt the influence of Joncaire and other French agents, who sparedno efforts to seduce them. [19] Still more baneful to British interestswere the apathy and dissensions of the British colonies themselves. TheOhio Company had built a trading-house at Will's Creek, a branch of thePotomac, to which the Indians resorted in great numbers; whereupon thejealous traders of Pennsylvania told them that the Virginians meant tosteal away their lands. This confirmed what they had been taught by theFrench emissaries, whose intrigues it powerfully aided. The governors ofNew York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia saw the importance of Indianalliances, and felt their own responsibility in regard to them; but theycould do nothing without their assemblies. Those of New York andPennsylvania were largely composed of tradesmen and farmers, absorbed inlocal interests, and possessed by two motives, --the saving of thepeople's money, and opposition to the governor, who stood for the royalprerogative. It was Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, who had sent Croghan tothe Miamis to "renew the chain of friendship;" and when the envoyreturned, the Assembly rejected his report. "I was condemned, " he says, "for bringing expense on the Government, and the Indians wereneglected. "[20]

[Footnote 19: Joncaire made anti-English speeches to the Ohio Indiansunder the eyes of the English themselves, who did not molest him. _Journal of George Croghan_, 1751, in _Olden Time, I_. 136. ]

[Footnote 20: _Mr. Croghan's Transactions with the Indians, N. Y. Col. Docs. , _ VII. 267. ]

In the same year Hamilton again sent him over the mountains, with apresent for the Mingoes and Delawares. Croghan succeeded in persuadingthem that it would be for their good if the English should build afortified trading-house at the fork of the Ohio, where Pittsburg nowstands; and they made a formal request to the Governor that it should bebuilt accordingly. But, in the words of Croghan, the Assembly "rejectedthe proposal, and condemned me for making such a report. " Yet this poston the Ohio was vital to English interests. Even the Penns, proprietaries of the province, never lavish of their money, offered fourhundred pounds towards the cost of it, besides a hundred a year towardsits maintenance; but the Assembly would not listen. [21] The Indians wereso well convinced that a strong English trading-station in their countrywould add to their safety and comfort, that when Pennsylvania refusedit, they repeated the proposal to Virginia; but here, too, it found forthe present little favor. 

[Footnote 21: _Colonial Records of Pa_. , V. 515, 529, 547. At a councilat Logstown (1751), the Indians said to Croghan: "The French want tocheat us out of our country; but we will stop them, and, Brothers theEnglish, you must help us. We expect that you will build a strong houseon the River Ohio, that in case of war we may have a place to secure ourwives 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 mostimpolitic inaction. A large part of the valley of the Ohio, includingthe site of the proposed establishment, was claimed by both Pennsylvaniaand Virginia; and each feared that whatever money it might spend therewould turn to the profit of the other. This was not the only evil thatsprang from uncertain ownership. "Till the line is run between the twoprovinces, " says Dinwiddie, governor of Virginia, "I cannot appointmagistrates to keep the traders in good order. "[22] Hence they did whatthey pleased, and often gave umbrage to the Indians. Clinton, of NewYork, appealed to his Assembly for means to assist Pennsylvania in"securing the fidelity of the Indians on the Ohio, " and the Assemblyrefused. [23] "We will take care of our Indians, and they may take careof theirs:" such was the spirit of their answer. He wrote to the variousprovinces, inviting them to send commissioners to meet the tribes atAlbany, "in order to defeat the designs and intrigues of the French. "All turned a deaf ear except Massachusetts, Connecticut, and SouthCarolina, who sent the commissioners, but supplied them very meagrelywith the indispensable presents. [24] Clinton says further: "The Assemblyof this province have not given one farthing for Indian affairs, nor fora year past have they provided for the subsistence of the garrison atOswego, which is the key for the commerce between the colonies and theinland nations of Indians. "[25]

[Footnote 22: _Dinwiddie to the Lords of Trade, 6 Oct_. 1752. ]

[Footnote 23: _Journals of New York Assembly_, II. 283, 284. _ColonialRecords of Pa_. , V. 466. ]

[Footnote 24: _Clinton to Hamilton, 18 Dec. 1750. Clinton to Lords ofTrade, 13 June, 1751; Ibid. , 17 July_, 1751. ]

[Footnote 25: _Clinton to Bedford, 30 July_, 1750. ]

In the heterogeneous structure of the British colonies, their clashinginterests, their internal disputes, and the misplaced economy ofpenny-wise and short-sighted assembly-men, lay the hope of France. Therulers of Canada knew the vast numerical preponderance of their rivals;but with their centralized organization they felt themselves more than amatch for any one English colony alone. They hoped to wage war under theguise of peace, and to deal with the enemy in detail; and they at lengthperceived that the fork of the Ohio, so strangely neglected by theEnglish, formed, together with Niagara, the key of the Great West. CouldFrance hold firmly these two controlling passes, she might almost boastherself mistress of the continent. 

NOTE: The Journal of Céloron (Archives de la Marine) is very long andcircumstantial, including the _procès verbaux_, and reports of councilswith Indians. The Journal of the chaplain, Bonnecamp (Dépôt de laMarine), is shorter, but is the work of an intelligent and observingman. The author, a Jesuit, was skilled in mathematics, made dailyobservations, and constructed a map of the route, still preserved at theDépôt de la Marine. Concurrently with these French narratives, one mayconsult 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 Céleron's leaden plates have been found, --the two mentioned inthe text, and another which was never buried, and which the Indians, whoregarded these mysterious tablets as "bad medicine, " procured by a trickfrom Joncaire, or, according to Governor Clinton, stole from him. ACayuga chief brought it to Colonel Johnson, on the Mohawk, whointerpreted the "Devilish writing" in such a manner as best to inspirehorror of French designs. 

Chapter 3

1749-1753

Conflict for the West

The Iroquois, or Five Nations, sometimes called Six Nations after theTuscaroras joined them, had been a power of high importance in Americaninternational politics. In a certain sense they may be said to have heldthe balance between their French and English neighbors; but theirrelative influence had of late declined. So many of them had emigratedand joined the tribes of the Ohio, that the centre of Indian populationhad passed to that region. Nevertheless, the Five Nations were stillstrong enough in their ancient abodes to make their alliance an objectof the utmost consequence to both the European rivals. At the westernend of their "Long House, " or belt of confederated villages, Joncaireintrigued to gain them for France; while in the east he was counteractedby the young colonel of militia, William Johnson, who lived on theMohawk, and was already well skilled in managing Indians. Johnsonsometimes lost his temper; and once wrote to Governor Clinton tocomplain of the "confounded wicked things the French had infused intothe Indians' heads; among the rest that the English were determined, thefirst opportunity, to destroy them all. I assure your Excellency I hadhard work to beat these and several other cursed villanous things, toldthem by the French, out of their heads. "[26]

[Footnote 26: _Johnson to Clinton, 28 April_, 1749. ]

In former times the French had hoped to win over the Five Nations in abody, by wholesale conversion to the Faith; but the attempt had failed. They had, however, made within their own limits an asylum for suchconverts as they could gain, whom they collected together atCaughnawaga, near Montreal, to the number of about three hundredwarriors. [27] These could not be trusted to fight their kinsmen, butwillingly made forays against the English borders. Caughnawaga, likevarious other Canadian missions, was divided between the Church, thearmy, and the fur-trade. It had a chapel, fortifications, andstorehouses; two Jesuits, an officer, and three chief traders. Of theselast, two were maiden ladies, the Demoiselles Desauniers; and one of theJesuits, their friend Father Tournois, was their partner in business. They carried on by means of the Mission Indians, and in collusion withinfluential persons in the colony, a trade with the Dutch at Albany, illegal, but very profitable. [28]

[Footnote 27: The estimate of a French official report, 1736, and of SirWilliam Johnson, 1763. ]

[Footnote 28: _La Jonquière au Ministre, 27 Fév. 1750. Ibid. , 29 Oct. 1751. Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, 1751. Notice biographiquede la Jonquière_. La Jonquifère, governor of Canada, at last broke uptheir contraband trade, and ordered Tournois to Quebec. ]

Besides this Iroquois mission, which was chiefly composed of Mohawks andOneidas, another was now begun farther westward, to win over theOnondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. This was the establishment of FatherPiquet, which Céloron had visited in its infancy when on his way to theOhio, and again on his return. Piquet was a man in the prime of life, ofan alert, vivacious countenance, by no means unprepossessing;[29] anenthusiastic schemer, with great executive talents; ardent, energetic, vain, self-confident, and boastful. The enterprise seems to have been ofhis own devising; but it found warm approval from the Government. [30] LaPrésentation, as he called the new mission, stood on the bank of theRiver Oswegatchie where it enters the St. Lawrence. Here the rapidsceased, and navigation was free to Lake Ontario. The place commanded themain river, and could bar the way to hostile war-parties or contrabandtraders. Rich meadows, forests, and abundance of fish and game, made itattractive to Indians, and the Oswegatchie gave access to the Iroquoistowns. Piquet had chosen his site with great skill. His activity wasadmirable. His first stockade was burned by Indian incendiaries; but itrose quickly from its ashes, and within a year or two the mission of LaPrésentation had a fort of palisades flanked with blockhouses, a chapel, a storehouse, a barn, a stable, ovens, a saw-mill, broad fields of cornand beans, and three villages of Iroquois, containing, in all, forty-nine bark lodges, each holding three or four families, more orless converted to the Faith; and, as time went on, this numberincreased. 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 thenew proselytes as it was convenient and agreeable. The Pennsylvanianinterpreter, 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 andgold, he took them down and presented them to the French Governor atMontreal, who received them very kindly, and made them largepresents. "[31]

[Footnote 29: I once saw a contemporary portrait of him at the missionof Two Mountains, where he had been stationed. ]

[Footnote 30: _Rouillé à la Jonquière_, 1749. The Intendant Bigot gavehim money and provisions. _N. Y. Col. Docs. , X_. 204. ]

[Footnote 31: _Journal of Conrad Weiser, _ 1750. ]

Such were some of the temporal attractions of La Présentation. Thenature of the spiritual instruction bestowed by Piquet and hisfellow-priests may be partly inferred from the words of a proselytewarrior, who declared with enthusiasm that he had learned from theSulpitian missionary that the King of France was the eldest son of thewife of Jesus Christ. [32] This he of course took in a literal sense, themystic idea of the Church as the spouse of Christ being beyond hissavage comprehension. The effect was to stimulate his devotion to theGreat Onontio beyond the sea, and to the lesser Onontio who representedhim as Governor of Canada. 

[Footnote 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 theGovernor and Intendant: "It is a great miracle that, in spite of envy, contradiction, and opposition from nearly all the Indian villages, Ihave formed in less than three years one of the most flourishingmissions in Canada. I find myself in a position to extend the empire ofmy good masters, Jesus Christ and the King, even to the extremities ofthis new world; and, with some little help from you, to do more thanFrance and England have been able to do with millions of money and alltheir troops. "[33]

[Footnote 33: _Piquet à la Jonquière et Bigot, 8 Fév. _ 1752. SeeAppendix A. In spite of Piquet's self-laudation, and in spite also ofthe detraction of the author of the _Mémoires sur le Canada, _ 1749-1760, there can be no doubt of his practical capacity and his fertility ofresource. Duquesne, when governor of the colony, highly praises "sestalents et son activité pour le service de Sa Majesté. "]

The letter from which this is taken was written to urge upon theGovernment a scheme in which the zealous priest could see nothingimpracticable. He proposed to raise a war-party of thirty-eight hundredIndians, eighteen hundred of whom were to be drawn from the Canadianmissions, the Five Nations, and the tribes of the Ohio, while theremaining two thousand were to be furnished by the Flatheads, orChoctaws, who were at the same time to be supplied with missionaries. The united force was first to drive the English from the Ohio, and nextattack the Dog Tribe, or Cherokees, who lived near the borders ofVirginia, with the people of which they were on friendly terms. "If, "says Piquet, "the English of Virginia give any help to this last-namedtribe, --which will not fail to happen, --they [_the war-party_] will dotheir utmost against them, through a grudge they bear them by reason ofsome old quarrels. " In other words, the missionary hopes to set a hostof savages to butchering English settlers in time of peace![34] Hiswild project never took effect, though the Governor, he says, at firstapproved it. 

[Footnote 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 copiousdiary on the way. By accompanying him, one gets a clear view of animportant part of the region in dispute between the rival nations. SixCanadians paddled him up the St. Lawrence, and five Indian convertsfollowed in another canoe. Emerging from among the Thousand Islands, they stopped at Fort Frontenac, where Kingston now stands. Once theplace was a great resort of Indians; now none were here, for the Englishpost of Oswego, on the other side of the lake, had greater attractions. Piquet and his company found the pork and bacon very bad, and hecomplains that "there was not brandy enough in the fort to wash awound. " They crossed to a neighboring island, where they were soonvisited by the chaplain of the fort, the storekeeper, his wife, andthree young ladies, glad of an excursion to relieve the monotony of thegarrison. "My hunters, " says Piquet, "had supplied me with means ofgiving them a pretty good entertainment. We drank, with all our hearts, the health of the authorities, temporal and ecclesiastical, to the soundof our musketry, which was very well fired, and delighted theislanders. " These islanders were a band of Indians who lived here. Piquet gave them a feast, then discoursed of religion, and at lastpersuaded them to remove to the new mission. 

During eight days he and his party coasted the northern shore of LakeOntario, with various incidents, such as an encounter between his dogCerberus and a wolf, to the disadvantage of the latter, and the meetingwith "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, whichoffered a striking contrast to their last stopping-place. "The wine hereis of the best; there is nothing wanting in this fort; everything isabundant, fine, and good. " There was reason for this. The NorthernIndians were flocking with their beaver-skins to the English of Oswego;and in April, 1749, an officer named Portneuf had been sent withsoldiers and workmen to build a stockaded trading-house at Toronto, inorder to intercept them, --not by force, which would have been ruinousto French interests, but by a tempting supply of goods and brandy. [35]Thus the fort was kept well stocked, and with excellent effect. Piquetfound here a band of Mississagas, who would otherwise, no doubt, havecarried their furs to the English. He was strongly impelled to persuadethem to migrate to La Présentation; but the Governor had told him toconfine his efforts to other tribes; and lest, he says, the ardor of hiszeal should betray him to disobedience, he reimbarked, and encamped sixleagues from temptation. 

[Footnote 35: On Toronto, _La Jonquière et Bigot au Ministre, 1749. LaJonquière au Ministre, 30 Août, 1750. N. Y. Col. Docs. X_. 201, 246. ]

Two days more brought him to Niagara, where he was warmly received bythe commandant, the chaplain, and the storekeeper, --the triumvirate whoruled these forest outposts, and stood respectively for then: threevital principles, war, religion, and trade. Here Piquet said mass; andafter resting a day, set out for the trading-house at the portage of thecataract, recently built, like Toronto, to stop the Indians on their wayto Oswego. [36] Here he found Joncaire, and here also was encamped alarge band of Senecas; though, being all drunk, men, women, andchildren, they were in no condition to receive the Faith, or appreciatethe temporal advantages that attended it. On the next morning, findingthem partially sober, he invited them to remove to La Présentation; "butas they had still something left in their bottles, I could get no answertill the following day. " "I pass in silence, " pursues the missionary, "an infinity of talks on this occasion. Monsieur de Joncaire forgotnothing that could help me, and behaved like a great servant of God andthe King. My recruits increased every moment. I went to say my breviarywhile my Indians and the Senecas, without loss of time, assembled tohold a council with Monsieur de Joncaire. " The result of the council wasan entreaty to the missionary not to stop at Oswego, lest evil shouldbefall him at the hands of the English. He promised to do as theywished, and presently set out on his return to Fort Niagara, attended byJoncaire and a troop of his new followers. The journey was a triumphalprogress. "Whenever was passed a camp or a wigwam, the Indians salutedme by firing their guns, which happened so often that I thought all thetrees along the way were charged with gunpowder; and when we reached thefort, Monsieur de Becancour received us with great ceremony and thefiring of cannon, by which my savages were infinitely flattered. "

[Footnote 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 theirlives, and there rewarded with a few presents. He now prepared to turnhomeward, his flock at the mission being left in his absence without ashepherd; and on the sixth of July he embarked, followed by a swarm ofcanoes. On the twelfth they stopped at the Genesee, and went to visitthe Falls, where the city of Rochester now stands. On the way, theIndians found a populous resort of rattlesnakes, and attacked thegregarious reptiles with great animation, to the alarm of themissionary, who trembled for his bare-legged retainers. His fears provedneedless. Forty-two dead snakes, as he avers, requited the efforts ofthe sportsmen, and not one of them was bitten. When he returned to campin the afternoon he found there a canoe loaded with kegs of brandy. "TheEnglish, " he says, "had sent it to meet us, well knowing that this wasthe best way to cause disorder among my new recruits and make themdesert me. The Indian in charge of the canoe, who had the look of agreat rascal, offered some to me first, and then to my Canadians andIndians. I gave out that it was very probably poisoned, and immediatelyembarked again. "

He encamped on the fourteenth at Sodus Bay, and strongly advises theplanting of a French fort there. "Nevertheless, " he adds, "it would bestill better to destroy Oswego, and on no account let the English buildit again. " On the sixteenth he came in sight of this dreaded post. Several times on the way he had met fleets of canoes going thitheror returning, in spite of the rival attractions of Toronto and Niagara. No English establishment on the continent was of such ill omen to theFrench. 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 builthere, strong enough to command Lake Ontario, thus separating Canada fromLouisiana, and cutting New France asunder. To meet this danger, theysoon after built at Fort Frontenac a large three-masted vessel, mountedwith heavy cannon; thus, as usual, forestalling their rivals bypromptness of action. [37] The ground on which Oswego stood was claimedby the Province of New York, which alone had control of it; but throughthe purblind apathy of the Assembly, and their incessant quarrels withthe Governor, it was commonly left to take care of itself. For sometime they would vote no money to pay the feeble little garrison; andClinton, who saw the necessity of maintaining it, was forced to do so onhis own personal credit. [38] "Why can't your Governor and your great men[_the Assembly_] agree?" asked a Mohawk chief of the interpreter, ConradWeiser. [39]

[Footnote 37: _Lieutenant Lindesay to Johnson, July, 1751. _]

[Footnote 38: _Clinton to Lords of Trade, 30 July, 1750. _]

[Footnote 39: _Journal of Conrad Weiser, 1750. _]

Piquet kept his promise not to land at the English fort; but heapproached in his canoe, and closely observed it. The shores, nowcovered by the city of Oswego, were then a desolation of bare hills andfields, studded with the stumps of felled trees, and hedged about with agrim 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 behindthem stood a huge blockhouse with a projecting upper story. Thisbuilding was surrounded by a rough wall of stone, with flankers at theangles, forming what was called the fort. [40] Piquet reconnoitred itfrom 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 theevils that arise from it. "It not only spoils our trade, but puts theEnglish into communication with a vast number of our Indians, far andnear. It is true that they like our brandy better than English rum; butthey prefer English goods to ours, and can buy for two beaver-skins atOswego a better silver bracelet than we sell at Niagara for ten. "

[Footnote 40: Compare _Doc. Hist. N. Y. _, I. 463. ]

The burden of these reflections was lightened when he approached FortFrontenac. "Never was reception more solemn. The Nipissings andAlgonkins, who were going on a war-party with Monsieur Belêtre, formed aline 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 thesame way. Monsieur de Verchères and Monsieur de Valtry ordered thecannon of the fort to be fired; and my Indians, transported with joy atthe honor done them, shot off their guns incessantly, with cries andacclamations that delighted everybody. " A goodly band of recruits joinedhim, and he pursued his voyage to La Présentation, while the canoes ofhis proselytes followed in a swarm to their new home; "thatestablishment"--thus in a burst of enthusiasm he closes hisJournal--"that establishment which I began two years ago, in the midstof opposition; that establishment which may be regarded as a key of thecolony; that establishment which officers, interpreters, and tradersthought a chamaera, --that establishment, I say, forms already a missionof 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 andninety-six, without counting more than a hundred and fifty whom MonsieurChabert de Joncaire is to bring me this autumn. And I certify that thusfar I have received from His Majesty--for all favor, grace, andassistance--no more than a half pound of bacon and two pounds of breadfor 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 ofmy masters, God and the King. "[41]

[Footnote 41: _Journal qui peut servir de Mémoire et de Relation duVoyage que j'ay fait sur le Lac Ontario pour attirer au nouvelÉtablissement de La Présentation les Sauvages Iroquois des Cinq Nations, 1751_. The last passage given above is condensed in the rendering, asthe 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 FortMichillimackinac that from Huron to Michigan; while Fort Ste. Marie, atthe outlet of Lake Superior, had lately received a garrison, and changedfrom a mission and trading-station to a post of war. [42] This immenseextent of inland navigation was safe in the hands of France so long asshe held Niagara. Niagara lost, not only the lakes, but also the Valleyof the Ohio was lost with it. Next in importance was Detroit. This wasnot a military post alone, but also a settlement; and, except thehamlets about Fort Chartres, the only settlement that France owned inall the West. There were, it is true, but a few families; yet the hopeof growth seemed good; for to such as liked a wilderness home, no spotin America had more attraction. Father Bonnecamp stopped here for a dayon his way back from the expedition of Céloron. "The situation, " hesays, "is charming. A fine river flows at the foot of thefortifications; vast meadows, asking only to be tilled, extend beyondthe sight. Nothing can be more agreeable than the climate. Winter lastshardly two months. European grains and fruits grow here far better thanin many parts of France. It is the Touraine and Beauce of Canada. "[43]The white flag of the Bourbons floated over the compact littlepalisaded town, with its population of soldiers and fur-traders; andfrom the blockhouses which served as bastions, one saw on either handthe small solid dwellings of the _habitants_, ranged at intervals alongthe margin of the water; while at a little distance three Indianvillages--Ottawa, Pottawattamie, and Wyandot--curled their wigwam smokeinto the pure summer air. [44]

[Footnote 42: _La Jonquière au Ministre, 24 Août, 1750_. ]

[Footnote 43: _Relation du Voiage de la Belle Rivière, 1749_. ]

[Footnote 44: A plan of Detroit is before me, made about this time bythe engineer Lery. ]

When Céloron de Bienville returned from the Ohio, he went, with a royalcommission, sent him a year before, to command at Detroit. [45] His latechaplain, the very intelligent Father Bonnecamp, speaks of him asfearless, energetic, and full of resource; but the Governor calls himhaughty and insubordinate. Great efforts were made, at the same time, tobuild up Detroit as a centre of French power in the West. The methodsemployed were of the debilitating, paternal character long familiar toCanada. All emigrants with families were to be carried thither at theKing's expense; and every settler was to receive in free gift a gun, ahoe, an axe, a ploughshare, a scythe, a sickle, two augers, large andsmall, a sow, six hens, a cock, six pounds of powder, and twelve poundsof lead; while to these favors were added many others. The result wasthat twelve families were persuaded to go, or about a twentieth part ofthe number wanted. [46] Detroit was expected to furnish supplies to theother posts for five hundred miles around, control the neighboringIndians, thwart English machinations, and drive off English interlopers. 

[Footnote 45: _Le Ministre à la Jonquière et Bigot, 14 Mai, 1749. LeMinistre à Céloron, 23 Mai, 1749_. ]

[Footnote 46: _Ordonnance du 2 Jan. 1750. La Jonquière et Bigot auMinistre, 1750_. Forty-six persons of all ages and both sexes had beeninduced by La Galissonière to go the year before. _Lettres communes dela Jonquière et Bigot, 1749_. The total fixed population of Detroit andits neighborhood in 1750 is stated at four hundred and eighty-threesouls. In the following two years, a considerable number of young mencame of their own accord, and Céloron wrote to Montreal to ask for girlsto marry them. ]

La Galissonière no longer governed Canada. He had been honorablyrecalled, and the Marquis de la Jonquière sent in his stead. [47] LaJonquière, like his predecessor, was a naval officer of high repute; hewas tall and imposing in person, and of undoubted capacity and courage;but old and, according to his enemies, very avaricious. [48] The ColonialMinister gave him special instructions regarding that thorn in the sideof Canada, Oswego. To attack it openly would be indiscreet, as the twonations were at peace; but there was a way of dealing with it lesshazardous, if not more lawful. This was to attack it vicariously bymeans of the Iroquois. "If Abbé Piquet succeeds in his mission, " wrotethe Minister to the new Governor, "we can easily persuade these savagesto destroy Oswego. This is of the utmost importance; but act with greatcaution. "[49] In the next year the Minister wrote again: "The only meansthat can be used for such an operation in time of peace are those of theIroquois. If by making these savages regard such an establishment[_Oswego_] as opposed to their liberty, and, so to speak, a usurpationby which the English mean to get possession of their lands, they couldbe induced to undertake its destruction, an operation of the sort is notto be neglected; but M. Le Marquis de la Jonquière should feel with whatcircumspection such an affair should be conducted, and he should laborto accomplish it in a manner not to commit himself. "[50] To this LaJonquière replies that it will need time; but that he will graduallybring the Iroquois to attack and destroy the English post. He receivedstringent orders to use every means to prevent the English fromencroaching, but to act towards them at the same time "with the greatestpoliteness. "[51] This last injunction was scarcely fulfilled in acorrespondence which he had with Clinton, governor of New York, who hadwritten to complain of the new post at the Niagara portage as aninvasion of English territory, and also of the arrest of four Englishtraders in the country of the Miamis. Niagara, like Oswego, was in thecountry 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 plenipotentiarieshad signed the treaty. The treaty also provided that the subjects of thetwo Crowns "shall enjoy full liberty of going and coming on account oftrade, " and Clinton therefore demanded that La Jonquière should disavowthe arrest of the four traders and punish its authors. The FrenchGovernor replied with great asperity, spurned the claim that the FiveNations were British subjects, and justified the arrest. [53] Hepresently went further. Rewards were offered by his officers for thescalps of Croghan and of another trader named Lowry. [54] When thisreached the ears of William Johnson, on the Mohawk, he wrote to Clintonin evident anxiety for his own scalp: "If the French go on so, there isno man can be safe in his own house; for I can at any time get an Indianto kill any man for a small matter. Their going on in that manner isworse than open war. "

[Footnote 47: _Le Ministre à la Galissonière, 14 Mai, 1749_. ]

[Footnote 48: _Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760_. The charges made hereand elsewhere are denied, somewhat faintly, by a descendant of LaJonquière in his elaborate _Notice biographique_ of his ancestor. ]

[Footnote 49: _Le Ministre à La Jonquière, Mai, 1749_. The instructionsgiven to La Jonquière before leaving France also urge the necessity ofdestroying Oswego. ]

[Footnote 50: _Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres; à MM. De laJonquière et Bigot, 15 Avril, 1750_. See Appendix A. For original. ]

[Footnote 51: _Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, 1750_. ]

[Footnote 52: Chalmers, _Collection of Treaties_, I. 382. ]

[Footnote 53: _La Jonquière à Clinton, 10 Août, 1751_. ]

[Footnote 54: Deposition of Morris Turner and Ralph Kilgore, in_Colonial Records of Pa. _, V. 482. The deponents had been prisoners atDetroit. ]

The French on their side made counter-accusations. The captive traderswere examined on oath before La Jonquière, and one of them, John Patton, is reported to have said that Croghan had instigated Indians to killFrenchmen. [55] French officials declared that other English traders wereguilty of the same practices; and there is very little doubt that thecharge was true. 

[Footnote 55: _Précis des Faits, avec leurs Pièces justificatives_, 100. ]

The dispute with the English was not the only source of trouble to theGovernor. His superiors at Versailles would not adopt his views, andlooked on him with distrust. He advised the building of forts near LakeErie, and his advice was rejected. "Niagara and Detroit, " he was told, "will secure forever our communications with Louisiana. "[56] "HisMajesty, " again wrote the Colonial Minister, "thought that expenseswould diminish after the peace; but, on the contrary, they haveincreased. There must be great abuses. You and the Intendant must lookto it. "[57] Great abuses there were; and of the money sent to Canada forthe service of the King the larger part found its way into the pocketsof peculators. The colony was eaten to the heart with officialcorruption; and the centre of it was François Bigot, the intendant. TheMinister directed La Jonquière's attention to certain malpracticeswhich 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 adrop of blood in my veins that does not thrill for the service of myKing. I will not conceal from you that the slightest suspicion on yourpart against me would cut the thread of my days. "[58]

[Footnote 56: _Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres_, 1750. ]

[Footnote 57: _Ibid. , 6 Juin_, 1751. ]

[Footnote 58: _La Jonquière au Ministre, 19 Oct_. 1751. ]

Perplexities increased; affairs in the West grew worse and worse. LaJonquière ordered Céloron to attack the English at Pickawillany; andCéloron could not or would not obey. "I cannot express, " writes theGovernor, "how much this business troubles me; it robs me of sleep; itmakes me ill. " Another letter of rebuke presently came from Versailles. "Last year you wrote that you would soon drive the English from theOhio; but private letters say that you have done nothing. This isdeplorable. If not expelled, they will seem to acquire a right againstus. Send force enough at once to drive them off, and cure them of allwish to return. "[59] La Jonquière answered with bitter complaintsagainst Céloron, and then begged to be recalled. His health, alreadyshattered, 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 veryrich, his habits of thrift so possessed his last hours that, seeingwax-candles burning in his chamber, he ordered others of tallow to bebrought instead, as being good enough to die by. Thus frugally lightedon its way, his spirit fled; and the Baron de Longueuil took his placetill a new governor should arrive. 

[Footnote 59: _Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres_, 1751. ]

[Footnote 60: He died on the sixth of March, 1752 (_Bigot au Ministre, 6Mai_); not on the seventeeth of May, as stated in the _Mémoires sur leCanada_, 1749-1760. ]

Sinister tidings came thick from the West. Raymond, commandant at theFrench fort on the Maumee, close to the centre of intrigue, wrote: "Mypeople are leaving me for Detroit. Nobody wants to stay here and havehis throat cut. All the tribes who go to the English at Pickawillanycome back loaded with gifts. I am too weak to meet the danger. Insteadof twenty men, I need five hundred. .. . We have made peace with theEnglish, yet they try continually to make war on us by means of theIndians; they intend to be masters of all this upper country. The tribeshere are leaguing together to kill all the French, that they may havenobody on their lands but their English brothers. This I am told byColdfoot, a great Miami chief, whom I think an honest man, if there isany such thing among Indians. .. . If the English stay in this country weare lost. We must attack, and drive them out. " And he tells of war-beltssent from tribe to tribe, and rumors of plots and conspiracies far andnear. 

Without doubt, the English traders spared no pains to gain over theIndians by fair means or foul; sold them goods at low rates, made amplegifts, and gave gunpowder for the asking. Saint-Ange, who commanded atVincennes, wrote that a storm would soon burst on the heads of theFrench. Joncaire reported that all the Ohio Indians sided with theEnglish. Longueuil informed the Minister that the Miamis had scalped twosoldiers; that the Piankishaws had killed seven Frenchmen; and that asquaw who had lived with one of the slain declared that the tribes ofthe Wabash and Illinois were leaguing with the Osages for a combinedinsurrection. Every letter brought news of murder. Small-pox had brokenout at Detroit. "It is to be wished, " says Longueuil, "that it wouldspread among our rebels; it would be fully as good as an army. .. . We aremenaced with a general outbreak, and even Toronto is in danger. .. . Before long the English on the Miami will gain over all the surroundingtribes, get possession of Fort Chartres, and cut our communications withLouisiana. "[61]

[Footnote 61: _Dépêches de Longueuil; Lettres de Raymond; Benoit deSaint-Clere à la Jonquière, Oct. 1751. _]

The moving spirit of disaffection was the chief called Old Britain, orthe Demoiselle, and its focus was his town of Pickawillany, on theMiami. At this place it is said that English traders sometimes musteredto the number of fifty or more. "It is they, " wrote Longueuil, "who arethe instigators of revolt and the source of all our woes. "[62] Whereuponthe Colonial Minister reiterated his instructions to drive them off andplunder them, which he thought would "effectually disgust them, " andbring all trouble to an end. [63]

[Footnote 62: _Longueuil au Ministre, 21 Avril, 1752. _]

[Footnote 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 Céleronto attack the English and their red allies alike; and he charged thatofficer with arrogance and disobedience because he had not done so. Itis not certain that obedience was easy; for though, besides the garrisonof regulars, a strong body of militia was sent up to Detroit to aid thestroke, [64] the Indians of that post, whose co-operation was thoughtnecessary, proved half-hearted, intractable, and even touched withdisaffection. Thus the enterprise languished till, in June, aid camefrom another quarter. Charles Langlade, a young French trader married toa squaw at Green Bay, and strong in influence with the tribes of thatregion, came down the lakes from Michillimackinac with a fleet of canoesmanned by two hundred and fifty Ottawa and Ojibwa warriors; stopped awhile at Detroit; then embarked again, paddled up the Maumee toRaymond's fort at the portage, and led his greased and painted rabblethrough the forest to attack the Demoiselle and his English friends. They approached Pickawillany at about nine o'clock on the morning of thetwenty-first. The scared squaws fled from the cornfields into the town, where the wigwams of the Indians clustered about the fortified warehouseof 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 theDemoiselle remained with a band of his tribesmen. Great was thescreeching of war-whoops and clatter of guns. Three of the traders werecaught outside the fort. The remaining five closed the gate, and stoodon their defence. The fight was soon over. Fourteen Miamis were shotdown, the Demoiselle among the rest. The five white men held out tillthe afternoon, when three of them surrendered, and two, Thomas Burneyand Andrew McBryer, made their escape. One of the English prisonersbeing wounded, the victors stabbed him to death. Seventy years ofmissionaries had not weaned them from cannibalism, and they boiled andeat the Demoiselle. [65]

[Footnote 64: _La Jonquière à Céleron, 1 Oct. 1751. _]

[Footnote 65: On the attack of Pickawillany, _Longueuil au Ministre, 18Août, 1752; Duquesne au Ministre, 25 Oct. 1752; Colonial Records ofPa. _, V. 599; _Journal of William Trent_, 1752. Trent was on the spot afew days after the affair. ]

The captive traders, plundered to the skin, were carried by Langlade toDuquesne, the new governor, who highly praised the bold leader of theenterprise, and recommended him to the Minister for such reward asbefitted one of his station. "As he is not in the King's service, andhas married a squaw, I will ask for him only a pension of two hundredfrancs, which will flatter him infinitely. "

The Marquis Duquesne, sprung from the race of the great naval commanderof that name, had arrived towards midsummer; and he began his rule by ageneral review of troops and militia. His lofty bearing offended theCanadians; but he compelled their respect, and, according to a writer ofthe time, showed from the first that he was born to command. Hepresently took in hand an enterprise which his predecessor wouldprobably have accomplished, had the Home Government encouraged him. Duquesne, profiting by the infatuated neglect of the British provincialassemblies, prepared to occupy the upper waters of the Ohio, and securethe passes with forts and garrisons. Thus the Virginian andPennsylvanian traders would be debarred all access to the West, and thetribes of that region, bereft henceforth of English guns, knives, hatchets, and blankets, English gifts and English cajoleries, would bethrown back to complete dependence on the French. The moral influence, too, of such a movement would be incalculable; for the Indian respectsnothing so much as a display of vigor and daring, backed by force. Inshort, the intended enterprise was a master-stroke, and laid the axe tothe very root of disaffection. It is true that, under the treaty, commissioners had been long in session at Paris to settle the questionof American boundaries; but there was no likelihood that they would cometo agreement; and if France would make good her Western claims, itbehooved her, while there was yet time, to prevent her rival fromfastening a firm grasp on the countries in dispute. 

Yet the Colonial Minister regarded the plan with distrust. "Be on yourguard, " he wrote to Duquesne, "against new undertakings; privateinterests are generally at the bottom of them. It is through these thatnew posts are established. Keep only such as are indispensable, andsuppress the others. The expenses of the colony are enormous; and theyhave doubled since the peace. " Again, a little later: "Build on the Ohiosuch forts as are absolutely necessary, but no more. Remember that HisMajesty suspects your advisers of interested views. "[66]

[Footnote 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 tothe official thieves with whom the colony swarmed. Some band of favoredknaves grew rich; while a much greater number, excluded from sharing theillicit profits, clamored against the undertaking, and wrote charges ofcorruption to Versailles. Thus the Minister was kept tolerably wellinformed; but was scarcely the less helpless, for with the Atlanticbetween, the disorders of Canada defied his control. Duquesne wasexasperated by the opposition that met him on all hands, and wrote tothe Minister: "There are so many rascals in this country that one isforever the butt of their attacks. "[67]

[Footnote 67: _Duquesne au Ministre, 29 Sept. _ 1754. ]

It seems that unlawful gain was not the only secret spring of themovement. An officer of repute says that the Intendant, Bigot, enterprising in his pleasures as in his greed, was engaged in anintrigue with the wife of Chevalier Péan; and wishing at once to consolethe husband and to get rid of him, sought for him a high command at adistance from the colony. Therefore while Marin, an able officer, wasmade first in rank, Péan was made second. The same writer hints thatDuquesne himself was influenced by similar motives in his appointment ofleaders. [68]

[Footnote 68: Pouchot, _Mémoire sur la dernière Guerre de l'Amériqueseptentrionale (ed. _ 1781), I. 8. ]

He mustered the colony troops, and ordered out the Canadians. With theformer he was but half satisfied; with the latter he was delighted; andhe praises highly their obedience and alacrity. "I had not the leasttrouble in getting them to march. They came on the minute, bringingtheir own guns, though many people tried to excite them to revolt; forthe whole colony opposes my operations. " The expedition set out early inthe spring of 1753. The whole force was not much above a thousand men, increased by subsequent detachments to fifteen hundred; but to theIndians it seemed a mighty host; and one of their orators declared thatthe lakes and rivers were covered with boats and soldiers from Montrealto Presquisle. [69] Some Mohawk hunters by the St. Lawrence saw them asthey passed, and hastened home to tell the news to Johnson, whom theywakened at midnight, "whooping and hollowing in a frightful manner. "[70]Lieutenant Holland at Oswego saw a fleet of canoes upon the lake, andwas told by a roving Frenchman that they belonged to an army of sixthousand men going to the Ohio, "to cause all the English to quit thoseparts. "[71]

[Footnote 69: _Duquesne au Ministre, 27 Oct. _ 1753. ]

[Footnote 70: _Johnson to Clinton, 20 April_, 1753, in _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, VI. 778. ]

[Footnote 71: _Holland to Clinton, 15 May_, 1753, in _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, VI. 780. ]

The main body of the expedition landed at Presquisle, on thesoutheastern shore of Lake Erie, where the town of Erie now stands; andhere for a while we leave them. 

Chapter 4

1710-1754

Conflict for Acadia

While in the West all the signs of the sky foreboded storm, anothertempest was gathering the East, less in extent, but not less in peril. The conflict in Acadia has a melancholy interest, since it ended in acastastrophe which prose and verse have joined to commemorate, but ofwhich 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 adjacentcountry--was conquered by General Nicholson in 1710, and formallytransferred by France to the British Crown, three years later, by thetreaty of Utrecht. By that treaty it was "expressly provided" that suchof the French inhabitants as "are willing to remain there and to besubject to the Kingdom of Great Britain, are to enjoy the free exerciseof their religion according to the usage of the Church of Rome, as faras the laws of Great Britain do allow the same"; but that any who choosemay remove, with their effects, if they do so within a year. Very fewavailed themselves of this right; and after the end of the year thosewho 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, hadthey been let alone; but the French authorities of Canada and CapeBreton did their utmost to prevent them, and employed agents to keepthem hostile to England. Of these the most efficient were the Frenchpriests, who, in spite of the treaty, persuaded their flocks that theywere still subjects of King Louis. Hence rose endless perplexity to theEnglish commanders at Annapolis, who more than suspected that the Indianattacks with which they were harassed were due mainly to Frenchinstigation. [72] It was not till seventeen years after the treaty thatthe Acadians could be brought to take the oath without qualificationswhich made it almost useless. The English authorities seem to have shownthroughout an unusual patience and forbearance. At length, about 1730, nearly all the inhabitants signed by crosses, since few of them couldwrite, an oath recognizing George II as sovereign of Acadia, andpromising fidelity and obedience to him. [73] This restored comparativequiet till the war of 1745, when some of the Acadians remained neutral, while some took arms against the English, and many others aided theenemy with information and supplies. 

[Footnote 72: See the numerous papers in _Selections from the PublicDocuments of the Province of Nova Scotia_ (Halifax, 1869), pp. 1-165; aGovernment publication of great value. ]

[Footnote 73: The oath was _literatim_ as follows: "Je Promets et JureSincerement en Foi de Chrétien que Je serai entierement Fidele, etObeierai Vraiment Sa Majesté Le Roy George Second, qui (_sic_) Jereconnoi 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 atAnnapolis and a feebler one at Canseau, received at this time a greataccession. The fortress of Louisbourg, taken by the English during thewar, had been restored by the treaty; and the French at once prepared tomake it a military and naval station more formidable than ever. Uponthis the British Ministry resolved to establish another station as acounterpoise; 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 oftransports loaded with emigrants, tempted by offers of land and a homein the New World. Some were mechanics, tradesmen, farmers, and laborers;others were sailors, soldiers, and subaltern officers thrown out ofemployment by the peace. Including women and children, they counted inall about twenty-five hundred. Alone of all the British colonies on thecontinent, this new settlement was the offspring, not of privateenterprise, but of royal authority. Yet is was free like the rest, withthe same popular representation and local self-government. EdwardCornwallis, uncle of Lord Cornwallis of the Revolutionary War, was madegovernor and commander-in-chief. Wolfe calls him "a man of approvedcourage and fidelity"; and even the caustic Horace Walpole speaks of himas "a brave, sensible young man, of great temper and good nature. "

Before summer was over, the streets were laid out, and the building-lotof each settler was assigned to him; before winter closed, the wholewere under shelter, the village was fenced with palisades and defendedby redoubts of timber, and the battalions lately in garrison atLouisbourg manned the wooden ramparts. Succeeding years brought moreemigrants, and in 1752 the population was above four thousand. Thus wasborn into the world the city of Halifax. Along with the crumbling oldfort and miserably disciplined garrison at Annapolis, besides six orseven small detached posts to watch the Indians and Acadians, itcomprised the whole British force on the peninsula; for Canseau had beendestroyed by the French. 

The French had never reconciled themselves to the loss of Acadia, andwere resolved, by diplomacy or force, to win it back again; but thebuilding of Halifax showed that this was to be no easy task, and filledthem at the same time with alarm for the safety of Louisbourg. On onepoint, at least, they saw their policy clear. The Acadians, though thoseof them who were not above thirty-five had been born under the Britishflag, must be kept French at heart, and taught that they were stillFrench subjects. In 1748 they numbered eighty-eight hundred and fiftycommunicants, or from twelve to thirteen thousand souls; but anemigration, of which the causes will soon appear, had reduced them in1752 to but little more than nine thousand. [74] These were divided intosix 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; andCobequid, now Truro. Their priests, who were missionaries controlled bythe diocese of Quebec, acted also as their magistrates, ruling them forthis world and the next. Bring subject to a French superior, and being, moreover, wholly French at heart, they formed in this British province awheel within a wheel, the inner movement always opposing the outer. 

[Footnote 74: _Description de l'Acadie, avec le Nom des Paroisses et leNombre des Habitants, 1748. Mémoire à présenter à la Cour sur lanecessité 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 hadsolemnly declared the Acadians to be British subjects, the Government ofLouis XV intrigued continually to turn them from subjects into enemies. Before me is a mass of English documents on Acadian affairs from thepeace of Aix-la-Chapelle to the catastrophe of 1755, and above athousand pages of French official papers from the archives of Paris, memorials, reports, and secret correspondence, relating to the samematters. With the help of these and some collateral lights, it is notdifficult to make a correct diagnosis of the political disease thatravaged this miserable country. Of a multitude of proofs, only a few canbe given here; but these will suffice. 

It was not that the Acadians had been ill-used by the English; thereverse was the case. They had been left in free exercise of theirworship, as stipulated by treaty. It is true that, from time to time, there were loud complaints from French officials that religion was indanger, because certain priests had been rebuked, arrested, broughtbefore the Council at Halifax, suspended from their functions, orrequired, on pain of banishment, to swear that they would do nothingagainst the interests of King George. Yet such action on the part of theprovincial authorities seems, without a single exception, to have beenthe consequence of misconduct on the part of the priest, in opposing theGovernment and stirring his flock to disaffection. La Jonquière, thedetermined adversary of the English, reported to the bishop that theydid not oppose the ecclesiastics in the exercise of their functions, andan order of Louis XV admits that the Acadians have enjoyed liberty ofreligion. [75] In a long document addressed in 1750 to the ColonialMinister at Versailles, Roma, an officer at Louisbourg, testifies thusto the mildness of British rule, though he ascribes it to interestedmotives. "The fear that the Acadians have of the Indians is thecontrolling motive which makes them side with the French. The English, having in view the conquest of Canada, wished to give the French of thatcolony, in their conduct towards the Acadians, a striking example ofthe mildness of their government. Without raising the fortune of any ofthe inhabitants, they have supplied them for more than thirty-five yearswith the necessaries of life, often on credit and with an excess ofconfidence, without troubling their debtors, without pressing them, without wishing to force them to pay. They have left them an appearanceof liberty so excessive that they have not intervened in their disputesor even punished their crimes. They have allowed them to refuse withinsolence certain moderate rents payable in grain and lawfully due. Theyhave passed over in silence the contemptuous refusal of the Acadians totake titles from them for the new lands which they chose to occupy. [76]

[Footnote 75: _La Jonquière à Évêque de Québec, 14 Juin, 1750. Mémoiredu Roy pour servir d'Instruction au Comte de Raymond, commandant pour SaMajesté à l'Isle Royale_ [Cape Breton], _24 Avril, 1751_. ]

[Footnote 76: See Appendix B. ]

"We know very well, " pursues Roma, "the fruits of this conduct in thelast war; and the English know it also. Judge then what will be thewrath and vengeance of this cruel nation. " The fruits to which Romaalludes were the hostilities, open or secret, committed by the Acadiansagainst the English. He now ventures the prediction that the enragedconquerors will take their revenge by drafting all the young Acadians onboard their ships of war, and there destroying them by slow starvation. He proved, however, a false prophet. The English Governor merelyrequired the inhabitants to renew their oath of allegiance, withoutqualification or evasion. 

It was twenty years since the Acadians had taken such an oath; andmeanwhile a new generation had grown up. The old oath pledged them tofidelity and obedience; but they averred that Phillips, then governor ofthe province, had given them, at the same time, assurance that theyshould not be required to bear arms against either French or Indians. Infact, such service had not been demanded of them, and they would havelived in virtual neutrality, had not many of them broken their oaths andjoined the French war-parties. For this reason Cornwallis thought itnecessary that, in renewing the pledge, they should bind themselves toan allegiance as complete as that required of other British subjects. This spread general consternation. Deputies from the Acadiansettlements appeared at Halifax, bringing a paper signed with the marksof a thousand persons. The following passage contains the pith of it. "The inhabitants in general, sir, over the whole extent of this countryare 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 forourselves and our heirs from taking up arms, we will accept it. "[77] Theanswer of Cornwallis was by no means so stern as it has beenrepresented. [78] After the formal reception he talked in private withthe deputies; and "they went home in good humor, promising greatthings. "[79]

[Footnote 77: _Public Documents of Nova Scotia_, 173. ]

[Footnote 78: See _Ibid. _, 174, where the answer is printed. ]

[Footnote 79: _Cornwallis to the Board of Trade, 11 Sept. 1749. _]

The refusal of the Acadians to take the required oath was not whollyspontaneous, but was mainly due to influence from without. The Frenchofficials of Cape Breton and Isle St. Jean, now Prince Edward Island, exerted themselves to the utmost, chiefly through the agency of thepriests, to excite the people to refuse any oath that should commit themfully to British allegiance. At the same time means were used to inducethem to migrate to the neighboring islands under French rule, andefforts were also made to set on the Indians to attack the English. Butthe plans of the French will best appear in a despatch sent by LaJonquière 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 faithfulsubjects of the King of Great Britain, he will allow them priests andpublic exercise of their religion, with the understanding that no priestshall officiate without his permission or before taking an oath offidelity to the King of Great Britain. Secondly, that the inhabitantsshall not be exempted from defending their houses, their lands, and theGovernment. Thirdly, that they shall take an oath of fidelity to theKing of Great Britain, on the twenty-sixth of this month, beforeofficers sent them for that purpose. "

La Jonquière proceeds to say that on hearing these conditions theAcadians were filled with perplexity and alarm, and that he, thegovernor, had directed Boishébert, his chief officer on the Acadianfrontier, to encourage them to leave their homes and seek asylum onFrench soil. He thus recounts the steps he has taken to harass theEnglish of Halifax by means of their Indian neighbors. As peace had beendeclared, the operation was delicate; and when three of these Indianscame to him from their missionary, Le Loutre, with letters on thesubject, La Jonquière was discreetly reticent. "I did not care to givethem any advice upon the matter, and confined myself to a promise that Iwould on no account abandon them; and I have provided for supplying themwith everything, whether arms, ammunition, food, or other necessaries. It is to be desired that these savages should succeed in thwarting thedesigns of the English, and even their settlement at Halifax. They arebent on doing so; and if they can carry out their plans, it is certainthat they will give the English great trouble, and so harass them thatthey will be a great obstacle in their path. These savages are to actalone; neither soldier nor French inhabitant is to join them; everythingwill be done of their own motion, and without showing that I had anyknowledge of the matter. This is very essential; therefore I havewritten to the Sieur de Boishébert to observe great prudence in hismeasures, and to act very secretly, in order that the English may notperceive that we are providing for the needs of the said savages. "

"It will be the missionaries who will manage all the negotiation, anddirect the movements of the savages, who are in excellent hands, as theReverend Father Germain and Monsieur l'Abbé Le Loutre are very capableof making the most of them, and using them to the greatest advantage forour interests. They will manage their intrigue in such a way as not toappear in it. "

La Jonquière then recounts the good results which he expects from thesemeasures: first, the English will be prevented from making any newsettlements; secondly, we shall gradually get the Acadians out of theirhands; and lastly, they will be so discouraged by constant Indianattacks that they will renounce their pretensions to the parts of thecountry belonging to the King of France. "I feel, Monseigneur, "--thusthe Governor concludes his despatch, --"all the delicacy of thisnegotiation; be assured that I will conduct it with such precaution thatthe English will not be able to say that my orders had any part init. "[80]

[Footnote 80: _La Jonquière au Ministre, 9 Oct. 1749_. See Appendix B. ]

He kept his word, and so did the missionaries. The Indians gave greattrouble on the outskirts of Halifax, and murdered many harmlesssettlers; yet the English authorities did not at first suspect that theywere hounded on by their priests, under the direction of the Governorof Canada, and with the privity of the Minister at Versailles. More thanthis; for, looking across the sea, we find royalty itself lending itsaugust countenance to the machination. Among the letters read before theKing in his cabinet in May, 1750, was one from Desherbiers, thencommanding at Louisbourg, saying that he was advising the Acadians notto take the oath of allegiance to the King of England; another from LeLoutre, declaring that he and Father Germain were consulting togetherhow to disgust the English with their enterprise of Halifax; and a thirdfrom the Intendant, Bigot, announcing that Le Loutre was using theIndians to harass the new settlement, and that he himself was sendingthem powder, lead, and merchandise, "to confirm them in their gooddesigns. "[81]

[Footnote 81: _Resumé des Lettres lues au Travail du Roy, Mai, 1750_. ]

To this the Minister replies in a letter to Desherbiers: "His Majesty iswell satisfied with all you have done to thwart the English in their newestablishment. If the dispositions of the savages are such as they seem, there is reason to hope that in the course of the winter they willsucceed in so harassing the settlers that some of them will becomedisheartened. " Desherbiers is then told that His Majesty desires him toaid English deserters in escaping from Halifax. [82] Supplies for theIndians are also promised; and he is informed that twelve medals aresent him by the frigate "La Mutine, " to be given to the chiefs who shallmost distinguish themselves. In another letter Desherbiers is enjoinedto treat the English authorities with great politeness. [83]

[Footnote 82: In 1750 nine captured deserters from Phillips's regimentdeclared on their trial that the French had aided them and supplied themall with money. _Public Documents of Nova Scotia_, 193. ]

[Footnote 83: _Le Ministre à Desherbiers, 23 Mai, 1750; Ibid. , 31 Mai, 1750_. ]

When Count Raymond took command at Louisbourg, he was instructed, underthe royal hand, to give particular attention to the affairs of Acadia, especially in two points, --the management of the Indians, and theencouraging of Acadian emigration to countries under French rule. "HisMajesty, " says the document, "has already remarked that the savages havebeen most favorably disposed. It is of the utmost importance that nomeans be neglected to keep them so. The missionaries among them are in abetter position than anybody to contribute to this end, and His Majestyhas reason to be satisfied with the pains they take therein. The Sieurde 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 notto compromise themselves with the English, and give just occasion ofcomplaint. "[84] That is, the King orders his representative to encouragethe missionaries in instigating their flocks to butcher Englishsettlers, but to see that they take care not to be found out. Theinjunction was hardly needed. "Monsieur Desherbiers, " says a letter ofearlier date, "has engaged Abbé Le Loutre to distribute the usualpresents among the savages, and Monsieur Bigot has placed in his handsan additional gift of cloth, blankets, powder, and ball, to be giventhem in case they harass the English at Halifax. This missionary is toinduce them to do so. "[85] In spite of these efforts, the Indians beganto relent in their hostilities; and when Longueuil became provisionalgovernor of Canada, he complained to the Minister that it was verydifficult to prevent them from making peace with the English, thoughFather 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 departingfrom his original policy of allowing no soldier or Acadian to take partwith them. He had sent a body of troops under La Corne, an able partisanofficer, to watch the English frontier; and in the same vessel was senta supply of "merchandise, guns, and munitions for the savages and theAcadians who may take up arms with them; and the whole is sent underpretext of trading in furs with the savages. "[87] On another occasionLa Jonquière wrote: "In order that the savages may do their partcourageously, a few Acadians, dressed and painted in their way, couldjoin them to strike the English. I cannot help consenting to what thesesavages do, because we have our hands tied [_by the peace_], and so can do nothing ourselves. Besides, I do not think that anyinconvenience will come of letting the Acadians mingle among them, because if they [_the Acadians_] are captured, we shall say that theyacted of their own accord. "[88] In other words, he will encourage themto break the peace; and then, by means of a falsehood, have thempunished as felons. Many disguised Acadians did in fact join the Indianwar-parties; and their doing so was no secret to the English. "What wecall here an Indian war, " wrote Hopson, successor of Cornwallis, "is noother than a pretence for the French to commit hostilities on HisMajesty's subjects. "

[Footnote 84: _Mémoire du Roy pour servir d'Instruction au Comte deRaymond, 24 Avril, 1751_. ]

[Footnote 85: _Lettre commune de Desherbiers et Bigot au Ministre, 15Août, 1749_. ]

[Footnote 86: _Longueuil au Ministre, 26 Avril, 1752_. ]

[Footnote 87: _Bigot au Ministre, 1749_. ]

[Footnote 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 LeLoutre's mission, who called himself Major Jean-Baptiste Cope, came toHalifax with a deputation of his tribe, and they all affixed theirtotems to a solemn treaty. In the next summer they returned with ninetyor a hundred warriors, were well entertained, presented with gifts, andsent homeward in a schooner. On the way they seized the vessel andmurdered the crew. This is told by Prévost, intendant at Louisbourg, whodoes not say that French instigation had any part in the treachery. [89]It is nevertheless certain that the Indians were paid for this or somecontemporary murder; for Prévost, writing just four weeks later, says:"Last month the savages took eighteen English scalps, and Monsieur LeLoutre was obliged to pay them eighteen hundred livres, Acadian money, which I have reimbursed him. "[90]

[Footnote 89: _Prévost au Ministre, 12 Mars, 1753; Ibid. , 17 July_, 1753. Prévost was _ordonnateur_, or intendant, at Louisbourg. The treatywill be found in full in _Public Documents of Nova Scotia_, 683. ]

[Footnote 90: _Prévost au Ministre, 16 Août_, 1753. ]

From the first, the services of this zealous missionary had been beyondprice. Prévost testifies that, though Cornwallis does his best to inducethe Acadians to swear fidelity to King George, Le Loutre keeps them inallegiance to King Louis, and threatens to set his Indians upon themunless they declare against the English. "I have already, " adds Prévost, "paid him 11, 183 livres for his daily expenses; and I never ceaseadvising him to be as economical as possible, and always to take carenot to compromise himself with the English Government. "[91] Inconsequence of "good service to religion and the state, " Le Loutrereceived a pension of eight hundred livres, as did also Maillard, hisbrother missionary on Cape Breton. "The fear is, " writes the ColonialMinister to the Governor of Louisbourg, "that their zeal may carry themtoo far. Excite them to keep the Indians in our interests, but do notlet them compromise us. Act always so as to make the English appear asaggressors. "[92]

[Footnote 91: _Ibid. , 22 Juillet_, 1750. ]

[Footnote 92: _Le Ministre au Comte de Raymond, 21 Juillet_, 1752. It iscurious to compare these secret instructions, given by the Minister tothe colonial officials, with a letter which the same Minister, Rouillé, wrote ostensibly to La Jonquière, but which was really meant for the eyeof the British Minister at Versailles, Lord Albemarle, to whom it wasshown in proof of French good faith. It was afterwards printed, longwith other papers, in a small volume called _Précis des Faits, avecPièces justificatives_ which was sent by the French Government to allthe courts of Europe to show that the English alone were answerable forthe war. The letter, it is needless to say, breathes the highestsentiments of international honor. ]

All the Acadian clergy, in one degree or another, seem to have usedtheir influence to prevent the inhabitants from taking the oath, and topersuade them that they were still French subjects. Some were noisy, turbulent, and defiant; others were too tranquil to please the officersof the Crown. A missionary at Annapolis is mentioned as old, andtherefore inefficient; while the curé at Grand Pré, also an elderly man, was too much inclined to confine himself to his spiritual functions. Itis everywhere apparent that those who chose these priests, and sent themas missionaries into a British province, expected them to act as enemiesof the British Crown. The maxim is often repeated that duty to religionis inseparable from the duty to the King of France. The Bishop of Quebecdesired the Abbé de l'Isle-Dieu to represent to the court the need ofmore missionaries to keep the Acadians Catholic and French; but, headds, there is danger that they (the missionaries) will be required totake an oath to do nothing contrary to the interests of the King ofGreat Britain. [93] It is a wonder that such a pledge was not alwaysdemanded. It was exacted in a few cases, notably in that of Girard, priest at Cobequid, who, on charges of instigating his flock todisaffection, had been sent prisoner to Halifax, but released on takingan oath in the above terms. Thereupon he wrote to Longueuil at Quebecthat 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 nothelp answering him that he is not obliged to keep such an oath, and thathe ought to labor in all zeal to preserve and increase the number of thefaithful. " Girard, to his credit, preferred to leave the colony, andretired to Isle St. Jean. [94]

[Footnote 93: L'Isle-Dieu, _Mémoire sur l'État actuel des Missions, 1753_ (1754?). ]

[Footnote 94: _Longueuil au Ministre, 27 Avril, 1752_. ]

Cornwallis soon discovered to what extent the clergy stirred theirflocks to revolt; and he wrote angrily to the Bishop of Quebec: "Was ityou who sent Le Loutre as a missionary to the Micmacs? and is it fortheir good that he excites these wretches to practise their crueltiesagainst those who have shown them every kindness? The conduct of thepriests of Acadia has been such that by command of his Majesty I havepublished an Order declaring that if any one of them presumes toexercise his functions without my express permission he shall be dealtwith according to the laws of England. "[95]

[Footnote 95: _Cornwallis to the Bishop of Quebec, 1 Dec. 1749_. ]

The English, bound by treaty to allow the Acadians the exercise of theirreligion, at length conceived the idea of replacing the French priestsby others to be named by the Pope at the request of the BritishGovernment. This, becoming known to the French, greatly alarmed them, and the Intendant at Louisbourg wrote to the Minister that the matterrequired serious attention. [96] It threatened, in fact, to rob them oftheir chief agents of intrigue; but their alarm proved needless, as theplan was not carried into execution. 

[Footnote 96: _Daudin, prêtre, à Prévost, 23 Oct. 1753. Prévost auMinistre, 24 Nov. 1753_. ]

The French officials would have been better pleased had the conduct ofCornwallis been such as to aid their efforts to alienate the Acadians;and one writer, while confessing the "favorable treatment" of theEnglish towards the inhabitants, denounces it as a snare. [97] If so, itwas a snare intended simply to reconcile them to English rule. Nor wasit without effect. "We must give up altogether the idea of aninsurrection in Acadia, " writes an officer of Cape Breton. "The Acadianscannot be trusted; they are controlled by fear of the Indians, whichleads them to breathe French sentiments, even when their inclinationsare English. They will yield to their interests; and the English willmake it impossible that they should either hurt them or serve us, unlesswe take measures different from those we have hitherto pursued. "[98]

[Footnote 97: _Mémoire à présenter à la Cour, 1753_. ]

[Footnote 98: _Roma au Ministre, 11 Mars, 1750_. ]

During all this time, constant efforts were made to stimulate Acadianemigration to French territory, and thus to strengthen the Frenchfrontier. In this work the chief agent was Le Loutre. "This priest, "says a French writer of the time, "urged the people of Les Mines, PortRoyal [_Annapolis_], and other places, to come and join the French, andpromised to all, in the name of the Governor, to settle and support themfor three years, and even indemnify them for any losses they mightincur; threatening if they did not do as he advised, to abandon them, deprive them of their priests, have their wives and children carriedoff, and their property laid waste by the Indians. "[99] Some passed overthe isthmus to the shores of the gulf, and others made their way to theStrait of Canseau. Vessels were provided to convey them, in the one caseto Isle St. Jean, now Prince Edward Island, and in the other to IsleRoyale, called by the English, Cape Breton. Some were eager to go; somewent with reluctance; some would scarcely be persuaded to go at all. "They leave their homes with great regret, " reports the Governor of IsleSt. Jean, speaking of the people of Cobequid, "and they began to movetheir luggage only when the savages compelled them. "[100] These savageswere the flock of Abbé Le Loutre, who was on the spot to direct theemigration. Two thousand Acadians are reported to have left thepeninsula before the end of 1751, and many more followed within the nexttwo years. Nothing could exceed the misery of a great part of theseemigrants, who had left perforce most of their effects behind. Theybecame disheartened and apathetic. The Intendant at Louisbourg says thatthey will not take the trouble to clear the land, and that some of themlive, like Indians, under huts of spruce-branches. [101] The Governor ofIsle St. Jean declares that they are dying of hunger. [102] Girard, thepriest who had withdrawn to this island rather than break his oath tothe English, writes: "Many of them cannot protect themselves day ornight from the severity of the cold. Most of the children are entirelynaked; 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 butnearly all are in want. "[103] Mortality among them was great, and wouldhave been greater but for rations supplied by the French Government. 

[Footnote 99: _Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760_. ]

[Footnote 100: _Bonaventure à Desherbiers, 26 Juin, 1751_. ]

[Footnote 101: _Prévost au Ministre, 25 Nov. 1750_. ]

[Footnote 102: _Bonaventure, ut supra_. ]

[Footnote 103: _Girard à (Bonaventure?), 27 Oct. 1753_. ]

During these proceedings, the English Governor, Cornwallis, seems tohave justified the character of good temper given him by Horace Walpole. His attitude towards the Acadians remained on the whole patient andconciliatory. "My friends, " he replied to a deputation of them asking ageneral permission to leave the province, "I am not ignorant of the factthat every means has been used to alienate the hearts of the Frenchsubjects of His Britannic Majesty. Great advantages have been promisedyou elsewhere, and you have been made to imagine that your religion wasin danger. Threats even have been resorted to in order to induce you toremove 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 knowthat certain officers and missionaries, who came from Canada lastautumn, have been the cause of all our trouble during the winter. Theirconduct has been horrible, without honor, probity, or conscience. Theiraim is to embroil you with the Government. I will not believe that theyare authorized to do so by the Court of France, that being contrary togood faith and the friendship established between the two Crowns. "

What foundation there was for this amiable confidence in the Court ofVersailles has been seen already. "When you declared your desire tosubmit yourselves to another Government, " pursues Cornwallis, "ourdetermination was to hinder nobody from following what he imagined to behis interest. We know that a forced service is worth nothing, and that asubject compelled to be so against his will is not far from being anenemy. We confess, however, that your determination to go gives us pain. We are aware of your industry and temperance, and that you are notaddicted to any vice or debauchery. This province is your country. Youand your fathers have cultivated it; naturally you ought yourselves toenjoy the fruits of your labor. Such was the design of the King, ourmaster. You know that we have followed his orders. You know that we havedone everything to secure to you not only the occupation of your lands, but the ownership of them forever. We have given you also every possibleassurance of the free and public exercise of the Roman Catholicreligion. But I declare to you frankly that, according to our laws, nobody can possess lands or houses in the province who shall refuse totake the oath of allegiance to his King when required to do so. You knowvery well that there are ill-disposed and mischievous persons among youwho corrupt the others. Your inexperience, your ignorance of the affairsof government, and your habit of following the counsels of those whohave not your real interests at heart, make it an easy matter to seduceyou. 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 regulationsalready established, and provide yourselves with our passport. And wedeclare that nothing shall prevent us from giving such passports to allwho ask for them, the moment peace and tranquillity arere-established. "[104] He declares as his reason for not giving them atonce, that on crossing the frontier "you will have to pass the Frenchdetachments and savages assembled there, and that they compel all theinhabitants who go there to take up arms" against the English. How wellthis reason was founded will soon appear. 

[Footnote 104: The above passages are from two address of Cornwallis, read to the Acadian deputies in April and May, 1750. The combinedextracts here given convey the spirit of the whole. See _PublicDocuments of Nova Scotia_, 185-190. ]

Hopson, the next governor, described by the French themselves as a "mildand peaceable officer, " was no less considerate in his treatment of theAcadians; and at the end of 1752 he issued the following order to hismilitary subordinates: "You are to look on the French inhabitants in thesame light as the rest of His Majesty's subjects, as to the protectionof the laws and government; for which reason nothing is to be taken fromthem by force, or any price set upon their goods but what theythemselves agree to. And if at any time the inhabitants shouldobstinately refuse to comply with what His Majesty's service may requireof them, you are not to redress yourself by military force or in anyunlawful manner, but to lay the case before the Governor and wait hisorders thereon. "[105] Unfortunately, the mild rule of Cornwallis andHopson was not always maintained under their successor, Lawrence. 

[Footnote 105: _Public Documents of Nova Scotia_, 197. ]

Louis Joseph Le Loutre, vicar-general of Acadia and missionary to theMicmacs, was the most conspicuous person in the province, and more thanany other man was answerable for the miseries that overwhelmed it. Thesheep of which he was the shepherd dwelt, at a day's journey fromHalifax, by the banks of the River Shubenacadie, in small cabins oflogs, mixed with wigwams of birch-bark. They were not a docile flock;and to manage them needed address, energy, and money, --with all of whichthe missionary was provided. He fed their traditional dislike of theEnglish, and fanned their fanaticism, born of the villanous counterfeitof Christianity which he and his predecessors had imposed on them. Thushe contrived to use them on the one hand to murder the English, and onthe other to terrify the Acadians; yet not without cost to the FrenchGovernment; for they had learned the value of money, and, except whentheir blood was up, were slow to take scalps without pay. Le Loutre wasa man of boundless egotism, a violent spirit of domination, an intensehatred of the English, and a fanaticism that stopped at nothing. Towardsthe Acadians he was a despot; and this simple and superstitious people, extremely susceptible to the influence of their priests, trembled beforehim. He was scarcely less masterful in his dealings with the Acadianclergy; and, aided by his quality of the Bishop's vicar-general, hedragooned even the unwilling into aiding his schemes. Three successivegovernors of New France thought him invaluable, yet feared theimpetuosity of his zeal, and vainly tried to restrain it within safebounds. The bishop, while approving his objects, thought his medicinestoo violent, and asked in a tone of reproof: "Is it right for you torefuse the Acadians the sacraments, to threaten that they shall bedeprived of the services of a priest, and that the savages shall treatthem as enemies?"[106] "Nobody, " says a French Catholic contemporary, "was more fit than he to carry discord and desolation into acountry. "[107] Cornwallis called him "a good-for-nothing scoundrel, " andoffered a hundred pounds for his head. [108]

[Footnote 106: _L'Évêque de Québec à Le Loutre_; translation in _PublicDocuments of Nova Scotia_, 240. ]

[Footnote 107: _Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760_. ]

[Footnote 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 practisedon them, were themselves not always models of international virtue. Theyseized a French vessel in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, on thecharge--probably true--that she was carrying arms and ammunition to theAcadians and Indians. A less defensible act was the capture of the armedbrig "St. François, " laden with supplies for a fort latelyre-established by the French, at the mouth of the River St. John, onground claimed by both nations. Captain Rous, a New England officercommanding a frigate in the Royal Navy, opened fire on the "St. François, " took her after a short cannonade, and carried her intoHalifax, where she was condemned by the court. Several captures of smallcraft, accused of illegal acts, were also made by the English. Theseproceedings, being all of an overt nature, gave the officers of LouisXV. Precisely what they wanted, --an occasion for uttering loudcomplaints, and denouncing the English as breakers of the peace. 

But the movement most alarming to the French was the English occupationof Beaubassin, --an act perfectly lawful in itself, since, withoutreasonable doubt, the place was within the limits of Acadia, andtherefore on English ground. [109] Beaubassin was a considerablesettlement on the isthmus that joins the Acadian peninsula to themainland. Northwest of the settlement lay a wide marsh, through whichran a stream called the Missaguash, some two miles beyond which rose ahill called Beauséjour. On and near this hill were stationed the troopsand Canadians sent under Boishébert and La Corne to watch the Englishfrontier. This French force excited disaffection among the Acadiansthrough all the neighboring districts, and constantly helped them toemigrate. Cornwallis therefore resolved to send an English force to thespot; and accordingly, towards the end of April, 1750, Major Lawrencelanded at Beaubassin with four hundred men. News of their approach hadcome before them, and Le Loutre was here with his Micmacs, mixed withsome Acadians whom he had persuaded or bullied to join him. Resolvedthat the people of Beaubassin should not live under English influence, he now with his own hand set fire to the parish church, while his whiteand red adherents burned the houses of the inhabitants, and thuscompelled them to cross to the French side of the river. [110] This wasthe first forcible removal of the Acadians. It was as premature as itwas violent; since Lawrence, being threatened by La Corne, whose forcewas several times greater than his own, presently reimbarked. In thefollowing September he returned with seventeen small vessels and aboutseven hundred men, and again attempted to land on the strand ofBeaubassin. La Jonquière says that he could only be resisted indirectly, because he was on the English side of the river. This indirectresistance was undertaken by Le Loutre, who had thrown up a breastworkalong the shore and manned it with his Indians and his painted andbe-feathered Acadians. Nevertheless the English landed, and, with someloss, drove out the defenders. Le Loutre himself seems not to have beenamong them; but they kept up for a time a helter-skelter fight, encouraged by two other missionaries, Germain and Lalerne, who were nearbeing caught by the English. [111] Lawrence quickly routed them, tookpossession of the cemetery, and prepared to fortify himself. The villageof 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 grainand hay. Le Loutre's Indians now threatened to plunder and kill theinhabitants if they did not take arms against the English. Few complied, and the greater part fled to the woods. [112] On this the Indians andtheir Acadian allies set the houses and barns on fire, and laid wastethe whole district, leaving the inhabitants no choice but to seek foodand shelter with the French. [113]

[Footnote 109: La Jonquière himself admits that he thought so. "Cettepartie là étant, à ce que je crois, dépendante de l'Acadie. " _LaJonquière au Ministre, 3 Oct. 1750_. ]

[Footnote 110: It has been erroneously stated that Beaubassin was burnedby its own inhabitants. "Laloutre, ayant vu que les Acadiens neparoissoient pas fort pressés d'abandonner leurs biens, avoit lui-mêmemis le feu á l'Église, et l'avoit fait mettre aux maisons des habitantspar quelques-uns de ceux qu'il avoit gagnés, " etc. _Mémoires sur leCanada, 1749-1760_. "Les sauvages y mirent le feu. " _Précis des Faits_, 85. "Les sauvages mirent le feu aux maisons. " _Prévost au Ministre, 22Juillet, 1750_. ]

[Footnote 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. ]

[Footnote 112: _Prévost au Ministre, 27 Sept. 1750_. ]

[Footnote 113: "Les sauvages et Accadiens mirent le feu dans toutes lesmaisons et granges, pleines de bled et de fourrages, ce qui a causé unegrande 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. Neitherparty respected the dividing line of the Missaguash, and a petty warfareof aggression and reprisal began, and became chronic. Before the end ofthe autumn there was an atrocious act of treachery. Among the Englishofficers 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, bymany of whom he was known and liked. One morning, at about eighto'clock, the inmates of Fort Lawrence saw what seemed an officer fromBeauséjour, 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 mudgashed across the face of the marsh, with a thread of half-fluid slimelazily crawling along the bottom; but at high tide it was filled to thebrim with an opaque torrent that would have overflowed, but for thedikes thrown up to confine it. Behind the dike on the farther bank stoodthe 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 indisguise, Etienne Le Bâtard, or, as others say, the great chief, Jean-Baptiste Cope. Howe, carrying a white flag, and accompanied by afew 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. Butit was too late; for a number of Indians, who had hidden behind the dikeduring the night, fired upon Howe across the stream, and mortallywounded him. They continued their fire on his companions, but could notprevent them from carrying the dying man to the fort. The Frenchofficers, indignant at this villany, did not hesitate to charge it uponLe Loutre; "for, " says one of them, "what is not a wicked priest capableof doing?" But Le Loutre's brother missionary, Maillard, declares thatit 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 HolyVirgin. [114] Maillard adds that the Indians were much pleased with whatthey had done. Finding, however, that they could effect little againstthe English troops, they changed their field of action, repaired to theoutskirts of Halifax, murdered about thirty settlers, and carried offeight or ten prisoners. 

[Footnote 114: Maillard, _Les Missions Micmaques_. On the murder ofHowe, _Public Documents of Nova Scotia_, 194, 195, 210; _Mémoires sur leCanada, 1749-1760_, where it is said that Le Loutre was present at thedeed; La Vallière, _Journal_, who says that some Acadians took part init; _Dépêches de la Jonquière_, who says "les sauvages de l'Abbé leLoutre l'ont tué par trahison;" and _Prévost au Ministre, 27 Oct. 1750_. ]

Strong reinforcements came from Canada. The French began a fort on thehill of Beauséjour, and the Acadians were required to work at it with nocompensation but rations. They were thinly clad, some had neither shoesnor stockings, and winter was begun. They became so dejected that it wasfound absolutely necessary to give them wages enough to supply theirmost pressing needs. In the following season Fort Beauséjour was in astate to receive a garrison. It stood on the crown of the hill, and avast panorama stretched below and around it. In front lay the Bay ofChignecto, winding along the fertile shores of Chipody and Memeramcook. Far on the right spread the great Tantemar marsh; on the left lay themarsh of the Missaguash; and on a knoll beyond it, not three milesdistant, the red flag of England waved over the palisades of FortLawrence, while hills wrapped in dark forests bounded the horizon. 

How the homeless Acadians from Beaubassin lived through the winter isnot very clear. They probably found shelter at Chipody and itsneighborhood, where there were thriving settlements of their countrymen. Le Loutre, fearing that they would return to their lands and submit tothe 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 tomake the Indians pillage them, carry off their wives and children, andeven kill them before their eyes. Nevertheless he kept about him such aswere most submissive to his will. "[115] In the spring after the Englishoccupied Beaubassin, La Jonquière issued a strange proclamation. Itcommanded all Acadians to take forthwith an oath of fidelity to the Kingof France, and to enroll themselves in the French militia, on pain ofbeing treated as rebels. [116] Three years after, Lawrence, who thengoverned the province, proclaimed in his turn that all Acadians who hadat any time sworn fidelity to the King of England, and who should befound in arms against him, would be treated as criminals. [117] Thus werethese unfortunates ground between the upper and nether millstones. LeLoutre replied to this proclamation of Lawrence by a letter in which heoutdid himself. He declared that any of the inhabitants who had crossedto the French side of the line, and who should presume to return to theEnglish, would be treated as enemies by his Micmacs; and in the name ofthese, his Indian adherents, he demanded that the entire eastern half ofthe Acadian peninsula, including the ground on which Fort Lawrencestood, should be at once made over to their sole use and sovereignownership, [118]--"which being read and considered, " says the record ofthe Halifax Council, "the contents appeared too insolent and absurd tobe answered. "

[Footnote 115: _Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760_. ]

[Footnote 116: _Ordonnance du 12 Avril, 1751_. ]

[Footnote 117: _Écrit donné aux Habitants réfugiés à Beauséjour, 10Août, 1754_. ]

[Footnote 118: _Copie de la Lettre de M. L'Abbé Le Loutre, PrêtreMissionnaire des Sauvages de l'Accadie, à M. Lawrence à Halifax, 26Août, 1754_. There is a translation in _Public Documents of NovaScotia_. ]

The number of Acadians who had crossed the line and were collected aboutBeauséjour was now large. Their countrymen of Chipody began to find thema burden, and they lived chiefly on Government rations. Le Loutre hadobtained fifty thousand livres from the Court in order to dike in, fortheir use, the fertile marshes of Memeramcook; but the relief wasdistant, and the misery pressing. They complained that they had beenlured over the line by false assurances, and they applied secretly tothe English authorities to learn if they would be allowed to return totheir homes. The answer was that they might do so with full enjoyment ofreligion and property, if they would take a simple oath of fidelity andloyalty to the King of Great Britain, qualified by an oral intimationthat they would not be required for the present to bear arms. [119] WhenLe Loutre heard this, he mounted the pulpit, broke into fierceinvectives, threatened the terrified people with excommunication, andpreached himself into a state of exhaustion. [120] The militarycommandant at Beauséjour used gentler means of prevention; and theAcadians, unused for generations to think or act for themselves, remained restless, but indecisive, waiting till fate should settle forthem the question, under which king?

[Footnote 119: _Public Documents of Nova Scotia_, 205, 209. ]

[Footnote 120: Compare _Mémoires, 1749-1760_, and _Public Documents ofNova Scotia_, 229, 230. ]

Meanwhile, for the past three years, the commissioners appointed underthe treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle to settle the question of boundariesbetween France and England in America had been in session at Paris, waging interminable war on paper; La Galissonière and Silhouette forFrance, Shirley and Mildmay for England. By the treaty of Utrecht, Acadia belonged to England; but what was Acadia? According to theEnglish commissioners, it comprised not only the peninsula now calledNova 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, theAtlantic on the south, and New England on the west. [121] The Frenchcommissioners, on their part, maintained that the name Acadia belongedof right only to about a twentieth part of this territory, and that itdid not even cover the whole of the Acadian peninsula, but only itssouthern coast, with an adjoining belt of barren wilderness. When theFrench owned Acadia, they gave it boundaries as comprehensive as thoseclaimed for it by the English commissioners; now that it belonged to arival, they cut it down to a paring of its former self. The denial thatAcadia included the whole peninsula was dictated by the need of a wintercommunication between Quebec and Cape Breton, which was possible onlywith the eastern portions in French hands. So new was this denial thateven La Galissonière himself, the foremost in making it, had declaredwithout reservation two years before that Acadia was the entirepeninsula. [122] "If, " says a writer on the question, "we had to do witha nation more tractable, less grasping, and more conciliatory, it wouldbe well to insist also that Halifax should be given up to us. " He thinksthat, on the whole, it would be well to make the demand in any case, inorder to gain some other point by yielding this one. [123] It is curiousthat while denying that the country was Acadia, the French invariablycalled the inhabitants Acadians. Innumerable public documents, commissions, grants, treaties, edicts, signed by French kings andministers, had recognized Acadia as extending over New Brunswick and apart of Maine. Four censuses of Acadia while it belonged to the Frenchhad recognized the mainland as included in it; and so do also the earlyFrench maps. Its prodigious shrinkage was simply the consequence of itspossession by an alien. 

[Footnote 121: The commission of De Monts, in 1603, defines Acadia asextending from the fortieth to the forty-sixth degrees oflatitude, --that is, from central New Brunswick to southern Pennsylvania. Neither party cared to produce the document. ]

[Footnote 122: "L'Acadie suivant ses anciennes limites est la presquislebornée par son isthme. " _La Galissonière au Ministre, 25 Juillet, 1749_. The English commissioners were, of course, ignorant of this admission. ]

[Footnote 123: _Mémoire de l'Abbée de l'Isle-Dieu, 1753_ (1754?). ]

Other questions of limits, more important and equally perilous, calledloudly for solution. What line should separate Canada and her westerndependencies from the British colonies? Various principles ofdemarcation were suggested, of which the most prominent on the Frenchside was a geographical one. All countries watered by streams fallinginto the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi were tobelong to her. This would have planted her in the heart of New York andalong the crests of the Alleghanies, giving her all the interior of thecontinent, and leaving nothing to England but a strip of sea-coast. Yetin view of what France had achieved; of the patient gallantry of herexplorers, the zeal of her missionaries, the adventurous hardihood ofher bushrangers, revealing to civilized mankind the existence of thiswilderness world, while her rivals plodded at their workshops, theirfarms, or their fisheries, --in view of all this, her pretensions weremoderate and reasonable compared with those of England. The treaty ofUtrecht had declared the Iroquois, or Five Nations, to be Britishsubjects; therefore it was insisted that all countries conquered by thembelonged to the British Crown. But what was an Iroquois conquest? TheIroquois rarely occupied the countries they overran. Their militaryexpeditions were mere raids, great or small. Sometimes, as in the caseof the Hurons, they made a solitude and called it peace; again, as inthe case of the Illinois, they drove off the occupants of the soil, whoreturned after the invaders were gone. But the range of theirwar-parties was prodigious; and the English laid claim to everymountain, forest, or prairie where an Iroquois had taken a scalp. Thiswould give them not only the country between the Alleghanies and theMississippi, but also that between Lake Huron and the Ottawa, thusreducing Canada to the patch on the American map now represented by theprovince of Quebec, --or rather, by a part of it, since the extension ofAcadia to the St. Lawrence would cut off the present counties of Gaspé, Rimouski, and Bonaventure. Indeed among the advocates of British claimsthere were those who denied that France had any rights whatever on thesouth side of the St. Lawrence. [124] Such being the attitude of the twocontestants, it was plain that there was no resort but the last argumentof kings. Peace must be won with the sword. 

[Footnote 124: The extent of British claims is best shown on two maps ofthe time, Mitchell's _Map of the British and French Dominions in NorthAmerica_ and Huske's _New and Accurate Map of North America_; both arein the British Museum. Dr. John Mitchell, in his _Contest in America_(London, 1757) pushes the English claim to its utmost extreme, anddenies that the French were rightful owners of anything in NorthAmerica except the town of Quebec and the trading-post of Tadoussac. Besides the claim founded on the subjection of the Iroquois to theBritish Crown, the English somewhat inconsistently advanced othersfounded on titles obtained by treaty from these same tribes, and othersstill, founded on the original grants of some of the colonies, which ranindefinitely westward across the continent. ]

The commissioners at Paris broke up their sessions, leaving as themonument of their toils four quarto volumes of allegations, arguments, and documentary proofs. [125] Out of the discussion rose also a swarm offugitive publications in French, English, and Spanish; for the questionof American boundaries had become European. There was one among themworth notice from its amusing absurdity. It is an elaboratedisquisition, under the title of _Roman politique_, by an authorfaithful to the traditions of European diplomacy, and inspired at thesame time by the new philosophy of the school of Rousseau. He insiststhat the balance of power must be preserved in America as well as inEurope, because "Nature, " "the aggrandizement of the human soul, " andthe "felicity of man" are unanimous in demanding it. The Englishcolonies are more populous and wealthy than the French; therefore theFrench should have more land, to keep the balance. Nature, the humansoul, and the felicity of man require that France should own all thecountry beyond the Alleghanies and all Acadia but a strip of the southcoast, according to the "sublime negotiations" of the Frenchcommissioners, of which the writer declares himself a "religiousadmirer. "[126]

[Footnote 125: _Mémoires des Commissaires de Sa Majesté Très Chrétienneet de ceux de Sa Majesté Brittanique_. Paris, 1755. Several editionsappeared. ]

[Footnote 126: _Roman politique sur l'État présent des Affaires del'Amérique_ (Amsterdam, 1756). For extracts from French Documents, seeAppendix B. ]

We know already that France had used means sharper than negotiation tovindicate her claim to the interior of the continent; had marched to thesources of the Ohio to entrench herself there, and hold the passes ofthe West against all comers. It remains to see how she fared in her boldenterprise. 

Chapter 5

1753, 1754

Washington

Towards the end of spring the vanguard of the expedition sent byDuquesne to occupy the Ohio landed at Presquisle, where Erie now stands. This route to the Ohio, far better than that which Céleron had followed, was a new discovery to the French; and Duquesne calls the harbor "thefinest in nature. " Here they built a fort of squared chestnut logs, andwhen it was finished they cut a road of several leagues through thewoods to Rivière aux Boeufs, now French Creek. At the farther end ofthis road they began another wooden fort and called it Fort Le Boeuf. Thence, when the water was high, they could descend French Creek to theAllegheny, and follow that stream to the main current of the Ohio. 

It was heavy work to carry the cumbrous load of baggage across theportages. Much of it is said to have been superfluous, consisting ofvelvets, silks, and other useless and costly articles, sold to the Kingat enormous prices as necessaries of the expedition. [127] The weight ofthe task fell on the Canadians, who worked with cheerful hardihood, anddid their part to admiration. Marin, commander of the expedition, agruff, 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 littlegood to be said, but whose conduct as an officer was such that Duquesnecalls him a prodigy of talents, resources, and zeal. [128] The subalternsdeserve no such praise. They disliked the service, and made no secret oftheir discontent. Rumors of it filled Montreal; and Duquesne wrote toMarin: "I am surprised that you have not told me of this change. Takenote of the sullen and discouraged faces about you. This sort are worsethan useless. Rid yourself of them at once; send them to Montreal, thatI may make an example of them. "[129] Péan wrote at the end of Septemberthat Marin was in extremity; and the Governor, disturbed and alarmed, for he knew the value of the sturdy old officer, looked anxiously for asuccessor. He chose another veteran, Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, who hadjust returned from a journey of exploration towards the RockyMountains, [130] and whom Duquesne now ordered to the Ohio. 

[Footnote 127: Pouchot, _Mémoires sur la dernière Guerre de l'AmériqueSeptentrionale_, I. 8. ]

[Footnote 128: _Duquesne au Ministre, 2 Nov. 1753_; compare _Mémoirepour Michel-Jean Hugues Péan_. ]

[Footnote 129: _Duquesne à Marin, 27 Août, 1753_. ]

[Footnote 130: _Mémoire ou Journal sommaire du Voyage de JacquesLegardeur de Saint-Pierre. _]

Meanwhile the effects of the expedition had already justified it. Atfirst the Indians of the Ohio had shown a bold front. One of them, achief whom the English called the Half-King, came to Fort Le Boeuf andordered the French to leave the country; but was received by Marin withsuch contemptuous haughtiness that he went home shedding tears of rageand mortification. The Western tribes were daunted. The Miamis, butyesterday fast friends of the English, made humble submission to theFrench, and offered them two English scalps to signalize theirrepentance; while the Sacs, Pottawattamies, and Ojibwas were loud inprofessions of devotion. [131] Even the Iroquois, Delawares, andShawanoes on the Alleghany had come to the French camp and offered theirhelp in carrying the baggage. It needed but perseverance and success inthe enterprise to win over every tribe from the mountains to theMississippi. To accomplish this and to curb the English, Duquesne hadplanned a third fort, at the junction of French Creek with theAlleghany, or at some point lower down; then, leaving the three postswell garrisoned, Péan was to descend the Ohio with the whole remainingforce, impose terror on the wavering tribes, and complete theirconversion. Both plans were thwarted; the fort was not built, nor didPéan descend the Ohio. Fevers, lung diseases, and scurvy made suchdeadly havoc among troops and Canadians, that the dying Marin saw withbitterness that his work must be left half done. Three hundred of thebest men were kept to garrison Forts Presquisle and Le Boeuf; and then, as winter approached, the rest were sent back to Montreal. When theyarrived, the Governor was shocked at their altered looks. "I reviewedthem, and could not help being touched by the pitiable state to whichfatigues and exposures had reduced them. Past all doubt, if theseemaciated figures had gone down the Ohio as intended, the river wouldhave been strewn with corpses, and the evil-disposed savages would nothave failed to attack the survivors, seeing that they were butspectres. "[132]

[Footnote 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. ]

[Footnote 132: _Duquesne au Ministre, 29 Nov. 1753_. On this expedition, compare the letter of Duquesne in _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, X. 255, and thedeposition of Stephen Coffen, _Ibid. _, VI. 835. ]

Legardeur de Saint-Pierre arrived at the end of autumn, and made hisquarters at Fort Le Boeuf. The surrounding forests had dropped theirleaves, and in gray and patient desolation bided the coming winter. Chill rains drizzled over the gloomy "clearing, " and drenched thepalisades and log-built barracks, raw from the axe. Buried in thewilderness, the military exiles resigned themselves as they might tomonths of monotonous solitude; when, just after sunset on the eleventhof December, a tall youth came out of the forest on horseback, attendedby a companion much older and rougher than himself, and followed byseveral Indians and four or five white men with packhorses. Officersfrom the fort went out to meet the strangers; and, wading through mudand sodden snow, they entered at the gate. On the next day the youngleader of the party, with the help of an interpreter, for he spoke noFrench, had an interview with the commandant, and gave him a letter fromGovernor Dinwiddie. Saint-Pierre and the officer next in rank, who knewa little English, took it to another room to study it at their ease; andin it, all unconsciously, they read a name destined to stand one of thenoblest in the annals of mankind; for it introduced Major GeorgeWashington, Adjutant-General of the Virginia militia. [133]

[Footnote 133: _Journal of Major Washington. Journal of Mr. ChristopherGist. _]

Dinwiddie, jealously watchful of French aggression, had learned throughtraders and Indians that a strong detachment from Canada had entered theterritories of the King of England, and built forts on Lake Erie and ona branch of the Ohio. He wrote to challenge the invasion and summon theinvaders to withdraw; and he could find none so fit to bear his messageas a young man of twenty-one. It was this rough Scotchman who launchedWashington on his illustrious career. 

Washington set out for the trading station of the Ohio Company on Will'sCreek; and thence, at the middle of November, struck into the wildernesswith Christopher Gist as a guide, Vanbraam, a Dutchman, as Frenchinterpreter, Davison, a trader, as Indian interpreter, and four woodsmenas servants. They went to the forks of the Ohio, and then down the riverto Logstown, the Chiningué of Céloron de Bienville. There Washington hadvarious parleys with the Indians; and thence, after vexatious delays, hecontinued his journey towards Fort Le Boeuf, accompanied by the friendlychief called the Half-King and by three of his tribesmen. For severaldays they followed the traders' path, pelted with unceasing rain andsnow, and came at last to the old Indian town of Venango, where FrenchCreek enters the Alleghany. Here there was an English trading-house; butthe French had seized it, raised their flag over it, and turned it intoa military outpost. [134] Joncaire was in command, with two subalterns;and nothing could exceed their civility. They invited the strangers tosupper; and, says Washington, "the wine, as they dosed themselves prettyplentifully with it, soon banished the restraint which at first appearedin their conversation, and gave a license to their tongues to revealtheir sentiments more freely. They told me that it was their absolutedesign 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 fortheir one, yet they knew their motions were too slow and dilatory toprevent any undertaking of theirs. "[135]

[Footnote 134: Marin had sent sixty men in August to seize the house, which belonged to the trader Fraser. _Dépêches de Duquesne_. Theycarried off two men whom they found here. Letter of Fraser in _ColonialRecords of Pa. _, V. 659. ]

[Footnote 135: _Journal of Washington_, as printed at Williamsburg, justafter his return. ]

With all their civility, the French officers did their best to enticeaway Washington's Indians; and it was with extreme difficulty that hecould persuade them to go with him. Through marshes and swamps, forestschoked with snow, and drenched with incessant rain, they toiled on forfour days more, till the wooden walls of Fort Le Boeuf appeared at last, surrounded by fields studded thick with stumps, and half-encircled bythe chill current of French Creek, along the banks of which lay morethan two hundred canoes, ready to carry troops in the spring. Washingtondescribes Legardeur de Saint-Pierre as "an elderly gentleman with muchthe air of a soldier. " The letter sent him by Dinwiddie expressedastonishment that his troops should build forts upon lands "sonotoriously known to be the property of the Crown of Great Britain. " "Imust desire you, " continued the letter, "to acquaint me by whoseauthority and instructions you have lately marched from Canada with anarmed force, and invaded the King of Great Britain's territories. Itbecomes my duty to require your peaceable departure; and that you wouldforbear prosecuting a purpose so interruptive of the harmony and goodunderstanding which His Majesty is desirous to continue and cultivatewith the Most Christian King. I persuade myself you will receive andentertain Major Washington with the candor and politeness natural toyour nation; and it will give me the greatest satisfaction if you returnhim with an answer suitable to my wishes for a very long and lastingpeace between us. "

Saint-Pierre took three days to frame the answer. In it he said that heshould send Dinwiddie's letter to the Marquis Duquesne and wait hisorders; and that meanwhile he should remain at his post, according tothe commands of his general. "I made it my particular care, " so theletter closed, "to receive Mr. Washington with a distinction suitable toyour dignity as well as his own quality and great merit. "[136] No formof courtesy had, in fact, been wanting. "He appeared to be extremelycomplaisant, " says Washington, "though he was exerting every artifice toset our Indians at variance with us. I saw that every stratagem waspractised to win the Half-King to their interest. " Neither gifts norbrandy were spared; and it was only by the utmost pains that Washingtoncould prevent his red allies from staying at the fort, conquered byFrench blandishments. 

[Footnote 136: "La Distinction qui convient à votre Dignitté à saQualité et à son grand Mérite. " Copy of original letter sent byDinwiddie 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 ofVanbraam and pushed forward on foot, accompanied by Gist alone. Each waswrapped to the throat in an Indian "matchcoat, " with a gun in his handand a pack at his back. Passing an old Indian hamlet called MurderingTown, they had an adventure which threatened to make good the name. AFrench Indian, whom they met in the forest, fired at them, pretendingthat his gun had gone off by chance. They caught him, and Gist wouldhave killed him; but Washington interposed, and they let him go. [137]Then, to escape pursuit from his tribesmen, they walked all night andall the next day. This brought them to the banks of the Alleghany. Theyhoped 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 outinto the stream, and were soon caught helplessly in the drifting ice. Washington, pushing hard with his setting-pole, was jerked into thefreezing river; but caught a log of the raft, and dragged himself out. By no efforts could they reach the farther bank, or regain that whichthey had left; but they were driven against an island, where theylanded, 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, theice had set, and the river was a solid floor. They crossed it, andsucceeded in reaching the house of the trader Fraser, on theMonongahela. It was the middle of January when Washington arrived atWilliamsburg and made his report to Dinwiddie. 

[Footnote 137: _Journal of Mr. Christopher Gist_, in _Mass. Hist. Coll. , 3rd Series_, V. ]

Robert Dinwiddie was lieutenant-governor of Virginia, in place of thetitular governor, Lord Albermarle, whose post was a sinecure. He hadbeen clerk in a government office in the West Indies; then surveyor ofcustoms in the "Old Dominion, "--a position in which he made himselfcordially disliked; and when he rose to the governorship he carried hisunpopularity with him. Yet Virginia and all the British colonies owedhim much; for, though past sixty, he was the most watchful sentinelagainst French aggression and its most strenuous opponent. Scarcely hadMarin's vanguard appeared at Presquisle, when Dinwiddie warned the HomeGovernment of the danger, and urged, what he had before urged in vain onthe Virginian Assembly, the immediate building of forts on the Ohio. There came in reply a letter, signed by the King, authorizing him tobuild the forts at the cost of the Colony, and to repel force by forcein case he was molested or obstructed. Moreover, the King wrote, "If youshall find that any number of persons shall presume to erect any fort orforts within the limits of our province of Virginia, you are first torequire of them peaceably to depart; and if, notwithstanding youradmonitions, they do still endeavor to carry out any such unlawful andunjustifiable designs, we do hereby strictly charge and command you todrive them off by force of arms. "[138]

[Footnote 138: _Instructions to Our Trusty and Well-beloved RobertDinwiddie, Esq. , 28 Aug. 1753. _]

The order was easily given; but to obey it needed men and money, and forthese Dinwiddie was dependent on his Assembly, or House of Burgesses. Heconvoked them for the first of November, sending Washington at the sametime with the summons to Saint-Pierre. The burgesses met. Dinwiddieexposed the danger, and asked for means to meet it. [139] They seemedmore than willing to comply; but debates presently arose concerning thefee of a pistole, which the Governor had demanded on each patent of landissued by him. The amount was trifling, but the principle was doubtful. The aristocratic republic of Virginia was intensely jealous of theslightest encroachment on its rights by the Crown or its representative. The Governor defended the fee. The burgesses replied that "subjectscannot be deprived of the least part of their property without theirconsent, " declared the fee unlawful, and called on Dinwiddie to confessit to be so. He still defended it. They saw in his demand for supplies ameans of bringing him to terms, and refused to grant money unless hewould recede from his position. Dinwiddie rebuked them for "disregardingthe designs of the French, and disputing the rights of the Crown"; andhe "prorogued them in some anger. "[140]

[Footnote 139: _Address of Lieutenant-Governor Dinwiddie to the Counciland Burgesses, 1 Nov. 1753. _]

[Footnote 140: _Dinwiddie Papers. _]

Thus he was unable to obey the instructions of the King. As a temporaryresource, he ventured to order a draft of two hundred men from themilitia. Washington was to have command, with the trader, William Trent, as his lieutenant. His orders were to push with all speed to the forksof the Ohio, and there build a fort; "but in case any attempts are madeto obstruct the works by any persons whatsoever, to restrain all suchoffenders, and, in case of resistance, to make prisoners of, or kill anddestroy them. "[141] The Governor next sent messengers to the Catawbas, Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Iroquois of the Ohio, inviting them to takeup the hatchet against the French, "who, under pretence of embracingyou, mean to squeeze you to death. " Then he wrote urgent letters to thegovernors of Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, Maryland, and New Jersey, begging for contingents of men, to be at Wills Creeks in March at thelatest. But nothing could be done without money; and trusting for achange of heart on the part of the burgesses, he summoned them to meetagain on the fourteenth of February. "If they come in good temper, " hewrote to Lord Fairfax, a nobleman settled in the colony, "I hope theywill lay a fund to qualify me to send four or five hundred men more tothe Ohio, which, with the assistance of our neighboring colonies, maymake some figure. "

[Footnote 141: _Ibid. Instructions to Major George Washington, January, 1754. _]

The session began. Again, somewhat oddly, yet forcibly, the Governor setbefore the Assembly the peril of the situation, and begged them topostpone less pressing questions to the exigency of the hour. [142] Thistime they listened; and voted ten thousand pounds in Virginia currencyto defend the frontier. The grant was frugal, and they jealously placedits expenditure in the hands of a committee of their own. [143]Dinwiddie, writing to the Lords of Trade, pleads necessity as his excusefor submitting to their terms. "I am sorry, " he says, "to find them toomuch in a republican way of thinking. " What vexed him still more wastheir sending an agent to England to complain against him on theirrepressible question of the pistole fee; and he writes to his Londonfriend, the merchant Hanbury: "I have had a great deal of trouble fromthe factious disputes and violent heats of a most impudent, troublesomeparty here in regard to that silly fee of a pistole. Surely everythinking man will make a distinction between a fee and a tax. Poorpeople! I pity their ignorance and narrow, ill-natured spirits. But, myfriend, consider that I could by no means give up this fee withoutaffronting the Board of Trade and the Council here who established it. "His thoughts were not all of this harassing nature, and he ends hisletter with the following petition: "Now, sir, as His Majesty is pleasedto make me a military officer, please send for Scott, my tailor, to makeme a proper suit of regimentals, to be here by His Majesty's birthday. Ido not much like gayety in dress, but I conceive this necessary. I donot 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 Imay show my friend's fancy in that suit of clothes; a good laced hat andtwo pair stockings, one silk, the other fine thread. "[144]

[Footnote 142: _Speech of Lieutenant-Governor Dinwiddie to the Counciland Burgesses 14 Feb. , 1754. _]

[Footnote 143: See the bill in Hening, _Statutes of Virginia_, VI. 417. ]

[Footnote 144: _Dinwiddie to Hanbury, 12 March, 1754; Ibid. , 10 May, 1754. _]

If the Governor and his English sometimes provoke a smile, he deservesadmiration for the energy with which he opposed the public enemy, undercircumstances the most discouraging. He invited the Indians to meet himin council at Winchester, and, as bait to attract them, coupled themessage with a promise of gifts. He sent circulars from the King to theneighboring governors, calling for supplies, and wrote letter uponletter to rouse them to effort. He wrote also to the more distantgovernors, Delancey of New York, and Shirley of Massachusetts, beggingthem to make what he called a "faint" against Canada, to prevent theFrench from sending so large a force to the Ohio. It was to the nearercolonies, from New Jersey to South Carolina, that he looked for directaid; and their several governors were all more or less active to procureit; but as most of them had some standing dispute with their assemblies, they could get nothing except on terms with which they would not, andsometimes could not, comply. As the lands invaded by the French belongedto one of the two rival claimants, Virginia and Pennsylvania, the othercolonies had no mind to vote money to defend them. Pennsylvania herselfrefused to move. Hamilton, her governor, could do nothing against theplacid obstinacy of the Quaker non-combatants and the stolid obstinacyof the German farmers who chiefly made up his Assembly. North Carolinaalone answered the appeal, and gave money enough to raise three or fourhundred men. Two independent companies maintained by the King in NewYork, and one in South Carolina, had received orders from England tomarch to the scene of action; and in these, with the scanty levies ofhis own and the adjacent province, lay Dinwiddie's only hope. With menabundant 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'sPalace, Dinwiddie despatched letters, orders, couriers, to hasten thetardy reinforcements of North Carolina and New York, and push on the rawsoldiers of the Old Dominion, who now numbered three hundred men. Theywere called the Virginia regiment; and Joshua Fry, an English gentleman, bred at Oxford, was made their colonel, with Washington as next incommand. Fry was at Alexandria with half the so-called regiment, tryingto get it into marching order; Washington, with the other half, hadpushed forward to the Ohio Company's storehouse at Wills Creek, whichwas to form a base of operations. His men were poor whites, brave, buthard to discipline; without tents, ill armed, and ragged as Falstaff'srecruits. Besides these, a band of backwoodsmen under Captain Trent hadcrossed the mountains in February to build a fort at the forks of theOhio, where Pittsburg now stands, --a spot which Washington had examinedwhen on his way to Fort Le Boeuf, and which he had reported as the bestfor the purpose. The hope was that Trent would fortify himself beforethe arrival of the French, and that Washington and Fry would join him intime to secure the position. Trent had begun the fort; but for someunexplained reason had gone back to Wills Creek leaving Ensign Ward withforty men at work upon it. Their labors were suddenly interrupted. Onthe seventeenth of April a swarm of bateaux and canoes came down theAlleghany, bringing, according to Ward, more than a thousand Frenchmen, though in reality not much above five hundred, who landed, plantedcannon against the incipient stockade, and summoned the ensign tosurrender, on pain of what might ensue. [145] He complied, and wasallowed to depart with his men. Retracing his steps over the mountains, he reported his mishap to Washington; while the French demolished hisunfinished fort, began a much larger and better one, and named it FortDuquesne. 

[Footnote 145: See the summons in _Précis des Faits_, 101. ]

They had acted with their usual promptness. Their Governor, a practisedsoldier, knew the value of celerity, and had set his troops in motionwith the first opening of spring. He had no refractory assembly tohamper him; no lack of money, for the King supplied it; and all Canadamust march at his bidding. Thus, while Dinwiddie was still toiling tomuster his raw recruits, Duquesne's lieutenant, Contrecoeur, successorof Saint-Pierre, had landed at Presquisle with a much greater force, inpart regulars, and in part Canadians. 

Dinwiddie was deeply vexed when a message from Washington told him howhis plans were blighted; and he spoke his mind to his friend Hanbury:"If our Assembly had voted the money in November which they did inFebruary, it's more than probable the fort would have been built andgarrisoned before the French had approached; but these things cannot bedone without money. As there was none in our treasury, I have advancedmy own to forward the expedition; and if the independent companies fromNew York come soon, I am in hopes the eyes of the other colonies will beopened; and if they grant a proper supply of men, I hope we shall beable to dislodge the French or build a fort on that river. Icongratulate you on the increase of your family. My wife and two girlsjoin in our most sincere respects to good Mrs. Hanbury. "[146]

[Footnote 146: _Dinwiddie to Hanbury, 10 May, 1754. _]

The seizure of a king's fort by planting cannon against it andthreatening it with destruction was in his eyes a beginning ofhostilities on the part of the French; and henceforth both he andWashington acted much as if war had been declared. From their station atWills Creek, the distance by the traders' path to Fort Duquesne wasabout a hundred and forty miles. Midway was a branch of the Monongahelacalled Redstone Creek, at the mouth of which the Ohio Company had builtanother storehouse. Dinwiddie ordered all the forces to cross themountains and assemble at this point, until they should be strong enoughto advance against the French. The movement was critical in presence ofan enemy as superior in discipline as he was in numbers, while thenatural obstacles were great. A road for cannon and wagons must be cutthrough a dense forest and over two ranges of high mountains, besidescountless hills and streams. Washington set all his force to the work, and they spent a fortnight in making twenty miles. Towards the end ofMay, however, Dinwiddie learned that he had crossed the main ridge ofthe Alleghanies, and was encamped with a hundred and fifty men near theparallel ridge of Laurel Hill, at a place called the Great Meadows. Trent's backwoodsmen had gone off in disgust; Fry, with the rest of theregiment, was still far behind; and Washington was daily expecting anattack. Close upon this, a piece of good news, or what seemed such, cameover the mountains and gladdened the heart of the Governor. He heardthat a French detachment had tried to surprise Washington, and that hehad 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 messengercame to him from his old comrade, the Half-King, who was on the way tojoin him. The message was to the effect that the French had marched fromtheir fort, and meant to attack the first English they should meet. Areport came soon after that they were already at the ford of theYoughiogany, eighteen miles distant. Washington at once repaired to theGreat Meadows, a level tract of grass and bushes, bordered by woodedhills, and traversed in one part by a gully, which with a little laborthe men turned into an entrenchment, at the same time cutting away thebushes and clearing what the young commander called "a charming fieldfor an encounter. " Parties were sent out to scour the woods, but theyfound no enemy. Two days passed; when, on the morning of thetwenty-seventh, Christopher Gist, who had lately made a settlement onthe farther side of Laurel Hill, twelve or thirteen miles distant, cameto the camp with news that fifty Frenchmen had been at his house towardsnoon of the day before, and would have destroyed everything but for theintervention of two Indians whom he had left in charge during hisabsence. Washington sent seventy-five men to look for the party; but thesearch was vain, the French having hidden themselves so well as toescape any eye but that of an Indian. In the evening a runner came fromthe 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 beliefall the French were lurking. 

Washington seems not to have hesitated a moment. Fearing a stratagem tosurprise his camp, he left his main force to guard it, and at teno'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 aspitch. " "The path, " he continues, "was hardly wide enough for one man;we often lost it, and could not find it again for fifteen or twentyminutes, and we often tumbled over each other in the dark[147]. " Sevenof his men were lost in the woods and left behind. The rest groped theirway all night, and reached the Indian camp at sunrise. A council washeld with the Half-King, and he and his warriors agreed to join instriking the French. Two of them led the way. The tracks of the twoFrench scouts seen the day before were again found, and, marching insingle file, the party pushed through the forest into the rocky hollowwhere the French were supposed to be concealed. They were there in fact;and they snatched their guns the moment they saw the English. Washingtongave the word to fire. A short fight ensued. Coulon de Jumonville, anensign in command, was killed, with nine others; twenty-two werecaptured, and none escaped but a Canadian who had fled at the beginningof the fray. After it was over, the prisoners told Washington that theparty had been sent to bring him a summons from Contrecoeur, thecommandant at Fort Duquesne. 

[Footnote 147: _Journal of Washington_ in _Précis des Faits_, 109. ThisJournal, which is entirely distinct from that before cited, was found bythe French among the baggage left on the field after the defeat ofBraddock in 1755, and a translation of it was printed by them as above. The original has disappeared. ]

Five days before, Contrecoeur had sent Jumonville to scour the countryas far as the dividing ridge of the Alleghanies. Under him were anotherofficer, three cadets, a volunteer, an interpreter, and twenty-eightmen. He was provided with a written summons, to be delivered to anyEnglish he might find. It required them to withdraw from the domain ofthe King of France, and threatened compulsion by force of arms in caseof refusal. But before delivering the summons Jumonville was ordered tosend two couriers back with all speed to Fort Duquesne to inform thecommandant that he had found the English, and to acquaint him when heintended to communicate with them. [148] It is difficult to imagine anyobject for such an order except that of enabling Contrecoeur to send tothe spot whatever force might be needed to attack the English on theirrefusal to withdraw. Jumonville had sent the two couriers, and hadhidden himself, apparently to wait the result. He lurked nearly two dayswithin five miles of Washington's camp, sent out scouts to reconnoitreit, but gave no notice of his presence; played to perfection the part ofa skulking enemy, and brought destruction on himself by conduct whichcan only be ascribed to a sinister motive on the one hand, or to extremefolly on the other. French deserters told Washington that the party cameas spies, and were to show the summons only if threatened by a superiorforce. This last assertion is confirmed by the French officer Pouchot, who says that Jumonville, seeing himself the weaker party, tried to showthe letter he had brought. [149]

[Footnote 148: The summons and the instructions to Jumonville are in_Précis des Faits_. ]

[Footnote 149: Pouchot, _Mémoire sur la dernière Guerre_. ]

French writers say that, on first seeing the English, Jumonville'sinterpreter called out that he had something to say to them; butWashington, who was at the head of his men, affirms this to beabsolutely false. The French say further that Jumonville was killed inthe act of reading the summons. This is also denied by Washington, andrests 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 isunlikely, escaped like the Canadian before the fray began. Druillon, anofficer with Jumonville, wrote two letters to Dinwiddie after hiscapture, to claim the privileges of the bearer of a summons; but whilebringing forward every other circumstance in favor of the claim, he doesnot pretend that the summons was read or shown either before or duringthe action. The French account of the conduct of Washington's Indians isno less erroneous. "This murder, " says a chronicler of the time, "produced on the minds of the savages an effect very different from thatwhich the cruel Washington had promised himself. They have a horror ofcrime; and they were so indignant at that which had just beenperpetrated before their eyes, that they abandoned him, and offeredthemselves to us in order to take vengeance. "[150] Instead of doingthis, they boasted of their part in the fight, scalped all the deadFrenchmen, sent one scalp to the Delawares as an invitation to take upthe hatchet for the English, and distributed the rest among the variousOhio tribes to the same end. 

[Footnote 150: Poulin de Lumina, _Histoire de la Guerre contre lesAnglois_, 15. ]

Coolness of judgment, a profound sense of public duty, and a strongself-control, were even then the characteristics of Washington; but hewas scarcely twenty-two, was full of military ardor, and was vehementand fiery by nature. Yet it is far from certain that, even when age andexperience had ripened him, he would have forborne to act as he did, forthere was every reason for believing that the designs of the French werehostile; and though by passively waiting the event he would have thrownupon them the responsibility of striking the first blow, he would haveexposed his small party to capture or destruction by giving them time togain reinforcements from Fort Duquesne. It was inevitable that thekilling of Jumonville should be greeted in France by an outcry of realor assumed horror; but the Chevalier de Lévis, second in command toMontcalm, probably expresses the true opinion of Frenchmen best fittedto judge when he calls it "a pretended assassination. "[151] Judge it aswe may, this obscure skirmish began the war that set the world onfire. [152]

[Footnote 151: Lévis, _Mémoire sur la Guerre du Canada_. ]

[Footnote 152: On this affair, Sparks, _Writings of Washington_, II. 25-48, 447. _Dinwiddie Papers. Letter of Contrecoeur_ in _Précis desFaits. 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 del'Isle-Dieu, that Jumonville showed a flag of truce, is unsupported. Adam Stephen, who was in the fight, says that the guns of the Englishwere so wet that they had to trust mainly to the bayonet. The Half-Kingboasted that he killed Jumonville with his tomahawk. Dinwiddie highlyapproved Washington's conduct. 

In 1755 the widow of Jumonville received a pension of one hundred andfifty francs. In 1775 his daughter, Charlotte Aimable, wishing to becomea nun, was given by the King six hundred francs for her "trousseau" onentering the convent. _Dossier de Jumonville et de sa Veuve, 22 Mars, 1755_. _Mémoire pour Mlle. De Jumonville, 10 Juillet, 1775_. _Résponsedu Garde des Sceaux, 25 Juillet, 1775_. ]

Washington returned to the camp at the Great Meadows; and, expectingsoon to be attacked, sent for reinforcements to Colonel Fry, who waslying dangerously ill at Wills Creek. Then he set his men to work at anentrenchment, which he named Fort Necessity, and which must have been ofthe slightest, as they finished it within three days. [153] The Half-Kingnow joined him, along with the female potentate known as QueenAlequippa, and some thirty Indian families. A few days after, Gist camefrom Wills Creek with news that Fry was dead. Washington succeeded tothe command of the regiment, the remaining three companies of whichpresently appeared and joined their comrades, raising the whole numberto three hundred. Next arrived the independent company from SouthCarolina; and the Great Meadows became an animated scene, with thewigwams of the Indians, the camp-sheds of the rough Virginians, thecattle grazing on the tall grass or drinking at the lazy brook thattraversed it; the surrounding heights and forests; and over all, fourmiles away the lofty green ridge of Laurel Hill. 

[Footnote 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. Therewas great courtesy between him and Washington; but Mackay would take noorders, nor even the countersign, from the colonel of volunteers. Norwould his men work, except for an additional shilling a day. To givethis was impossible, both from want of money, and from the discontent itwould have bred in the Virginians, who worked for nothing besides theirdaily pay of eightpence. Washington, already a leader of men, possessedhimself in a patience extremely difficult to his passionate temper; butthe position was untenable, and the presence of the military dronesdemoralized his soldiers. Therefore, leaving Mackay at the Meadows, headvanced towards Gist's settlement, cutting a wagon road as he went. 

On reaching the settlement the camp was formed and an entrenchmentthrown up. Deserters had brought news that strong reinforcements wereexpected at Fort Duquesne, and friendly Indians repeatedly warnedWashington that he would soon be attacked by overwhelming numbers. FortyIndians from the Ohio came to the camp, and several days were spent incouncils with them; but they proved for the most part to be spies of theFrench. The Half-King stood fast by the English, and sent out three ofhis young warriors as scouts. Reports of attack thickened. Mackay andhis men were sent for, and they arrived on the twenty-eighth of June. Acouncil of war was held at Gist's house; and as the camp was commandedby neighboring heights, it was resolved to fall back. The horses were sofew 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 theslightest help. Toiling on for two days, they reached the Great Meadowson the first of July. The position, though perhaps the best in theneighborhood, was very unfavorable, and Washington would have retreatedfarther, 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, andthe garrison now consisted of about fourteen hundred men. When news ofthe death of Jumonville reached Montreal, Coulon de Villiers, brother ofthe slain officer, was sent to the spot with a body of Indians from allthe tribes in the colony. He made such speed that at eight o'clock onthe morning of the twenty-sixth of June he reached the fort with hismotley following. Here he found that five hundred Frenchmen and a fewOhio Indians were on the point of marching against the English, underChevalier Le Mercier; but in view of his seniority in rank and hisrelationship to Jumonville, the command was now transferred to Villiers. Hereupon, the march was postponed; the newly-arrived warriors werecalled to council, and Contrecoeur thus harangued them: "The Englishhave murdered my children, my heart is sick; to-morrow I shall send myFrench soldiers to take revenge. And now, men of the Saut St. Louis, menof the Lake of Two Mountains, Hurons, Abenakis, Iroquois of LaPrésentation, Nipissings, Algonquins, and Ottawas, --I invite you all bythis belt of wampum to join your French father and help him to crush theassassins. Take this hatchet, and with it two barrels of wine for afeast. " Both hatchet and wine were cheerfully accepted. Then Contrecoeurturned to the Delawares, who were also present: "By these four stringsof wampum I invite you, if you are true children of Onontio, to followthe example of your brethren;" and with some hesitation they also tookup 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 thanhad been at first intended. Contrecoeur, Villiers, Le Mercier, andLongueuil, after deliberating together, drew up a paper to the effectthat "it was fitting (_convenable_) to march against the English withthe greatest possible number of French and savages, in order to avengeourselves and chastise them for having violated the most sacred laws ofcivilized nations;" that, thought their conduct justified the French indisregarding the existing treaty of peace, yet, after thoroughlypunishing them, and compelling them to withdraw from the domain of theKing, they should be told that, in pursuance of his royal orders, theFrench looked on them as friends. But it was further agreed that shouldthe English have withdrawn to their own side of the mountains, "theyshould be followed to their settlements to destroy them and treat themas enemies, till that nation should give ample satisfaction andcompletely change its conduct. "[154]

[Footnote 154: _Journal de Campagne de M. De Villiers depuis son Arrivéeau Fort Duquesne jusqu'à son Retour au dit Fort_. These and otherpassages 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 theMonongahela, encamped, heard Mass; and on the thirtieth reached thedeserted storehouse of the Ohio Company at the mouth of Redstone Creek. It was a building of solid logs, well loopholed for musketry. To pleasethe Indians by asking their advice, Villiers called all the chiefs tocouncil; which, being concluded to their satisfaction, he left asergeant's guard at the storehouse to watch the canoes, and began hismarch through the forest. The path was so rough that at the first haltthe chaplain declared he could go no farther, and turned back for thestorehouse, though not till he had absolved the whole company in a body. Thus lightened of their sins, they journeyed on, constantly sending outscouts. On the second of July they reached the abandoned camp ofWashington at Gist's settlement; and here they bivouacked, tired, anddrenched all night by rain. At daybreak they marched again, and passedthrough the gorge of Laurel Hill. It rained without ceasing; butVilliers pushed his way through the dripping forest to see the place, half a mile from the road, where his brother had been killed, and whereseveral bodies still lay unburied. They had learned from a deserter theposition of the enemy, and Villiers filled the woods in front with aswarm of Indian scouts. The crisis was near. He formed his men incolumn, and ordered every officer to his place. 

Washington's men had had a full day at Fort Necessity; but they spent itless in resting from their fatigue than in strengthening their rampartwith logs. The fort was a simple square enclosure, with a trench said bya French writer to be only knee deep. On the south, and partly on thewest, there was an exterior embankment, which seems to have been made, like a rifle-pit, with the ditch inside. The Virginians had but littleammunition, and no bread whatever, living chiefly on fresh beef. Theyknew the approach of the French, who were reported to Washington as ninehundred strong, besides Indians. Towards eleven o'clock a woundedsentinel came in with news that they were close at hand; and theypresently appeared at the edge of the woods, yelling, and firing fromsuch a distance that their shot fell harmless. Washington drew up hismen on the meadow before the fort, thinking, he says, that the enemy, being greatly superior in force, would attack at once; and choosing forsome reason to meet them on the open plain. But Villiers had otherviews. "We approached the English, " he writes, "as near as possible, without uselessly exposing the lives of the King's subjects;" and he andhis followers made their way through the forest till they came oppositethe fort, where they stationed themselves on two densely wooded hills, adjacent, though separated by a small brook. One of these was about ahundred paces from the English, and the other about sixty. Theirposition was such that the French and Indians, well sheltered by treesand bushes, and with the advantage of higher ground, could cross theirfire upon the fort and enfilade a part of it. Washington had meanwhiledrawn his followers within the entrenchment; and the firing now began onboth sides. Rain fell all day. The raw earth of the embankment wasturned to soft mud, and the men in the ditch of the outwork stood to theknee in water. The swivels brought back from the camp at Gist's farmwere mounted on the rampart; but the gunners were so ill protected thatthe pieces were almost silenced by the French musketry. The fight lastednine hours. At times the fire on both sides was nearly quenched by theshowers, and the bedrenched combatants could do little but gaze at eachother through a gray veil of mist and rain. Towards night, however, thefusillade revived, and became sharp again until dark. At eight o'clockthe French called out to propose a parley. 

Villiers thus gives his reason for these overtures. "As we had been wetall day by the rain, as the soldiers were very tired, as the savagessaid that they would leave us the next morning, and as there was areport that drums and the firing of cannon had been heard in thedistance, I proposed to M. Le Mercier to offer the English aconference. " He says further that ammunition was falling short, and thathe thought the enemy might sally in a body and attack him. [155] TheEnglish, on their side, were in a worse plight. They were half starved, their powder was nearly spent, their guns were foul, and among them allthey had but two screw-rods to clean them. In spite of his desperateposition, Washington declined the parley, thinking it a pretext tointroduce a spy; but when the French repeated their proposal andrequested that he would send an officer to them, he could hesitate nolonger. There were but two men with him who knew French, EnsignPeyroney, who was disabled by a wound, and the Dutchman, CaptainVanbraam. To him the unpalatable errand was assigned. After a longabsence he returned with articles of capitulation offered by Villiers;and while the officers gathered about him in the rain, he read andinterpreted the paper by the glimmer of a sputtering candle kept alightwith difficulty. Objection was made to some of the terms, and they werechanged. Vanbraam, however, apparently anxious to get the capitulationsigned and the affair ended, mistranslated several passages, andrendered the words _l'assassinat du Sieur de Jumonville_ as _the deathof the Sieur de Jumonville_. [156] As thus understood, the articles weresigned about midnight. They provided that the English should march outwith drums beating and the honors of war, carrying with them one oftheir swivels and all their other property; that they should beprotected against insult from French or Indians; that the prisonerstaken in the affair of Jumonville should be set free; and that twoofficers should remain as hostages for their safe return to FortDuquesne. The hostages chosen were Vanbraam and a brave but eccentricScotchman, Robert Stobo, an acquaintance of the novelist Smollett, saidto be the original of his Lismahago. 

[Footnote 155: _Journal de Villiers_, original. Omitted in the Journalas printed by the French Government. A short and very incorrect abstractof this Journal will be found in _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, X. ]

[Footnote 156: See Appendix C. On the fight at Great Meadows, compareSparks, _Writings of Washington_, II. 456-468; also a letter of ColonelInnes to Governor Hamilton, written a week after the event, in _ColonialRecords of Pa. _, VI. 50, and a letter of Adam Stephen in _PennsylvaniaGazette, 1754_. ]

Washington reports that twelve of the Virginians were killed on thespot, and forty-three wounded, while on the casualties in Mackay'scompany no returns appear. Villiers reports his own loss at only twentyin all. [157] The numbers engaged are uncertain. The six companies of theVirginia regiment counted three hundred and five men and officers, andMackay's company one hundred; but many were on the sick list, and somehad deserted. About three hundred and fifty may have taken part in thefight. On the side of the French, Villiers says that the detachment asoriginally formed consisted of five hundred white men. These wereincreased after his arrival at Fort Duquesne, and one of the partyreports that seven hundred marched on the expedition. [158] The number ofIndians joining them is not given; but as nine tribes and communitiescontributed to it, and as two barrels of wine were required to give thewarriors a parting feast, it must have been considerable. White men andred, it seems clear that the French force was more than twice that ofthe English, while they were better posted and better sheltered, keepingall 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 thefight, telling Conrad Weiser, the provincial interpreter, that theFrench behaved like cowards, and the English like fools. [159]

[Footnote 157: Dinwiddie writes to the Lords of Trade that thirty in allwere killed, and seventy wounded, on the English side; and thecommissary Varin writes to Bigot that the French lost seventy-twokilled and wounded. ]

[Footnote 158: _A Journal had from Thomas Forbes, lately a PrivateSoldier in the King of France's Service_. (Public Record Office. ) Forbeswas one of Villiers' soldiers. The commissary Varin puts the number ofFrench at six hundred, besides Indians. ]

[Footnote 159: _Journal of Conrad Weiser_, in _Colonial Records of Pa. _, VI. 150. The Half-King also remarked that Washington "was a good-naturedman, but had no experience, and would by no means take advice from theIndians, but was always driving them on to fight by his directions; thathe lay at one place from one full moon to the other, and made nofortifications at all, except that little thing upon the meadow, wherehe thought the French would come up to him in open field. "]

In the early morning the fort was abandoned and the retreat began. TheIndians had killed all the horses and cattle, and Washington's men wereso burdened with the sick and wounded, whom they were obliged to carryon their backs, that most of the baggage was perforce left behind. Eventhen they could march but a few miles, and then encamped to wait forwagons. The Indians increased the confusion by plundering, andthreatening an attack. They knocked to pieces the medicine-chest, thuscausing great distress to the wounded, two of whom they murdered andscalped. For a time there was danger of panic; but order was restored, and the wretched march began along the forest road that led over theAlleghanies, fifty-two miles to the station at Wills Creek. Whatever mayhave been the feelings of Washington, he has left no record of them. Hisimmense fortitude was doomed to severer trials in the future; yetperhaps this miserable morning was the darkest of his life. He wasdeeply moved by sights of suffering; and all around him were wounded menborne 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 thatday forever glorious to a new-born nation hailing him as its father. 

The defeat at Fort Necessity was doubly disastrous to the English, sinceit was a new step and a long one towards the ruin of their interest withthe Indians; and when, in the next year, the smouldering war broke intoflame, nearly all the western tribes drew their scalping-knives forFrance. 

Villiers went back exultant to Fort Duquesne, burning on his way thebuildings of Gist's settlement and the storehouse at Redstone Creek. Notan English flag now waved beyond the Alleghanies. [160]

[Footnote 160: See Appendix C. ]

Chapter 6

1754, 1755

The Signal of Battle

The defeat of Washington was a heavy blow to the Governor, and heangrily ascribed it to the delay of the expected reinforcements. TheKing's companies from New York had reached Alexandria, and crawledtowards the scene of action with thin ranks, bad discipline, thirtywomen and children, no tents, no blankets, no knapsacks, and formunitions one barrel of spoiled gunpowder. [161] The case was still worsewith the regiment from North Carolina. It was commanded by ColonelInnes, a countryman and friend of Dinwiddie, who wrote to him: "DearJames, I now wish that we had none from your colony but yourself, for Iforesee 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 themarch that their pay was to be reduced, they mutinied, disbanded, andwent home. 

[Footnote 161: _Dinwiddie to the Lords of Trade, 24 July, 1754. Ibid. ToDelancey, 20 June, 1754. _]

"You may easily guess, " says Dinwiddie to a London correspondent, "thegreat fatigue and trouble I have had, which is more than I ever wentthrough 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 disasterwould move them to give him money for defending the colony. Thesemeetings of the burgesses were the great social as well as politicalevent of the Old Dominion, and gave a gathering signal to the Virginiangentry scattered far and wide on their lonely plantations. The capitalof the province was Williamsburg, a village of about a thousandinhabitants, traversed by a straight and very wide street, and adornedwith various public buildings, conspicuous among which was William andMary College, a respectable structure, unjustly likened by Jefferson toa brick kiln with a roof. The capitol, at the other end of the town, hadbeen burned some years before, and had just risen from its ashes. Notfar distant was the so-called Governor's Palace, where Dinwiddie withhis wife and two daughters exercised such official hospitality as hismoderate salary and Scottish thrift would permit. [162]

[Footnote 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 wastransfigured. The broad, sandy street, scorching under a southern sun, was thronged with coaches and chariots brought over from London at heavycost in tobacco, though soon to be bedimmed by Virginia roads and negrocare; 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 andfootmen, proud of their masters and their liveries; young cavaliers, booted and spurred, sitting their thoroughbreds with the careless graceof men whose home was the saddle. It was a proud little provincialsociety, which might seem absurd in its lofty self-appreciation, had itnot soon approved itself so prolific in ability and worth. [163]

[Footnote 163: The English traveller Smyth, in his _Tour_, gives acurious and vivid picture of Virginian life. For the social condition ofthis and other colonies before the Revolution, one cannot do better thanto consult Lodge's _Short History of the English Colonies_. ]

The burgesses met, and Dinwiddie made them an opening speech, inveighingagainst the aggressions of the French, their "contempt of treaties, " and"ambitious views for universal monarchy;" and he concluded: "I couldexpatiate very largely on these affairs, but my heart burns withresentment at their insolence. I think there is no room for manyarguments to induce you to raise a considerable supply to enable me todefeat the designs of these troublesome people and enemies of mankind. "The burgesses in their turn expressed the "highest and most becomingresentment, " and promptly voted twenty thousand pounds; but on the thirdreading of the bill they added to it a rider which touched the oldquestion of the pistole fee, and which, in the view of the Governor, wasboth unconstitutional and offensive. He remonstrated in vain; thestubborn republicans would not yield, nor would he; and again heprorogued them. This unexpected defeat depressed him greatly. "Agovernor, " he wrote, "is really to be pitied in the discharge of hisduty to his king and country, in having to do with such obstinate, self-conceited people. .. . I cannot satisfy the burgesses unless Iprostitute the rules of government. I have gone through monstrousfatigues. Such wrong-headed people, I thank God, I never had to do withbefore. "[164] A few weeks later he was comforted; for, having againcalled the burgesses, they gave him the money, without trying this timeto humiliate him. [165]

[Footnote 164: _Dinwiddie to Hamilton, 6 Sept. , 1754. Ibid. To J. Abercrombie, 1 Sept. , 1754. _]

[Footnote 165: Hening, VI. 435. ]

In straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel, aristocratic Virginia wasfar outdone by democratic Pennsylvania. Hamilton, her governor, had laidbefore the Assembly a circular letter from the Earl of Holdernessedirecting him, in common with other governors, to call on his provincefor means to repel any invasion which might be made "within theundoubted limits of His Majesty's dominion. "[166] The Assembly ofPennsylvania was curiously unlike that of Virginia, as half and oftenmore than half of its members were Quaker tradesmen in sober raiment andbroad-brimmed hats; while of the rest, the greater part were Germans whocared little whether they lived under English rule or French, providedthat they were left in peace upon their farms. The House replied to theGovernor's call: "It would be highly presumptuous in us to pretend tojudge of the undoubted limits of His Majesty's dominions;" and theyadded: "the Assemblies of this province are generally composed of amajority who are constitutionally principled against war, and representa well-meaning, peaceable people. "[167] They then adjourned, telling theGovernor that, "As those our limits have not been clearly ascertained toour satisfaction, we fear the precipitate call upon us as the provinceinvaded cannot answer any good purpose at this time. "

[Footnote 166: _The Earl of Holdernesse to the Governors in America, 28Aug. 1753. _]

[Footnote 167: _Colonial Records of Pa. _, V. 748. ]

In the next month they met again, and again Hamilton asked for means todefend the country. The question was put, Should the Assembly give moneyfor the King's use? and the vote was feebly affirmative. Should the sumbe twenty thousand pounds? The vote was overwhelming in the negative. Fifteen thousand, ten thousand, and five thousand, were successivelyproposed, and the answer was always, No. The House would give nothingbut five hundred pounds for a present to the Indians; after which theyadjourned "to the sixth of the month called May. "[168] At their nextmeeting they voted to give the Governor ten thousand pounds; but underconditions which made them for some time independent of his veto, andwhich, in other respects, were contrary to his instructions from theKing, as well as from the proprietaries of the province, to whom he hadgiven bonds to secure his obedience. He therefore rejected the bill, andthey adjourned. In August they passed a similar vote, with the sameresult. At their October meeting they evaded his call for supplies. InDecember they voted twenty thousand pounds, hampered with conditionswhich were sure to be refused, since Morris, the new governor, who hadlately succeeded Hamilton, was under the same restrictions as hispredecessor. They told him, however, that in the present case they feltthemselves bound by no Act of Parliament, and added: "We hope theGovernor, notwithstanding any penal bond he may have entered into, willon reflection think himself at liberty and find it consistent with hissafety and honor to give his assent to this bill. " Morris, who had takenthe highest legal advice on the subject in England, declined tocompromise himself, saying: "Consider, gentlemen, in what light you willappear to His Majesty while, instead of contributing towards your owndefence, you are entering into an ill-timed controversy concerning thevalidity of royal instructions which may be delayed to a more convenienttime without the least injury to the rights of the people. "[169] Theywould not yield, and told him "that they had rather the French shouldconquer them than give up their privileges. "[170] "Truly, " remarksDinwiddie, "I think they have given their senses a long holiday. "

[Footnote 168: _Pennsylvania Archives_, II. 235. _Colonial Records ofPa. _, VI. 22-26. _Works of Franklin, _ III. 265. ]

[Footnote 169: _Colonial Records of Pa. _, VI. 215. ]

[Footnote 170: _Morris to Penn, 1 Jan. 1755. _]

New York was not much behind her sisters in contentious stubbornness. Inanswer to the Governor's appeal, the Assembly replied: "It appears thatthe French have built a fort at a place called French Creek, at aconsiderable distance from the River Ohio, which may, but does not byany evidence or information appear to us to be an invasion of any of HisMajesty's colonies. "[171] So blind were they as yet to "manifestdestiny!" Afterwards, however, on learning the defeat of Washington, they gave five thousand pounds to aid Virginia. [172] Maryland, afterlong delay, gave six thousand. New Jersey felt herself safe behind theother colonies, and would give nothing. New England, on the other hand, and especially Massachusetts, had suffered so much from Frenchwar-parties that they were always ready to fight. Shirley, the governorof Massachusetts, had returned from his bootless errand to settle theboundary question at Paris. His leanings were strongly monarchical; yethe believed in the New Englanders, and was more or less in sympathy withthem. Both he and they were strenuous against the French, and they hadmutually helped each other to reap laurels in the last war. Shirley wascautious of giving umbrage to his Assembly, and rarely quarrelled withit, except when the amount of his salary was in question. He was notaverse to a war with France; for though bred a lawyer, and now pastmiddle life, he flattered himself with hopes of a high military command. On the present occasion, making use of a rumor that the French wereseizing the carrying-place between the Chaudière and the Kennebec, hedrew from the Assembly a large grant of money, and induced them to callupon him to march in person to the scene of danger. He accordinglyrepaired to Falmouth (now Portland); and, though the rumor proved false, sent eight hundred men under Captain John Winslow to build two forts onthe Kennebec as a measure of precaution. [173]

[Footnote 171: _Address of the Assembly to Lieutenant-Governor Delancey, 23 April, 1754. Lords of Trade to Delancey, 5 July, 1754_. ]

[Footnote 172: _Delancey to Lords of Trade, 8 Oct. 1754_. ]

[Footnote 173: _Massachusetts Archives, 1754_. Hutchinson, III. 26. _Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly stated. Journals of the Boardof 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 ofFrench aggression on their borders was so novel and strange that theyadmitted it with difficulty. Mind and heart were engrossed in strifewith their governors: the universal struggle for virtual self-rule. Butthe war was often waged with a passionate stupidity. The colonist wasnot then an American; he was simply a provincial, and a narrow one. Thetime was yet distant when these dissevered and jealous communitiesshould weld themselves into one broad nationality, capable, at need, ofthe mightiest efforts to purge itself of disaffection and vindicate itscommanding unity. 

In the interest of that practical independence which they had so much atheart, two conditions were essential to the colonists. The one was afield for expansion, and the other was mutual help. Their firstnecessity was to rid themselves of the French, who, by shutting thembetween the Alleghanies and the sea, would cramp them into perpetuallittleness. With France on their backs, growing while they had no roomto 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 perforcethe will of a people spread from the ocean to the Mississippi, andunited in action as in aims. But in the middle of the last century thevision of the ordinary colonist rarely reached so far. The immediatevictory over a governor, however slight the point at issue, was moreprecious in his eyes than the remote though decisive advantage which hesaw but dimly. 

The governors, representing the central power, saw the situation fromthe national point of view. Several of them, notably Dinwiddie andShirley, were filled with wrath at the proceedings of the French; andthe former was exasperated beyond measure at the supineness of theprovinces. He had spared no effort to rouse them, and had failed. Hisinstincts were on the side of authority; but, under the circumstances, it is hardly to be imputed to him as a very deep offence against humanliberty that he advised the compelling of the colonies to raise men andmoney for their own defence, and proposed, in view of their "intolerableobstinacy and disobedience to his Majesty's commands, " that Parliamentshould tax them half-a-crown a head. The approaching war offered to theparty of authority temptations from which the colonies might have savedit by opening their purse-strings without waiting to be told. 

The Home Government, on its part, was but half-hearted in the wish thatthey should unite in opposition to the common enemy. It was very willingthat the several provinces should give money and men, but not that theyshould acquire military habits and a dangerous capacity of actingtogether. 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. Thiswas joint action in making treaties with the Indians. The practice ofseparate treaties, made by each province in its own interest, had bredendless disorders. The adhesion of all the tribes had been so shaken, and the efforts of the French to alienate them were so vigorous andeffective, that not a moment was to be lost. Joncaire had gained overmost of the Senecas, Piquet was drawing the Onondagas more and more tohis mission, and the Dutch of Albany were alienating their best friends, the Mohawks, by encroaching on their lands. Their chief, Hendrick, cameto New York with a deputation of the tribe to complain of their wrongs;and finding no redress, went off in anger, declaring that the covenantchain was broken. [174] The authorities in alarm called William Johnsonto their aid. He succeeded in soothing the exasperated chief, and thenproceeded to the confederate council at Onondaga, where he found theassembled sachems full of anxieties and doubts. "We don't know what youChristians, English and French, intend, " said one of their orators. "Weare 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 immediatelyappear an owner of the land to claim the property and hinder us fromkilling it, by which we live. We are so perplexed between you that wehardly know what to say or think. "[175] No man had such power over theFive Nations as Johnson. His dealings with them were at once honest, downright, and sympathetic. They loved and trusted him as much as theydetested the Indian commissioners at Albany, whom the province of NewYork had charged with their affairs, and who, being traders, grosslyabused their office. 

[Footnote 174: _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, VI. 788. _Colonial Records of Pa. _ V. 625. ]

[Footnote 175: _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, VI. 813. ]

It was to remedy this perilous state of things that the Lords of Tradeand Plantations directed the several governors to urge on theirassemblies the sending of commissioners to make a joint treaty with thewavering tribes. [176] Seven of the provinces, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the four New England colonies, acceded to the plan, andsent to Albany, the appointed place of meeting, a body of men who forcharacter and ability had never had an equal on the continent, but whosepowers from their respective assemblies were so cautiously limited as topreclude decisive action. They met in the court-house of the littlefrontier city. A large "chain-belt" of wampum was provided, on which theKing was symbolically represented, holding in his embrace the colonies, the Five Nations, and all their allied tribes. This was presented to theassembled warriors, with a speech in which the misdeeds of the Frenchwere not forgotten. The chief, Hendrick, made a much better speech inreply. "We do now solemnly renew and brighten the covenant chain. Weshall take the chain-belt to Onondaga, where our council-fire alwaysburns, and keep it so safe that neither thunder nor lightning shallbreak it. " The commissioners had blamed them for allowing so many oftheir people to be drawn away to Piquet's mission. "It is true, " saidthe orator, "that we live disunited. We have tried to bring back ourbrethren, 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 youhave neglected us for these three years past. " Here he took a stick andthrew it behind him. "You have thus thrown us behind your back; whereasthe French are a subtle and vigilant people, always using their utmostendeavors to seduce and bring us over to them. " He then told them thatit was not the French alone who invaded the country of the Indians. "TheGovernor of Virginia and the Governor of Canada are quarrelling aboutlands 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 ownfort at Saratoga and ran away from it, --which was a shame and a scandalto 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 theFrench may come and turn you out of doors. You desire us to speak fromthe bottom of our hearts, and we shall do it. Look at the French: theyare men; they are fortifying everywhere. But you are all like women, bare and open, without fortifications. "[177]

[Footnote 176: _Circular Letter of Lords of Trade to Governors inAmerica, 18 Sept. 1753. Lords of Trade to Sir Danvers Osborne, in N. Y. Col. Docs. _, VI. 800. ]

[Footnote 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 theabove extracts. ]

Hendrick's brother Abraham now took up the word, and begged that Johnsonmight be restored to the management of Indian affairs, which he hadformerly held; "for, " said the chief, "we love him and he us and he hasalways been our good and trusty friend. " The commissioners had not powerto grant the request, but the Indians were assured that it should not beforgotten; and they returned to their villages soothed, but far fromsatisfied. Nor were the commissioners empowered to take any effectivesteps for fortifying the frontier. 

The congress now occupied itself with another matter. Its members wereagreed that great danger was impending; that without wise and justtreatment of the tribes, the French would gain them all, build fortsalong the back of the British colonies, and, by means of ships andtroops from France, master them one by one, unless they would combinefor mutual defence. The necessity of some form of union had at lengthbegun to force itself upon the colonial mind. A rough woodcut had latelyappeared in the _Pennsylvania Gazette_, figuring the provinces under thenot 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 foremulation, observing that if ignorant savages could confederate, Britishcolonists might do as much. [178] Franklin, the leading spirit of thecongress, now laid before it his famous project of union, which has beentoo 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 becauseit required each of them to transfer some of its functions ofself-government to a central council. Another plan was afterwardsdevised by the friends of prerogative, perfectly agreeable to the King, since it placed all power in the hands of a council of governors, andsince it involved compulsory taxation of the colonists, who, for thesame reasons, would have doggedly resisted it, had an attempt been madeto carry it into effect. [179]

[Footnote 178: Kennedy, _Importance of gaining and preserving theFriendship of the Indians_. ]

[Footnote 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 "withoutfarther 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 havefollowed before its machinery could be set in motion; and meantime therewas need of immediate action. War-parties of Indians from Canada, seton, it was thought, by the Governor, were already burning and murderingamong the border settlements of New York and New Hampshire. In the southDinwiddie grew more and more alarmed, "for the French are like so manylocusts; they are collected in bodies in a most surprising manner; theirnumber now on the Ohio is from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred. " Hewrites to Lord Granville that, in his opinion, they aim to conquer thecontinent, and that "the obstinacy of this stubborn generation" exposesthe country "to the merciless rage of a rapacious enemy. " What vexed himeven more than the apathy of the assemblies was the conduct of hisbrother-governor, Glen of South Carolina, who, apparently piqued at theconspicuous part Dinwiddie was acting, wrote to him in a "verydictatorial style, " found fault with his measures, jested at hisactivity in writing letters, and even questioned the right of England tolands on the Ohio; till he was moved at last to retort: "I cannot helpobserving that your letters and arguments would have been more properfrom a French officer than from one of His Majesty's governors. Myconduct has met with His Majesty's gracious approbation; and I am sorryit has not received yours. " Thus discouraged, even in quarters where hehad least reason to expect it, he turned all his hopes to the HomeGovernment; again recommended a tax by Act of Parliament, and begged, inrepeated letters, for arms, munitions, and two regiments ofinfantry. [180] His petition was not made in vain. 

[Footnote 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 whocould not command the respect of his own servants. A more preposterousfigure than the Duke of Newcastle never stood at the head of a greatnation. He had a feverish craving for place and power, joined to a totalunfitness for both. He was an adept in personal politics, and was sobusied with the arts of winning and keeping office that he had noleisure, even if he had had ability, for the higher work of government. He was restless, quick in movement, rapid and confused in speech, lavishof 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 hadno pride, though infinite self-love. He loved business immoderately; yetwas only always doing it, never did it. When left to himself, he alwaysplunged into difficulties, and then shuddered for the consequences. "Walpole gives an anecdote showing the state of his ideas on colonialmatters. General Ligonier suggested to him that Annapolis ought to bedefended. "To which he replied with his lisping, evasive hurry:'Annapolis, Annapolis! Oh, yes, Annapolis must be defended, --where isAnnapolis?'"[181] Another contemporary, Smollett, ridicules him in hisnovel of _Humphrey Clinker_, and tells a similar story, which, foundedin fact or not, shows in what estimation the minister was held: "CaptainC. 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 tosleep on till Christmas; for when he gets up he does nothing but exposehis own folly. In the beginning of the war he told me in a great frightthat thirty thousand French had marched from Acadia to Cape Breton. Where did they find transports? said I. --Transports! cried he, I tellyou 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 Ipointed 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 usgood news. Egad! I'll go directly and tell the King that Cape Breton isan island. '"

[Footnote 181: Walpole, _George II. _, I. 344. ]

His wealth, county influence, flagitious use of patronage, andlong-practised skill in keeping majorities in the House of Commons bymeans that would not bear the light, made his support necessary to Pitthimself, and placed a fantastic political jobber at the helm of Englandin a time when she needed a patriot and a statesman. Newcastle was thegrowth of the decrepitude and decay of a great party, which hadfulfilled its mission and done its work. But if the Whig soil had becomepoor for a wholesome crop, it was never so rich for toadstools. 

Sir Thomas Robinson held the Southern Department, charged with thecolonies; and Lord Mahon remarks of him that the Duke had achieved thefeat of finding a secretary of state more incapable than himself. He hadthe lead of the House of Commons. "Sir Thomas Robinson lead us!" saidPitt to Henry Fox; "the Duke might as well send his jackboot to leadus. " The active and aspiring Halifax was at the head of the Board ofTrade and Plantations. The Duke of Cumberland commanded the army, --anindifferent soldier, though a brave one; harsh, violent, and headlong. Anson, the celebrated navigator, was First Lord of the Admiralty, --aposition in which he disappointed everybody. 

In France the true ruler was Madame de Pompadour, once the King'smistress, now his procuress, and a sort of feminine prime minister. Machault d'Arnouville was at the head of the Marine and ColonialDepartment. The diplomatic representatives of the two Crowns were moreconspicuous for social than for political talents. Of Mirepoix, Frenchambassador at London, Marshal Saxe had once observed: "It is a goodappointment; he can teach the English to dance. " Walpole says concerninghim: "He could not even learn to pronounce the names of our games ofcards, --which, however, engaged most of the hours of his negotiation. Wewere to be bullied out of our colonies by an apprentice at whist!" LordAlbemarle, English ambassador at Versailles, is held up by Chesterfieldas an example to encourage his son in the pursuit of the graces: "Whatdo you think made our friend Lord Albemarle colonel of a regiment ofGuards, Governor of Virginia, Groom of the Stole, and ambassador toParis, --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; hehad none. Was it his learning, his parts, his political abilities andapplication? You can answer these questions as easily and as soon as Ican ask them. What was it then? Many people wondered; but I do not, forI 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 ofgreat force; while the navy of France counted little more than half thenumber. On the other hand, England had reduced her army to eighteenthousand men, and France had nearly ten times as many under arms. Bothalike were weak in leadership. That rare son of the tempest, a greatcommander, was to be found in neither of them since the death of Saxe. 

In respect to the approaching crisis, the interests of the two Powerspointed to opposite courses of action. What France needed was time. Itwas her policy to put off a rupture, wreathe her face in diplomaticsmiles, and pose in an attitude of peace and good faith, whileincreasing her navy, reinforcing her garrisons in America, andstrengthening her positions there. It was the policy of England toattack at once, and tear up the young encroachments while they were yetin the sap, before they could strike root and harden into stiffresistance. 

When, on the fourteenth of November, the King made his opening speech tothe Houses of Parliament, he congratulated them on the prevailing peace, and assured them that he should improve it to promote the trade of hissubjects, "and protect those possessions which constitute one greatsource of their wealth. " America was not mentioned; but his hearersunderstood him, and made a liberal grant for the service of theyear. [182] Two regiments, each of five hundred men, had already beenordered to sail for Virginia, where their numbers were to be raised byenlistment to seven hundred. [183] Major-General Braddock, a man afterthe Duke of Cumberland's own heart, was appointed to the chief command. The two regiments--the forty-fourth and the forty-eighth--embarked atCork in the middle of January. The soldiers detested the service, andmany had deserted. More would have done so had they foreseen whatawaited them. 

[Footnote 182: Entick, _Late War_, I. 118. ]

[Footnote 183: _Robinson to Lords of the Admiralty, 30 Sept. 1754. Ibid. , to Board of Ordnance, 10 Oct. 1754. Ibid. , Circular Letter toAmerican Governors, 26 Oct. 1754. Instructions to our Trusty andWell-beloved Edward Braddock, 25 Nov. 1754_. ]

This movement was no sooner known at Versailles than a counterexpedition was prepared on a larger scale. Eighteen ships of war werefitted for sea at Brest and Rochefort, and the six battalions of LaReine, Bourgogne, Languedoc, Guienne, Artois, and Béarn, three thousandmen in all, were ordered on board for Canada. Baron Dieskau, a Germanveteran who had served under Saxe, was made their general; and with himwent the new governor of French America, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, destined to succeed Duquesne, whose health was failing under thefatigues of his office. Admiral Dubois de la Motte commanded the fleet;and lest the English should try to intercept it, another squadron ofnine ships, under Admiral Macnamara, was ordered to accompany it to acertain distance from the coast. There was long and tedious delay. Doreil, commissary of war, who had embarked with Vaudreuil and Dieskauin the same ship, wrote from the harbor of Brest on the twenty-ninth ofApril: "At last I think we are off. We should have been outside by fouro'clock this morning, if M. De Macnamara had not been obliged to askCount Dubois de la Motte to wait till noon to mend some important partof the rigging (I don't know the name of it) which was broken. It isprecious time lost, and gives the English the advantage over us of twotides. I talk of these things as a blind man does of colors. What iscertain 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 andzealous hands. It is now half-past two. In half an hour all may beready, and we may get out of the harbor before night. " He was againdisappointed; it was the third of May before the fleet put to sea. [184]

[Footnote 184: _Lettres de Cremille, de Rostaing, et de Doreil auMinistre, Avril 18, 24, 28, 29, 1755. Liste des Vaisseaux de Guerre quicomposent l'Escadre armée à Brest, 1755. Journal of M. De Vaudreuil'sVoyage to Canada_, in _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, X. 297. Pouchot, I. 25. ]

During these preparations there was active diplomatic correspondencebetween the two Courts. Mirepoix demanded why British troops were sentto America. Sir Thomas Robinson answered that there was no intention todisturb the peace or offend any Power whatever; yet the secret orders toBraddock were the reverse of pacific. Robinson asked on his part thepurpose of the French armament at Brest and Rochefort; and the answer, like his own, was a protestation that no hostility was meant. At thesame time Mirepoix in the name of the King proposed that orders shouldbe given to the American governors on both sides to refrain from allacts of aggression. But while making this proposal the French Courtsecretly sent orders to Duquesne to attack and destroy Fort Halifax, oneof the two forts lately built by Shirley on the Kennebec, --a riverwhich, by the admission of the French themselves, belonged to theEnglish. But, in making this attack, the French Governor was expresslyenjoined to pretend that he acted without orders. [185] He was also toldthat, if necessary, he might make use of the Indians to harass theEnglish. [186] Thus there was good faith on neither part; but it is clearthrough all the correspondence that the English expected to gain byprecipitating an open rupture, and the French by postponing it. Projectsof convention were proposed on both sides, but there was no agreement. The English insisted as a preliminary condition that the French shouldevacuate all the western country as far as the Wabash. Then ensued along discussion of their respective claims, as futile as the formerdiscussion at Paris on Acadian boundaries. [187]

[Footnote 185: _Machault à Duquesne, 17 Fév. 1755_. The letter ofMirepoix proposing mutual abstinence from aggression, is dated on the6th of the same month. The French dreaded Fort Halifax, because theythought it prepared the way for an advance on Quebec by way of theChaudière. ]

[Footnote 186: _Ibid. _]

[Footnote 187: This correspondence is printed among the _Piècesjustificatives_ of the _Précis des Faits_. ]

The British Court knew perfectly the naval and military preparations ofthe French. Lord Albemarle had died at Paris in December; but thesecretary of the embassy, De Cosne, sent to London full informationconcerning the fleet at Brest and Rochefort. [188] On this, AdmiralBoscawen, with eleven ships of the line and one frigate, was ordered tointercept it; and as his force was plainly too small, Admiral Melbourne, with seven more ships, was sent, nearly three weeks after, to join himif he could. Their orders were similar, --to capture or destroy anyFrench vessels bound to North America. [189] Boscawen, who got to seabefore La Motte, stationed himself near the southern coast ofNewfoundland 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 theFrench ships, however, lost in fog and rain, had become separated fromthe rest, and lay rolling and tossing on an angry sea not far from CapeRace. One of them was the "Alcide, " commanded by Captain Hocquart; theothers were the "Lis" and the "Dauphin. " The wind fell; but the fogscontinued at intervals; till, on the afternoon of the seventh of June, the weather having cleared, the watchman on the maintop saw the distantocean studded with ships. It was the fleet of Boscawen. Hocquart, whogives the account, says that in the morning they were within threeleagues of him, crowding all sail in pursuit. Towards eleven o'clock oneof them, the "Dunkirk, " was abreast of him to windward, within shortspeaking distance; and the ship of the Admiral, displaying a red flag asa signal to engage, was not far off. Hocquart called out: "Are we atpeace, or war?" He declares that Howe, captain of the "Dunkirk, " repliedin French: "La paix, la paix. " Hocquart then asked the name of theBritish admiral; and on hearing it said: "I know him; he is a friend ofmine. " Being asked his own name in return, he had scarcely uttered itwhen the batteries of the "Dunkirk" belched flame and smoke, andvolleyed a tempest of iron upon the crowded decks of the "Alcide. " Shereturned the fire, but was forced at length to strike her colors. Rostaing, second in command of the troops, was killed; and six otherofficers, with about eighty men, were killed or wounded. [190] At thesame time the "Lis" was attacked and overpowered. She had on board eightcompanies of the battalions of La Reine and Languedoc. The third Frenchship, the "Dauphin, " escaped under cover of a rising fog. [191]

[Footnote 188: Particulars in Entick, I. 121. ]

[Footnote 189: _Secret Instructions for our Trusty and Well-belovedEdward Boscawen, Esq. , Vice-Admiral of the Blue, 16 April, 1755. Mostsecret Instructions for Francis Holbourne, Esq. , Rear-Admiral of theBlue, 9 May, 1755. Robinson to Lords of the Admiralty, 8 May, 1755_. ]

[Footnote 190: _Liste des Officiers tués et blessés dans le Combat del'Alcide et du Lis_. ]

[Footnote 191: Hocquart's account is given in full by Pichon, _Lettreset Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire du Cap-Breton_. The short accountin _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 betterprepare for war. " Boscawen places the action on the 10th, instead of the8th, and puts the English loss at seven killed and twenty-sevenwounded. ]

Here at last was an end to negotiation. The sword was drawn andbrandished in the eyes of Europe. 

Chapter 7

1755

Braddock

"I have the pleasure to acquaint you that General Braddock came to myhouse last Sunday night, " writes Dinwiddie, at the end of February, toGovernor Dobbs of North Carolina. Braddock had landed at Hampton fromthe ship "Centurion, " along with young Commodore Keppel, who commandedthe American squadron. "I am mighty glad, " again writes Dinwiddie, "thatthe General is arrived, which I hope will give me some ease; for thesetwelve months past I have been a perfect slave. " He conceived goldenopinions of his guest. "He is, I think, a very fine officer, and asensible, considerate gentleman. He and I live in great harmony. "

Had he known him better, he might have praised him less. WilliamShirley, son of the Governor of Massachusetts, was Braddock's secretary;and after an acquaintance of some months wrote to his friend GovernorMorris: "We have a general most judiciously chosen for beingdisqualified for the service he is employed in in almost every respect. He may be brave for aught I know, and he is honest in pecuniarymatters. "[192] The astute Franklin, who also had good opportunity ofknowing him, says: "This general was, I think, a brave man, and mightprobably have made a good figure in some European war. But he had toomuch self-confidence; too high an opinion of the validity of regulartroops; too mean a one of both Americans and Indians. "[193] HoraceWalpole, in his function of gathering and immortalizing the gossip ofhis time, has left a sharply drawn sketch of Braddock in two letters toSir Horace Mann, written in the summer of this year: "I love to give youan idea of our characters as they rise upon the stage of history. Braddock is a very Iroquois in disposition. He had a sister who, havinggamed away all her little fortune at Bath, hanged herself with a trulyEnglish deliberation, leaving only a note upon the table with thoselines: 'To die is landing on some silent shore, ' etc. When Braddock wastold of it, he only said: 'Poor Fanny! I always thought she would playtill she would be forced to _tuck herself up_. '" Under the name of MissSylvia S----, Goldsmith, in his life of Nash, tells the story of thisunhappy woman. She was a rash but warm-hearted creature, reduced topenury and dependence, not so much by a passion for cards as by herlavish generosity to a lover ruined by his own follies, and with whomher relations are said to have been entirely innocent. Walpolecontinues: "But a more ridiculous story of Braddock, and which isrecorded in heroics by Fielding in his _Covent Garden Tragedy, _ was anamorous discussion he had formerly with a Mrs. Upton, who kept him. Hehad 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 showedhim that she had but twelve or fourteen shillings left. He twitched itfrom her: 'Let me see that. ' Tied up at the other end he found fiveguineas. He took them, tossed the empty purse in her face, saying: 'Didyou mean to cheat me?' and never went near her more. Now you areacquainted with General Braddock. "

[Footnote 192: _Shirley the younger to Morris, 23 May, 1755_. ]

[Footnote 193: Franklin, _Autobiography_. ]

"He once had a duel with Colonel Gumley, Lady Bath's brother, who hadbeen his great friend. As they were going to engage, Gumley, who hadgood-humor and wit (Braddock had the latter), said: 'Braddock, you are apoor dog! Here, take my purse; if you kill me, you will be forced to runaway, and then you will not have a shilling to support you. ' Braddockrefused the purse, insisted on the duel, was disarmed, and would noteven ask his life. However, with all his brutality, he has lately beengovernor of Gibraltar, where he made himself adored, and where scarceany governor was endured before. "[194]

[Footnote 194: _Letters of Horace Walpole_ (1866), II. 459, 461. It isdoubtful 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 withwhom his present relations seem to have been those of an elderly adviserand friend. "As we were walking in the Park one day, we heard a poorfellow was to be chastised; when I requested the General to beg off theoffender. Upon his application to the general officer, whose name wasDury, he asked Braddock how long since he had divested himself of thebrutality and insolence of his manners? To which the other replied: 'Younever knew me insolent to my inferiors. It is only to such rude men asyourself that I behave with the spirit which I think they deserve. '"

Braddock made a visit to the actress on the evening before he leftLondon for America. "Before we parted, " she says, "the General told methat he should never see me more; for he was going with a handful of mento conquer whole nations; and to do this they must cut their way throughunknown woods. He produced a map of the country, saying at the sametime: 'Dear Pop, we are sent like sacrifices to the altar, '"[195]--astrange presentiment for a man of his sturdy temper. 

[Footnote 195: _Apology for the Life of George Anne Bellamy, written byherself_, II. 204 (London, 1786). ]

Whatever were his failings, he feared nothing, and his fidelity andhonor in the discharge of public trusts were never questioned. "Desperate in his fortune, brutal in his behavior, obstinate in hissentiments, " again writes Walpole, "he was still intrepid andcapable. "[196] He was a veteran in years and in service, having enteredthe Coldstream Guards as ensign in 1710. 

[Footnote 196: Walpole, _George II. _, I. 390. ]

The transports bringing the two regiments from Ireland all arrivedsafely at Hampton, and were ordered to proceed up the Potomac toAlexandria, where a camp was to be formed. Thither, towards the end ofMarch, went Braddock himself, along with Keppel and Dinwiddie, in theGovernor's coach; while his aide-de-camp, Orme, his secretary, Shirley, and the servants of the party followed on horseback. Braddock had sentfor the elder Shirley and other provincial governors to meet him incouncil; and on the fourteenth of April they assembled in a tent of thenewly formed encampment. Here was Dinwiddie, who thought his troubles atan end, and saw in the red-coated soldiery the near fruition of hishopes. Here, too, was his friend and ally, Dobbs of North Carolina; withMorris of Pennsylvania, fresh from Assembly quarrels; Sharpe ofMaryland, who, having once been a soldier, had been made a sort ofprovisional commander-in-chief before the arrival of Braddock; and theambitious Delancey of New York, who had lately led the oppositionagainst the Governor of that province, and now filled the officehimself, --a position that needed all his manifold adroitness. But, nextto Braddock, the most noteworthy man present was Shirley, governor ofMassachusetts. There was a fountain of youth in this old lawyer. A fewyears before, when he was boundary commissioner in Paris, he had had theindiscretion to marry a young Catholic French girl, the daughter of hislandlord; and now, when more than sixty years old, he thirsted formilitary honors, and delighted in contriving operations of war. He wasone of a very few in the colonies who at this time entertained the ideaof expelling the French from the continent. He held that Carthage mustbe destroyed; and, in spite of his Parisian marriage, was the foremostadvocate of the root-and-branch policy. He and Lawrence, governor ofNova Scotia, had concerted an attack on the French fort of Beauséjour;and, jointly with others in New England, he had planned the capture ofCrown Point, the key of Lake Champlain. By these two strokes and byfortifying the portage between the Kennebec and the Chaudière, hethought that the northern colonies would be saved from invasion, andplaced in a position to become themselves invaders. Then, by driving theenemy from Niagara, securing that important pass, and thus cutting offthe communication between Canada and her interior dependencies, all theFrench posts in the West would die of inanition. [197] In order tocommend these schemes to the Home Government, he had painted in gloomycolors the dangers that beset the British colonies. Our Indians, hesaid, will all desert us if we submit to French encroachment. Some ofthe provinces are full of negro slaves, ready to rise against theirmasters, and of Roman Catholics, Jacobites, indented servants, and otherdangerous persons, who would aid the French in raising a servileinsurrection. Pennsylvania is in the hands of Quakers, who will notfight, and of Germans, who are likely enough to join the enemy. TheDutch of Albany would do anything to save their trade. A strong force ofFrench regulars might occupy that place without resistance, then descendthe Hudson, and, with the help of a naval force, capture New York andcut the British colonies asunder. [198]

[Footnote 197: _Correspondence of Shirley, 1754, 1755_. ]

[Footnote 198: _Shirley to Robinson, 24 Jan. 1755_. ]

The plans against Crown Point and Beauséjour had already found theapproval of the Home Government and the energetic support of all the NewEngland colonies. Preparation for them was in full activity; and it waswith great difficulty that Shirley had disengaged himself from thesecares to attend the council at Alexandria. He and Dinwiddie stood in thefront of opposition to French designs. As they both defended the royalprerogative and were strong advocates of taxation by Parliament, theyhave found scant justice from American writers. Yet the British coloniesowed them a debt of gratitude, and the American States owe it still. 

Braddock, laid his instructions before the Council, and Shirley foundthem entirely to his mind; while the General, on his part, fullyapproved the schemes of the Governor. The plan of the campaign wassettled. The French were to be attacked at four points at once. The twoBritish regiments lately arrived were to advance on Fort Duquesne; twonew regiments, known as Shirley's and Pepperell's, just raised in theprovinces, and taken into the King's pay, were to reduce Niagara; a bodyof provincials from New England, New York, and New Jersey was to seizeCrown Point; and another body of New England men to capture Beauséjourand bring Acadia to complete subjection. Braddock himself was to leadthe expedition against Fort Duquesne. He asked Shirley, who, though asoldier only in theory, had held the rank of colonel since the last war, to charge himself with that against Niagara; and Shirley eagerlyassented. The movement on Crown Point was intrusted to Colonel WilliamJohnson, by reason of his influence over the Indians and his reputationfor energy, capacity, and faithfulness. Lastly, the Acadian enterprisewas assigned to Lieutenant-Colonel Monckton, a regular officer of merit. 

To strike this fourfold blow in time of peace was a scheme worthy ofNewcastle and of Cumberland. The pretext was that the positions to beattacked were all on British soil; that in occupying them the French hadbeen guilty of invasion; and that to expel the invaders would be an actof self-defence. Yet in regard to two of these positions, the French, ifthey had no other right, might at least claim one of prescription. CrownPoint had been twenty-four years in their undisturbed possession, whileit was three quarters of a century since they first occupied Niagara;and, though New York claimed the ground, no serious attempt had beenmade to dislodge them. 

Other matters now engaged the Council. Braddock, in accordance with hisinstructions, asked the governors to urge upon their several assembliesthe establishment of a general fund for the service of the campaign; butthe governors were all of opinion that the assemblies wouldrefuse, --each being resolved to keep the control of its money in its ownhands; and all present, with one voice, advised that the colonies shouldbe compelled by Act of Parliament to contribute in due proportion to thesupport of the war. Braddock next asked if, in the judgment of theCouncil, it would not be well to send Colonel Johnson with full powersto treat with the Five Nations, who had been driven to the verge of anoutbreak by the misconduct of the Dutch Indian commissioners at Albany. The measure was cordially approved, as was also another suggestion ofthe General, that vessels should be built at Oswego to command LakeOntario. The Council then dissolved. 

Shirley hastened back to New England, burdened with the preparation forthree expeditions and the command of one of them. Johnson, who had beenin the camp, though not in the Council, went back to Albany, providedwith a commission as sole superintendent of Indian affairs, and charged, besides, with the enterprise against Crown Point; while an express wasdespatched to Monckton at Halifax, with orders to set at once to hiswork of capturing Beauséjour. [199]

[Footnote 199: _Minutes of a Council held at the Camp at Alexandria, inVirginia, April 14, 1755. Instructions to Major-General Braddock, 25Nov. 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 RecordOffice). _Johnson Papers. Dinwiddie Papers. Pennsylvania Archives_, II. ]

In regard to Braddock's part of the campaign, there had been a seriouserror. If, instead of landing in Virginia and moving on Fort Duquesneby the long and circuitous route of Wills Creek, the two regiments haddisembarked at Philadelphia and marched westward, the way would havebeen shortened, and would have lain through one of the richest and mostpopulous districts on the continent, filled with supplies of every kind. In Virginia, on the other hand, and in the adjoining province ofMaryland, wagons, horses, and forage were scarce. The enemies of theAdministration ascribed this blunder to the influence of the Quakermerchant, John Hanbury, whom the Duke of Newcastle had consulted as aperson familiar with American affairs. Hanbury, who was a prominentstockholder in the Ohio Company, and who traded largely in Virginia, sawit for his interest that the troops should pass that way; and is said tohave brought the Duke to this opinion. [200] A writer of the time thinksthat if they had landed in Pennsylvania, forty thousand pounds wouldhave been saved in money, and six weeks in time. [201]

[Footnote 200: _Shebbeare's Tracts_, Letter I. Dr. Shebbeare was apolitical pamphleteer, pilloried by one ministry, and rewarded by thenext. He certainly speaks of Hanbury, though he does not give his name. Compare Sargent, 107, 162. ]

[Footnote 201: _Gentleman's Magazine, Aug_. 1755. ]

Not only were supplies scarce, but the people showed such unwillingnessto furnish them, and such apathy in aiding the expedition, that evenWashington was provoked to declare that "they ought to bechastised. "[202] Many of them thought that the alarm about Frenchencroachment was a device of designing politicians; and they did notawake to a full consciousness of the peril till it was forced upon themby a deluge of calamities, produced by the purblind folly of their ownrepresentatives, who, instead of frankly promoting the expedition, displayed a perverse and exasperating narrowness which chafed Braddockto fury. He praises the New England colonies, and echoes Dinwiddie'sdeclaration that they have shown a "fine martial spirit, " and hecommends Virginia as having done far better than her neighbors; but forPennsylvania he finds no words to express his wrath. [203] He knewnothing of the intestine war between proprietaries and people, and hencecould see no palliation for a conduct which threatened to ruin both theexpedition and the colony. Everything depended on speed, and speed wasimpossible; for stores and provisions were not ready, though notice tofurnish them had been given months before. The quartermaster-general, Sir John Sinclair, "stormed like a lion rampant, " but with smalleffect. [204] Contracts broken or disavowed, want of horses, want ofwagons, want of forage, want of wholesome food, or sufficient food ofany kind, caused such delay that the report of it reached England, anddrew from Walpole the comment that Braddock was in no hurry to bescalped. In reality he was maddened with impatience and vexation. 

[Footnote 202: _Writings of Washington_, II. 78. He speaks of the peopleof Pennsylvania. ]

[Footnote 203: _Braddock to Robinson, 18 March, 19 April, 5 June, 1755_, etc. On the attitude of Pennsylvania, _Colonial Records of Pa_. , VI. , _passim_. ]

[Footnote 204: _Colonial Records of Pa_. , VI. 368. ]

A powerful ally presently came to his aid in the shape of BenjaminFranklin, then postmaster-general of Pennsylvania. That sagaciouspersonage, --the sublime of common-sense, about equal in his instinctsand motives of character to the respectable average of the New Englandthat produced him, but gifted with a versatile power of brain rarelymatched on earth, --was then divided between his strong desire to repel adanger of which he saw the imminence, and his equally strong antagonismto the selfish claims of the Penns, proprietaries of Pennsylvania. Thislast motive had determined his attitude towards their representative, the Governor, and led him into an opposition as injurious to themilitary good name of the province as it was favorable to its politicallongings. In the present case there was no such conflict ofinclinations; he could help Braddock without hurting Pennsylvania. Heand his son had visited the camp, and found the General waitingrestlessly for the report of the agents whom he had sent to collectwagons. "I stayed with him, " says Franklin, "several days, and dinedwith him daily. When I was about to depart, the returns of wagons to beobtained were brought in, by which it appeared that they amounted onlyto twenty-five, and not all of these were in serviceable condition. " Onthis the General and his officers declared that the expedition was at anend, and denounced the Ministry for sending them into a country void ofthe means of transportation. Franklin remarked that it was a pity theyhad not landed in Pennsylvania, where almost every farmer had his wagon. Braddock caught eagerly at his words, and begged that he would use hisinfluence to enable the troops to move. Franklin went back toPennsylvania, issued an address to the farmers appealing to theirinterest and their fears, and in a fortnight procured a hundred andfifty wagons, with a large number of horses. [205] Braddock, grateful tohis benefactor, and enraged at everybody else, pronounced him "Almostthe only instance of ability and honesty I have known in theseprovinces. "[206] More wagons and more horses gradually arrived, and atthe eleventh hour the march began. 

[Footnote 205: Franklin, _Autobiography. Advertisement of B. Franklinfor Wagons; Address to the Inhabitants of the Counties of York, Lancaster, and Cumberland, Pennsylvania Archives, _II. 294]

[Footnote 206: _Braddock to Robinson, 5 June_, 1755. The letters ofBraddock here cited are the originals in the Public Record Office]

On the tenth of May Braddock reached Wills Creek, where the whole forcewas now gathered, having marched thither by detachments along the banksof the Potomac. This old trading-station of the Ohio Company had beentransformed into a military post and named Fort Cumberland. During thepast winter the independent companies which had failed Washington in hisneed 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 hadbeen cut in the bosom of the forest, and the murdered oaks and chestnutsturned into ramparts, barracks, and magazines. Fort Cumberland was anenclosure of logs set upright in the ground, pierced with loopholes, andarmed with ten small cannon. It stood on a rising ground near the pointwhere Wills Creek joined the Potomac, and the forest girded it like amighty hedge, or rather like a paling of gaunt brown stems upholding acanopy of green. All around spread illimitable woods, wrapping hill, valley, and mountain. The spot was an oasis in a desert of leaves, --ifthe name oasis can be given to anything so rude and harsh. In thisrugged area, or "clearing, " all Braddock's force was now assembled, amounting, regulars, provincials, and sailors, to about twenty-twohundred men. The two regiments, Halket's and Dunbar's, had beencompleted by enlistment in Virginia to seven hundred men each. OfVirginians there were nine companies of fifty men, who found no favor inthe eyes of Braddock or his officers. To Ensign Allen of Halket'sregiment was assigned the duty of "making them as much like soldiers aspossible. "[207]--that is, of drilling them like regulars. The Generalhad little hope of them, and informed Sir Thomas Robinson that "theirslothful and languid disposition renders them very unfit for militaryservice, "--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 infact of value in many ways. He had now about six hundred baggage-horses, besides those of the artillery, all weakening daily on their diet ofleaves; for no grass was to be found. There was great show ofdiscipline, and little real order. Braddock's executive capacity seemsto have been moderate, and his dogged, imperious temper, rasped bydisappointments, was in constant irritation. "He looks upon the country, I believe, " writes Washington, "as void of honor or honesty. We havefrequent disputes on this head, which are maintained with warmth on bothsides, especially on his, as he is incapable of arguing without it, orgiving up any point he asserts, be it ever so incompatible with reasonor common sense. "[208] Braddock's secretary, the younger Shirley, writing to his friend Governor Morris, spoke thus irreverently of hischief: "As the King said of a neighboring governor of yours [_Sharpe_], when proposed for the command of the American forces about a twelvemonthago, and recommended as a very honest man, though not remarkably able, 'a little more ability and a little less honesty upon the presentoccasion might serve our turn better. ' It is a joke to suppose thatsecondary officers can make amends for the defects of the first; themainspring must be the mover. As to the others, I don't think we havemuch to boast; some are insolent and ignorant, others capable, butrather aiming at showing their own abilities than making a proper use ofthem. I have a very great love for my friend Orme, and think ituncommonly fortunate for our leader that he is under the influence of sohonest and capable a man; but I wish for the sake of the public he hadsome more experience of business, particularly in America. I am greatlydisgusted at seeing an expedition (as it is called), so ill-concertedoriginally in England, so improperly conducted since in America. "[209]

[Footnote 207: Orme, _Journal_. ]

[Footnote 208: _Writings of Washington_, II. 77. ]

[Footnote 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 toBraddock, and author of a copious and excellent Journal of theexpedition, now in the British Museum. [210] His portrait, painted atfull length by Sir Joshua Reynolds, hangs in the National Gallery atLondon. He stands by his horse, a gallant young figure, with a facepale, yet rather handsome, booted to the knee, his scarlet coat, amplewaistcoat, and small three-cornered hat all heavy with gold lace. TheGeneral had two other aides-de-camp, Captain Roger Morris and ColonelGeorge Washington, whom he had invited, in terms that do him honor, tobecome one of his military family. 

[Footnote 210: Printed by Sargent, in his excellent monograph ofBraddock's Expedition. ]

It has been said that Braddock despised not only provincials, butIndians. Nevertheless he took some pains to secure their aid, andcomplained that Indian affairs had been so ill conducted by theprovinces that it was hard to gain their confidence. This was true; thetribes had been alienated by gross neglect. Had they been protected frominjustice and soothed by attentions and presents, the Five Nations, Delawares, and Shawanoes would have been retained as friends. But theircomplaints had been slighted, and every gift begrudged. The traderCroghan brought, however, about fifty warriors, with as many women andchildren, to the camp at Fort Cumberland. They were objects of greatcuriosity 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 thecrown. "In the day, " says an officer, "they are in our camp, and in thenight they go into their own, where they dance and make a most horriblenoise. " Braddock received them several times in his tent, ordered theguard to salute them, made them speeches, caused cannon to be fired anddrums and fifes to play in their honor, regaled them with rum, and gavethem a bullock for a feast; whereupon, being much pleased, they danced awar-dance, described by one spectator as "droll and odd, showing howthey scalp and fight;" after which, says another, "they set up the mosthorrid song or cry that ever I heard. "[211] These warriors, with a fewothers, promised the General to join him on the march; but he apparentlygrew tired of them, for a famous chief, called Scarroyaddy, afterwardscomplained: "He looked upon us as dogs, and would never hear anythingthat we said to him. " Only eight of them remained with him to theend. [212]

[Footnote 211: _Journal of a Naval Officer_, in Sargent. _The Expeditionof Major-General Braddock, being Extracts of Letters from an Officer_(London, 1755). ]

[Footnote 212: _Statement of George Croghan_, in Sargent, appendix iii. ]

Another ally appeared at the camp. This was a personage long known inWestern fireside story as Captain Jack, the Black Hunter, or the BlackRifle. It was said of him that, having been a settler on the farthestfrontier, in the Valley of the Juniata, he returned one evening to hiscabin and found it burned to the ground by Indians, and the bodies ofhis wife and children lying among the ruins. He vowed undying vengeance, raised a band of kindred spirits, dressed and painted like Indians, andbecame the scourge of the red man and the champion of the white. But heand his wild crew, useful as they might have been, shocked Braddock'ssense of military fitness; and he received them so coldly that they lefthim. [213]

[Footnote 213: See several traditional accounts and contemporary lettersin _Hazard's Pennsylvania Register_, IV. 389, 390, 416; V. 191. ]

It was the tenth of June before the army was well on its march. Threehundred axemen led the way, to cut and clear the road; and the longtrain of packhorses, wagons, and cannon toiled on behind, over thestumps, roots, and stones of the narrow track, the regulars andprovincials marching in the forest close on either side. Squads of menwere thrown out on the flanks, and scouts ranged the woods to guardagainst 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 thestreams flowing to the Atlantic from those flowing to the Gulf ofMexico, --a realm of forests ancient as the world. The road was buttwelve feet wide, and the line of march often extended four miles. Itwas like a thin, long party-colored snake, red, blue, and brown, trailing slowly through the depth of leaves, creeping round inaccessibleheights, crawling over ridges, moving always in dampness and shadow, byrivulets and waterfalls, crags and chasms, gorges and shaggy steps. Inglimpses only, through jagged boughs and flickering leaves, did thiswild primeval world reveal itself, with its dark green mountains, flecked with the morning mist, and its distant summits pencilled indreamy blue. The army passed the main Alleghany, Meadow Mountain, andGreat Savage Mountain, and traversed the funereal pine-forest afterwardscalled the Shades of Death. No attempt was made to interrupt theirmarch, though the commandant of Fort Duquesne had sent out parties forthat purpose. A few French and Indians hovered about them, now and thenscalping a straggler or inscribing filthy insults on trees; while othersfell upon the border settlements which the advance of the troops hadleft defenceless. Here they were more successful, butchering aboutthirty persons, chiefly women and children. 

It was the eighteenth of June before the army reached a place called theLittle Meadows, less than thirty miles from Fort Cumberland. Fever anddysentery among the men, and the weakness and worthlessness of many ofthe horses, joined to the extreme difficulty of the road, so retardedthem that they could move scarcely more than three miles a day. Braddockconsulted with Washington, who advised him to leave the heavy baggageto 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 regularswere on the way to reinforce Fort Duquesne. It was adopted. ColonelDunbar was left to command the rear division, whose powers of movementwere now reduced to the lowest point. The advance corps, consisting ofabout twelve hundred soldiers, besides officers and drivers, began itsmarch on the nineteenth with such artillery as was thoughtindispensable, thirty wagons, and a large number of packhorses. "Theprospect, " writes Washington to his brother, "conveyed infinite delightto my mind, though I was excessively ill at the time. But this prospectwas soon clouded, and my hopes brought very low indeed when I foundthat, instead of pushing on with vigor without regarding a little roughroad, they were halting to level every mole-hill, and to erect bridgesover every brook, by which means we were four days in getting twelvemiles. " It was not till the seventh of July that they neared the mouthof Turtle Creek, a stream entering the Monongahela about eight milesfrom the French fort. The way was direct and short, but would lead themthrough a difficult country and a defile so perilous that Braddockresolved to ford the Monongahela to avoid this danger, and then ford itagain to reach his destination. 

Fort Duquesne stood on the point of land where the Alleghany and theMonongahela join to form the Ohio, and where now stands Pittsburg, withits swarming population, its restless industries, the clang of itsforges, and its chimneys vomiting foul smoke into the face of heaven. Atthat early day a white flag fluttering over a cluster of palisades andembankments betokened the first intrusion of civilized men upon a scenewhich, a few months before, breathed the repose of a virgin wilderness, voiceless but for the lapping of waves upon the pebbles, or the note ofsome lonely bird. But now the sleep of ages was broken, and bugle anddrum told the astonished forest that its doom was pronounced and itsdays numbered. The fort was a compact little work, solidly built andstrong, compared with others on the continent. It was a square of fourbastions, with the water close on two sides, and the other two protectedby ravelins, ditch, glacis, and covered way. The ramparts on these sideswere 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 armamentconsisted of a number of small cannon mounted on the bastions. A gateand drawbridge on the east side gave access to the area within, whichwas surrounded by barracks for the soldiers, officers' quarters, thelodgings of the commandant, a guardhouse, and a storehouse, all builtpartly of logs and partly of boards. There were no casemates, and theplace was commanded by a high woody hill beyond the Monongahela. Theforest had been cleared away to the distance of more than a musket shotfrom the ramparts, and the stumps were hacked level with the ground. Here, just outside the ditch, bark cabins had been built for such of thetroops and Canadians as could not find room within; and the rest of theopen space was covered with Indian corn and other crops. [214]

[Footnote 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 ofFort Duquesne_ in Public Record Office. ]

The garrison consisted of a few companies of the regular troopsstationed permanently in the colony, and to these were added aconsiderable number of Canadians. Contrecoeur still held thecommand. [215] Under him were three other captains, Beaujeu, Dumas, andLigneris. Besides the troops and Canadians, eight hundred Indianwarriors, mustered from far and near, had built their wigwams andcamp-sheds on the open ground, or under the edge of the neighboringwoods, --very little to the advantage of the young corn. Some werebaptized savages settled in Canada, --Caughnawagas from Saut St. Louis, Abenakis from St. Francis, and Hurons from Lorette, whose chief bore thename of Anastase, in honor of that Father of the Church. The rest wereunmitigated heathen, --Pottawattamies and Ojibwas from the northern lakesunder Charles Langlade, the same bold partisan who had led them, threeyears before, to attack the Miamis at Pickawillany; Shawanoes andMingoes from the Ohio; and Ottawas from Detroit, commanded, it is said, by that most redoubtable of savages, Pontiac. The law of the survival ofthe fittest had wrought on this heterogeneous crew through countlessgenerations; and with the primitive Indian, the fittest was thehardiest, fiercest, most adroit, and most wily. Baptized and heathenalike they had just enjoyed a diversion greatly to their taste. A youngPennsylvanian named James Smith, a spirited and intelligent boy ofeighteen, had been waylaid by three Indians on the western borders ofthe province and led captive to the fort. When the party came to theedge of the clearing, his captors, who had shot and scalped hiscompanion, raised the scalp-yell; whereupon a din of responsive whoopsand firing of guns rose from all the Indian camps, and their inmatesswarmed out like bees, while the French in the fort shot off muskets andcannon to honor the occasion. The unfortunate boy, the object of thisobstreperous rejoicing, presently saw a multitude of savages, naked, hideously bedaubed with red, blue, black, and brown, and armed withsticks or clubs, ranging themselves in two long parallel lines, betweenwhich he was told that he must run, the faster the better, as they wouldbeat him all the way. He ran with his best speed, under a shower ofblows, and had nearly reached the end of the course, when he was knockeddown. He tried to rise, but was blinded by a handful of sand thrown intohis face; and then they beat him till he swooned. On coming to hissenses he found himself in the fort, with the surgeon opening a vein inhis arm and a crowd of French and Indians looking on. In a few days hewas able to walk with the help of a stick; and, coming out from hisquarters one morning, he saw a memorable scene. [216]

[Footnote 215: See Appendix D. ]

[Footnote 216: _Account of Remarkable Occurrences in the Life of ColonelJames Smith, written by himself_. Perhaps the best of all the numerousnarratives of captives among the Indians. ]

Three days before, an Indian had brought the report that the Englishwere approaching; and the Chevalier de la Perade was sent out toreconnoitre. [217] He returned on the next day, the seventh, with newsthat they were not far distant. On the eighth the brothers Normanvillewent out, and found that they were within six leagues of the fort. TheFrench were in great excitement and alarm; but Contrecoeur at lengthtook a resolution, which seems to have been inspired by Beaujeu. [218] Itwas determined to meet the enemy on the march, and ambuscade them ifpossible at the crossing of the Monongahela, or some other favorablespot. Beaujeu proposed the plan to the Indians, and offered them thewar-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 themorning again refused to go. Beaujeu did not despair. "I am determined, "he exclaimed, "to meet the English. What! will you let your father goalone?"[219] The greater part caught fire at his words, promised tofollow 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 thefort, and James Smith, painfully climbing the rampart with the help ofhis stick, looked down on the warrior rabble as, huddling together, wildwith excitement, they scooped up the contents to fill their powder-hornsand pouches. Then, band after band, they filed off along the foresttrack that led to the ford of the Monongahela. They numbered six hundredand thirty-seven; and with them went thirty-six French officers andcadets, seventy-two regular soldiers, and a hundred and forty-sixCanadians, or about nine hundred in all. [220] At eight o'clock thetumult was over. The broad clearing lay lonely and still, andContrecoeur, with what was left of his garrison, waited in suspense forthe issue. 

[Footnote 217: _Relation de Godefroy_, in Shea, _Bataille duMalangueulé_ (Monongahela). ]

[Footnote 218: Dumas, however, declares that Beaujeu adopted the plan athis suggestion. _Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1756_. ]

[Footnote 219: _Relation depuis le Départ des Trouppes de Québecjusqu'au 30 du Mois de Septembre, 1755_. ]

[Footnote 220: _Liste des Officiers, Cadets, Soldats, Miliciens, etSauvages qui composaient le Détachement qui a été au devant d'un Corpsde 2, 000 Anglois à 3 Lieues du Fort Duquesne, le 9 Juillet, 1755; jointà la Lettre de M. Bigot du 6 Août, 1755_. ]

It was near one o'clock when Braddock crossed the Monongahela for thesecond time. If the French made a stand anywhere, it would be, hethought, at the fording-place; but Lieutenant-Colonel Gage, whom he sentacross with a strong advance-party, found no enemy, and quietly tookpossession of the farther shore. Then the main body followed. To imposeon the imagination of the French scouts, who were doubtless on thewatch, the movement was made with studied regularity and order. The sunwas cloudless, and the men were inspirited by the prospect of neartriumph. Washington afterwards spoke with admiration of thespectacle. [221] The music, the banners, the mounted officers, the troopof light cavalry, the naval detachment, the red-coated regulars, theblue-coated Virginians, the wagons and tumbrils, cannon, howitzers, andcoehorns, the train of packhorses, and the droves of cattle, passed inlong procession through the rippling shallows, and slowly entered thebordering forest. Here, when all were over, a short halt was ordered forrest and refreshment. 

[Footnote 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 themorning; but he had been met by obstacles, the nature of which is notwholly clear. His Indians, it seems, had proved refractory. Threehundred of them left him, went off in another direction, and did notrejoin him till the English had crossed the river. [222] Hence perhaps itwas that, having left Fort Duquesne at eight o'clock, he spent half theday in marching seven miles, and was more than a mile from thefording-place when the British reached the eastern shore. The delay, from whatever cause arising, cost him the opportunity of laying anambush either at the ford or in the gullies and ravines that channelledthe forest through which Braddock was now on the point of marching. 

[Footnote 222: _Relation de Godefroy_, in Shea, _Bataille duMalangueulé_. ]

Not far from the bank of the river, and close by the British line ofmarch, there was a clearing and a deserted house that had once belongedto the trader Fraser. Washington remembered it well. It was here that hefound rest and shelter on the winter journey homeward from his missionto Fort Le Boeuf. He was in no less need of rest at this moment; forrecent 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 arough path, along which the troops were now beginning to move aftertheir halt. It ran inland for a little; then curved to the left, andfollowed a course parallel to the river along the base of a line ofsteep hills that here bordered the valley. These and all the countrywere buried in dense and heavy forest, choked with bushes and thecarcases of fallen trees. Braddock has been charged with marchingblindly 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 didnot reconnoitre the woods very far in advance of the head of the column;yet, with this exception, he made elaborate dispositions to preventsurprise. Several guides, with six Virginian light horsemen, led theway. Then, a musket-shot behind, came the vanguard; then three hundredsoldiers under Gage; then a large body of axemen, under Sir JohnSinclair, to open the road; then two cannon with tumbrils andtool-wagons; and lastly the rear-guard, closing the line, whileflanking-parties ranged the woods on both sides. This was theadvance-column. The main body followed with little or no interval. Theartillery and wagons moved along the road, and the troops filed throughthe woods close on either hand. Numerous flanking-parties were thrownout a hundred yards and more to right and left; while, in the spacebetween them and the marching column, the pack horses and cattle, withtheir drivers, made their way painfully among the trees and thickets;since, had they been allowed to follow the road, the line of march wouldhave been too long for mutual support. A body of regulars andprovincials brought up the rear. 

Gage, with his advance-column, had just passed a wide and bushy ravinethat crossed their path, and the van of the main column was on the pointof entering it, when the guides and light horsemen in the front suddenlyfell back; and the engineer, Gordon, then engaged in marking out theroad, saw a man, dressed like an Indian, but wearing the gorget of anofficer, bounding forward along the path. [223] He stopped when hediscovered the head of the column, turned, and waved his hat. The forestbehind was swarming with French and savages. At the signal of theofficer, who was probably Beaujeu, they yelled the war-whoop, spreadthemselves to right and left, and opened a sharp fire under cover of thetrees. Gage's column wheeled deliberately into line, and fired severalvolleys with great steadiness against the now invisible assailants. Fewof them were hurt; the trees caught the shot, but the noise wasdeafening under the dense arches of the forest. The greater part of theCanadians, to borrow the words of Dumas, "fled shamefully, crying 'Sauvequi peut!'"[224] Volley followed volley, and at the third Beaujeudropped dead. Gage's two cannon were now brought to bear, on which theIndians, like the Canadians, gave way in confusion, but did not, likethem, abandon the field. The close scarlet ranks of the English wereplainly to be seen through the trees and the smoke; they were movingforward, cheering lustily, and shouting "God save the King. " Dumas, nowchief in command, thought that all was lost. "I advanced, " he says, "with the assurance that comes from despair, exciting by voice andgesture the few soldiers that remained. The fire of my platoon was sosharp that the enemy seemed astonished. " The Indians, encouraged, beganto rally. The French officers who commanded them showed admirablecourage and address; and while Dumas and Ligneris, with the regulars andwhat was left of the Canadians, held the ground in front, the savagewarriors, screeching their war-cries, swarmed through the forest alongboth flanks of the English, hid behind trees, bushes, and fallen trunks, or crouched in gullies and ravines, and opened a deadly fire on thehelpless soldiery, who, themselves completely visible, could see noenemy, and wasted volley after volley on the impassive trees. The mostdestructive fire came from a hill on the English right, where theIndians lay in multitudes, firing from their lurking-places on theliving target below. But the invisible death was everywhere, in front, flank, and rear. The British cheer was heard no more. The troops broketheir ranks and huddled together in a bewildered mass, shrinking fromthe bullets that cut them down by scores. 

[Footnote 223: _Journal of the Proceeding of the Detachment of Seamen_, in Sargent. ]

[Footnote 224: _Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1756. Contrecoeur àVaudreuil, 14 Juillet, 1755_. See Appendix D, where extracts are given. ]

When Braddock heard the firing in the front, he pushed forward with themain 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 hisarrival Gage's soldiers had abandoned their two cannon, and were fallingback to escape the concentrated fire of the Indians. Meeting theadvancing troops, they tried to find cover behind them. This threw thewhole into confusion. The men of the two regiments became mixedtogether; and in a short time the entire force, except the Virginiansand the troops left with Halket, were massed in several dense bodieswithin a small space of ground, facing some one way and some another, and all alike exposed without shelter to the bullets that pelted themlike hail. Both men and officers were new to this blind and frightfulwarfare of the savage in his native woods. To charge the Indians intheir hiding-places would have been useless. They would have eludedpursuit with the agility of wildcats, and swarmed back, like angryhornets, the moment that it ceased. The Virginians alone were equal tothe emergency. Fighting behind trees like the Indians themselves, theymight have held the enemy in check till order could be restored, had notBraddock, furious at a proceeding that shocked all his ideas of courageand discipline, ordered them, with oaths, to form into line. A body ofthem under Captain Waggoner made a dash for a fallen tree lying in thewoods, far out towards the lurking-places of the Indians, and, crouchingbehind the huge trunk, opened fire; but the regulars, seeing the smokeamong the bushes, mistook their best friends for the enemy, shot at themfrom behind, killed many, and forced the rest to return. A few of theregulars also tried in their clumsy way to fight behind trees; butBraddock beat them with his sword, and compelled them to stand with therest, an open mark for the Indians. The panic increased; the soldierscrowded together, and the bullets spent themselves in a mass of humanbodies. Commands, entreaties, and threats were lost upon them. "We wouldfight, " some of them answered, "if we could see anybody to fight with. "Nothing was visible but puffs of smoke. Officers and men who had stoodall the afternoon under fire afterwards declared that they could not besure they had seen a single Indian. Braddock ordered Lieutenant-ColonelBurton to attack the hill where the puffs of smoke were thickest, andthe bullets most deadly. With infinite difficulty that brave officerinduced a hundred men to follow him; but he was soon disabled by awound, and they all faced about. The artillerymen stood for some time bytheir guns, which did great damage to the trees and little to the enemy. The mob of soldiers, stupefied with terror, stood panting, theirforeheads beaded with sweat, loading and firing mechanically, sometimesinto the air, sometimes among their own comrades, many of whom theykilled. The ground, strewn with dead and wounded men, the bounding ofmaddened horses, the clatter and roar of musketry and cannon, mixed withthe spiteful report of rifles and the yells that rose from theindefatigable throats of six hundred unseen savages, formed a chaos ofanguish and terror scarcely paralleled even in Indian war. "I cannotdescribe the horrors of that scene, " one of Braddock's officers wrotethree weeks after; "no pen could do it. The yell of the Indians is freshon my ear, and the terrific sound will haunt me till the hour of mydissolution. "[225]

[Footnote 225: _Leslie to a Merchant of Philadelphia, 30 July, 1755_, in_Hazard's Pennsylvania Register_, V. 191. Leslie was a lieutenant of theForty-fourth. ]

Braddock showed a furious intrepidity. Mounted on horseback, he dashedto and fro, storming like a madman. Four horses were shot under him, andhe mounted a fifth. Washington seconded his chief with equal courage; hetoo no doubt using strong language, for he did not measure words whenthe fit was on him. He escaped as by miracle. Two horses were killedunder him, and four bullets tore his clothes. The conduct of the Britishofficers was above praise. Nothing could surpass their undauntedself-devotion; and in their vain attempts to lead on the men, the havocamong them was frightful. Sir Peter Halket was shot dead. His son, alieutenant in his regiment, stooping to raise the body of his father, was shot dead in turn. Young Shirley, Braddock's secretary, was piercedthrough the brain. Orme and Morris, his aides-de-camp, Sinclair, thequartermaster-general, Gates and Gage, both afterwards conspicuous onopposite sides in the War of the Revolution, and Gladwin, who, eightyears later, defended Detroit against Pontiac, were all wounded. Ofeighty-six officers, sixty-three were killed or disabled;[226] while outof thirteen hundred and seventy-three noncommissioned officers andprivates, only four hundred and fifty-nine came off unharmed. [227]

[Footnote 226: _A List of the Officers who were present, and of thosekilled and wounded, in the Action on the Banks of the Monongahela, 9July, 1755_ (Public Record Office, _America and West Indies_, LXXXII). ]

[Footnote 227: Statement of the engineer, Mackellar. By another account, out of a total, officers and men, of 1, 460, the number of all ranks whoescaped was 583. Braddock's force, originally 1, 200, was increased, afew days before the battle, by detachments from Dunbar. ]

Braddock saw that all was lost. To save the wreck of his force fromannihilation, he at last commanded a retreat; and as he and such of hisofficers as were left strove to withdraw the half-frenzied crew in somesemblance of order, a bullet struck him down. The gallant bulldog fellfrom his horse, shot through the arm into the lungs. It is said, thoughon 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. CaptainStewart and another provincial bore him between them to the rear. 

It was about this time that the mob of soldiers, having been three hoursunder fire, and having spent their ammunition, broke away in a blindfrenzy, rushed back towards the ford, "and when, " says Washington, "weendeavored to rally them, it was with as much success as if we hadattempted to stop the wild bears of the mountains. " They dashed across, helter-skelter, plunging through the water to the farther bank, leavingwounded comrades, cannon, baggage, the military chest, and the General'spapers, a prey to the Indians. About fifty of these followed to the edgeof the river. Dumas and Ligneris, who had now only about twentyFrenchmen with them, made no attempt to pursue, and went back to thefort, because, says Contrecoeur, so many of the Canadians had "retiredat the first fire. " The field, abandoned to the savages, was apandemonium of pillage and murder. [228]

[Footnote 228: "Nous prîmes le parti de nous retirer en vue de ralliernotre petite armée. " _Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1756_. 

On the defeat of Braddock, besides authorities already cited, --_Shirleyto Robinson, 5 Nov. 1755_, accompanying the plans of the battlereproduced in this volume (Public Record Office, _America and WestIndies_, LXXXIL). The plans were drawn at Shirley's request by PatrickMackellar, chief engineer of the expedition, who was with Gage in theadvance column when the fight began. They were examined and fullyapproved by the chief surviving officers, and they closely correspondwith another plan made by the aide-de-camp Orme, --which, however, showsonly the beginning of the affair. 

_Report of the Court of Inquiry into the Behavior of the Troops at theMonongahela. Letters of Dinwiddie. Letters of Gage. Burd to Morris, 25July, 1755. Sinclair to Robinson, 3 Sept. Rutherford to----, 12 July. Writings of Washington_, II. 68-93. _Review of Military Operations inNorth America_. Entick, I. 145. _Gentleman's Magazine_ (1755), 378, 426. _Letter to a Friend on the Ohio Defeat_ (Boston, 1755). 

_Contrecoeur à Vaudreuil, 14 Juillet, 1755. Estat de l'Artillerie, etc. , qui se sont trouvés sur le Champ de Bataille. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5Août, 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 deSeptembre. Lotbinière à d'Argenson, 24 Oct. Relation officielle impriméeau Louvre. Relation de Godefroy_ (Shea). _Extraits du Registre du FortDuquesne_ (_Ibid. _). _Relation de diverses Mouvements_ (_Ibid. _). Pouchot, I. 37. ]

James Smith, the young prisoner at Fort Duquesne, had passed a day ofsuspense, waiting the result. "In the afternoon I again observed a greatnoise and commotion in the fort, and, though at that time I could notunderstand French, I found it was the voice of joy and triumph, andfeared that they had received what I called bad news. I had observedsome of the old-country soldiers speak Dutch; as I spoke Dutch, I wentto one of them and asked him what was the news. He told me that a runnerhad just arrived who said that Braddock would certainly be defeated;that the Indians and French had surrounded him, and were concealedbehind 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 takethe river, which was the only gap, and make their escape, there wouldnot be one man left alive before sundown. Some time after this, I hearda number of scalp-halloos, and saw a company of Indians and Frenchcoming in. I observed they had a great number of bloody scalps, grenadiers' caps, British canteens, bayonets, etc. , with them. Theybrought the news that Braddock was defeated. After that another companycame in, which appeared to be about one hundred, and chiefly Indians;and it seemed to me that almost every one of this company was carryingscalps. After this came another company with a number of wagon-horses, and also a great many scalps. Those that were coming in and those thathad arrived kept a constant firing of small arms, and also the greatguns in the fort, which were accompanied with the most hideous shoutsand yells from all quarters, so that it appeared to me as though theinfernal regions had broke loose. "

"About sundown I beheld a small party coming in with about a dozenprisoners, stripped naked, with their hands tied behind their backs andtheir faces and part of their bodies blacked; these prisoners theyburned to death on the bank of Alleghany River, opposite the fort. Istood on the fort wall until I beheld them begin to burn one of thesemen; they had him tied to a stake, and kept touching him withfirebrands, red-hot irons, etc. , and he screaming in a most dolefulmanner, the Indians in the meantime yelling like infernal spirits. Asthis scene appeared too shocking for me to behold, I retired to mylodging, both sore and sorry. When I came into my lodgings I sawRussel's _Seven Sermons_, which they had brought from the field ofbattle, 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 inproportion 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 theWestern tribes are not reported. [229] All of these last went off thenext morning with their plunder and scalps, leaving Contrecoeur in greatanxiety lest the remnant of Braddock's troops, reinforced by thedivision under Dunbar, should attack him again. His doubts would havevanished had he known the condition of his defeated enemy. 

[Footnote 229: _Liste des Officiers, Soldats, Miliciens, et Sauvages deCanada qui out été tués et blessés le 9 Juillet, 1755_. ]

In the pain and languor of a mortal wound, Braddock showed unflinchingresolution. His bearers stopped with him at a favorable spot beyond theMonongahela; and here he hoped to maintain his position till the arrivalof Dunbar. By the efforts of the officers about a hundred men werecollected around him; but to keep them there was impossible. Within anhour they abandoned him, and fled like the rest. Gage, however, succeeded in rallying about eighty beyond the other fording-place; andWashington, on an order from Braddock, spurred his jaded horse towardsthe camp of Dunbar to demand wagons, provisions, and hospital stores. 

Fright overcame fatigue. The fugitives toiled on all night, pursued byspectres of horror and despair; hearing still the war-whoops and theshrieks; possessed with the one thought of escape from the wilderness ofdeath. In the morning some order was restored. Braddock was placed on ahorse; then, the pain being insufferable, he was carried on a litter, Captain Orme having bribed the carriers by the promise of a guinea and abottle of rum apiece. Early in the succeeding night, such as had notfainted on the way reached the deserted farm of Gist. Here they metwagons and provisions, with a detachment of soldiers sent by Dunbar, whose camp was six miles farther on; and Braddock ordered them to go tothe relief of the stragglers left behind. 

At noon of that day a number of wagoners and packhorse-drivers had cometo Dunbar's camp with wild tidings of rout and ruin. More fugitivesfollowed; 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 andteamsters took to flight, in spite of the sentinels, who tried in vainto stop them. [230] There was a still more disgraceful scene on the nextday, after Braddock, with the wreck of his force, had arrived. Orderswere given to destroy such of the wagons, stores, and ammunition ascould not be carried back at once to Fort Cumberland. Whether Dunbar orthe dying General gave these orders is not clear; but it is certain thatthey were executed with shameful alacrity. More than a hundred wagonswere burned; cannon, coehorns, and shells were burst or buried; barrelsof gunpowder were staved, and the contents thrown into a brook;provisions were scattered through the woods and swamps. Then the wholecommand began its retreat over the mountains to Fort Cumberland, sixtymiles distant. This proceeding, for which, in view of the condition ofBraddock, Dunbar must be held answerable, excited the utmostindignation among the colonists. If he could not advance, they thought, he might at least have fortified himself and held his ground till theprovinces could send him help; thus covering the frontier, and holdingFrench war-parties in check. 

[Footnote 230: _Depositions of Matthew Laird, Michael Hoover, and JacobHoover, Wagoners_, in _Colonial Records of Pa. _, VI. 482. ]

Braddock's last moment was near. Orme, who, though himself severelywounded, was with him till his death, told Franklin that he was totallysilent all the first day, and at night said only, "Who would havethought it?" that all the next day he was again silent, till at last hemuttered, "We shall better know how to deal with them another time, " anddied a few minutes after. He had nevertheless found breath to giveorders 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 ofa red coat, " but murmured praises of "the blues, " or Virginians, andsaid that he hoped he should live to reward them. [231] He died at abouteight o'clock in the evening of Sunday, the thirteenth. Dunbar had begunhis 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 theIndians should find and mutilate the body. 

[Footnote 231: _Bolling to his Son, 13 Aug. 1755_. Bolling was aVirginian gentleman whose son was at school in England. ]

Colonel James Innes, commanding at Fort Cumberland, where a crowd ofinvalids with soldiers' wives and other women had been left when theexpedition marched, heard of the defeat, only two days after ithappened, from a wagoner who had fled from the field on horseback. He atonce sent a note of six lines to Lord Fairfax: "I have this momentreceived the most melancholy news of the defeat of our troops, theGeneral killed, and numbers of our officers; our whole artillery taken. In short, the account I have received is so very bad, that as, pleaseGod, I intend to make a stand here, 'tis highly necessary to raise themilitia everywhere to defend the frontiers. " A boy whom he sent out onhorseback met more fugitives, and came back on the fourteenth withreports as vague and disheartening as the first. Innes sent them toDinwiddie. [232] Some days after, Dunbar and his train arrived inmiserable disorder, and Fort Cumberland was turned into a hospital forthe shattered fragments of a routed and ruined army. 

[Footnote 232: _Innes to Dinwiddie, 14 July, 1755_. ]

On the sixteenth a letter was brought in haste to one Buchanan atCarlisle, 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]

[Footnote 233: _Colonial Records of Pa. _, VI. 481. ]

The evil tidings quickly reached Philadelphia, where such confidence hadprevailed that certain over-zealous persons had begun to collect moneyfor fireworks to celebrate the victory. Two of these, brother physiciansnamed Bond, came to Franklin and asked him to subscribe; but the sagelooked doubtful. "Why, the devil!" said one of them, "you surely don'tsuppose the fort will not be taken?" He reminded them that war is alwaysuncertain; and the subscription was deferred. [234]The Governor laid thenews of the disaster before his Council, telling them at the same timethat his opponents in the Assembly would not believe it, and hadinsulted him in the street for giving it currency. [235]

[Footnote 234: _Autobiography of Franklin_. ]

[Footnote 235: _Colonial Records of Pa. _, VI. 480. ]

Dinwiddie remained tranquil at Williamsburg, sure that all would gowell. The brief note of Innes, forwarded by Lord Fairfax, firstdisturbed 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 greatpanic, represented what his fears suggested. I wait with impatience foranother express from Fort Cumberland, which I expect will greatlycontradict the former. " The news got abroad, and the slaves showed signsof excitement. "The villany of the negroes on any emergency is what Ialways feared, " continues the Governor. "An example of one or two atfirst may prevent these creatures entering into combinations and wickeddesigns. "[236] And he wrote to Lord Halifax: "The negro slaves have beenvery audacious on the news of defeat on the Ohio. These poor creaturesimagine 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. " Suspensegrew intolerable. "It's monstrous they should be so tardy and dilatoryin sending down any farther account. " He sent Major Colin Campbell fornews; when, a day or two later, a courier brought him two letters, onefrom Orme, and the other from Washington, both written at FortCumberland on the eighteenth. The letter of Orme began thus: "My dearGovernor, I am so extremely ill in bed with the wound I have receivedthat I am under the necessity of employing my friend Captain Dobson asmy scribe. " Then he told the wretched story of defeat and humiliation. "The officers were absolutely sacrificed by their unparalleled goodbehavior; advancing before their men sometimes in bodies, and sometimesseparately, hoping by such an example to engage the soldiers to followthem; but to no purpose. Poor Shirley was shot through the head, CaptainMorris very much wounded. Mr. Washington had two horses shot under him, and his clothes shot through in several places; behaving the whole timewith the greatest courage and resolution. "

[Footnote 236: _Dinwiddie to Colonel Charles Carter, 18 July, 1755_. ]

Washington wrote more briefly, saying that, as Orme was giving a fullaccount of the affair, it was needless for him to repeat it. Like manyothers in the fight, he greatly underrated the force of the enemy, whichhe placed at three hundred, or about a third of the actual number, --anatural error, as most of the assailants were invisible. "Our poorVirginians behaved like men, and died like soldiers; for I believe thatout of three companies that were there that day, scarce thirty were leftalive. Captain Peronney and all his officers down to a corporal werekilled. Captain Polson shared almost as hard a fate, for only one of hisescaped. In short, the dastardly behavior of the English soldiersexposed all those who were inclined to do their duty to almost certaindeath. It is imagined (I believe with great justice, too) that twothirds of both killed and wounded received their shots from our owncowardly dogs of soldiers, who gathered themselves into a body, contraryto orders, ten and twelve deep, would then level, fire, and shoot downthe men before them. "[237]

[Footnote 237: These extracts are taken from the two letters preservedin 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 sowhen I observed by the postscript that your wound is not dangerous. Butpray, dear sir, is it not possible by a second attempt to retrieve thegreat loss we have sustained? I presume the General's chariot is at thefort. 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 Idoubt not of your recovery. My wife and girls join me in most sincererespects and joy at your being so well, and I always am, with greattruth, 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 hisescape; but soon grows formal, and asks: "Pray, sir, with the number ofthem remaining, is there no possibility of doing something on the otherside of the mountains before the winter months? Surely you must mistake. Colonel Dunbar will not march to winter-quarters in the middle ofsummer, 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. Isincerely wish you health and happiness, and am, with great respect, sir, your obedient, humble servant. "

Washington's letter had contained the astonishing announcement thatDunbar meant to abandon the frontier and march to Philadelphia. Dinwiddie, much disturbed, at once wrote to that officer, though withoutbetraying any knowledge of his intention. "Sir, the melancholy accountof the defeat of our forces gave me a sensible and real concern"--onwhich he enlarges for a while; then suddenly changes style: "DearColonel, is there no method left to retrieve the dishonor done to theBritish arms? As you now command all the forces that remain, are you notable, 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 forsuch an expedition. What a fine field for honor will Colonel Dunbar haveto confirm and establish his character as a brave officer. " Then, aftersuggesting plans of operation, and entering into much detail, the fervidGovernor concludes: "It gives me great pleasure that under our greatloss and misfortunes the command devolves on an officer of so greatmilitary judgment and established character. With my sincere respect andhearty 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 fromhim in reply a short, dry note, dated on the first of August, andacquainting him that he should march for Philadelphia on the second. This, in fact, he did, leaving the fort to be defended by invalids and afew Virginians. "I acknowledge, " says Dinwiddie, "I was not brought upto arms; but I think common sense would have prevailed not to leave thefrontiers exposed after having opened a road over the mountains to theOhio, by which the enemy can the more easily invade us. .. . Your greatcolonel, " he writes to Orme, "is gone to a peaceful colony, and left ourfrontiers open. .. . The whole conduct of Colonel Dunbar appears to memonstrous. .. . To march off all the regulars, and leave the fort andfrontiers to be defended by four hundred sick and wounded, and the poorremains of our provincial forces, appears to me absurd. "[238]

[Footnote 238: Dinwiddie's view of Dunbar's conduct is fully justifiedby the letters of Shirley, Governor Morris, and Dunbar himself. ]

He found some comfort from the burgesses, who gave him forty thousandpounds, and would, he thinks, have given a hundred thousand if anotherattempt against Fort Duquesne had been set afoot. Shirley, too, whom thedeath of Braddock had made commander-in-chief, approved the Governor'splan of renewing offensive operations, and instructed Dunbar to thateffect; ordering him, however, should they prove impracticable, to marchfor Albany in aid of the Niagara expedition. [239] The order found himsafe in Philadelphia. Here he lingered for a while; then marched to jointhe northern army, moving at a pace which made it certain that he couldnot arrive in time to be of the least use. 

[Footnote 239: _Orders for Colonel Thomas Dunbar, 12 Aug. 1755_. Thesesupersede a previous order of August 6, by which Shirley had directedDunbar to march northward at once. ]

Thus the frontier was left unguarded; and soon, as Dinwiddie hadforeseen, there burst upon it a storm of blood and fire. 

Chapter 8

1755-1763

Removal of the Acadians

By the plan which the Duke of Cumberland had ordained and Braddock hadannounced in the Council at Alexandria, four blows were to be struck atonce to force back the French boundaries, lop off the dependencies ofCanada, and reduce her from a vast territory to a petty province. Thefirst stroke had failed, and had shattered the hand of the striker; itremains to see what fortune awaited the others. 

It was long since a project of purging Acadia of French influence hadgerminated in the fertile mind of Shirley. We have seen in a formerchapter the condition of that afflicted province. Several thousands ofits inhabitants, wrought upon by intriguing agents of the FrenchGovernment, taught by their priests that fidelity to King Louis wasinseparable from fidelity to God, and that to swear allegiance to theBritish Crown was eternal perdition; threatened with plunder and deathat the hands of the savages whom the ferocious missionary, Le Loutre, held over them in terror, --had abandoned, sometimes willingly, butoftener under constraint, the fields which they and their fathers hadtilled, and crossing the boundary line of the Missaguash, had placedthemselves under the French flag planted on the hill of Beauséjour. [240]Here, or in the neighborhood, many of them had remained, wretched andhalf starved; while others had been transported to Cape Breton, Isle St. Jean, or the coasts of the Gulf, --not so far, however, that they couldnot on occasion be used to aid in an invasion of British Acadia. [241]Those of their countrymen who still lived under the British flag werechiefly the inhabitants of the district of Mines and of the valley ofthe 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 theiremigrant countrymen had been oppressed or molested in matters temporalor spiritual, but that the English authorities, recognizing their valueas an industrious population, had labored to reconcile them to a changeof rulers which on the whole was to their advantage. It has been shownalso how, with a heartless perfidy and a reckless disregard of theirwelfare and safety, the French Government and its agents labored to keepthem hostile to the Crown of which it had acknowledged them to besubjects. The result was, that though they did not, like their emigrantcountrymen, abandon their homes, they remained in a state of restlessdisaffection, refused to supply English garrisons with provisions, except at most exorbitant rates, smuggled their produce to the Frenchacross the line, gave them aid and intelligence, and sometimes disguisedas Indians, robbed and murdered English settlers. By the new-fangledconstruction of the treaty of Utrecht which the French boundarycommissioners had devised, [242] more than half the Acadian peninsula, including nearly all the cultivated land and nearly all the populationof French descent, was claimed as belonging to France, though Englandhad held possession of it more than forty years. Hence, according to thepolitical ethics adopted at the time by both nations, it would be lawfulfor France to reclaim it by force. England, on her part, it will beremembered, claimed vast tracts beyond the isthmus; and, on the samepretext, held that she might rightfully seize them and captureBeauséjour, with the other French garrisons that guarded them. 

[Footnote 240: See _ante_, Chapter 4. ]

[Footnote 241: Rameau (_La France aux Colonies_, I. 63), estimates thetotal emigration from 1748 to 1755 at 8, 600 souls, --which number seemsmuch too large. This writer, though vehemently anti-English, gives thefollowing passage from a letter of a high French official: "que lesAcadiens émigrés et en grande misère comptaient se retirer à Québec etdemander des terres, mais il conviendrait mieux qu'ils restent où ilssont, afin d'avoir le voisinage de l'Acadie bien peuplé et défriché, pour approvisionner l'Isle Royale [_Cape Breton_] et tomber en cas deguerre sur l'Acadie. " Rameau, I. 133. ]

[Footnote 242: _Supra_, p. 102. ]

On the part of France, an invasion of the Acadian peninsula seemed morethan likely. Honor demanded of her that, having incited the Acadians todisaffection, and so brought on them the indignation of the Englishauthorities, she should intervene to save them from the consequences. Moreover the loss of the Acadian peninsula had been gall and wormwood toher; and in losing it she had lost great material advantages. Itspossession was necessary to connect Canada with the Island of CapeBreton and the fortress of Louisbourg. Its fertile fields andagricultural people would furnish subsistence to the troops andgarrisons in the French maritime provinces, now dependent on suppliesillicitly brought by New England traders, and liable to be cut off intime of war when they were needed most. The harbors of Acadia, too, would be invaluable as naval stations from which to curb and threatenthe northern English colonies. Hence the intrigues so assiduouslypractised to keep the Acadians French at heart, and ready to throw offBritish rule at any favorable moment. British officers believed thatshould a French squadron with a sufficient force of troops on boardappear in the Bay of Fundy, the whole population on the Basin of Minesand along the Annapolis would rise in arms, and that the emigrantsbeyond the isthmus, armed and trained by French officers, would come totheir aid. This emigrant population, famishing in exile, looked backwith regret to the farms they had abandoned; and, prevented as they wereby Le Loutre and his colleagues from making their peace with theEnglish, they would, if confident of success, have gladly joined aninvading force to regain their homes by reconquering Acadia for LouisXV. In other parts of the continent it was the interest of France to putoff hostilities; if Acadia alone had been in question, it would havebeen her interest to precipitate them. 

Her chances of success were good. The French could at any time sendtroops from Louisbourg or Quebec to join those maintained upon theisthmus; and they had on their side of the lines a force of militia andIndians amounting to about two thousand, while the Acadians within thepeninsula had about an equal number of fighting men who, while callingthemselves neutrals, might be counted on to join the invaders. TheEnglish were in no condition to withstand such an attack. Their regulartroops were scattered far and wide through the province, and werenowhere 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 postswere mere stockades. The strongest place in Acadia was the French fortof Beauséjour, in which the English saw a continual menace. Theirapprehensions were well grounded. Duquesne, governor of Canada, wrote toLe Loutre, who virtually shared the control of Beauséjour with Vergor, its commandant: "I invite both yourself and M. Vergor to devise aplausible pretext for attacking them [_the English_] vigorously. "[243]Three weeks after this letter was written, Lawrence, governor of NovaScotia, wrote to Shirley from Halifax: "Being well informed that theFrench have designs of encroaching still farther upon His Majesty'srights in this province, and that they propose, the moment they haverepaired the fortifications of Louisbourg, to attack our fort atChignecto [_Fort Lawrence_], I think it high time to make some effort todrive them from the north side of the Bay of Fundy. "[244] This letterwas brought to Boston by Lieutenant-Colonel Monckton, who was charged byLawrence to propose to Shirley the raising of two thousand men in NewEngland for the attack of Beauséjour and its dependent forts. Almost atthe moment when Lawrence was writing these proposals to Shirley, Shirleywas writing with the same object to Lawrence, enclosing a letter fromSir Thomas Robinson, concerning which he said: "I construe the contentsto be orders to us to act in concert for taking _any_ advantages todrive the French of Canada out of Nova Scotia. If that is your sense ofthem, and your honor will be pleased to let me know whether you want anyand what assistance to enable you to execute the orders, I will endeavorto send you such assistance from this province as you shall want. "[245]

[Footnote 243: _Duquesne à Le Loutre, 15 Oct. 1754_; extract in _PublicDocuments of Nova Scotia_, 239. ]

[Footnote 244: _Lawrence to Shirley, 5 Nov. 1754. Instructions ofLawrence to Monckton, 1 Nov. 1754_. ]

[Footnote 245: _Shirley to Lawrence, 7 Nov. 1754_. ]

The letter of Sir Thomas Robinson, of which a duplicate had already beensent to Lawrence, was written in answer to one of Shirley informing theMinister that the Indians of Nova Scotia, prompted by the French, wereabout to make an attack on all the English settlements east of theKennebec; whereupon Robinson wrote: "You will without doubt have givenimmediate intelligence thereof to Colonel Lawrence, and will haveconcerted the properest measures with him for taking all possibleadvantage in Nova Scotia itself from the absence of those Indians, incase Mr. Lawrence shall have force enough to attack the forts erected bythe French in those parts, without exposing the English settlements; andI am particularly to acquaint you that if you have not already enteredinto such a concert with Colonel Lawrence, it is His Majesty's pleasurethat you should immediately proceed thereupon. "[246]

[Footnote 246: _Robinson to Shirley, 5 July, 1754_. ]

The Indian raid did not take place; but not the less did Shirley andLawrence find in the Minister's letter their authorization for theattack of Beauséjour. Shirley wrote to Robinson that the expulsion ofthe French from the forts on the isthmus was a necessary measure ofself-defence; that they meant to seize the whole country as far as MinesBasin, and probably as far as Annapolis, to supply their Acadian rebelswith land; that of these they had, without reckoning Indians, fourteenhundred fighting men on or near the isthmus, and two hundred and fiftymore 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 loseNova Scotia. We should anticipate them, concludes Shirley, and strikethe first blow. [247]

[Footnote 247: _Shirley to Robinson, 8 Dec. 1754. Ibid. , 24 Jan. 1755_. The Record Office contains numerous other letters of Shirley on thesubject. "I am obliged to your Honor for communicating to me the FrenchMémoire, which, with other reasons, puts it out of doubt that the Frenchare determined to begin an offensive war on the peninsula as soon asever they shall think themselves strengthened enough to venture up it, and that they have thoughts of attempting it in the ensuing spring. Ienclose your Honor extracts from two letters from Annapolis Royal, whichshow that the French inhabitants are in expectation of its being begunin the spring. " _Shirley to Lawrence, 6 Jan. 1755_. ]

He opened his plans to his Assembly in secret session, and found them ofone mind with himself. Preparation was nearly complete, and the menraised for the expedition, before the Council at Alexandria, recognizedit as a part of a plan of the summer campaign. 

The French fort of Beauséjour, mounted on its hill between the marshesof Missaguash and Tantemar, was a regular work, pentagonal in form, withsolid earthern ramparts, bomb-proofs, and an armament of twenty-fourcannon and one mortar. The commandant, Duchambon de Vergor, a captain inthe colony regulars, was a dull man of no education, of stutteringspeech, unpleasing countenance, and doubtful character. He owed hisplace to the notorious Intendant, Bigot, who it is said, was in his debtfor disreputable service in an affair of gallantry, and who had amplemeans of enabling his friends to enrich themselves by defrauding theKing. Beauséjour was one of those plague-spots of official corruptionwhich dotted the whole surface of New France. Bigot, sailing for Europein the summer of 1754, wrote thus to his confederate: "Profit by yourplace, my dear Vergor; clip and cut--you are free to do what youplease--so that you can come soon to join me in France and buy an estatenear me. "[248] Vergor did not neglect his opportunities. Supplies ingreat quantities were sent from Quebec for the garrison and the emigrantAcadians. These last got but a small part of them. Vergor and hisconfederates sent the rest back to Quebec, or else to Louisbourg, andsold them for their own profit to the King's agents there, who werealso in collusion with him. 

[Footnote 248: _Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760_. This letter is alsomentioned in another contemporary document, _Mémoire sur les Fraudescommises 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 dividedhis authority. The priest could count on the support of Duquesne, whohad found, says a contemporary, that "he promised more than he couldperform, and that he was a knave, " but who nevertheless felt compelledto rely upon him for keeping the Acadians on the side of France. Therewas another person in the fort worthy of notice. This was Thomas Pichon, commissary of stores, a man of education and intelligence, born inFrance of an English mother. He was now acting the part of a traitor, carrying on a secret correspondence with the commandant of FortLawrence, and acquainting him with all that passed at Beauséjour. It waspartly from this source that the hostile designs of the French becameknown to the authorities of Halifax, and more especially the proceedingsof "Moses, " by which name Pichon always designated Le Loutre, because hepretended to have led the Acadians from the land of bondage. [249]

[Footnote 249: Pichon, called also Tyrrell from the name of his mother, was author of _Genuine Letters and Memoirs relating to Cape Breton_, --abook of some value. His papers are preserved at Halifax, and some ofthem are printed in the _Public Documents of Nova Scotia_. ]

These exiles, who cannot be called self-exiled, in view of theoutrageous means used to force most of them from their homes, were in adeplorable condition. They lived in constant dread of Le Loutre, backedby Vergor and his soldiers. The savage missionary, bad as he was, had inhim 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 theFrench side of the line, not out of love for them, but in the interestof the cause with which he had identified his own ambition. His effortshad failed. There was not land enough for their subsistence and that ofthe older settlers; and the suffering emigrants pined more and more fortheir deserted farms. Thither he was resolved that they should notreturn. "If you go, " he told them, "you will have neither priests norsacraments, but will die like miserable wretches. "[250] The assertionwas false. Priests and sacraments had never been denied them. It istrue that Daudin, priest of Pisiquid, had lately been sent to Halifaxfor using insolent language to the commandant, threatening him with aninsurrection of the inhabitants, and exciting them to sedition; but onhis promise to change conduct, he was sent back to his parishioners. [251]Vergor sustained Le Loutre, and threatened to put in irons any of theexiles who talked of going back to the English. Some of them bethoughtthemselves of an appeal to Duquesne, and drew up a petition asking leaveto return home. Le Loutre told the signers that if they did not effacetheir marks from the paper they should have neither sacraments in thislife nor heaven in the next. He nevertheless allowed two of them to goto Quebec as deputies, writing at the same time to the Governor, thathis mind might be duly prepared. Duquesne replied: "I think that thetwo rascals of deputies whom you sent me will not soon recover from thefright I gave them, notwithstanding the emollient I administered aftermy reprimand; and since I told them that they were indebted to you fornot being allowed to rot in a dungeon, they have promised me to complywith your wishes. "[252]

[Footnote 250: _Pichon to Captain Scott, 14 Oct. 1754_, in _PublicDocuments of Nova Scotia_, 229. ]

[Footnote 251: _Public Documents of Nova Scotia_, 223, 224, 226, 227, 238. ]

[Footnote 252: _Public Documents of Nova Scotia_, 239. ]

An entire heartlessness marked the dealings of the French authoritieswith the Acadians. They were treated as mere tools of policy, to beused, broken, and flung away. Yet, in using them, the sole condition oftheir efficiency was neglected. The French Government, cheated ofenormous sums by its own ravenous agents, grudged the cost of sending asingle regiment to the Acadian border. Thus unsupported, the Acadiansremained in fear and vacillation, aiding the French but feebly, though aceaseless annoyance and menace to the English. 

This was the state of affairs at Beauséjour while Shirley and Lawrencewere planning its destruction. Lawrence had empowered his agent, Monckton, to draw without limit on two Boston merchants, Apthorp andHancock. Shirley, as commander-in-chief of the province ofMassachusetts, commissioned John Winslow to raise two thousandvolunteers. Winslow was sprung from the early governors of Plymouthcolony; but, though well-born, he was ill-educated, which did notprevent him from being both popular and influential. He had strongmilitary inclinations, had led a company of his own raising in theluckless attack on Carthagena, had commanded the force sent in thepreceding summer to occupy the Kennebec, and on various other occasionshad left his Marshfield farm to serve his country. The men enlistedreadily at his call, and were formed into a regiment, of which Shirleymade himself the nominal colonel. It had two battalions, of whichWinslow, as lieutenant-colonel, commanded the first, and George Scottthe second, both under the orders of Monckton. Country villages far andnear, from the western borders of the Connecticut to uttermost Cape Cod, lent soldiers to the new regiment. The muster-rolls preserve theirnames, vocations, birthplaces, and abode. Obadiah, Nehemiah, Jedediah, Jonathan, Ebenezer, Joshua, and the like Old Testament names abound uponthe 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, fromblacksmiths to wig-makers. They mustered at Boston early in April, whereclothing, haversacks, and blankets were served out to them at the chargeof the King; and the crooked streets of the New England capital werefilled with staring young rustics. On the next Saturday the followingmandate went forth: "The men will behave very orderly on the SabbathDay, and either stay on board their transports, or else go to church, and not stroll up and down the streets. " The transports, consisting ofabout forty sloops and schooners, lay at Long Wharf; and here on Mondaya grand review took place, --to the gratification, no doubt, of apopulace whose amusements were few. All was ready except the muskets, which were expected from England, but did not come. Hence the delay of amonth, threatening to ruin the enterprise. When Shirley returned fromAlexandria he found, to his disgust, that the transports still lay atthe wharf where he had left them on his departure. [253] The musketsarrived 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 onthe twenty-sixth the whole force safely reached Annapolis. Thence aftersome delay they sailed up the Bay of Fundy, and at sunset on the firstof June anchored within five miles of the hill of Beauséjour. 

[Footnote 253: _Shirley to Robinson, 20 June, 1755. _]

At two o'clock on the next morning a party of Acadians from Chipodyroused Vergor with the news. In great alarm, he sent a messenger toLouisbourg to beg for help, and ordered all the fighting men of theneighborhood to repair to the fort. They counted in all between twelveand fifteen hundred;[254] but they had no appetite for war. The forceof the invaders daunted them; and the hundred and sixty regulars whoformed the garrison of Beauséjour were too few to revive theirconfidence. Those of them who had crossed from the English side dreadedwhat might ensue should they be caught in arms; and, to prepare anexcuse beforehand, they begged Vergor to threaten them with punishmentif they disobeyed his order. He willingly complied, promised to havethem killed if they did not fight, and assured them at the same timethat the English could never take the fort. [255] Three hundred of themthereupon joined the garrison, and the rest, hiding their families inthe woods, prepared to wage guerilla war against the invaders. 

[Footnote 254: _Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. _ An English document, _State of the English and French Forts in Nova Scotia_, says 1, 200 to1, 400. ]

[Footnote 255: _Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. _]

Monckton, with all his force, landed unopposed, and encamped at night onthe fields around Fort Lawrence, whence he could contemplate FortBeauséjour at his ease. The regulars of the English garrison joined theNew England men; and then, on the morning of the fourth, they marched tothe attack. Their course lay along the south bank of the Missaguash towhere it was crossed by a bridge called Pont-à-Buot. This bridge hadbeen destroyed; and on the farther bank there was a large blockhouse anda breastwork of timber defended by four hundred regulars, Acadians, andIndians. They lay silent and unseen till the head of the column reachedthe opposite bank; then raised a yell and opened fire, causing someloss. 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 furtheropposition, they marched along the road to Beauséjour, and, turning tothe right, encamped among the woody hills half a league from the fort. That night there was a grand illumination, for Vergor set fire to thechurch and all the houses outside the ramparts. [256]

[Footnote 256: Winslow, _Journal and Letter Book. Mémoires sur leCanada, 1749-1760_. Letters from officers on the spot in _Boston EveningPost_ and _Boston News Letter. Journal of Surgeon John Thomas_. ]

The English spent some days in preparing their camp and reconnoitringthe ground. Then Scott, with five hundred provincials, seized upon aridge within easy range of the works. An officer named Vannes came outto oppose him with a hundred and eighty men, boasting that he would dogreat things; but on seeing the enemy, quietly returned, to become thelaughing-stock of the garrison. The fort fired furiously, but withlittle effect. In the night of the thirteenth, Winslow, with a part ofhis own battalion, relieved Scott, and planted in the trenches two smallmortars, 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 broughtup 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 bombardmentwith great interest. Having occasion to write to Winslow, he closed hisletter 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, atleast four, to draw it, that it may be said a New England colonel [_rodein_] his coach and four in Nova Scotia. If you have any goodsaddle-horses in your stable, I should be obliged to you for one to rideround the ship's deck on for exercise, for I am not likely to have anyother. "

[Footnote 257: "11 June. Capt. Adams went with a Company of Raingers, and Returned at 11 Clock with a Coach and Sum other Plunder. " _Journalof 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 hismouth, directing the Acadians in their work of strengthening thefortifications. [258] They, on their part, thought more of escape than offighting. Some of them vainly begged to be allowed to go home; otherswent off without leave, --which was not difficult, as only one side ofthe place was attacked. Even among the officers there were some in whominterest was stronger than honor, and who would rather rob the King thandie for him. The general discouragement was redoubled when, on thefourteenth, a letter came from the commandant of Louisbourg to say thathe could send no help, as British ships blocked the way. On the morningof the sixteenth, a mischance befell, recorded in these words in thediary of Surgeon John Thomas: "One of our large shells fell through whatthey called their bomb-proof, where a number of their officers weresitting, killed six of them dead, and one Ensign Hay, which the Indianshad took prisoner a few days agone and carried to the fort. " The partywas at breakfast when the unwelcome visitor burst in. Just opposite wasa second bomb-proof, where was Vergor himself, with Le Loutre, anotherpriest, and several officers, who felt that they might at any time sharethe same fate. The effect was immediate. The English, who had not yetgot a single cannon into position, saw to their surprise a white flagraised on the rampart. Some officers of the garrison protested againstsurrender; and Le Loutre, who thought that he had everything to fear atthe hands of the victors, exclaimed that it was better to be buriedunder the ruins of the fort than to give it up; but all was in vain, andthe valiant Vannes was sent out to propose terms of capitulation. Theywere rejected, and others offered, to the following effect: the garrisonto march out with the honors of war and to be sent to Louisbourg at thecharge of the King of England, but not to bear arms in America for thespace of six months. The Acadians to be pardoned the part they had justborne in the defence, "seeing that they had been compelled to take armson pain of death. " Confusion reigned all day at Beauséjour. The Acadianswent home loaded with plunder. The French officers were so busy indrinking and pillaging that they could hardly be got away to sign thecapitulation. At the appointed hour, seven in the evening, Scott marchedin with a body of provincials, raised the British flag on the ramparts, and saluted it by a general discharge of the French cannon, while Vergoras a last act of hospitality gave a supper to the officers. [259]

[Footnote 258: _Journal of Pichon_, cited by Beamish Murdoch. ]

[Footnote 259: On the capture of Beauséjour, _Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760_; Pichon, _Cape Breton_, 318; _Journal of Pichon_, cited byMurdoch; and the English accounts already mentioned. ]

Le Loutre was not to be found; he had escaped in disguise with his boxof papers, and fled to Baye Verte to join his brother missionary, Manach. Thence he made his way to Quebec, where the Bishop received himwith reproaches. He soon embarked for France; but the English capturedhim on the way, and kept him eight years in Elizabeth Castle, on theIsland of Jersey. Here on one occasion a soldier on guard made a dash atthe father, tried to stab him with his bayonet, and was prevented withgreat difficulty. He declared that, when he was with his regiment inAcadia, he had fallen into the hands of Le Loutre, and narrowly escapedbeing scalped alive, the missionary having doomed him to this fate, andwith his own hand drawn a knife round his head as a beginning of theoperation. The man swore so fiercely that he would have his revenge, that the officer in command transferred him to another post. [260]

[Footnote 260: Knox, _Campaigns in North America_, I. 114, _note_. Knox, who was stationed in Nova Scotia, says that Le Loutre left behind him "amost 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 withloss. 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 thecamp, recounted the losses of his tribe; "after which, and taking a dramor two, he quickly died, " writes Winslow in his Journal. 

Fort Gaspereau, at Baye Verte, twelve miles distant, was summoned byletter to surrender. Villeray, its commandant, at once complied; andWinslow went with a detachment to take possession. [261] Nothing remainedbut to occupy the French post at the mouth of the St. John. CaptainRous, relieved at last from inactivity, was charged with the task; andon the thirtieth he appeared off the harbor, manned his boats, and rowedfor shore. The French burned their fort, and withdrew beyond hisreach. [262] A hundred and fifty Indians, suddenly converted from enemiesto pretended friends, stood on the strand, firing their guns into theair as a salute, and declaring themselves brothers of the English. AllAcadia was now in British hands. Fort Beausejour became FortCumberland, --the second fort in America that bore the name of the royalDuke. 

[Footnote 261: Winslow, _Journal. Villeray au Ministre, 20 Sept. 1755. _]

[Footnote 262: _Drucour au Ministre, 1 Déc. 1755. _]

The defence had been of the feeblest. Two years later, on pressingdemands from Versailles, Vergor was brought to trial, as was alsoVilleray. The Governor, Vaudreuil, and the Intendant, Bigot, who hadreturned to Canada, were in the interest of the chief defendant. Thecourt-martial was packed; adverse evidence was shuffled out of sight;and Vergor, acquitted and restored to his rank, lived to inflict on NewFrance another and a greater injury. [263]

[Footnote 263: _Memoire sur les Fraudes commises dans la Colonie_, 1759. _Memoires sur le Canada_, 1749-1760. ]

Now began the first act of a deplorable drama. Monckton, with his smallbody of regulars, had pitched their tents under the walls ofBeauséjour. Winslow and Scott, with the New England troops, lay not faroff. There was little intercourse between the two camps. The Britishofficers bore themselves towards those of the provincials with asupercilious coldness common enough on their part throughout the war. July had passed in what Winslow calls "an indolent manner, " with prayersevery day in the Puritan camp, when, early in August, Monckton sent forhim, and made an ominous declaration. "The said Monckton was so free asto acquaint me that it was determined to remove all the Frenchinhabitants out of the province, and that he should send for all theadult males from Tantemar, Chipody, Aulac, Beauséjour, and Baye Verte toread the Governor's orders; and when that was done, was determined toretain them all prisoners in the fort. And this is the first conferenceof a public nature I have had with the colonel since the reduction ofBeauséjour; and I apprehend that no officer of either corps has beenmade more free with. "

Monckton sent accordingly to all the neighboring settlements, commandingthe male inhabitants to meet him at Beauséjour. Scarcely a third part oftheir number obeyed. These arrived on the tenth, and were told to stayall night under the guns of the fort. What then befell them will appearfrom 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 maleinhabitants, or the principal of them, being collected together in FortCumberland to hear the sentence, which determined their property, fromthe Governor and Council of Halifax; which was that they were declaredrebels, their lands, goods, and chattels forfeited to the Crown, andtheir bodies to be imprisoned. Upon which the gates of the fort wereshut, and they all confined, to the amount of four hundred men andupwards. " Parties were sent to gather more, but caught very few, therest escaping to the woods. 

Some of the prisoners were no doubt among those who had joined thegarrison at Beauséjour, and had been pardoned for doing so by the termsof the capitulation. It was held, however, that, though forgiven thisspecial offence, they were not exempted from the doom that had goneforth against the great body of their countrymen. We must look closelyat the motives and execution of this stern sentence. 

At any time up to the spring of 1755 the emigrant Acadians were free toreturn to their homes on taking the ordinary oath of allegiance requiredof British subjects. The English authorities of Halifax used every meansto persuade them to do so; yet the greater part refused. This was duenot only to Le Loutre and his brother priests, backed by the militarypower, but also to the Bishop of Quebec, who enjoined the Acadians todemand of the English certain concessions, the chief of which were thatthe priests should exercise their functions without being required toask leave of the Governor, and that the inhabitants should not be calledupon for military service of any kind. The Bishop added that theprovisions of the treaty of Utrecht were insufficient, and that othersought to be exacted. [264] The oral declaration of the Englishauthorities, that for the present the Acadians should not be required tobear arms, was not thought enough. They, or rather their prompters, demanded a written pledge. 

[Footnote 264: _L'Evéque de Quebec à Le Loutre, Nov_. 1754, in _PublicDocuments of Nova Scotia_, 240. ]

The refusal to take the oath without reservation was not confined to theemigrants. Those who remained in the peninsula equally refused it, though most of them were born and had always lived under the Britishflag. Far from pledging themselves to complete allegiance, they showedcontinual signs of hostility. In May three pretended French deserterswere detected among them inciting them to take arms against theEnglish. [265]

[Footnote 265: _Ibid_. , 242. ]

On the capture of Beauséjour the British authorities found themselves ina position of great difficulty. The New England troops were enlisted forthe year only, and could not be kept in Acadia. It was likely that theFrench would make a strong effort to recover the province, sure as theywere of support from the great body of its people. The presence of thisdisaffected population was for the French commanders a continualinducement to invasion; and Lawrence was not strong enough to cope atonce with attack from without and insurrection from within. 

Shirley had held for some time that there was no safety for Acadia butin ridding it of the Acadians. He had lately proposed that the lands ofthe district of Chignecto, abandoned by their emigrant owners, should begiven to English settlers, who would act as a check and a counterpoiseto the neighboring French population. This advice had not been actedupon. Nevertheless Shirley and his brother Governor of Nova Scotia werekindred spirits, and inclined to similar measures. Colonel CharlesLawrence had not the good-nature and conciliatory temper which markedhis predecessors, Cornwallis and Hopson. His energetic will was not aptto relent under the softer sentiments, and the behavior of the Acadianswas fast exhausting his patience. More than a year before, the Lords ofTrade had instructed him that they had no right to their lands if theypersisted in refusing the oath. [266] Lawrence replied, enlarging ontheir obstinacy, treachery, and "ingratitude for the favor, indulgence, and protection they have at all times so undeservedly received from HisMajesty's Government;" declaring at the same time that, "while theyremain without taking the oaths, and have incendiary French priestsamong them, there are no hopes of their amendment;" and that "it wouldbe much better, if they refuse the oaths, that they were away. "[267] "Wewere in hopes, " again wrote the Lords of Trade, "that the lenity whichhad been shown to those people by indulging them in the free exercise oftheir religion and the quiet possession of their lands, would by degreeshave gained their friendship and assistance, and weaned their affectionsfrom the French; but we are sorry to find that this lenity has had solittle effect, and that they still hold the same conduct, furnishingthem with labor, provisions, and intelligence, and concealing theirdesigns from us. " In fact, the Acadians, while calling themselvesneutrals, were an enemy encamped in the heart of the province. These arethe reasons which explain and palliate a measure too harsh andindiscriminate to be wholly justified. 

[Footnote 266: _Lords of Trade to Lawrence, 4 March_, 1754. ]

[Footnote 267: _Lawrence to Lords of Trade, 1 Aug_. 1754. ]

Abbé Raynal, who never saw the Acadians, has made an ideal picture ofthem, [268] since copied and improved in prose and verse, till Acadia hasbecome Arcadia. The plain realities of their condition and fate aretouching enough to need no exaggeration. They were a simple and veryignorant peasantry, industrious and frugal till evil days came todiscourage them; living aloof from the world, with little of that spiritof adventure which an easy access to the vast fur-bearing interior haddeveloped in their Canadian kindred; having few wants, and those of therudest; fishing a little and hunting in the winter, but chiefly employedin cultivating the meadows along the River Annapolis, or rich marshesreclaimed by dikes from the tides of the Bay of Fundy. The BritishGovernment left them entirely free of taxation. They made clothing offlax and wool of their own raising, hats of similar materials, and shoesor moccasons of moose and seal skin. They bred cattle, sheep, hogs, andhorses in abundance; and the valley of the Annapolis, then as now, wasknown for the profusion and excellence of its apples. For drink, theymade cider or brewed spruce-beer. French officials describe theirdwellings as wretched wooden boxes, without ornaments or conveniences, and scarcely supplied with the most necessary furniture. [269] Two ormore 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 whatmodern America calls progress. Marriages were early, and population grewapace. This humble society had its disturbing elements; for theAcadians, like the Canadians, were a litigious race, and neighbors oftenquarrelled about their boundaries. Nor were they without a bountifulshare of jealousy, gossip, and backbiting, to relieve the monotony oftheir lives; and every village had its turbulent spirits, sometimes byfits, though rarely long, contumacious even toward the curé, the guide, counsellor, and ruler of his flock. Enfeebled by hereditary mentalsubjection, and too long kept in leading-strings to walk alone, theyneeded him, not for the next world only, but for this; and theirsubmission, compounded of love and fear, was commonly without bounds. Hewas their true government; to him they gave a frank and full allegiance, and dared not disobey him if they would. Of knowledge he gave themnothing; but he taught them to be true to their wives and constant atconfession and Mass, to stand fast for the Church and King Louis, and toresist heresy and King George; for, in one degree or another, theAcadian priest was always the agent of a double-headed foreignpower, --the Bishop of Quebec allied with the Governor of Canada. [270]

[Footnote 268: _Histoire philosophique et politique_, VI. 242 (ed. 1772). ]

[Footnote 269: _Beauharnois et Hocquart au Comte de Maurepas_, 12 Sept. 1745. _]

[Footnote 270: Franquet, _Journal_, 1751, says of the Acadians: "Ilsaiment l'argent, n'ont dans toute leur conduite que leur intérêt pourobjet, sont, indifféremment des deux sexes, d'une inconsidération dansleurs 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 anunqualified oath of allegiance from the Acadians. The presence of asuperior and victorious force would help, he thought, to bring them toreason; and there were some indications that this would be the result. Anumber of Acadian families, who at the promptings of Le Loutre hademigrated to Cape Breton, had lately returned to Halifax, promising tobe true subjects of King George if they could be allowed to repossesstheir lands. They cheerfully took the oath; on which they werereinstated in their old homes, and supplied with food for thewinter. [271] Their example unfortunately found few imitators. 

[Footnote 271: _Public Documents of Nova Scotia_, 228. ]

Early in June the principal inhabitants of Grand Pré and othersettlements about the Basin of Mines brought a memorial, signed withtheir crosses, to Captain Murray, the military commandant in theirdistrict, and desired him to send it to Governor Lawrence, to whom itwas addressed. Murray reported that when they brought it to him theybehaved with the greatest insolence, though just before they had beenunusually submissive. He thought that this change of demeanor was causedby a report which had lately got among them of a French fleet in the Bayof Fundy; for it had been observed that any rumor of an approachingFrench force always had a similar effect. The deputies who brought thememorial were sent with it to Halifax, where they laid it before theGovernor and Council. It declared that the signers had kept thequalified oath they had taken, "in spite of the solicitations anddreadful threats of another power, " and that they would continue toprove "an unshaken fidelity to His Majesty, provided that His Majestyshall 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 beenrequired to give up, should be returned to them. They were told in replythat they had been protected for many years in the enjoyment of theirlands, though they had not complied with the terms on which the landswere granted; "that they had always been treated by the Government withthe greatest lenity and tenderness, had enjoyed more privileges thanother English subjects, and had been indulged in the free exercise oftheir religion;" all which they acknowledged to be true. The Governorthen told them that their conduct had been undutiful and ungrateful;"that they had discovered a constant disposition to assist His Majesty'senemies and to distress his subjects; that they had not only furnishedthe 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 othermarkets. " The hope was then expressed that they would no longer obstructthe settlement of the province by aiding the Indians to molest and killEnglish settlers; and they were rebuked for saying in their memorialthat they would be faithful to the King only on certain conditions. TheGovernor added that they had some secret reason for demanding _their_weapons, and flattered themselves that French troops were at hand tosupport their insolence. In conclusion, they were told that now was agood opportunity to prove their sincerity by taking the oath ofallegiance, in the usual form, before the Council. They replied thatthey had not made up their minds on that point, and could do nothingtill they had consulted their constituents. Being reminded that the oathwas personal to themselves, and that six years had already been giventhem 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 sameanswer as before; whereupon they were allowed till ten o'clock on thenext morning for a final decision. [272]

[Footnote 272: _Minutes of Council at Halifax, 3 July, 1755_, in _PublicDocuments of Nova Scotia_, 247-255. ]

At the appointed time the Council again met, and the deputies werebrought in. They persisted stubbornly in the same refusal. "They werethen informed, " says the record, "that the Council could no longer lookon them as subjects to His Britannic Majesty, but as subjects to theKing of France, and as such they must hereafter be treated; and theywere ordered to withdraw. " A discussion followed in the Council. It wasdetermined that the Acadians should be ordered to send new deputies toHalifax, who should answer for them, once for all, whether they wouldaccept the oath or not; that such as refused it should not thereafter bepermitted to take it; and "that effectual measures ought to be taken toremove all such recusants out of the province. "

The deputies, being then called in and told this decision, becamealarmed, and offered to swear allegiance in the terms required. Theanswer was that it was too late; that as they had refused the oath underpersuasion, they could not be trusted when they took it undercompulsion. It remained to see whether the people at large would profitby their example. 

"I am determined, " wrote Lawrence to the Lords of Trade, "to bring theinhabitants to a compliance, or rid the province of such perfidioussubjects. "[273] First, in answer to the summons of the Council, thedeputies from Annapolis appeared, declaring that they had always beenfaithful to the British Crown, but flatly refusing the oath. They weretold that, far from having been faithful subjects, they had alwayssecretly aided the Indians, and that many of them had been in armsagainst the English; that the French were threatening the province; andthat its affairs had reached a crisis when its inhabitants must eitherpledge themselves without equivocation to be true to the British Crown, or else must leave the country. They all declared that they would losetheir lands rather than take the oath. The Council urged them toconsider the matter seriously, warning them that, if they now persistedin refusal, no farther choice would be allowed them; and they were giventill ten o'clock on the following Monday to make their final answer. 

[Footnote 273: _Lawrence to Lords of Trade, 18 July, 1755. _]

When that day came, another body of deputies had arrived from Grand Préand the other settlements of the Basin of Mines; and being called beforethe Council, both they and the former deputation absolutely refused totake the oath of allegiance. These two bodies represented nine tenths ofthe Acadian population within the peninsula. "Nothing, " pursues therecord of the Council, "now remained to be considered but what measuresshould be taken to send the inhabitants away, and where they should besent to. " If they were sent to Canada, Cape Breton, or the neighboringislands, they would strengthen the enemy, and still threaten theprovince. It was therefore resolved to distribute them among the variousEnglish colonies, and to hire vessels for the purpose with alldespatch. [274]

[Footnote 274: _Minutes of Council, 4 July--28 July_, in _PublicDocuments of Nova Scotia_, 255-267. Copies of these and other parts ofthe record were sent at the time to England, and are now in the PublicRecord Office, along with the letters of Lawrence. ]

The oath, the refusal of which had brought such consequences, was asimple pledge of fidelity and allegiance to King George II. And hissuccessors. Many of the Acadians had already taken an oath of fidelity, though with the omission of the word "allegiance, " and, as theyinsisted, with a saving clause exempting them from bearing arms. Theeffect of this was that they did not regard themselves as Britishsubjects, and claimed, falsely as regards most of them, the characterof neutrals. It was to put an end to this anomalous state of things thatthe oath without reserve had been demanded of them. Their rejection ofit, reiterated in full view of the consequences, is to be ascribedpartly to a fixed belief that the English would not execute theirthreats, partly to ties of race and kin, but mainly to superstition. They feared to take part with heretics against the King of France, whosecause, as already stated, they had been taught to regard as one with thecause of God; they were constrained by the dread of perdition. "If theAcadians are miserable, remember that the priests are the cause of it, "writes the French officer Boishébert to the missionary Manach. [275]

[Footnote 275: On the oath and his history, compare a long note by Mr. Akin in _Public Documents of Nova Scotia_, 263-267. Winslow in hisJournal gives an abstract of a memorial sent him by the Acadians, inwhich they say that they had refused the oath, and so forfeited theirlands, from motives of religion. I have shown in a former chapter thatthe priests had been the chief instruments in preventing them fromaccepting the English government. Add the following:--

"Les malheurs des Accadiens sont beaucoup moins leur ouvrage que lefruit des sollicitations et des démarches des missionnaires. " _Vaudreuilau Ministre, 6 Mai, 1760_. 

"Si nous avons la guerre, et si les Accadiens sont misérables, souvenezvous que ce sont les prêtres qui en sont la cause. " _Boishébert áManach, 21 Fév. 1760_. Both these writers had encouraged the priests intheir intrigues so long as there were likely to profit the FrenchGovernment, and only blamed them after they failed to accomplished whatwas expected of them. 

"Nous avons six missionnaires dont l'occupation perpetuelle est deporter les esprits au fanatisme et à la vengeance. .. . Je ne puissupporter dans nos prêtres ces odieuses déclamations qu'ils font tousles jours aux sauvages: 'Les Anglois sont les ennemis de Dieu, lescompagnons du Diable. '" Pichon, _Lettres et Mémoires pour servir àl'Histoire du Cap-Breton_, 160, 161. (La Haye, 1760. )]

The Council having come to a decision, Lawrence acquainted Monckton withthe result, and ordered him to seize all the adult males in theneighborhood of Beauséjour; and this, as we have seen, he promptly did. It remains to observe how the rest of the sentence was carried intoeffect. 

Instructions were sent to Winslow to secure the inhabitants on or nearthe Basin of Mines and place them on board transports, which, he wastold, would soon arrive from Boston. His orders were stringent: "If youfind that fair means will not do with them, you must proceed by the mostvigorous measures possible, not only in compelling them to embark, butin depriving those who shall escape of all means of shelter or support, by burning their houses and by destroying everything that may affordthem the means of subsistence in the country. " Similar orders were givento Major Handfield, the regular officer in command at Annapolis. 

On the fourteenth of August Winslow set out from his camp at FortBeauséjour, or Cumberland, on his unenviable errand. He had with him buttwo hundred and ninety-seven men. His mood of mind was not serene. Hewas chafed because the regulars had charged his men with stealing sheep;and he was doubly vexed by an untoward incident that happened on themorning of his departure. He had sent forward his detachment underAdams, the senior captain, and they were marching by the fort with drumsbeating and colors flying, when Monckton sent out his aide-de-camp witha curt demand that the colors should be given up, on the ground thatthey ought to remain with the regiment. Whatever the soundness of thereason, there was no courtesy in the manner of enforcing it. "Thistransaction raised my temper some, " writes Winslow in his Diary; and heproceeds to record his opinion that "it is the most ungenteel, ill-natured thing that ever I saw. " He sent Monckton a quaintlyindignant note, in which he observed that the affair "looks odd, andwill appear so in future history;" but his commander, reckless of thejudgments of posterity, gave him little satisfaction. 

Thus ruffled in spirit, he embarked with his men and sailed downChignecto Channel to the Bay of Fundy. Here, while they waited the turnof the tide to enter the Basin of Mines, the shores of Cumberland laybefore them dim in the hot and hazy air, and the promontory of CapeSplit, like some misshapen monster of primeval chaos, stretched itsportentous length along the glimmering sea, with head of yawning rock, and ridgy back bristled with forests. Borne on the rushing flood, theysoon drifted through the inlet, glided under the rival promontory ofCape Blomedon, passed the red sandstone cliffs of Lyon's Cove, anddescried the mouths of the rivers Canard and Des Habitants, wherefertile marshes, diked against the tide, sustained a numerous andthriving population. Before them spread the boundless meadows of GrandPré, waving with harvests or alive with grazing cattle; the green slopesbehind were dotted with the simple dwellings of the Acadian farmers, andthe spire of the village church rose against a background of woodyhills. It was a peaceful, rural scene, soon to become one of the mostwretched spots on earth. Winslow did not land for the present, but heldhis course to the estuary of the River Pisiquid, since called the Avon. Here, where the town of Windsor now stands, there was a stockade calledFort Edward, where a garrison of regulars under Captain Alexander Murraykept watch over the surrounding settlements. The New England men pitchedtheir tents on shore, while the sloops that had brought them slept onthe soft bed of tawny mud left by the fallen tide. 

Winslow found a warm reception, for Murray and his officers had beenreduced too long to their own society not to welcome the coming ofstrangers. The two commanders conferred together. Both had been orderedby Lawrence to "clear the whole country of such bad subjects;" and themethods of doing so had been outlined for their guidance. Having come tosome understanding with his brother officer concerning the dutiesimposed on both, and begun an acquaintance which soon grew cordial onboth sides, Winslow embarked again and retraced his course to Grand Pré, the station which the Governor had assigned him. "Am pleased, " he wroteto Lawrence, "with the place proposed by your Excellency for ourreception [_the village church_]. I have sent for the elders to removeall sacred things, to prevent their being defiled by heretics. " Thechurch was used as a storehouse and place of arms; the men pitched theirtents between it and the graveyard; while Winslow took up his quartersin the house of the priest, where he could look from his window on atranquil scene. Beyond the vast tract of grassland to which Grand Préowed its name, spread the blue glistening breast of the Basin of Mines;beyond this again, the distant mountains of Cobequid basked in thesummer sun; and nearer, on the left, Cape Blomedon reared its bluff headof rock and forest above the sleeping waves. 

As the men of the settlement greatly outnumbered his own, Winslow sethis followers to surrounding the camp with a stockade. Card-playing wasforbidden, because it encouraged idleness, and pitching quoits in camp, because it spoiled the grass. Presently there came a letter fromLawrence expressing a fear that the fortifying of the camp might alarmthe inhabitants. To which Winslow replied that the making of thestockade had not alarmed them in the least, since they took it as aproof that the detachment was to spend the winter with them; and headded, that as the harvest was not yet got in, he and Murray had agreednot to publish the Governor's commands till the next Friday. Heconcludes: "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 obeyyour Excellency's orders. "

On the thirtieth, Murray, whose post was not many miles distant, madehim a visit. They agreed that Winslow should summon all the maleinhabitants about Grand Pré to meet him at the church and hear theKing's orders, and that Murray should do the same for those around FortEdward. Winslow then called in his three captains, --Adams, Hobbs, andOsgood, --made them swear secrecy, and laid before them his instructionsand plans; which latter they approved. Murray then returned to his post, and on the next day sent Winslow a note containing the following: "Ithink the sooner we strike the stroke the better, therefore will be gladto see you here as soon as conveniently you can. I shall have the ordersfor assembling ready written for your approbation, only the day blank, and am hopeful everything will succeed according to our wishes. Thegentlemen join me in our best compliments to you and the Doctor. "

On the next day, Sunday, Winslow and the Doctor, whose name wasWhitworth, made the tour of the neighborhood, with an escort of fiftymen, and found a great quantity of wheat still on the fields. On TuesdayWinslow "set out in a whale-boat with Dr. Whitworth and AdjutantKennedy, to consult with Captain Murray in this critical conjuncture. "They agreed that three in the afternoon of Friday should be the time ofassembling; then between them they drew up a summons to the inhabitants, and got one Beauchamp, a merchant, to "put it into French. " It ran asfollows:--

 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 inhabitantsof the district of Fort Edward. 

Captain Adams made a reconnoissance of the rivers Canard and DesHabitants, and reported "a fine country and full of inhabitants, abeautiful church, and abundance of the goods of the world. " Anotherreconnoissance by Captains Hobbs and Osgood among the settlements behindGrand Pré brought reports equally favorable. On the fourth, anotherletter came from Murray: "All the people quiet, and very busy at theirharvest; if this day keeps fair, all will be in here in their barns. Ihope 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 outthat afternoon. Powder and ball were served to the men, and all wereordered to keep within the lines. 

On the next day the inhabitants appeared at the hour appointed, to thenumber of four hundred and eighteen men. Winslow ordered a table to beset in the middle of the church, and placed on it his instructions andthe address he had prepared. Here he took his stand in his laceduniform, 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, thepeculiar stamp with which toil, trade, and Puritanism had imprinted thefeatures 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, fromwhich the weight of an odious duty had probably banished the smirk ofself-satisfaction that dwelt there at other times. [276] Nevertheless, hehad manly and estimable qualities. The congregation of peasants, clad inrough homespun, turned their sunburned faces upon him, anxious andintent; and Winslow "delivered them by interpreters the King's orders inthe following words, " which, retouched in orthography and syntax, ranthus:--

 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. 

[Footnote 276: See his portrait, at the rooms of the MassachusettsHistorical Society. ]

He then declared them prisoners of the King. "They were greatly struck, "he says, "at this determination, though I believe they did not imaginethat they were actually to be removed. " After delivering the address, hereturned to his quarters at the priest's house, whither he was followedby some of the elder prisoners, who begged leave to tell their familieswhat had happened, "since they were fearful that the surprise of theirdetention would quite overcome them. " Winslow consulted with hisofficers, and it was arranged that the Acadians should choose twenty oftheir number each day to revisit their homes, the rest being heldanswerable for their return. 

A letter, dated some days before, now came from Major Handfield atAnnapolis, saying that he had tried to secure the men of thatneighborhood, but that many of them had escaped to the woods. Murray'sreport from Fort Edward came soon after, and was more favorable: "I havesucceeded finely, and have got a hundred and eighty-three men into mypossession. " To which Winslow replies: "I have the favor of yours ofthis day, and rejoice at your success, and also for the smiles that haveattended the party here. " But he adds mournfully: "Things are now veryheavy on my heart and hands. " The prisoners were lodged in the church, and notice was sent to their families to bring them food. "Thus, " saysthe Diary of the commander, "ended the memorable fifth of September, aday of great fatigue and trouble. "

There was one quarter where fortune did not always smile. Major JedediahPreble, of Winslow's battalion, wrote to him that Major Frye had justreturned from Chipody, whither he had gone with a party of men todestroy the settlements and bring off the women and children. Afterburning two hundred and fifty-three buildings he had reimbarked, leavingfifty men on shore at a place called Peticodiac to give a finishingstroke to the work by burning the "Mass House, " or church. While thusengaged, they were set upon by three hundred Indians and Acadians, ledby the partisan officer Boishébert. More than half their number werekilled, wounded, or taken. The rest ensconced themselves behind theneighboring dikes, and Frye, hastily landing with the rest of his men, engaged the assailants for three hours, but was forced at last toreimbark. [277] Captain Speakman, who took part in the affair, also sentWinslow an account of it, and added: "The people here are much concernedfor fear your party should meet with the same fate (being in the heartof a numerous devilish crew), which I pray God avert. "

[Footnote 277: Also _Boishébert à Drucourt, 10 Oct. 1755_, anexaggerated account. _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 18 Oct. 1755_, setsBoishébert's force at one hundred and twenty-five men. ]

Winslow had indeed some cause for anxiety. He had captured more Acadianssince the fifth; and had now in charge nearly five hundred able-bodiedmen, with scarcely three hundred to guard them. As they were alloweddaily exercise in the open air, they might by a sudden rush getpossession of arms and make serious trouble. On the Wednesday after thescene in the church some unusual movements were observed among them, andWinslow and his officers became convinced that they could not safely bekept in one body. Five vessels, lately arrived from Boston, were lyingwithin the mouth of the neighboring river. It was resolved to placefifty of the prisoners on board each of these, and keep them anchored inthe Basin. The soldiers were all ordered under arms, and posted on anopen space beside the church and behind the priest's house. Theprisoners were then drawn up before them, ranked six deep, --the youngunmarried men, as the most dangerous, being told off and placed on theleft, to the number of a hundred and forty-one. Captain Adams, witheighty men, was then ordered to guard them to the vessels. Though theobject of the movement had been explained to them, they were possessedwith the idea that they were to be torn from their families and sentaway at once; and they all, in great excitement, refused to go. Winslowtold them that there must be no parley or delay; and as they stillrefused, a squad of soldiers advanced towards them with fixed bayonets;while he himself, laying hold of the foremost young man, commanded himto move forward. "He obeyed; and the rest followed, though slowly, andwent off praying, singing, and crying, being met by the women andchildren all the way (which is a mile and a half) with greatlamentation, upon their knees, praying. " When the escort returned, abouta hundred of the married men were ordered to follow the first party;and, "the ice being broken, " they readily complied. The vessels wereanchored at a little distance from shore, and six soldiers were placedon board each of them as a guard. The prisoners were offered the King'srations, but preferred to be supplied by their families, who, it wasarranged, should go in boats to visit them every day; "and thus, " saysWinslow, "ended this troublesome job. " He was not given to effusions offeeling, but he wrote to Major Handfield: "This affair is more grievousto me than any service I was ever employed in. "[278]

[Footnote 278: Haliburton, who knew Winslow's Journal only by imperfectextracts, erroneously states that the men put on board the vessels weresent away immediately. They remained at Grand Pré several weeks, andwere then sent off at intervals with their families. ]

Murray sent him a note of congratulation: "I am extremely pleased thatthings are so clever at Grand Pré, and that the poor devils are soresigned. Here they are more patient than I could have expected forpeople in their circumstances; and what surprises me still more is theindifference of the women, who really are, or seem, quite unconcerned. Ilong much to see the poor wretches embarked and our affair a littlesettled; and then I will do myself the pleasure of meeting you anddrinking their good voyage. "

This agreeable consummation was still distant. There was a long andpainful delay. The provisions for the vessels which were to carry theprisoners did not come; nor did the vessels themselves, excepting thefive already at Grand Pré. In vain Winslow wrote urgent letters toGeorge Saul, the commissary, to bring the supplies at once. Murray, atFort Edward, though with less feeling than his brother officer, wasquite as impatient of the burden of suffering humanity on his hands. "Iam amazed what can keep the transports and Saul. Surely our friend atChignecto is willing to give us as much of our neighbors' company as hewell can. "[279] Saul came at last with a shipload of provisions; but thelagging transports did not appear. Winslow grew heart-sick at the dailysight of miseries which he himself had occasioned, and wrote to a friendat Halifax: "I know they deserve all and more than they feel; yet ithurts me to hear their weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. I amin hopes our affairs will soon put on another face, and we gettransports, and I rid of the worst piece of service that ever I was in. "

[Footnote 279: _Murray to Winslow, 26 Sept. 1755_. ]

After weeks of delay, seven transports came from Annapolis; and Winslowsent three of them to Murray, who joyfully responded: "Thank God, thetransports 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 alittle. "

Winslow prepared for the embarkation. The Acadian prisoners and theirfamilies were divided into groups answering to their several villages, in order that those of the same village might, as far as possible, go inthe same vessel. It was also provided that the members of each familyshould remain together; and notice was given them to hold themselves inreadiness. "But even now, " he writes, "I could not persuade the people Iwas in earnest. " Their doubts were soon ended. The first embarkationtook place on the eighth of October, under which date the Diary containsthis entry: "Began to embark the inhabitants who went off verysolentarily [_sic_] and unwillingly, the women in great distress, carrying off their children in their arms; others carrying theirdecrepit parents in their carts, with all their goods; moving in greatconfusion, and appeared a scene of woe and distress. "[280]

[Footnote 280: In spite of Winslow's care, some cases of separation offamilies occurred; but they were not numerous. ]

Though a large number were embarked on this occasion, still moreremained; and as the transports slowly arrived, the dismal scene wasrepeated at intervals, with more order than at first, as the Acadianshad learned to accept their fate as a certainty. So far as Winslow wasconcerned, their treatment seems to have been as humane as was possibleunder the circumstances; but they complained of the men, who dislikedand despised them. One soldier received thirty lashes for stealing fowlsfrom them; and an order was issued forbidding soldiers or sailors, onpain of summary punishment, to leave their quarters without permission, "that an end may be put to distressing this distressed people. " Two ofthe prisoners, however, while trying to escape, were shot by areconnoitring party. 

At the beginning of November Winslow reported that he had sent offfifteen hundred and ten persons, in nine vessels, and that more than sixhundred still remained in his district. [281] The last of these were notembarked till late in December. Murray finished his part of the work atthe end of October, having sent from the district of Fort Edward elevenhundred persons in four frightfully crowded transports. [282] At theclose of that month sixteen hundred and sixty-four had been sent fromthe district of Annapolis, where many others escaped to the woods. [283]A detachment which was ordered to seize the inhabitants of the districtof Cobequid failed entirely, finding the settlements abandoned. In thecountry about Fort Cumberland, Monckton, who directed the operation inperson, had very indifferent success, catching in all but little morethan a thousand. [284] Le Guerne, missionary priest in this neighborhood, gives a characteristic and affecting incident of the embarkation. "Manyunhappy women, carried away by excessive attachment to their husbands, whom they had been allowed to see too often, and closing their ears tothe voice of religion and their missionary, threw themselves blindly anddespairingly into the English vessels. And now was seen the saddest ofspectacles; for some of these women, solely from a religious motive, refused to take with them their grown-up sons and daughters. "[285] Theywould expose their own souls to perdition among heretics, but not thoseof their children. 

[Footnote 281: _Winslow to Monckton, 3 Nov. 1755_. ]

[Footnote 282: _Ibid. _]

[Footnote 283: _Captain Adams to Winslow, 29 Nov. 1755_; see also Knox, I. 85, who exactly confirms Adams's figures. ]

[Footnote 284: _Monckton to Winslow, 7 Oct. 1755_. ]

[Footnote 285: _Le Guerne à Prévost, 10 Mars, 1756_. ]

When all, or nearly all, had been sent off from the various points ofdeparture, such of the houses and barns as remained standing wereburned, in obedience to the orders of Lawrence, that those who hadescaped might be forced to come in and surrender themselves. The wholenumber removed from the province, men, women, and children, was a littleabove six thousand. Many remained behind; and while some of thesewithdrew to Canada, Isle St. Jean, and other distant retreats, the restlurked in the woods or returned to their old haunts, whence they waged, for several years a guerilla warfare against the English. Yet theirstrength was broken, and they were no longer a danger to the province. 

Of their exiled countrymen, one party overpowered the crew of the vesselthat carried them, ran her ashore at the mouth of the St. John, andescaped. [286] The rest were distributed among the colonies fromMassachusetts to Georgia, the master of each transport having beenprovided with a letter from Lawrence addressed to the Governor of theprovince to which he was bound, and desiring him to receive theunwelcome strangers. The provincials were vexed at the burden imposedupon 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 whoescaped to Canada. The chronicle of the Ursulines of Quebec, speaking ofthese last, says that their misery was indescribable, and attributes itto the poverty of the colony. But there were other causes. The exilesfound less pity from kindred and fellow Catholics than from the hereticsof the English colonies. Some of them who had made their way to Canadafrom Boston, whither they had been transported, sent word to a gentlemanof 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 andpresent misery, joined to the rapacity of the Canadians, who seek onlyto squeeze out of them all the money they can, and then refuse them thehelp so dearly bought, are the cause of this mortality. " "A citizen ofQuebec, " he says farther on, "was in debt to one of the partners of theGreat Company [_Government officials leagued for plunder_]. He had nomeans of paying. They gave him a great number of Acadians to board andlodge. He starved them with hunger and cold, got out of them what moneythey had, and paid the extortioner. _Quel pays! Quels moeurs_!"[288]

[Footnote 286: _Lettre commune de Drucour et Prévost au Ministre, 6Avril, 1756. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 1 Juin, 1756_. ]

[Footnote 287: Hutchinson, _Hist. Mass. _, III. 42, _note_. ]

[Footnote 288: Bougainville, _Journal, 1756-1758_. His statements aresustained by _Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760_. ]

Many of the exiles eventually reached Louisiana, where their descendantsnow form a numerous and distinct population. Some, after incrediblehardship, made their way back to Acadia, where, after the peace, theyremained unmolested, and, with those who had escaped seizure, became theprogenitors of the present Acadians, now settled in various parts of theBritish 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, foundrefuge in France. 

In one particular the authors of the deportation were disappointed inits results. They had hoped to substitute a loyal population for adisaffected one; but they failed for some time to find settlers for thevacated lands. The Massachusetts soldiers, to whom they were offered, would not stay in the province; and it was not till five years laterthat families of British stock began to occupy the waste fields of theAcadians. This goes far to show that a longing to become their heirs hadnot, as has been alleged, any considerable part in the motives for theirremoval. 

New England humanitarianism, melting into sentimentality at a tale ofwoe, has been unjust to its own. Whatever judgment may be passed on thecruel measure of wholesale expatriation, it was not put in executiontill every resource of patience and persuasion had been tried in vain. The agents of the French Court, civil, military, and ecclesiastical, hadmade some act of force a necessity. We have seen by what vile practicesthey produced in Acadia a state of things intolerable, and impossible ofcontinuance. They conjured up the tempest; and when it burst on theheads of the unhappy people, they gave no help. The Government of LouisXV. Began with making the Acadians its tools, and ended with making themits victims. [289]

[Footnote 289: It may not be remembered that the predecessor of LouisXV. , without the slightest provocation or the pretence of any, gaveorders that the whole Protestant population of the colony of New York, amounting to about eighteen thousand, should be seized, despoiled oftheir property, placed on board his ships and dispersed among the otherBritish colonies in such a way that they could not reunite. Want ofpower alone prevented the execution of the order. ]

Chapter 9

1755

Dieskau

The next stroke of the campaign was to be the capture of Crown Point, that dangerous neighbor which, for a quarter of a century, hadthreatened the northern colonies. Shirley, in January, had proposed anattack on it to the Ministry; and in February, without waiting theirreply, he laid the plan before his Assembly. They accepted it, andvoted money for the pay and maintenance of twelve hundred men, providedthe adjacent colonies would contribute in due proportion. [290]Massachusetts showed a military activity worthy of the reputation shehad won. Forty-five hundred of her men, or one in eight of her adultmales, volunteered to fight the French, and enlisted for the variousexpeditions, some in the pay of the province, and some in that of theKing. [291] It remained to name a commander for the Crown Pointenterprise. Nobody had power to do so, for Braddock was not yet come;but that time might not be lost, Shirley, at the request of hisAssembly, took the responsibility on himself. If he had named aMassachusetts officer, it would have roused the jealousy of the otherNew England colonies; and he therefore appointed William Johnson of NewYork, thus gratifying that important province and pleasing the FiveNations, who at this time looked on Johnson with even more than usualfavor. Hereupon, in reply to his request, Connecticut voted twelvehundred men, New Hampshire five hundred, and Rhode Island four hundred, all at their own charge; while New York, a little later, promised eighthundred more. When, in April, Braddock and the Council at Alexandriaapproved the plan and the commander, Shirley gave Johnson the commissionof major-general of the levies of Massachusetts; and the governors ofthe other provinces contributing to the expedition gave him similarcommissions for their respective contingents. Never did general take thefield with authority so heterogeneous. 

[Footnote 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 nearCrown Point, in order to command it. This was soon abandoned for themore honest and more practical plan of direct attack. ]

[Footnote 291: _Correspondence of Shirley, Feb. 1755_. The number wasmuch increased later in the season. ]

He had never seen service, and knew nothing of war. By birth he wasIrish, of good family, being nephew of Admiral Sir Peter Warren, who, owning extensive wild lands on the Mohawk, had placed the young man incharge 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 coulddrink flip with Dutch boors, or Madeira with royal governors. He likedthe society of the great, would intrigue and flatter when he had an endto gain, and foil a rival without looking too closely at the means; butcompared with the Indian traders who infested the border, he was a modelof uprightness. He lived by the Mohawk in a fortified house which was astronghold against foes and a scene of hospitality to friends, bothwhite and red. Here--for his tastes were not fastidious--presided formany years a Dutch or German wench whom he finally married; and afterher death a young Mohawk squaw took her place. Over his neighbors, theIndians of the Five Nations, and all others of their race with whom hehad to deal, he acquired a remarkable influence. He liked them, adoptedtheir ways, and treated them kindly or sternly as the case required, butalways with a justice and honesty in strong contrast with therascalities of the commission of Albany traders who had lately managedtheir affairs, and whom they so detested that one of their chiefs calledthem "not men, but devils. " Hence, when Johnson was made Indiansuperintendent there was joy through all the Iroquois confederacy. When, in addition, he was made a general, he assembled the warriors in councilto engage them to aid the expedition. 

This meeting took place at his own house, known as Fort Johnson; and asmore than eleven hundred Indians appeared at his call, his larder wassorely taxed to entertain them. The speeches were interminable. Johnson, as master of Indian rhetoric, knew his audience too well not to contestwith them the palm of insufferable prolixity. The climax was reached onthe fourth day, and he threw down the war-belt. An Oneida chief took itup; Stevens, the interpreter, began the war-dance, and the assembledwarriors howled in chorus. Then a tub of punch was brought in, and theyall drank the King's health. [292] They showed less alacrity, however, tofight his battles, and scarcely three hundred of them would take thewar-path. Too many of their friends and relatives were enlisted for theFrench. 

[Footnote 292: _Report of Conference between Major-General Johnson andthe Indians, June, 1755_. ]

While the British colonists were preparing to attack Crown Point, theFrench of Canada were preparing to defend it. Duquesne, recalled fromhis post, had resigned the government to the Marquis de Vaudreuil, whohad at his disposal the battalions of regulars that had sailed in thespring from Brest under Baron Dieskau. His first thought was to use themfor the capture of Oswego; but the letters of Braddock, found on thebattle-field, warned him of the design against Crown Point; while areconnoitring party which had gone as far as the Hudson brought backnews that Johnson's forces were already in the field. Therefore the planwas changed, and Dieskau was ordered to lead the main body of histroops, not to Lake Ontario, but to Lake Champlain. He passed up theRichelieu, and embarked in boats and canoes for Crown Point. The veteranknew that the foes with whom he had to deal were but a mob ofcountrymen. He doubted not of putting them to rout, and meant never tohold his hand till he had chased them back to Albany. [293] "Make allhaste, " Vaudreuil wrote to him; "for when you return we shall send youto Oswego to execute our first design. "[294]

[Footnote 293: _Bigot au Ministre, 27 Août, 1755. Ibid. , 5 Sept. 1755_. ]

[Footnote 294: _Mémoire pour servir d'Instruction à M. Le Baron deDieskau, Maréchal des Camps et Armées du Roy, 15 Août, 1755_. ]

Johnson on his part was preparing to advance. In July about threethousand provincials were encamped near Albany, some on the "Flats"above the town, and some on the meadows below. Hither, too, came a swarmof Johnson's Mohawks, --warriors, squaws, and children. They adorned theGeneral's face with war-paint, and he danced the war-dance; then withhis sword he cut the first slice from the ox that had been roastedwhole for their entertainment. "I shall be glad, " wrote the surgeon of aNew England regiment, "if they fight as eagerly as they ate their ox anddrank their wine. "

Above all things the expedition needed promptness; yet everything movedslowly. Five popular legislatures controlled the troops and thesupplies. Connecticut had refused to send her men till Shirley promisedthat her commanding officer should rank next to Johnson. The wholemovement was for some time at a deadlock because the five governmentscould not agree about their contributions of artillery and stores. [295]The New Hampshire regiment had taken a short cut for Crown Point acrossthe wilderness of Vermont; but had been recalled in time to save themfrom probable destruction. They were now with the rest in the camp atAlbany, in such distress for provisions that a private subscription wasproposed for their relief. [296]

[Footnote 295: _The Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly stated_(London, 1758). ]

[Footnote 296: _Blanchard to Wentworth, 28 Aug. 1755_, in _ProvincialPapers of New Hampshire_, VI. 429. ]

Johnson's army, crude as it was, had in it good material. Here wasPhineas Lyman, of Connecticut, second in command, once a tutor at YaleCollege, and more recently a lawyer, --a raw soldier, but a vigorous andbrave one; Colonel Moses Titcomb, of Massachusetts, who had fought withcredit at Louisbourg; and Ephraim Williams, also colonel of aMassachusetts regiment, a tall and portly man, who had been a captain inthe last war, member of the General Court, and deputy-sheriff. He madehis will in the camp at Albany, and left a legacy to found the schoolwhich 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 seenservice at Louisbourg, was its lieutenant-colonel. He had left a wife athome, an excellent matron, to whom he was continually writingaffectionate letters, mingling household cares with news of the camp, and charging her to see that their eldest boy, Seth, then in college atNew Haven, did not run off to the army. Pomeroy had with him his brotherDaniel; and this he thought was enough. Here, too, was a man whose nameis still a household word in New England, --the sturdy Israel Putnam, private in a Connecticut regiment; and another as bold as he, JohnStark, lieutenant in the New Hampshire levies, and the future victor ofBennington. 

The soldiers were no soldiers, but farmers and farmers' sons who hadvolunteered for the summer campaign. One of the corps had a blue uniformfaced with red. The rest wore their daily clothing. Blankets had beenserved out to them by the several provinces, but the greater partbrought their own guns; some under the penalty of a fine if they camewithout them, and some under the inducement of a reward. [297] They hadno bayonets, but carried hatchets in their belts as a sort ofsubstitute. [298] At their sides were slung powder-horns, on which, inthe leisure of the camp, they carved quaint devices with the points oftheir jack-knives. They came chiefly from plain New Englandhomesteads, --rustic abodes, unpainted and dingy, with long well-sweeps, capacious barns, rough fields of pumpkins and corn, and vast kitchenchimneys, above which in winter hung squashes to keep them from frost, and guns to keep them from rust. 

[Footnote 297: _Proclamation of Governor Shirley, 1755_. ]

[Footnote 298: _Second Letter to a Friend on the Battle of LakeGeorge_. ]

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 hasbeen stolen, " says William Smith, of New York; while, on the other hand, Colonel Ephraim Williams writes to Colonel Israel Williams, thencommanding on the Massachusetts frontier: "We are a wicked, profanearmy, especially the New York and Rhode Island troops. Nothing to beheard among a great part of them but the language of Hell. If CrownPoint is taken, it will not be for our sakes, but for those good peopleleft behind. "[299] There was edifying regularity in respect to form. Sermons twice a week, daily prayers, and frequent psalm-singingalternated with the much-needed military drill. [300] "Prayers among usnight and morning, " writes Private Jonathan Caswell, of Massachusetts, to his father. "Here we lie, knowing not when we shall march for CrownPoint; but I hope not long to tarry. Desiring your prayers to God for meas I am going to war, I am Your Ever Dutiful son. "[301]

[Footnote 299: _Papers of Colonel Israel Williams_. ]

[Footnote 300: _Massachusetts Archives_. ]

[Footnote 301: _Jonathan Caswell to John Caswell, 6 July, 1755_. ]

To Pomeroy and some of his brothers in arms it seemed that they wereengaged in a kind of crusade against the myrmidons of Rome. "As you haveat 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 goforth with us and give us victory over our unreasonable, encroaching, barbarous, murdering enemies. "

Both Williams the surgeon and Williams the colonel chafed at theincessant delays. "The expedition goes on very much as a snail runs, "writes the former to his wife; "it seems we may possibly see Crown Pointthis time twelve months. " The Colonel was vexed because everything wasout of joint in the department of transportation: wagoners mutinous forwant of pay; ordnance stores, camp-kettles, and provisions left behind. "As to rum, " he complains, "it won't hold out nine weeks. Things appearmost melancholy to me. " Even as he was writing, a report came of thedefeat 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 thetwenty-first of August with the report that the French were all astirwith preparation, and that eight thousand men were coming to defendCrown Point. On this a council of war was called; and it was resolved tosend to the several colonies for reinforcements. [302] Meanwhile the mainbody had moved up the river to the spot called the Great Carrying Place, where Lyman had begun a fortified storehouse, which his men called FortLyman, but which was afterwards named Fort Edward. Two Indian trails ledfrom this point to the waters of Lake Champlain, one by way of LakeGeorge, and the other by way of Wood Creek. There was doubt which coursethe army should take. A road was begun to Wood Creek; then it wascountermanded, and a party was sent to explore the path to Lake George. "With submission to the general officers, " Surgeon Williams againwrites, "I think it a very grand mistake that the business ofreconnoitring was not done months agone. " It was resolved at last tomarch for Lake George; gangs of axemen were sent to hew out the way; andon the twenty-sixth two thousand men were ordered to the lake, whileColonel Blanchard, of New Hampshire, remained with five hundred tofinish and defend Fort Lyman. 

[Footnote 302: _Minutes of Council of War, 22 Aug. 1755. EphraimWilliams to Benjamin Dwight, 22 Aug. 1755_. ]

The train of Dutch wagons, guarded by the homely soldiery, jolted slowlyover the stumps and roots of the newly made road, and the regimentsfollowed at their leisure. The hardships of the way were not withouttheir consolations. The jovial Irishman who held the chief command madehimself very agreeable to the New England officers. "We went on aboutfour or five miles, " says Pomeroy in his Journal, "then stopped, atepieces of broken bread and cheese, and drank some fresh lemon-punch andthe 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 withGeneral Johnson by a small brook under a tree; ate a good dinner of coldboiled and roast venison; drank good fresh lemon-punch and wine. "

That afternoon they reached their destination, fourteen miles from FortLyman. The most beautiful lake in America lay before them; then morebeautiful than now, in the wild charm of untrodden mountains and virginforests. "I have given it the name of Lake George, " wrote Johnson to theLords of Trade, "not only in honor of His Majesty, but to ascertain hisundoubted dominion here. " His men made their camp on a piece of roughground by the edge of the water, pitching their tents among the stumpsof the newly felled trees. In their front was a forest of pitch-pine; ontheir right, a marsh, choked with alders and swamp-maples; on theirleft, the low hill where Fort George was afterwards built; and at theirrear, the lake. Little was done to clear the forest in front, though itwould give excellent cover to an enemy. Nor did Johnson take much painsto learn the movements of the French in the direction of Crown Point, though he sent scouts towards South Bay and Wood Creek. Every day storesand bateaux, or flat boats, came on wagons from Fort Lyman; andpreparation moved on with the leisure that had marked it from the first. About three hundred Mohawks came to the camp, and were regarded by theNew England men as nuisances. On Sunday the gray-haired Stephen Williamspreached to these savage allies a long Calvinistic sermon, which musthave sorely perplexed the interpreter whose business it was to turn itinto Mohawk; and in the afternoon young Chaplain Newell, of RhodeIsland, expounded to the New England men the somewhat untimely text, "Love your enemies. " On the next Sunday, September seventh, Williamspreached again, this time to the whites from a text in Isaiah. It was apeaceful day, fair and warm, with a few light showers; yet not wholly aday of rest, for two hundred wagons came up from Fort Lyman, loaded withbateaux. After the sermon there was an alarm. An Indian scout came inabout sunset, and reported that he had found the trail of a body of menmoving from South Bay towards Fort Lyman. Johnson called for a volunteerto carry a letter of warning to Colonel Blanchard, the commander. Awagoner named Adams offered himself for the perilous service, mounted, and galloped along the road with the letter. Sentries were posted, andthe 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 thousandfive hundred and seventy-three men, regulars, Canadians, andIndians. [303] He had no thought of waiting there to be attacked. Thetroops 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 spareshirt, one spare pair of shoes, a blanket, a bearskin, and provisionsfor twelve days; Indians are not to amuse themselves by taking scalpstill the enemy is entirely defeated, since they can kill ten men in thetime required to scalp one. [304] Then Dieskau moved on, with nearly allhis force, to Carillon, or Ticonderoga, a promontory commanding both theroutes by which alone Johnson could advance, that of Wood Creek and thatof Lake George. 

[Footnote 303: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 25 Sept. 1755_. ]

[Footnote 304: _Livre d'Ordres, Août, Sept. 1755_. ]

The Indians allies were commanded by Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, theofficer who had received Washington on his embassy to Fort Le Boeuf. These unmanageable warriors were a constant annoyance to Dieskau, beinga 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 havealready eaten five oxen and as many hogs, without counting the kegs ofbrandy they have drunk. In short, one needs the patience of an angel toget on with these devils; and yet one must always force himself to seempleased with them. "[305]

[Footnote 305: _Dieskau à Vaudreuil, 1 Sept. 1755_. ]

They would scarcely even go out as scouts. At last, however, on thefourth of September, a reconnoitring party came in with a scalp and anEnglish prisoner caught near Fort Lyman. He was questioned under thethreat of being given to the Indians for torture if he did not tell thetruth; but, nothing daunted, he invented a patriotic falsehood; andthinking to lure his captors into a trap, told them that the Englisharmy had fallen back to Albany, leaving five hundred men at Fort Lyman, which he represented as indefensible. Dieskau resolved on a rapidmovement to seize the place. At noon of the same day, leaving a part ofhis force at Ticonderoga, he embarked the rest in canoes and advancedalong the narrow prolongation of Lake Champlain that stretched southwardthrough the wilderness to where the town of Whitehall now stands. Hesoon came to a point where the lake dwindled to a mere canal, while twomighty rocks, capped with stunted forests, faced each other from theopposing banks. Here he left an officer named Roquemaure with adetachment of troops, and again advanced along a belt of quiet watertraced through the midst of a deep marsh, green at that season withsedge and water-weeds, and known to the English as the Drowned Lands. Beyond, on either hand, crags feathered with birch and fir, or hillsmantled with woods, looked down on the long procession of canoes. [306]As they neared the site of Whitehall, a passage opened on the right, theentrance to a sheet of lonely water slumbering in the shadow of woodymountains, and forming the lake then, as now, called South Bay. Theyadvanced to its head, landed where a small stream enters it, left thecanoes under a guard, and began their march through the forest. Theycounted in all two hundred and sixteen regulars of the battalions ofLanguedoc and La Reine, six hundred and eighty-four Canadians, and abovesix hundred Indians. [307] Every officer and man carried provisions foreight days in his knapsack. They encamped at night by a brook, and inthe morning, after hearing Mass, marched again. The evening of the nextday brought them near the road that led to Lake George. Fort Lyman wasbut three miles distant. A man on horseback galloped by; it was Adams, Johnson's unfortunate messenger. The Indians shot him, and found theletter in his pocket. Soon after, ten or twelve wagons appeared incharge of mutinous drivers, who had left the English camp withoutorders. Several of them were shot, two were taken, and the rest ran off. The two captives declared that, contrary to the assertion of theprisoner at Ticonderoga, a large force lay encamped at the lake. TheIndians now held a council, and presently gave out that they would notattack the fort, which they thought well supplied with cannon, but thatthey were willing to attack the camp at Lake George. Remonstrance waslost upon them. Dieskau was not young, but he was daring to rashness, and inflamed to emulation by the victory over Braddock. The enemy werereported greatly to outnumber him; but his Canadian advisers had assuredhim that the English colony militia were the worst troops on the face ofthe 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 tomarch for the lake. 

[Footnote 306: I passed this way three weeks ago. There are some pointswhere the scene is not much changed since Dieskau saw it. ]

[Footnote 307: _Mémoire sur l'Affaire du 8 Septembre_. ]

They moved rapidly on through the waste of pines, and soon entered therugged valley that led to Johnson's camp. On their right was a gorgewhere, shadowed in bushes, gurgled a gloomy brook; and beyond rose thecliffs that buttressed the rocky heights of French Mountain, seen byglimpses between the boughs. On their left rose gradually the lowerslopes of West Mountain. All was rock, thicket, and forest; there was noopen space but the road along which the regulars marched, while theCanadians and Indians pushed their way through the woods in such orderas the broken ground would permit. 

They were three miles from the lake, when their scouts brought in aprisoner who told them that a column of English troops was approaching. Dieskau's preparations were quickly made. While the regulars halted onthe road, the Canadians and Indians moved to the front, where most ofthem hid in the forest along the slopes of West Mountain, and the restlay close among the thickets on the other side. Thus, when the Englishadvanced to attack the regulars in front, they would find themselvescaught in a double ambush. No sight or sound betrayed the snare; butbehind every bush crouched a Canadian or a savage, with gun cocked andears intent, listening for the tramp of the approaching column. 

The wagoners who escaped the evening before had reached the camp aboutmidnight, and reported that there was a war-party on the road near FortLyman. Johnson had at this time twenty-two hundred effective men, besides his three hundred Indians. [308] He called a council of war inthe morning, and a resolution was taken which can only be explained by acomplete misconception as to the force of the French. It was determinedto send out two detachments of five hundred men each, one towards FortLyman, and the other towards South Bay, the object being, according toJohnson "to catch the enemy in their retreat. "[309] Hendrick, chief ofthe Mohawks, a brave and sagacious warrior, expressed his dissent aftera fashion of his own. He picked up a stick and broke it; then he pickedup several sticks, and showed that together they could not be broken. The hint was taken, and the two detachments were joined in one. Stillthe 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 agun-carriage, he harangued his warriors with a voice so animated andgestures so expressive, that the New England officers listened inadmiration, though they understood not a word. One difficulty remained. He was too old and fat to go afoot; but Johnson lent him a horse, whichhe bestrode, and trotted to the head of the column, followed by twohundred of his warriors as fast as they could grease, paint, andbefeather themselves. 

[Footnote 308: _Wraxall to Lieutenant-Governor Delancey, 10 Sept. 1755_. Wraxall was Johnson's aide-de-camp and secretary. The _Second Letter toa Friend_ says twenty-one hundred whites and two hundred or threehundred Indians. Blodget, who was also on the spot, sets the whites attwo thousand. ]

[Footnote 309: _Letter to the Governors of the several Colonies, 9 Sept. 1755_. ]

Captain Elisha Hawley was in his tent, finishing a letter which he hadjust written to his brother Joseph; and these were the last words: "I amthis minute agoing out in company with five hundred men to see if we canintercept 'em in their retreat, or find their canoes in the DrownedLands; and therefore must conclude this letter. " He closed and directedit; and in an hour received his death-wound. 

It was soon after eight o'clock when Ephraim Williams left the camp withhis regiment, marched a little distance, and then waited for the rest ofthe detachment under Lieutenant-Colonel Whiting. Thus Dieskau had fulltime to lay his ambush. When Whiting came up, the whole moved ontogether, so little conscious of danger that no scouts were thrown outin front or flank; and, in full security, they entered the fatal snare. Before they were completely involved in it, the sharp eye of oldHendrick detected some sign of an enemy. At that instant, whether byaccident or design, a gun was fired from the bushes. It is said thatDieskau's Iroquois, seeing Mohawks, their relatives, in the van, wishedto warn them of danger. If so, the warning came too late. The thicketson the left blazed out a deadly fire, and the men fell by scores. In thewords of Dieskau, the head of the column "was doubled up like a pack ofcards. " Hendrick's horse was shot down, and the chief was killed with abayonet as he tried to rise. Williams, seeing a rising ground on hisright, made for it, calling on his men to follow; but as he climbed theslope, guns flashed from the bushes, and a shot through the brain laidhim 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 theirright flank. Then there was a panic; some fled outright, and the wholecolumn recoiled. The van now became the rear, and all the force of theenemy rushed upon it, shouting and screeching. There was a moment oftotal confusion; but a part of Williams's regiment rallied under commandof Whiting, and covered the retreat, fighting behind trees like Indians, and firing and falling back by turns, bravely aided by some of theMohawks and by a detachment which Johnson sent to their aid. "And a veryhandsome retreat they made, " writes Pomeroy; "and so continued till theycame within about three quarters of a mile of our camp. This was thelast 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 NewEngland fireside story as the "bloody morning scout. " Dieskau nowordered a halt, and sounded his trumpets to collect his scattered men. His Indians, however, were sullen and unmanageable, and the Canadiansalso showed signs of wavering. The veteran who commanded them all, Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, had been killed. At length they werepersuaded to move again, the regulars leading the way. 

About an hour after Williams and his men had begun their march, adistant rattle of musketry was heard at the camp; and as it grew nearerand louder, the listeners knew that their comrades were on the retreat. Then, at the eleventh hour, preparations were begun for defence. A sortof barricade was made along the front of the camp, partly of wagons, andpartly of inverted bateaux, but chiefly of the trunks of trees hastilyhewn 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 leftacross 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 ofthe barricade, and there was scarcely time to hack away the interveningthickets. Three cannon were planted to sweep the road that descendedthrough the pines, and another was dragged up to the ridge of the hill. The defeated party began to come in; first, scared fugitives both whiteand red, then, gangs of men bringing the wounded; and at last, an hourand a half after the first fire was heard, the main detachment was seenmarching in compact bodies down the road. 

Five hundred men were detailed to guard the flanks of the camp. The reststood behind the wagons or lay flat behind the logs and invertedbateaux, the Massachusetts men on the right, and the Connecticut men onthe left. Besides Indians, this actual fighting force was betweensixteen and seventeen hundred rustics, very few of whom had been underfire before that morning. They were hardly at their posts when they sawranks of white-coated soldiers moving down the road, and bayonets thatto them seemed innumerable glittering between the boughs. At the sametime a terrific burst of war-whoops rose along the front; and, in thewords of Pomeroy, "the Canadians and Indians, helter-skelter, the woodsfull of them, came running with undaunted courage right down the hillupon us, expecting to make us flee. "[310] Some of the men grew uneasy;while the chief officers, sword in hand, threatened instant death to anywho should stir from their posts. [311] If Dieskau had made an assault atthat instant, there could be little doubt of the result. 

[Footnote 310: _Seth Pomeroy to his Wife, 10 Sept. 1755_. ]

[Footnote 311: _Dr. Perez Marsh to William Williams, 25 Sept. 1755_. ]

This he well knew; but he was powerless. He had his small force ofregulars well in hand; but the rest, red and white, were beyond control, scattering through the woods and swamps, shouting, yelling, and firingfrom behind trees. The regulars advanced with intrepidity towards thecamp where the trees were thin, deployed, and fired by platoons, tillCaptain Eyre, who commanded the artillery, opened on them with grape, broke their ranks, and compelled them to take to cover. The fusilladewas now general on both sides, and soon grew furious. "Perhaps, " SethPomeroy wrote to his wife, two days after, "the hailstones from heavenwere never much thicker than their bullets came; but, blessed be God!that did not in the least daunt or disturb us. " Johnson received aflesh-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 wasfour hours in the heat of the fire, directing and animating the men. "Itwas the most awful day my eyes ever beheld, " wrote Surgeon Williams tohis wife; "there seemed to be nothing but thunder and lightning andperpetual pillars of smoke. " To him, his colleague Doctor Pynchon, oneassistant, and a young student called "Billy, " fell the charge of thewounded of his regiment. "The bullets flew about our ears all the timeof dressing them; so we thought best to leave our tent and retire a fewrods behind the shelter of a log-house. " On the adjacent hill stood oneBlodget, 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 hesoon after made and published a curious bird's-eye view. As the woundedmen were carried to the rear, the wagoners about the camp took theirguns and powder-horns, and joined in the fray. A Mohawk, seeing one ofthese men still unarmed, leaped over the barricade, tomahawked thenearest Canadian, snatched his gun, and darted back unhurt. The bravesavage found no imitators among his tribesmen, most of whom did nothingbut utter a few war-whoops, saying that they had come to see theirEnglish brothers fight. Some of the French Indians opened a distantflank fire from the high ground beyond the swamp on the right, but weredriven off by a few shells dropped among them. 

Dieskau had directed his first attack against the left and center ofJohnson's position. Making no impression here, he tried to force theright, where lay the regiments of Titcomb, Ruggles, and Williams. Thefire was hot for about an hour. Titcomb was shot dead, a rod in front ofthe barricade, firing from behind a tree like a common soldier. Atlength Dieskau, exposing himself within short range of the English line, was hit in the leg. His adjutant, Montreuil, himself wounded, came tohis aid, and was washing the injured limb with brandy, when theunfortunate commander was again hit in the knee and thigh. He seatedhimself behind a tree, while the Adjutant called two Canadians to carryhim to the rear. One of them was instantly shot down. Montreuil took hisplace; but Dieskau refused to be moved, bitterly denounced the Canadiansand Indians, and ordered the Adjutant to leave him and lead the regularsin a last effort against the camp. 

It was too late. Johnson's men, singly or in small squads, alreadycrossing their row of logs; and in a few moments the whole dashedforward with a shout, falling upon the enemy with hatchets and the buttsof their guns. The French and their allies fled. The wounded Generalstill sat helpless by the tree, when he saw a soldier aiming at him. Hesigned to the man not to fire; but he pulled trigger, shot him acrossthe hips, leaped upon him, and ordered him in French to surrender. "Isaid, " writes Dieskau, "'You rascal, why did you fire? You see a manlying in his blood on the ground, and you shoot him!' He answered: 'Howdid I know that you had not got a pistol? I had rather kill the devilthan have the devil kill me. ' 'You are a Frenchman?' I asked. 'Yes, ' hereplied; 'it is more than ten years since I left Canada;' whereuponseveral others fell on me and stripped me. I told them to carry me totheir general, which they did. On learning who I was, he sent forsurgeons, and, though wounded himself, refused all assistance till mywounds were dressed. "[312]

[Footnote 312: _Dialogue entre le Maréchal de Saxe et le Baron deDieskau aux Champs Élysées_. This paper is in the Archives de la Guerre, and was evidently written or inspired by Dieskau himself. In spite ofits fanciful form, it is a sober statement of the events of thecampaign. 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 timebefore, several hundred of the Canadians and Indians had left the fieldand returned to the scene of the morning fight, to plunder and scalp thedead. They were resting themselves near a pool in the forest, closebeside the road, when their repose was interrupted by a volley ofbullets. It was fired by a scouting party from Fort Lyman, chieflybackwoodsmen, under Captains Folsom and McGinnis. The assailants weregreatly outnumbered; but after a hard fight the Canadians and Indiansbroke and fled. McGinnis was mortally wounded. He continued to giveorders till the firing was over; then fainted, and was carried, dying, to the camp. The bodies of the slain, according to tradition, werethrown into the pool, which bears to this day the name of Bloody Pond. 

The various bands of fugitives rejoined each other towards night, andencamped in the forest; then made their way round the southern shoulderof French Mountain, till, in the next evening, they reached theircanoes. Their plight was deplorable; for they had left their knapsacksbehind, and were spent with fatigue and famine. 

Meanwhile their captive general was not yet out of danger. The Mohawkswere furious at their losses in the ambush of the morning, and above allat the death of Hendrick. Scarcely were Dieskau's wounds dressed, whenseveral of them came into the tent. There was a long and angry disputein their own language between them and Johnson, after which they wentout very sullenly. Dieskau asked what they wanted. "What do they want?"returned Johnson. "To burn you, by God, eat you, and smoke you in theirpipes, 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 usboth. "[313] The Mohawks soon came back, and another talk ensued, excitedat first, and then more calm; till at length the visitors, seeminglyappeased, smiled, gave Dieskau their hands in sign of friendship, andquietly went out again. Johnson warned him that he was not yet safe; andwhen the prisoner, fearing that his presence might incommode his host, asked to be removed to another tent, a captain and fifty men wereordered to guard him. In the morning an Indian, alone and apparentlyunarmed, loitered about the entrance, and the stupid sentinel let himpass in. He immediately drew a sword from under a sort of cloak which hewore, and tried to stab Dieskau; but was prevented by the Colonel towhom the tent belonged, who seized upon him, took away his sword, andpushed him out. As soon as his wounds would permit, Dieskau was carriedon a litter, strongly escorted, to Fort Lyman, whence he was sent toAlbany, and afterwards to New York. He is profuse in expressions ofgratitude for the kindness shown him by the colonial officers, andespecially by Johnson. Of the provincial soldiers he remarked soon afterthe battle that in the morning they fought like good boys, about noonlike men, and in the afternoon like devils. [314] In the spring of 1757he sailed for England, and was for a time at Falmouth; whence ColonelMatthew Sewell, fearing that he might see and learn too much, wrote tothe Earl of Holdernesse: "The Baron has great penetration and quicknessof apprehension. His long service under Marshal Saxe renders him a manof real consequence, to be cautiously observed. His circumstancesdeserve compassion, for indeed they are very melancholy, and I muchdoubt of his being ever perfectly cured. " He was afterwards a long timeat Bath, for the benefit of the waters. In 1760 the famous Diderot methim at Paris, cheerful and full of anecdote, though wretchedly shatteredby his wounds. He died a few years later. 

[Footnote 313: See the story as told by Dieskau to the celebratedDiderot, at Paris, in 1760. _Mémoires de Diderot_, I. 402 (1830). Compare _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, X. 343. ]

[Footnote 314: _Dr. Perez Marsh to William Williams, 25 Sept. 1755_. ]

On the night after the battle the yeomen warriors felt the truth of thesaying that, next to defeat, the saddest thing is victory. Comrades andfriends by scores lay scattered through the forest. As soon as he couldsnatch a moment's leisure, the overworked surgeon sent the dismaltidings to his wife: "My dear brother Ephraim was killed by a ballthrough 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 livetwo hours after bringing him in. " Daniel Pomeroy was shot dead; and hisbrother Seth wrote the news to his wife Rachel, who was just deliveredof a child: "Dear Sister, this brings heavy tidings; but let not yourheart sink at the news, though it be your loss of a dear husband. Mondaythe eighth instant was a memorable day; and truly you may say, had notthe Lord been on our side, we must all have been swallowed up. Mybrother, being one that went out in the first engagement, received afatal shot through the middle of the head. " Seth Pomeroy found a momentto write also to his own wife, whom he tells that another attack isexpected; adding, in quaintly pious phrase: "But as God hath begun toshow mercy, I hope he will go on to be gracious. " Pomeroy was employedduring the next few days with four hundred men in what he calls "themelancholy piece of business" of burying the dead. A letter-writer ofthe 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 asmight be without the knowledge of our Indians, to prevent their beingscalped. This I call an excess of civility;" his reason being thatBraddock's dead soldiers had been left to the wolves. 

The English loss in killed, wounded, and missing was two hundred andsixty-two;[315] and that of the French by their own account, two hundredand 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 felland could not be carried away were tomahawked by Dieskau's Indians. Inthe fight at the camp, both Indians and Canadians kept themselves sowell under cover that it was very difficult for the New England men topick them off, while they on their part lay close behind their row oflogs. On the French side, the regular officers and troops bore the bruntof the battle and suffered the chief loss, nearly all of the former andnearly half of the latter being killed or wounded. 

[Footnote 315: _Return of Killed, Wounded, and Missing at the Battle ofLake George_. ]

[Footnote 316: _Doreil au Ministre, 20 Oct. 1755_. Surgeon Williamsgives the English loss as two hundred and sixteen killed, and ninety-sixwounded. 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 fortheir transportation were lying on the beach. Ten miles down the lake, apath led over a gorge of the mountains to South Bay, where Dieskau hadleft his canoes and provisions. It needed but a few hours to reach anddestroy them; but no such attempt was made. Nor, till a week after, didJohnson send out scouts to learn the strength of the enemy atTiconderoga. Lyman strongly urged him to make an effort to seize thatimportant pass; but Johnson thought only of holding his own position. "Ithink, " he wrote, "we may expect very shortly a more formidable attack. "He made a solid breastwork to defend his camp; and as reinforcementsarrived, set them at building a fort on a rising ground by the lake. Itis true that just after the battle he was deficient in stores, and hadnot bateaux enough to move his whole force. It is true, also, that hewas wounded, and that he was too jealous of Lyman to delegate thecommand to him; and so the days passed till, within a fortnight, hisnimble enemy were entrenched at Ticonderoga in force enough to defy him. 

The Crown Point expedition was a failure disguised under an incidentalsuccess. The northern provinces, especially Massachusetts andConnecticut, did what they could to forward it, and after the battlesent a herd of raw recruits to the scene of action. Shirley wrote toJohnson from Oswego; declared that his reasons for not advancing wereinsufficient, and urged him to push for Ticonderoga at once. Johnsonreplied that he had not wagons enough, and that his troops wereill-clothed, ill-fed, discontented, insubordinate and sickly. Hecomplained that discipline was out of the question, because the officerswere chosen by popular election; that many of them were no better thanthe men, unfit for command, and like so many "heads of a mob. "[317] Thereinforcements began to come in, till, in October there were thirty-sixhundred men in the camp; and as most of them wore summer clothing andhad but one thin domestic blanket, they were half frozen in the chillautumn nights. 

[Footnote 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 inflamedeyes, and was still kept in his tent by his wound, he asked Lyman topreside, --not unwilling, perhaps, to shift the responsibility upon him. After several sessions and much debate, the assembled officers decidedthat it was inexpedient to proceed. [318] Yet the army lay more than amonth longer at the lake, while the disgust of the men increased dailyunder the rains, frosts, and snows of a dreary November. On thetwenty-second, Chandler, chaplain of one of the Massachusetts regiments, wrote in the interleaved almanac that served him as a diary: "The menjust ready to mutiny. Some clubbed their firelocks and marched, butreturned back. Very rainy night. Miry water standing the tents. Verydistressing time among the sick. " The men grew more and more unruly, andwent off in squads without asking leave. A difficult question arose: Whoshould stay for the winter to garrison the new forts, and who shouldcommand them? It was settled at last that a certain number of soldiersfrom each province should be assigned to this ungrateful service, andthat Massachusetts should have the first officer, Connecticut thesecond, and New York the third. Then the camp broke up. "Thursday the27th, " wrote the chaplain in his almanac, "we set out about ten of theclock, marched in a body, about three thousand, the wagons and baggagein the centre, our colonel much insulted by the way. " The soldiersdispersed to their villages and farms, where in blustering winternights, by the blazing logs of New England hearth-stones, they toldtheir friends and neighbors the story of the campaign. 

[Footnote 318: _Reports of Council of War, 11-21 Oct. 1755_. ]

The profit of it fell to Johnson. If he did not gather the fruits ofvictory, at least he reaped its laurels. He was a courtier in his roughway. He had changed the name of Lac St. Sacrement to Lake George, incompliment to the King. 

He now changed that of Fort Lyman to Fort Edward, in compliment to oneof the King's grandsons; and, in compliment to another, called his newfort at the lake, William Henry. Of General Lyman he made no mention inhis report of the battle, and his partisans wrote letters traducingthat brave officer; though Johnson is said to have confessed in privatethat he owed him the victory. He himself found no lack of eulogists;and, to quote the words of an able but somewhat caustic and prejudicedopponent, "to the panegyrical pen of his secretary, Mr. Wraxall, and the_sic volo sic jubeo_ of Lieutenant-Governor Delancey, is to be ascribedthat mighty renown which echoed through the colonies, reverberated toEurope, and elevated a raw, inexperienced youth into a kind of secondMarlborough. [319] Parliament gave him five thousand pounds, and the Kingmade him a baronet. "

[Footnote 319: _Review of Military Operations in North America, in aLetter 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 thearchives of New York, consist of official and private letters, reports, etc. , on the English side. Those in Vol. X. Are drawn chiefly from thearchives of the French War Department, and include the correspondence ofDieskau and his adjutant Montreuil. I have examined most of them in theoriginal. Besides these I have obtained from the Archives de la Marineand other sources a number of important additional papers, which havenever been printed, including Vaudreuil's reports to the Minister ofWar, and his strictures on Dieskau, whom he accuses of disobeying ordersby dividing his force; also the translation of an English journal of thecampaign found in the pocket of a captured officer, and a long accountof 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 Journalof 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 theMassachusetts Historical Society, contain many other curious lettersrelating to the campaign, extracts from some of which are given in thetext. One of the most curious records of the battle is _AProspective-Plan of the Battle near Lake George, with an Explanationthereof, containing a full, though short, History of that importantAffair, by Samuel Blodget, occasionally at the Camp when the Battle wasfought_. It is an engraving, printed at Boston soon after the fight, ofwhich it gives a clear idea. Four years after, Blodget opened a shop inBoston, where, as appears by his advertisements in the newspapers, hesold "English Goods, also English Hatts, etc. " The engraving isreproduced in the _Documentary History of New York_, IV. , andelsewhere. The _Explanation thereof_ is only to be found complete in theoriginal. This, as well as the anonymous _Second Letter to a Friend_, also printed at Boston in 1755, is excellent for the information itgives as to the condition of the ground where the conflict took place, and the position of the combatants. The unpublished Archives ofMassachusetts; the correspondence of Sir William Johnson; the _Review ofMilitary Operations in North America_; Dwight, _Travels in New Englandand New York_, III. ; and Hoyt, _Antiquarian Researches on IndianWars, _--should also be mentioned. Dwight and Hoyt drew their informationfrom aged survivors of the battle. I have repeatedly examined thelocalities. 

In the odd effusion of the colonial muse called _Tilden's Poems, chieflyto Animate and Rouse the Soldiers, printed 1756_, is a piece styled _TheChristian Hero, or New England's Triumphs_, beginning with theinvocation, --

 "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 10

1755, 1756

Shirley. Border War

The capture of Niagara was to finish the work of the summer. This alonewould have gained for England the control of the valley of the Ohio, andmade Braddock's expedition superfluous. One marvels at theshort-sightedness, the dissensions, the apathy which had left this keyof the interior so long in the hands of France without an effort towrest it from her. To master Niagara would be to cut the communicationsof Canada with the whole system of French forts and settlements in theWest, and leave them to perish like limbs of a girdled tree. 

Major-General Shirley, in the flush of his new martial honors, was totry his prentice hand at the work. The lawyer-soldier could plan acampaign boldly and well. It remained to see how he would do his parttowards executing it. In July he arrived at Albany, the starting-pointof his own expedition as well as that of Johnson. This little Dutch citywas an outpost of civilization. The Hudson, descending from the northernwilderness, connected it with the lakes and streams that formed thethoroughfare to Canada; while the Mohawk, flowing from the west, was aliquid pathway to the forest homes of the Five Nations. Before the warwas over, a little girl, Anne MacVicar, daughter of a Highland officer, was left at Albany by her father, and spent several years there in thehouse of Mrs. Schuyler, aunt of General Schuyler of the Revolution. Longafter, married and middle-aged, she wrote down her recollections of theplace, --the fort on the hill behind; the great street, grassy and broad, that descended thence to the river, with market, guardhouse, town hall, and two churches in the middle, and rows of quaint Dutch-built houses onboth sides, each detached from its neighbors, each with its well, garden, and green, and its great overshadowing tree. Before every housewas a capacious porch, with seats where the people gathered in thesummer twilight; old men at one door, matrons at another, young men andgirls mingling at a third; while the cows with their tinkling bells camefrom the common at the end of the town, each stopping to be milked atthe door of its owner; and children, porringer in hand, sat on thesteps, watching the process and waiting their evening meal. 

Such was the quiet picture painted on the memory of Anne MacVicar, andreproduced by the pen of Mrs. Ann Grant. [320] The patriarchal, semi-rural town had other aspects, not so pleasing. The men were mainlyengaged in the fur-trade, sometimes legally with the Five Nations, andsometimes illegally with the Indians of Canada, --an occupation which byno means tends to soften the character. The Albany Dutch traders were arude, hard race, loving money, and not always scrupulous as to the meansof getting it. Coming events, too, were soon to have their effect onthis secluded community. Regiments, red and blue, trumpets, drums, banners, artillery trains, and all the din of war transformed itspeaceful streets, and brought some attaint to domestic morals hithertocommendable; for during the next five years Albany was to be theprincipal base of military operations on the continent. 

[Footnote 320: _Memoirs of an American Lady_ (Mrs. Schuyler), Chap. VI. A genuine picture of colonial life, and a charming book, though far frombeing 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. Hisforce, much smaller than at first intended, consisted of the New Jerseyregiment, which mustered five hundred men, known as the Jersey Blues, and of the fiftieth and fifty-first regiments, called respectivelyShirley's and Pepperell's. These, though paid by the King and counted asregulars, were in fact raw provincials, just raised in the colonies, andwearing their gay uniforms with an awkward, unaccustomed air. How theygloried in them may be gathered from a letter of Sergeant James Gray, ofPepperell's, to his brother John: "I have two Holland shirts, found meby the King, and two pair of shoes and two pair of worsted stockings; agood silver-laced hat (the lace I could sell for four dollars); and myclothes is as fine scarlet broadcloth as ever you did see. A sergeanthere 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. 

[Footnote 321: _James Gray to John Gray, 11 July, 1755_. ]

Shirley followed, embarking at the Dutch village of Schenectady, andascending the Mohawk with about two hundred of the so-called regulars inbateaux. They passed Fort Johnson, the two villages of the Mohawks, andthe Palatine settlement of German Flats; left behind the last trace ofcivilized man, rowed sixty miles through wilderness, and reached theGreat Carrying Place, which divided the waters that flow to the Hudsonfrom those that flow to Lake Ontario. Here now stands the city which theclassic zeal of its founders has adorned with the name of Rome. Then allwas swamp and forest, traversed by a track that led to WoodCreek, --which is not to be confounded with the Wood Creek of LakeChamplain. Thither the bateaux were dragged on sledges and launched onthe dark and tortuous stream, which, fed by a decoction of forest leavesthat oozed from the marshy shores, crept in shadow through depths offoliage, with only a belt of illumined sky gleaming between the jaggedtree-tops. Tall and lean with straining towards the light, their rough, gaunt stems trickling with perpetual damps, stood on either hand thesilent hosts of the forest. The skeletons of their dead, barkless, blanched, and shattered, strewed the mudbanks and shallows; others laysubmerged, like bones of drowned mammoths, thrusting lank, white limbsabove the sullen water; and great trees, entire as yet, were flung byage or storms athwart the current, --a bristling barricade of mattedboughs. There was work for the axe as well as for the oar; till atlength Lake Oneida opened before them, and they rowed all day over itssunny breast, reached the outlet, and drifted down the shallow eddies ofthe Onondaga, between walls of verdure, silent as death, yet hauntedeverywhere with ambushed danger. It was twenty days after leavingSchenectady when they neared the mouth of the river; and Lake Ontariogreeted them, stretched like a sea to the pale brink of the northernsky, while on the bare hill at their left stood the miserable littlefort of Oswego. 

Shirley's whole force soon arrived; but not the needful provisions andstores. The machinery of transportation and the commissariat was in thebewildered state inevitable among a peaceful people at the beginning ofa war; while the news of Braddock's defeat produced such an effect onthe boatmen and the draymen at the carrying-places, that the greaterpart deserted. Along with these disheartening tidings, Shirley learnedthe death of his eldest son, killed at the side of Braddock. He had withhim a second son, Captain John Shirley, a vivacious young man, whom hisfather and his father's friends in their familiar correspondence alwayscalled "Jack. " John Shirley's letters give a lively view of thesituation. 

"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, --"becausethere is an opportunity of sending you a few lines; and if you willpromise to excuse blots, interlineations, and grease (for this iswritten in the open air, upon the head of a pork-barrel, and twentypeople about me), I will begin another half-sheet. We are not more thanabout fifteen hundred men fit for duty; but that I am pretty sure, if wecan go in time in our sloop, schooner, row-galleys, and whaleboats, willbe sufficient to take Frontenac; after which we may venture to go uponthe attack of Niagara, but not before. I have not the least doubt withmyself of knocking down both these places yet this fall, if we can getaway 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 andNiagara, I shall think we have done great things. Nobody holds it outbetter than my father and myself. We shall all of us relish a good houseover our heads, being all encamped, except the General and some fewfield-officers, who have what are called at Oswego houses; but theywould in other countries be called only sheds, except the fort, where myfather is. Adieu, dear sir; I hope my next will be directed fromFrontenac. Yours most affectionately, John Shirley. "[322]

[Footnote 322: The young author of this letter was, like his brother, avictim of the war. 

"Permit me, good sir, to offer you my hearty condolence upon the deathof my friend Jack, whose worth I admired, and feel for him more than Ican express. .. . Few men of his age had so many friends. " _GovernorMorris to Shirley, 27 Nov. 1755_. 

"My heart bleeds for Mr. Shirley. He must be overwhelmed with Grief whenhe hears of Capt. John Shirley's Death, of which I have an Account bythe last Post from New York, where he died of a Flux and Fever that hehad contracted at Oswego. The loss of Two Sons in one Campaign scarcelyadmits of Consolation. I feel the Anguish of the unhappy Father, and mixmy Tears very heartily with his. I have had an intimate Acquaintancewith Both of Them for many Years, and know well their inestimableValue. " _Morris to Dinwiddie, 29 Nov. 1755_. ]

Fort Frontenac lay to the northward, fifty miles or more across thelake. Niagara lay to the westward, at the distance of four or five daysby boat or canoe along the south shore. At Frontenac there was a Frenchforce of fourteen hundred regulars and Canadians. [323] They had vesselsand canoes to cross the lake and fall upon Oswego as soon as Shirleyshould leave it to attack Niagara; for Braddock's captured papers hadrevealed to them the English plan. If they should take it, Shirley wouldbe cut off from his supplies and placed in desperate jeopardy, with theenemy in his rear. Hence it is that John Shirley insists on takingFrontenac before attempting Niagara. But the task was not easy; for theFrench force at the former place was about equal in effective strengthto that of the English at Oswego. At Niagara, too, the French had, atthe end of August, nearly twelve hundred Canadians and Indians from FortDuquesne and the upper lakes. [324] Shirley was but imperfectly informedby his scouts of the unexpected strength of the opposition that awaitedhim; but he knew enough to see that his position was a difficult one. His movement on Niagara was stopped, first by want of provisions, andsecondly because he was checkmated by the troops at Frontenac. He didnot despair. Want of courage was not among his failings, and he was buttoo ready to take risks. He called a council of officers, told them thatthe total number of men fit for duty was thirteen hundred andseventy-six, and that as soon as provisions enough should arrive hewould embark for Niagara with six hundred soldiers and as many Indiansas possible, leaving the rest to defend Oswego against the expectedattack from Fort Frontenac. [325]

[Footnote 323: _Bigot au Ministre, 27 Août, 1755_. ]

[Footnote 324: _Bigot au Ministre, 5 Sept. 1755_. ]

[Footnote 325: _Minutes of a Council of War at Oswego, 18 Sept. 1755_. ]

"All I am uneasy about is our provisions, " writes John Shirley to hisfriend Morris; "our men have been upon half allowance of bread thesethree weeks past, and no rum given to 'em. My father yesterday calledall the Indians together and made 'em a speech on the subject of GeneralJohnson's engagement, which he calculated to inspire them with a spiritof revenge. " After the speech he gave them a bullock for a feast, whichthey roasted and ate, pretending that they were eating the Governor ofCanada! Some provisions arriving, orders were given to embark on thenext day; but the officers murmured their dissent. The weather waspersistently bad, their vessels would not hold half the party, and thebateaux, made only for river navigation, would infallibly founder on thetreacherous and stormy lake. "All the field-officers, " says JohnShirley, "think it too rash an attempt; and I have heard so much of itthat I think it my duty to let my father know what I hear. " Anothercouncil was called; and the General, reluctantly convinced of thedanger, put the question whether to go or not. The situation admittedbut one reply. The council was of opinion that for the present theenterprise was impracticable; that Oswego should be strengthened, morevessels built, and preparation made to renew the attempt as soon asspring opened. [326] All thoughts of active operations were nowsuspended, and during what was left of the season the troops exchangedthe musket for the spade, saw, and axe. At the end of October, leavingseven hundred men at Oswego, Shirley returned to Albany, and narrowlyescaped drowning on the way, while passing a rapid in a whale-boat, totry the fitness of that species of craft for river navigation. [327]

[Footnote 326: _Minutes of a Council of War at Oswego, 27 Sept. _ 1755. ]

[Footnote 327: On the Niagara expedition, _Braddock's Instructions toMajor-General Shirley. Correspondence of Shirley_, 1755. _Conduct ofMajor-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 NorthAmerica. 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 madewhat he was, but who now turned against him, --a seeming ingratitude notwholly unprovoked. Shirley had diverted the New Jersey regiment, destined originally for Crown Point, to his own expedition againstNiagara. Naturally inclined to keep all the reins in his own hands, hehad encroached on Johnson's new office of Indian superintendent, heldconferences with the Five Nations, and employed agents of his own todeal with them. These agents were persons obnoxious to Johnson, beingallied with the clique of Dutch traders at Albany, who hated him becausehe had supplanted them in the direction of Indian affairs; and in aviolent letter to the Lords of Trade, he inveighs against their"licentious and abandoned proceedings, " "villanous conduct, " "scurrilousfalsehoods, " and "base and insolent behavior. "[328] "I am considerableenough, " he says, "to have enemies and to be envied;"[329] and hedeclares 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 Indiansfrom joining him;" while Shirley, on his side, retorts the samecomplaint against his accuser. [330] When, by the death of Braddock, Shirley became commander-in-chief, Johnson grew so restive at beingsubject to his instructions that he declined to hold the management ofIndian affairs unless it was made independent of his rival. The disputebecame mingled with the teapot-tempest of New York provincial politics. The Lieutenant-Governor, Delancey, a politician of restless ambition andconsummate dexterity, had taken umbrage at Shirley, of whose risinghonors, not borne with remarkable humility, he appears to have beenjealous. Delancey had hitherto favored the Dutch faction in theAssembly, hostile to Johnson; but he now changed attitude, and joinedhands with him against the object of their common dislike. The one wasstrong in the prestige of a loudly-trumpeted victory, and the other hadmeans of influence over the Ministry. Their coalition boded ill toShirley, and he soon felt its effects. [331]

[Footnote 328: _Johnson to the Lords of Trade, _ 3 Sept. 1755. ]

[Footnote 329: _Johnson to the Lords of Trade, 17 Jan_. 1756. ]

[Footnote 330: _John Shirley to Governor Morris, 12 Aug_. 1755. ]

[Footnote 331: On this affair, see various papers in _N. Y. Col. Docs_. , VI. , VII. Smith, _Hist. New York_, Part II. , Chaps. IV. V. _Review ofMilitary Operations in North America_. Both Smith and Livingston, theauthor of the _Review_, were personally cognizant of the course of thedispute. ]

The campaign was now closed, --a sufficiently active one, seeing that thetwo nations were nominally at peace. A disastrous rout on theMonongahela, failure at Niagara, a barren victory at Lake George, andthree forts captured in Acadia, were the disappointing results on thepart of England. Nor had her enemies cause to boast. The Indians, it istrue, had won a battle for them: but they had suffered mortifying defeatfrom a raw militia; their general was a prisoner; and they had lostAcadia past hope. 

The campaign was over; but not its effects. It remains to see whatbefell from the rout of Braddock and the unpardonable retreat of Dunbarfrom the frontier which it was his duty to defend. Dumas had replacedContrecoeur in the command of Fort Duquesne; and his first care was toset on the Western tribes to attack the border settlements. His successwas 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 NationIndians on the Ohio, also took up the hatchet, as did various remotertribes. The West rose like a nest of hornets, and swarmed in furyagainst the English frontier. Such was the consequence of the defeat ofBraddock aided by the skilful devices of the French commander. "It is bymeans such as I have mentioned, " says Dumas, "varied in every form tosuit the occasion, that I have succeeded in ruining the three adjacentprovinces, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, driving off theinhabitants, and totally destroying the settlements over a tract ofcountry thirty leagues wide, reckoning from the line of Fort Cumberland. M. De Contrecoeur had not been gone a week before I had six or sevendifferent war-parties in the field at once, always accompanied byFrenchmen. 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. Theenemy has lost far more since the battle than on the day of hisdefeat. "[332]

[Footnote 332: _Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1756. _]

Dumas, required by the orders of his superiors to wage a detestablewarfare against helpless settlers and their families, did what he couldto temper its horrors, and enjoined the officers who went with theIndians to spare no effort to prevent them from torturingprisoners. [333] The attempt should be set down to his honor; but it didnot avail much. In the record of cruelties committed this year on theborders, we find repeated instances of children scalped alive. "Theykill all they meet, " writes a French priest; "and after having abusedthe women and maidens, they slaughter or burn them. "[334]

[Footnote 333: _Mémoires de Famille de l'Abbé Casgrain_, cited in _LeFoyer Canadien, _ III. 26, where an extract is given from an order ofDumas to Baby, a Canadian officer. Orders of Contrecoeur and Ligneris tothe same effect are also given. A similar order, signed by Dumas, wasfound in the pocket of Douville, an officer killed by the English on theFrontier. _Writings of Washington_, II. 137, _note_. ]

[Footnote 334: _Rec. Claude Godefroy Cocquard, S. J. , à son Frère, Mars(?)_, 1757. ]

Washington was now in command of the Virginia regiment, consisting of athousand men, raised afterwards to fifteen hundred. With these he was toprotect a frontier of three hundred and fifty miles against morenumerous enemies, who could choose their time and place of attack. Hisheadquarters were at Winchester. His men were an ungovernable crew, enlisted chiefly on the turbulent border, and resenting every kind ofdiscipline as levelling them with negroes; while the sympathizing Houseof Burgesses hesitated for months to pass any law for enforcingobedience, lest it should trench on the liberties of free white men. Theservice was to the last degree unpopular. "If we talk of obliging men toserve their country, " wrote London Carter, "we are sure to hear a fellowmumble over the words 'liberty' and 'property' a thousand times. "[335]The people, too, were in mortal fear of a slave insurrection, andtherefore dared not go far from home. [336] Meanwhile a panic reignedalong 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 barbaritiesas are shocking to human nature. It is not possible to conceive thesituation and danger of this miserable country. Such numbers of Frenchand Indians are all around that no road is safe. "

[Footnote 335: Extract in _Writings of Washington_, II. 145, _note. _]

[Footnote 336: _Letters of Dinwiddie_, 1755. ]

These frontiers had always been at peace. No forts of refuge had thusfar been built, and the scattered settlers had no choice but flight. Their first impulse was to put wife and children beyond reach of thetomahawk. As autumn advanced, the invading bands grew more and moreaudacious. Braddock had opened a road for them by which they could crossthe mountains at their ease; and scouts from Fort Cumberland reportedthat this road was beaten by as many feet as when the English armypassed last summer. Washington was beset with difficulties. Men andofficers alike were unruly and mutinous. He was at once blamed for theirdisorders and refused the means of repressing them. Envious detractorspublished slanders against him. A petty Maryland captain, who had oncehad a commission from the King, refused to obey his orders, and stirredup factions among his officers. Dinwiddie gave him cold support. Thetemper of the old Scotchman, crabbed at the best, had been soured bydisappointment, vexation, weariness, and ill-health. He had, besides, afriend and countryman, Colonel Innes, whom, had he dared, he wouldgladly have put in Washington's place. He was full of zeal in the commoncause, and wanted to direct the defence of the borders from his house atWilliamsburg, two hundred miles distant. Washington never hesitated toobey; but he accompanied his obedience by a statement of his ownconvictions and his reasons for them, which, though couched in terms themost respectful, galled his irascible chief. The Governor acknowledgedhis merit; but bore him no love, and sometimes wrote to him in termswhich must have tried his high temper to the utmost. Sometimes, thoughrarely, he gave words to his emotion. 

"Your Honor, " he wrote in April, "may see to what unhappy straits thedistressed inhabitants and myself are reduced. I see inevitabledestruction in so clear a light, that unless vigorous measures are takenby the Assembly, and speedy assistance sent from below, the poorinhabitants that are now in forts must unavoidably fall, while theremainder are flying before the barbarous foe. In fine, the melancholysituation of the people; the little prospect of assistance; the grossand scandalous abuse cast upon the officers in general, which isreflecting upon me in particular for suffering misconduct of suchextraordinary kinds; and the distant prospect, if any, of gaining honorand reputation in the service, --cause me to lament the hour that gave mea commission, and would induce me at any other time than this ofimminent danger to resign, without one hesitating moment, a command fromwhich I never expect to reap either honor or benefit, but, on thecontrary, have almost an absolute certainty of incurring displeasurebelow, while the murder of helpless families may be laid to my accounthere. "

"The supplicating tears of the women and moving petitions of the menmelt me into such deadly sorrow, that I solemnly declare, if I know myown mind, I could offer myself a willing sacrifice to the butcheringenemy, provided that would contribute to the people's ease. "[337]

[Footnote 337: _Writings of Washington_, II. 143. ]

In the turmoil around him, patriotism and public duty seemed all to becentred in the breast of one heroic youth. He was respected andgenerally beloved, but he did not kindle enthusiasm. His were thequalities of an unflagging courage, an all-enduring fortitude, and adeep trust. He showed an astonishing maturing of character, and the kindof mastery over others which begins with mastery over self. Attwenty-four he was the foremost man, and acknowledged as such, along thewhole long line of the western border. 

To feel the situation, the nature of these frontiers must be kept inmind. Along the skirts of the southern and middle colonies ran for sixor seven hundred miles a loose, thin, dishevelled fringe of population, the half-barbarous pioneers of advancing civilization. Their rudedwellings were often miles apart. Buried in woods, the settler lived inan appalling loneliness. A low-browed cabin of logs, with moss stuffedin 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 inplace of windows; an unkempt matron, lean with hard work, and a brood ofchildren with bare heads and tattered garments eked out bydeer-skin, --such was the home of the pioneer in the remoter and wilderdistricts. The scene around bore witness to his labors. It was therepulsive transition from savagery to civilization, from the forest tothe 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 ofimprovement; while around, voiceless and grim, stood the living forest, gazing on the desolation, and biding its own day of doom. The owner ofthe cabin was miles away, hunting in the woods for the wild turkey andvenison which were the chief food of himself and his family till thesoil could be tamed into the bearing of crops. 

Towards night he returned; and as he issued from the forest shadows hesaw a column of blue smoke rising quietly in the still evening air. Heran to the spot; and there, among the smouldering logs of his dwelling, lay, scalped and mangled, the dead bodies of wife and children. Awar-party had passed that way. Breathless, palpitating, his brain onfire, he rushed through the thickening night to carry the alarm to hisnearest neighbor, three miles distant. 

Such was the character and the fate of many incipient settlements of theutmost border. Farther east, they had a different aspect. Here, smallfarms with well-built log-houses, cattle, crops of wheat and Indiancorn, were strung at intervals along some woody valley of the lowerAlleghanies: yesterday a scene of hardy toil; to-day swept withdestruction from end to end. There was no warning; no time for concert, perhaps none for flight. Sudden as the leaping panther, a pack of humanwolves burst out of the forest, did their work, and vanished. 

If the country had been an open one, like the plains beyond theMississippi, the situation would have been less frightful; but theforest was everywhere, rolled over hill and valley in billows ofinterminable green, --a leafy maze, a mystery of shade, a universalhiding-place, where murder might lurk unseen at its victim's side, andNature 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 sawand felt it. But there was a suffering that had no record, --the mortalfear of women and children in the solitude of their wilderness homes, haunted, waking and sleeping, with nightmares of horror that were butthe forecast of an imminent reality. The country had in past years beenso peaceful, and the Indians so friendly, that many of the settlers, especially on the Pennsylvanian border, had no arms, and were doubly inneed of help from the Government. In Virginia they had it, such as itwas. In Pennsylvania they had for months none whatever; and the Assemblyturned a deaf ear to their cries. 

Far to the east, sheltered from danger, lay staid and prosperousPhiladelphia, the home of order and thrift. It took its stamp from theQuakers, its original and dominant population, set apart from the othercolonists not only in character and creed, but in the outward symbols ofa peculiar dress and a daily sacrifice of grammar on the altar ofreligion. The even tenor of their lives counteracted the effects ofclimate, and they are said to have been perceptibly more rotund infeature and person than their neighbors. Yet, broad and humanizing aswas their faith, they were capable of extreme bitterness towardsopponents, clung tenaciously to power, and were jealous for theascendency of their sect, which had begun to show signs of wavering. Onother sects they looked askance; and regarded the Presbyterians inparticular with a dislike which in moments of crisis rose todetestation. [338] They held it sin to fight, and above all to fightagainst Indians. 

[Footnote 338: See a crowd of party pamphlets, Quaker againstPresbyterian, which appeared in Philadelphia in 1764, abusivelyacrimonious 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 moreviolent than ever; and this as a direct consequence of the publicdistress, which above all things demanded harmony. The dispute turnedthis time on a single issue, --that of the taxation of the proprietaryestates. The estates in question consisted of vast tracts of wild land, yielding no income, and at present to a great extent worthless, beingoverrun by the enemy. [339] The Quaker Assembly had refused to protectthem; and on one occasion had rejected an offer of the proprietaries tojoin them in paying the cost of their defence. [340] But though theywould not defend the land, they insisted on taxing it; and fartherinsisted that the taxes upon it should be laid by the provincialassessors. By a law of the province, these assessors were chosen bypopular vote; and in consenting to this law, the proprietaries hadexpressly provided that their estates should be exempted from all taxesto be laid by officials in whose appointment they had no voice. [341]Thomas and Richard Penn, the present proprietaries, had debarred theirdeputy, the Governor, both by the terms of his commission and by specialinstruction, from consenting to such taxation, and had laid him underheavy bonds to secure his obedience. Thus there was another side to thequestion than that of the Assembly; though our American writers havebeen slow to acknowledge it. 

[Footnote 339: The productive estates of the proprietaries were taxedthrough the tenants. ]

[Footnote 340: The proprietaries offered to contribute to the cost ofbuilding and maintaining a fort on the spot where the French soon afterbuilt Fort Duquesne. This plan, vigorously executed, would have savedthe province from a deluge of miseries. One of the reasons assigned bythe Assembly for rejecting it was that it would irritate the enemy. See_supra_, p. 63. ]

[Footnote 341: _A Brief View of the Conduct of Pennsylvania for the year1755_. ]

Benjamin Franklin was leader in the Assembly and shared its views. Thefeudal proprietorship of the Penn family was odious to his democraticnature. It was, in truth, a pestilent anomaly, repugnant to the geniusof the people; and the disposition and character of the presentproprietaries did not tend to render it less vexatious. Yet there wereconsiderations which might have tempered the impatient hatred with whichthe colonists regarded it. The first proprietary, William Penn, had usedhis feudal rights in the interest of a broad liberalism; and throughthem had established the popular institutions and universal tolerancewhich made Pennsylvania the most democratic province in America, andnursed the spirit of liberty which now revolted against his heirs. Theone absorbing passion of Pennsylvania was resistance of their deputy, the Governor. The badge of feudalism, though light, was insufferablyirritating; and the sons of William Penn were moreover detested by theQuakers as renegades from the faith of their father. Thus the immediatepolitical conflict engrossed mind and heart; and in the rancor of theirquarrel with the proprietaries, the Assembly forgot the French andIndians. 

In Philadelphia and the eastern districts the Quakers could ply theirtrades, tend their shops, till their farms, and discourse at their easeon the wickedness of war. The midland counties, too, were for the mostpart 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 politicallyindigestible. Translated from servitude to the most ample liberty, theyhated the thought of military service, which reminded them of formeroppression, cared little whether they lived under France or England, and, thinking themselves out of danger, had no mind to be taxed for thedefence of others. But while the great body of the Germans weresheltered from harm, those of them who lived farther westward were notso fortunate. Here, mixed with Scotch Irish Presbyterians and CelticIrish Catholics, they formed a rough border population, the discordantelements of which could rarely unite for common action; yet, thoughconfused and disjointed, they were a living rampart to the rest of thecolony. Against them raged the furies of Indian war; and, maddened withdistress 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 defendthemselves. The Quakers resisted. "They have taken uncommon pains, "writes Governor Morris to Shirley, "to prevent the people from taking uparms. "[342] Braddock's defeat, they declared, was a just judgment on himand his soldiers for molesting the French in their settlements on theOhio. [343] A bill was passed by the Assembly for raising fifty thousandpounds for the King's use by a tax which included the proprietary lands. The Governor, constrained by his instructions and his bonds, rejectedit. "I can only say, " he told them, "that I will readily pass a bill forstriking 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. TheAssembly, had they chosen, could easily have raised money enough bymethods not involving the point in dispute; but they thought they saw inthe crisis a means of forcing the Governor to yield. The Quakers had analternative motive: if the Governor gave way, it was a politicalvictory; if he stood fast, their non-resistance principles wouldtriumph, and in this triumph their ascendency as a sect would beconfirmed. The debate grew every day more bitter and unmannerly. TheGovernor could not yield; the Assembly would not. There was a completedeadlock. The Assembly requested the Governor "not to make himself thehateful instrument of reducing a free people to the abject state ofvassalage. "[344] As the raising of money and the control of itsexpenditure was in their hands; as he could not prorogue or dissolvethem, and as they could adjourn on their own motion to such time aspleased them; as they paid his support, and could withhold it if heoffended them, --which they did in the present case, --it seemed no easytask for him to reduce them to vassalage. "What must we do, " pursued theAssembly, "to please this kind governor, who takes so much pains torender 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 tothe causes he names, --which indeed have no existence, --but to his ownwant of skill and abilities for his station, he takes it extremelyamiss, and say 'we forget all decency to those in authority. ' We are aptto think there is likewise some decency due to the Assembly as a part ofthe government; and though we have not, like the Governor, had a courtlyeducation, but are plain men, and must be very imperfect in ourpoliteness, yet we think we have no chance of improving by hisexample. "[345] Again, in another Message, the Assembly, with a thrust atMorris himself, tell him that colonial governors have often been"transient persons, of broken fortunes, greedy of money, destitute ofall concern for those they govern, often their enemies, and endeavoringnot only to oppress, but to defame them. "[346] In such unseemly fashionwas the battle waged. Morris, who was himself a provincial, showed moretemper and dignity; though there was not too much on either side. "TheAssembly, " he wrote to Shirley, "seem determined to take advantage ofthe country's distress to get the whole power of government into theirown hands. " And the Assembly proclaimed on their part that the Governorwas taking advantage of the country's distress to reduce the province to"Egyptian bondage. "

[Footnote 342: _Morris to Shirley, 16 Aug. 1755_. ]

[Footnote 343: _Morris to Sir Thomas Robinson, 28 Aug. 1755. _]

[Footnote 344: _Colonial Records of Pa_. , VI. 584. ]

[Footnote 345: _Message of the Assembly to the Governor, 29 Sept. 1755_(written by Franklin), in _Colonial Records of Pa. _, VI. 631, 632. ]

[Footnote 346: _Writings of Franklin_, III. 447. The Assembly at firstsuppressed this paper, but afterwards printed it. ]

Petitions poured in from the miserable frontiersmen. "How long willthose in power, by their quarrels, suffer us to be massacred?" demandedWilliam Trent, the Indian trader. "Two and forty bodies have been buriedon Patterson's Creek; and since they have killed more, and keep onkilling. "[347] Early in October news came that a hundred persons hadbeen murdered near Fort Cumberland. Repeated tidings followed of murderson the Susquehanna; then it was announced that the war-parties hadcrossed that stream, and were at their work on the eastern side. Letterafter letter came from the sufferers, bringing such complaints as this:"We are in as bad circumstances as ever any poor Christians were everin; for the cries of widowers, widows, fatherless and motherlesschildren, are enough to pierce the most hardest of hearts. Likewise it'sa very sorrowful spectacle to see those that escaped with their liveswith not a mouthful to eat, or bed to lie on, or clothes to cover theirnakedness, or keep them warm, but all they had consumed into ashes. These deplorable circumstances cry aloud for your Honor's most wiseconsideration; for it is really very shocking for the husband to see thewife of his bosom her head cut off, and the children's blood drunk likewater, by these bloody and cruel savages. "[348]

[Footnote 347: _Trent to James Burd, 4 Oct. 1755_. ]

[Footnote 348: _Adam Hoops to Governor Morris, 3 Nov. 1755. _]

Morris was greatly troubled. "The conduct of the Assembly, " he wrote toShirley, "is to me shocking beyond parallel. " "The inhabitants areabandoning their plantations, and we are in a dreadful situation, " wroteJohn Harris from the east bank of the Susquehanna. On the next day hewrote again: "The Indians are cutting us off every day, and I had acertain account of about fifteen hundred Indians, besides French, beingon their march against us and Virginia, and now close on our borders, their scouts scalping our families on our frontiers daily. " The reportwas soon confirmed; and accounts came that the settlements in the valleycalled the Great Cove had been completely destroyed. All this was laidbefore the Assembly. They declared the accounts exaggerated, butconfessed that outrages had been committed; hinted that the fault waswith the proprietaries; and asked the Governor to explain why theDelawares and Shawanoes had become unfriendly. "If they have sufferedwrongs, " said the Quakers, "we are resolved to do all in our power toredress them, rather than entail upon ourselves and our posterity thecalamities of a cruel Indian war. " The Indian records were searched, andseveral days spent in unsuccessful efforts to prove fraud in a lateland-purchase. 

Post after post still brought news of slaughter. The upper part ofCumberland County was laid waste. Edward Biddle wrote from Reading: "Thedrum is beating and bells ringing, and all the people under arms. Thisnight we expect an attack. The people exclaim against the Quakers. " "Weseem to be given up into the hands of a merciless enemy, " wrote JohnElder from Paxton. And he declares that more than forty persons havebeen killed in that neighborhood, besides numbers carried off. Meanwhilethe Governor and Assembly went on fencing with words and exchanginglegal subtleties; while, with every cry of distress that rose from thewest, each hoped that the other would yield. 

On the eighth of November the Assembly laid before Morris for hisconcurrence a bill for emitting bills of credit to the amount of sixtythousand pounds, to be sunk in four years by a tax including theproprietary estates. [349] "I shall not, " he replied, "enter into adispute whether the proprietaries ought to be taxed or not. It issufficient for me that they have given me no power in that case; and Icannot think it consistent either with my duty or safety to exceed thepowers of my commission, much less to do what that commission expresslyprohibits. "[350] He stretched his authority, however, so far as topropose a sort of compromise by which the question should be referred tothe King; but they refused it; and the quarrel and the murders went onas before. "We have taken, " said the Assembly, "every step in our powerconsistent with the just rights of the freemen of Pennsylvania, for therelief of the poor distressed inhabitants; and we have reason to believethat they themselves would not wish us to go farther. Those who wouldgive up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserveneither liberty nor safety. "[351] Then the borderers deserved neither;for, rather than be butchered, they would have let the proprietary landslie untaxed for another year. "You have in all, " said the Governor, "proposed to me five money bills, three of them rejected becausecontrary to royal instructions; the other two on account of the unjustmethod proposed for taxing the proprietary estate. If you are disposedto relieve your country, you have many other ways of granting money towhich I shall have no objection. I shall put one proof more both of yoursincerity and mine in our professions of regard for the public, byoffering to agree to any bill in the present exigency which it isconsistent with my duty to pass; lest, before our present disputes canbe brought to an issue, we should neither have a privilege to disputeabout, nor a country to dispute in. "[352] They stood fast; and with anobstinacy for which the Quakers were chiefly answerable, insisted thatthey would give nothing, except by a bill taxing real estate, andincluding that of the proprietaries. 

[Footnote 349: _Colonial Records of Pa_. , VI. 682. ]

[Footnote 350: _Message of the Governor to the Assembly, 8 Nov. 1755_, in _Colonial Records of Pa. _, VI. 684. ]

[Footnote 351: _Message of the Assembly to the Governor, 11 Nov. Ibid. _VI. 692. The words are Franklin's. ]

[Footnote 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 chiefcitizens, was sent to the House, calling for measures of defence. "Youwill forgive us, gentlemen, " such was its language, "if we assumecharacters somewhat higher than that of humble suitors praying for thedefence of our lives and properties as a matter of grace or favor onyour side. You will permit us to make a positive and immediate demand ofit. "[353] This drove the Quakers mad. Preachers, male and female, harangued in the streets, denouncing the iniquity of war. Three of thesect from England, two women and a man, invited their brethren of theAssembly to a private house, and fervently exhorted them to stand firm. Some of the principal Quakers joined in an address to the House, inwhich they declared that any action on its part "inconsistent with thepeaceable testimony we profess and have borne to the world appears to usin its consequences to be destructive of our religious liberties. "[354]And they protested that they would rather "suffer" than pay taxes forsuch ends. Consistency, even in folly, has in it something respectable;but the Quakers were not consistent. A few years after, when heatedwith party-passion and excited by reports of an irruption of incensedPresbyterian borderers, some of the pacific sectaries armed for battle;and the streets of Philadelphia beheld the curious conjunction of musketand broad-brimmed hat. [355]

[Footnote 353: _Pennsylvania Archives_, II. 485. ]

[Footnote 354: _Ibid_. , II. 487. ]

[Footnote 355: See _Conspiracy of Pontiac_, Chaps. 24 and 25. ]

The mayor, aldermen, and common council next addressed the Assembly, adjuring them, "in the most solemn manner, before God and in the name ofall our fellow-citizens, " to provide for defending the lives andproperty of the people. [356] A deputation from a band of Indians on theSusquehanna, still friendly to the province, came to ask whether theEnglish meant to fight or not; for, said their speaker, "if they willnot stand by us, we will join the French. " News came that the settlementof Tulpehocken, only sixty miles distant, had been destroyed; and thenthat the Moravian settlement of Gnadenhütten was burned, and nearly allits inmates massacred. Colonel William Moore wrote to the Governor thattwo thousand men were coming from Chester County to compel him and theAssembly to defend the province; and Conrad Weiser wrote that more werecoming from Berks on the same errand. Old friends of the Assembly beganto cry out against them. Even the Germans, hitherto their fast allies, were roused from their attitude of passivity, and four hundred of themcame in procession to demand measures of war. A band of frontiersmenpresently arrived, bringing in a wagon the bodies of friends andrelatives lately murdered, displaying them at the doors of the Assembly, cursing the Quakers, and threatening vengeance. [357]

[Footnote 356: _A Remonstrance_, etc. , in _Colonial Records of Pa. _, VI. 734. ]

[Footnote 357: Mante, 47; Entick, I. 377. ]

Finding some concession necessary, the House at length passed a militialaw, --probably the most futile ever enacted. It specially exempted theQuakers, and constrained nobody; but declared it lawful, for such aschose, to form themselves into companies and elect officers by ballot. The company officers thus elected might, if they saw fit, elect, alsoby ballot, colonels, lieutenant-colonels, and majors. These last mightthen, 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]

[Footnote 358: This remarkable bill, drawn by Franklin, was meant forpolitical rather than military effect. It was thought that Morris wouldrefuse to pass it, and could therefore be accused of preventing theprovince from defending itself; but he avoided the snare by signing it. ]

This mockery could not appease the people; the Assembly must raise moneyfor men, arms, forts, and all the detested appliances of war. Defeatabsolute and ignominious seemed hanging over the House, when an incidentoccurred which gave them a decent pretext for retreat. The Governorinformed them that he had just received a letter from the proprietaries, giving to the province five thousand pounds sterling to aid in itsdefence, 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 theAssembly. They had not learned the deplorable state of the country, andhad sent the money in view of the defeat of Braddock and its probableconsequences. The Assembly hereupon yielded, struck out from the billbefore them the clause taxing the proprietary estates, and, thusamended, presented it to the Governor, who by his signature made it alaw. [359]

[Footnote 359: _Minutes of Council, 27 Nov. 1755_. ]

The House had failed to carry its point. The result disappointedFranklin, and doubly disappointed the Quakers. His maxim was: Beat theGovernor first, and then beat the enemy; theirs: Beat the Governor, andlet the enemy alone. The measures that followed, directed in part byFranklin himself, held the Indians in check, and mitigated the distressof the western counties; yet there was no safety for them throughout thetwo or three years when France was cheering on her hell-hounds againstthis tormented frontier. 

As in Pennsylvania, so in most of the other colonies there was conflictbetween assemblies and governors, to the unspeakable detriment of thepublic service. In New York, though here no obnoxious proprietary stoodbetween the people and the Crown, the strife was long and severe. Thepoint at issue was an important one, --whether the Assembly shouldcontinue their practice of granting yearly supplies to the Governor, orshould establish a permanent fund for the ordinary expenses ofgovernment, --thus placing him beyond their control. The result was avictory for the Assembly. 

Month after month the great continent lay wrapped in snow. Far along theedge of the western wilderness men kept watch and ward in lonelyblockhouses, or scoured the forest on the track of prowling war-parties. The provincials in garrison at forts Edward, William Henry, and Oswegodragged out the dreary winter; while bands of New England rangers, muffled against the piercing cold, caps of fur on their heads, hatchetsin their belts, and guns in the mittened hands, glided on skates alongthe gleaming ice-floor of Lake George, to spy out the secrets ofTiconderoga, or seize some careless sentry to tell them tidings of thefoe. 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]

[Footnote 360: On Pennsylvanian disputes, --_A Brief State of theProvince of Pennsylvania_ (London, 1755). _A Brief View of the Conductof Pennsylvania_ (London, 1756). These are pamphlets on the Governor'sside, 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 Provinceof Pennsylvania_ (Philadelphia, 1759). Anonymous. The last two worksattack the first two with great vehemence. _The True and ImpartialState_ is an able presentation of the case of the Assembly, omitting, however, essential facts. But the most elaborate work on the subject isthe _Historical Review of the Constitution and Government ofPennsylvania_, inspired and partly written by Franklin. It is hotlypartisan, and sometimes sophistical and unfair. Articles on the quarrelwill also be found in the provincial newspapers, especially the _NewYork Mercury, _ and in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1755 and 1756. Butit is impossible to get any clear and just view of it without wadingthrough the interminable documents concerning it in the _ColonialRecords of Pennsylvania_ and the _Pennsylvania Archives_. ]

Chapter 11

1712-1756

Montcalm

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, turnedloose her ships to prey on French commerce, and brought some threehundred prizes into her ports. It was the act of a weak Government, supplying by spasms of violence what it lacked in considerateresolution. France, no match for her amphibious enemy in the game ofmarine depredation, cried out in horror; and to emphasize her complaintsand signalize a pretended good faith which her acts had belied, ostentatiously released a British frigate captured by her cruisers. Shein her turn declared war on the ninth of June: and now began the mostterrible conflict of the eighteenth century; one that convulsed Europeand shook America, India, the coasts of Africa, and the islands of thesea. 

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 andalliances, offensive or defensive, open or secret, --that a blow at onepoint shook the whole fabric. Hanover, like the heel of Achilles, wasthe vulnerable part for which England was always trembling. Thereforeshe made a defensive treaty with Prussia, by which each party bounditself to aid the other, should its territory be invaded. England thussought a guaranty against France, and Prussia against Russia. She hadneed. Her King, Frederic the Great, had drawn upon himself an avalanche. Three women--two empresses and a concubine--controlled the forces of thethree great nations, Austria, Russia, and France; and they all hatedhim: Elizabeth of Russia, by reason of a distrust fomented by secretintrigue 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 inhim a rebellious vassal of the Holy Roman Empire, and, above all, because he had robbed her of Silesia; Madame de Pompadour, because whenshe sent him a message of compliment, he answered, "_Je ne la connaispas_, " forbade his ambassador to visit her, and in his mocking witspared neither her nor her royal lover. Feminine pique, revenge, orvanity had then at their service the mightiest armaments of Europe. 

The recovery of Silesia and the punishment of Frederic for his audacityin seizing it, possessed the mind of Maria Theresa with the force of aruling passion. To these ends she had joined herself in secret leaguewith Russia; and now at the prompting of her minister Kaunitz shecourted the alliance of France. It was a reversal of the hereditarypolicy of Austria; joining hands with an old and deadly foe, andspurning England, of late her most trusty ally. But France could givepowerful aid against Frederic; and hence Maria Theresa, virtuous as shewas high-born and proud, stooped to make advances to the all-powerfulmistress of Louis XV. , wrote her flattering letters, and addressed her, it is said, as "_Ma chère cousine_. " Pompadour was delighted, and couldhardly do enough for her imperial friend. She ruled the King, and couldmake and unmake ministers at will. They hastened to do her pleasure, disguising their subserviency by dressing it out in specious reasons ofstate. A conference at her summer-house, called Babiole, "Bawble, "prepared the way for a treaty which involved the nation in theanti-Prussian war, and made it the instrument of Austria in the attemptto humble Frederic, --an attempt which if successful would give thehereditary enemy of France a predominance over Germany. France engagedto aid the cause with twenty-four thousand men; but in the zeal of herrulers began with a hundred thousand. Thus the three great Powers stoodleagued against Prussia. Sweden and Saxony joined them; and the Empireitself, of which Prussia was a part, took arms against its obnoxiousmember. 

Never in Europe had power been more centralized, and never in France hadthe reins been held by persons so pitiful, impelled by motives socontemptible. The levity, vanity, and spite of a concubine became amighty 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 attimes by a lively fear of damnation. But how damn a king who had enteredthe lists as champion of the Church? England was Protestant, and so wasPrussia; Austria was supremely Catholic. Was it not a merit in the eyesof God to join her in holy war against the powers of heresy? The King ofthe 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 tohold in her eyes a second place. The reasons were several: the vanity ofPompadour, infatuated by the advances of the Empress-Queen, and eager tosecure her good graces; the superstition of the King; the anger of bothagainst Frederic; the desire of D'Argenson, minister of war, that thearmy, and not the navy, should play the foremost part; and the passionof courtiers and nobles, ignorant of the naval service, to win laurelsin a continental war, --all conspired to one end. It was the interest ofFrance to turn her strength against her only dangerous rival; tocontinue as she had begun, in building up a naval power that could faceEngland 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 thegrowth of her children, had she not been at the mercy of an effeminateprofligate, a mistress turned procuress, and the favorites to whom theydelegated power. 

Still, something must be done for the American war; at least there mustbe a new general to replace Dieskau. None of the Court favorites wanteda command in the backwoods, and the minister of war was free to choosewhom he would. His choice fell on Louis Joseph, Marquis deMontcalm-Gozon de Saint-Véran. 

Montcalm was born in the south of France, at the Château of Candiac, near Nimes, on the twenty-ninth of February, 1712. At the age of six hewas placed in the charge of one Dumas, a natural son of his grandfather. This man, a conscientious pedant, with many theories of education, ruledhis pupil stiffly; and, before the age of fifteen, gave him a goodknowledge of Latin, Greek, and history. Young Montcalm had a taste forbooks, continued his reading in such intervals of leisure as camps andgarrisons afforded, and cherished to the end of his life the ambition ofbecoming a member of the Academy. Yet, with all his liking for study, hesometimes revolted against the sway of the pedagogue who wrote lettersof complaint to his father protesting against the "judgments of thevulgar, who, contrary to the experience of ages, say that if childrenare well reproved they will correct their faults. " Dumas, however, wasnot 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 speakFrench well. " The main difficulty was to make him write a good hand, --apoint in which he signally failed to the day of his death. So refractorywas he at times, that his master despaired. "M. De Montcalm, " Dumasinforms the father, "has great need of docility, industry, andwillingness to take advice. What will become of him?" The pupil, awareof these aspersions, met them by writing to his father his own ideas ofwhat his aims should be. "First, to be an honorable man, of goodmorals, brave, and a Christian. Secondly, to read in moderation; to knowas much Greek and Latin as most men of the world; also the four rules ofarithmetic, 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 toyour orders and those of my dear mother; and also to defer to the adviceof M. Dumas. Fourthly, to fence and ride as well as my small abilitieswill permit. "[361]

[Footnote 361: This passage is given by Somervogel from the originalletter. ]

If Louis de Montcalm failed to satisfy his preceptor, he had a brotherwho made ample amends. Of this infant prodigy it is related that at sixyears he knew Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and had some acquaintance witharithmetic, French history, geography, and heraldry. He was destined forthe Church, but died at the age of seven; his precocious brain havingbeen 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. Twoyears after, his father bought him a captaincy, and he was first underfire at the siege of Philipsbourg. His father died in 1735, and left himheir to a considerable landed estate, much embarrassed by debt. TheMarquis de la Fare, a friend of the family, soon after sought for him anadvantageous marriage to strengthen his position and increase hisprospects of promotion; and he accordingly espoused MademoiselleAngélique Louise Talon du Boulay, --a union which brought him influentialalliances and some property. Madame de Montcalm bore him ten children, of whom only two sons and four daughters were living in 1752. "May Godpreserve them all, " he writes in his autobiography, "and make themprosper for this world and the next! Perhaps it will be thought that thenumber is large for so moderate a fortune, especially as four of themare 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 andKing. 

His family seat was Candiac; where, in the intervals of campaigning, hefound repose with his wife, his children, and his mother, who was awoman of remarkable force of character and who held great influence overher son. He had a strong attachment to this home of his childhood; andin after years, out of the midst of the American wilderness, histhoughts turned longingly towards it. "_Quand reverrai-je mon cherCandiac_!"

In 1741 Montcalm took part in the Bohemian campaign. He was made colonelof the regiment of Auxerrois two years later, and passed unharmedthrough the severe campaign of 1744. In the next year he fought in Italyunder Maréchal de Maillebois. In 1746, at the disastrous action underthe walls of Piacenza, where he twice rallied his regiment, he receivedfive 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 tothe rank of brigadier; and being soon after exchanged, rejoined thearmy, and was again wounded by a musket-shot. The peace ofAix-la-Chapelle now gave him a period of rest. [362] At length, being ona 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 inAmerica. He heard no more of the matter till, after his return home, hereceived from D'Argenson a letter dated at Versailles the twenty-fifthof January, at midnight. "Perhaps, Monsieur, " it began, "you did notexpect to hear from me again on the subject of the conversation I hadwith you the day you came to bid me farewell at Paris. Nevertheless Ihave not forgotten for a moment the suggestion I then made you; and itis with the greatest pleasure that I announce to you that my views haveprevailed. The King has chosen you to command his troops in NorthAmerica, and will honor you on your departure with the rank ofmajor-general. "

[Footnote 362: The account of Montcalm up to this time is chiefly fromhis unpublished autobiography, preserved by his descendants, andentitled _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 deMontcalm; Mémoires sur le Canada_, 1749-1760, and other writings inprint and manuscript have also been consulted. ]

The Chevalier de Lévis, afterwards Marshal of France, was named as hissecond in command, with the rank of brigadier, and the Chevalier deBourlamaque as his third, with the rank of colonel; but what especiallypleased him was the appointment of his eldest son to command a regimentin France. He set out from Candiac for the Court, and occupied himselfon the way with reading Charlevoix. "I take great pleasure in it, " hewrites 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 hewrites again: "Don't expect any long letter from me before the first ofMarch; all my business will be done by that time, and I shall begin tobreathe again. I have not yet seen the Chevalier de Montcalm [_hisson_]. 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 meabove a thousand crowns more; but I cannot stop for that. I embrace mydearest and all the family. " A few days later his son joined him. "He isas thin and delicate as ever, but grows prodigiously tall. "

On the second of March he informs his mother, "My affairs begin to geton. A good part of the baggage went off the day before yesterday in theKing's wagons; an assistant-cook and two liverymen yesterday. I have gota good cook. Estève, my secretary, will go on the eighth; Joseph andDéjean will follow me. To-morrow evening I go to Versailles till Sunday, and will write from there to Madame de Montcalm [_his wife_]. I havethree aides-de-camp; one of them, Bougainville, a man of parts, pleasantcompany. Madame Mazade was happily delivered on Wednesday; in extremityon Friday with a malignant fever; Saturday and yesterday, reportsfavorable. I go there twice a day, and am just going now. She has agirl. I embrace you all. " Again, on the fifteenth: "In a few hours I setout for Brest. Yesterday I presented my son, with whom I am wellpleased, to all the royal family. I shall have a secretary at Brest, andwill write more at length. " On the eighteenth he writes from Rennes tohis wife: "I arrived, dearest, this morning, and stay here all day. Ishall be at Brest on the twenty-first. Everything will be on board onthe twenty-sixth. My son has been here since yesterday for me to coachhim and get him a uniform made, in which he will give thanks for hisregiment 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 mebefore I sail. "

Reaching Brest, the place of embarkation, he writes to his mother: "Ihave business on hand still. My health is good, and the passage will bea time of rest. I embrace you, and my dearest, and my daughters. Love toall the family. I shall write up to the last moment. "

No translation can give an idea of the rapid, abrupt, elliptical styleof this familiar correspondence, where the meaning is sometimessuggested by a single word, unintelligible to any but those for whom itis written. 

At the end of March Montcalm, with all his following, was ready toembark; 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 inthe frigates "Licorne, " "Sauvage, " and "Sirène. " "I like the Chevalierde Lévis, " says Montcalm, "and I think he likes me. " His firstaide-de-camp, Bougainville, pleased him, if possible, still more. Thisyoung man, son of a notary, had begun life as an advocate in theParliament of Paris, where his abilities and learning had already madehim conspicuous, when he resigned the gown for the sword, and became acaptain of dragoons. He was destined in later life to win laurels inanother career, and to become one of the most illustrious of Frenchnavigators. Montcalm, himself a scholar, prized his varied talents andaccomplishments, and soon learned to feel for him a strong personalregard. 

The troops destined for Canada were only two battalions, one belongingto 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 battlesof Austria, and could spare but twelve hundred to reinforce New France. These troops marched into Brest at early morning, breakfasted in thetown, and went at once on board the transports, "with an incrediblegayety, " says Bougainville. "What a nation is ours! Happy he whocommands it, and commands it worthily!"[363] Montcalm and he embarked inthe "Licorne, " and sailed on the third of April, leaving Lévis andBourlamaque to follow a few days after. [364]

[Footnote 363: _Journal de Bougainville_. This is a fragment; hisJournal proper begins a few weeks later. ]

[Footnote 364: _Lévis à----, 5 Avril_, 1756. ]

The voyage was a rough one. "I have been fortunate, " writes Montcalm tohis wife, "in not being ill nor at all incommoded by the heavy gale wehad in Holy Week. It was not so with those who were with me, especiallyM. Estève, my secretary, and Joseph, who suffered cruelly, --seventeendays without being able to take anything but water. The season was veryearly for such a hard voyage, and it was fortunate that the winter hasbeen so mild. We had very favorable weather till Monday the twelfth; butsince then till Saturday evening we had rough weather, with a gale thatlasted ninety hours, and put us in real danger. The forecastle wasalways 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 wehad fogs, great cold, and an amazing quantity of icebergs. On thethirtieth, when luckily the fog lifted for a time, we counted sixteen ofthem. The day before, one drifted under the bowsprit, grazed it, andmight have crushed us if the deck-officer had not called out quickly, _Luff_. After speaking of our troubles and sufferings, I must tell youof our pleasures, which were fishing for cod and eating it. The taste isexquisite. The head, tongue, and liver are morsels worthy of an epicure. Still, I would not advise anybody to make the voyage for their sake. Myhealth is as good as it has been for a long time. I found it a good planto eat little and take no supper; a little tea now and then, and plentyof 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 myvoyages there. I don't know when this letter will go. I shall send it bythe first ship that returns to France, and keep on writing till then. Itis pleasant, I know, to hear particulars about the people one loves, andI thought that my mother and you, my dearest and most beloved, would beglad to read all these dull details. We heard Mass on Easter Day. Allthe week before, it was impossible, because the ship rolled so that Icould hardly keep my legs. If I had dared, I think I should have hadmyself 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 icefrom proceeding farther. Montcalm made his way to the town by land, andsoon after learned with great satisfaction that the other ships weresafe in the river below. "I see, " he writes again, "that I shall haveplenty of work. Our campaign will soon begin. Everything is in motion. Don't expect details about our operations; generals never speak ofmovements till they are over. I can only tell you that the winter hasbeen quiet enough, though the savages have made great havoc inPennsylvania and Virginia, and carried off, according to their custom, men, women, and children. I beg you will have High Mass said atMontpellier or Vauvert to thank God for our safe arrival and ask forgood success in future. "[365]

[Footnote 365: These extracts are translated from copies of the originalletters, in possession of the present Marquis de Montcalm. ]

Vaudreuil, the governor-general, was at Montreal, and Montcalm sent acourier 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 welcometo Vaudreuil, who had hoped to command the troops himself, and hadrepresented to the Court that it was needless and inexpedient to sendout a general officer from France. [366] The Court had not accepted hisviews;[367] and hence it was with more curiosity than satisfaction thathe greeted the colleague who had been assigned him. He saw before him aman of small stature, with a lively countenance, a keen eye, and, inmoments of animation, rapid, vehement utterance, and nervousgesticulation. Montcalm, we may suppose, regarded the Governor with noless attention. Pierre François Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil, who hadgoverned Canada early in the century; and he himself had been governorof Louisiana. He had not the force of character which his positiondemanded, lacked decision in times of crisis; and though tenacious ofauthority, was more jealous in asserting than self-reliant in exercisingit. One of his traits was a sensitive egotism, which made him forward toproclaim his own part in every success, and to throw on others theburden of every failure. He was facile by nature, and capable of beingled by such as had skill and temper for the task. But the impetuousMontcalm was not of their number; and the fact that he was born inFrance would in itself have thrown obstacles in his way to the goodgraces of the Governor. Vaudreuil, Canadian by birth, loved the colonyand its people, and distrusted Old France and all that came out of it. He had been bred, moreover, to the naval service; and, like otherCanadian governors, his official correspondence was with the minister ofmarine, while that of Montcalm was with the minister of war. Even hadNature made him less suspicious, his relations with the General wouldhave been critical. Montcalm commanded the regulars from France, whosevery presence was in the eyes of Vaudreuil an evil, though a necessaryone. Their chief was, it is true, subordinate to him in virtue of hisoffice of governor;[368] yet it was clear that for the conduct of thewar the trust of the Government was mainly in Montcalm; and the Ministerof War had even suggested that he should have the immediate command, notonly of the troops from France, but of the colony regulars and themilitia. An order of the King to this effect was sent to Vaudreuil, withinstructions to communicate it to Montcalm or withhold it, as he shouldthink best. [369] He lost no time in replying that the General "ought toconcern himself with nothing but the command of the troops from France;"and he returned the order to the minister who sent it. [370] The Governorand the General represented the two parties which were soon to divideCanada, --those of New France and of Old. 

[Footnote 366: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 30 Oct. 1755. _]

[Footnote 367: _Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, Fév. 1756. _]

[Footnote 368: _Le Ministre à Vaudreuil, 15 Mars, 1756. Commission duMarquis de Montcalm. Mémoire du Roy pour servir d'Instruction au Marquisde Montcalm_. ]

[Footnote 369: _Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, 1756. LeMinistre à Vaudreuil, 15 Mars, 1756_. ]

[Footnote 370: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 16 Juin, 1756_. "Qu'il ne se mêleque 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 thathad come over with Dieskau and the two that had come with Montcalm, comprising in all a little less than three thousand men. [371] Besidesthese, the battalions of Artois and Bourgogne, to the number of elevenhundred men, were in garrison at Louisbourg. All these troops wore awhite uniform, faced with blue, red, yellow, or violet, [372] a blackthree-cornered hat, and gaiters, generally black, from the foot to theknee. The subaltern officers in the French service were very numerous, and were drawn chiefly from the class of lesser nobles. A well-informedFrench writer calls them "a generation of _petits-maîtres, _ dissolute, frivolous, heedless, light-witted; but brave always, and ready to diewith their soldiers, though not to suffer with them. "[373] In fact thecourse of the war was to show plainly that in Europe the regiments ofFrance were no longer what they had once been. It was not so with thosewho fought in America. Here, for enduring gallantry, officers and menalike deserve nothing but praise. 

[Footnote 371: Of about twelve hundred who came with Montcalm, nearlythree hundred were now in hospital. The four battalions that came withDieskau are reported at the end of May to have sixteen hundred andfifty-three effective men. _État de la Situation actuelle desBataillons, _ appended to Montcalm's despatch of 12 June. Anotherdocument, _Dêtail de ce qui s'est passé en Canada, Juin, 1755, jusqu'àJuin_, 1756, sets the united effective strength of the battalions inCanada at twenty-six hundred and seventy-seven, which was increased byrecruits which arrived from France about midsummer. ]

[Footnote 372: Except perhaps, the battalion of Béarn, which formerlywore, and possibly wore still, a uniform of light blue. ]

[Footnote 373: Susane, _Ancienne Infanterie Française_. In the atlas ofthis work are colored plates of the uniforms of all the regiments offoot. ]

The _troupes de la marine_ had for a long time formed the permanentmilitary establishment of Canada. Though attached to the navaldepartment, they served on land, and were employed as a police withinthe limits of the colony, or as garrisons of the outlying forts, wheretheir officers busied themselves more with fur-trading than with theirmilitary duties. Thus they had become ill-disciplined and inefficient, till the hard hand of Duquesne restored them to order. They originallyconsisted of twenty-eight independent companies, increased in 1750 tothirty companies, at first of fifty, and afterwards of sixty-five meneach, forming a total of nineteen hundred and fifty rank and file. InMarch, 1757, ten more companies were added. Their uniform was not unlikethat of the troops attached to the War Department, being white, withblack facings. They were enlisted for the most part in France; but whentheir term of service expired, and even before, in time of peace, theywere encouraged to become settlers in the colony, as was also the casewith their officers, of whom a great part were of European birth. Thusthe relations of the _troupes de la marine_ with the colony were close;and formed a sort of connecting link between the troops of the line andthe native militia. [374] Besides these colony regulars, there was acompany of colonial artillery, consisting this year of seventy men, andreplaced in 1757 by two companies of fifty men each. 

[Footnote 374: On the _troupes de la marine, --Mémoire pour servird'Instruction a MM. Jonquière et Bigot, 30 Avril, 1749. Ordres du Roy etDépêches des Ministres, 1750. Ibid. , 1755. Ibid. , 1757. Instructionpour Vaudreuil, 22 Mars, 1755. Ordonnance pour l'Augmentation deSoldats dans les Compagnies de Canada, 14 Mars, 1755. Duquesne auMinistre, 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 tosixty, was enrolled in the militia, and called into service at the willof the Governor. They received arms, clothing, equipment, and rationsfrom the King, but no pay; and instead of tents they made themselveshuts of bark or branches. The best of them were drawn from the upperparts of the colony, where habits of bushranging were still in fullactivity. Their fighting qualities were much like those of the Indians, whom they rivalled in endurance and in the arts of forest war. Asbush-fighters they had few equals; they fought well behind earthworks, and were good at a surprise or sudden dash; but for regular battle onthe open field they were of small account, being disorderly, and apt tobreak and take to cover at the moment of crisis. They had no idea of thegreat operations of war. At first they despised the regulars for theirignorance of woodcraft, and thought themselves able to defend the colonyalone; while the regulars regarded them in turn with a contempt no lessunjust. They were excessively given to gasconade, and every trueCanadian boasted himself a match for three Englishmen at least. In 1750the militia of all ranks counted about thirteen thousand; and eightyears later the number had increased to about fifteen thousand. [375]Until the last two years of the war, those employed in actual warfarewere but few. Even in the critical year 1758 only about eleven hundredwere called to arms, except for two or three weeks in summer;[376]though about four thousand were employed in transporting troops andsupplies, for which service they received pay. 

[Footnote 375: _Récapitulation des Milices du Gouvernement de Canada_, 1750. _Dénombrement des Milices_, 1758, 1759. On the militia, see alsoBougainville in Margry, _Rélations et Mémoires inédits_, 60, and _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, X. 680. ]

[Footnote 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 nearthe settled limits of Canada, chiefly the Hurons of Lorette, theAbenakis of St. Francis and Batiscan, the Iroquois of Caughnawaga and LaPrésentation, and the Iroquois and Algonkins at the Two Mountains on theOttawa. Besides these, all the warriors of the west and north, from LakeSuperior to the Ohio, and from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, werenow at the beck of France. As to the Iroquois or Five Nations who stillremained in their ancient seats within the present limits of New York, their power and pride had greatly fallen; and crowded as they werebetween 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 freshfrom their toilet, at which they pass their lives. You would not believeit, but the men always carry to war, along with their tomahawk and gun, a mirror to daub their faces with various colors, and arrange featherson their heads and rings in their ears and noses. They think it a greatbeauty to cut the rim of the ear and stretch it till it reaches theshoulder. Often they wear a laced coat, with no shirt at all. You wouldtake them for so many masqueraders or devils. One needs the patience ofan angel to get on with them. Ever since I have been here, I have hadnothing but visits, harangues, and deputations of these gentry. TheIroquois ladies, who always take part in their government, came also, and did me the honor to bring me belts of wampum, which will oblige meto go to their village and sing the war-song. They are only a little wayoff. Yesterday we had eighty-three warriors here, who have gone out tofight. They make war with astounding cruelty, sparing neither men, women, nor children, and take off your scalp very neatly, --an operationwhich generally kills you. "

"Everything is horribly dear in this country; and I shall find it hardto make the two ends of the year meet, with the twenty-five thousandfrancs the King gives me. The Chevalier de Lévis did not join me tillyesterday. His health is excellent. In a few days I shall send him toone 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. DeDieskau had his affair last year; another at Frontenac, sixty leagues;and the third at Niagara, a hundred and forty leagues. I don't know whenor whither I shall go myself; that depends on the movements of theenemy. It seems to me that things move slowly in this new world; and Ishall have to moderate my activity accordingly. Nothing but the King'sservice and the wish to make a career for my son could prevent me fromthinking too much of my expatriation, my distance from you, and the dullexistence here, which would be duller still if I did not manage to keepsome little of my natural gayety. "

The military situation was somewhat perplexing. Iroquois spies hadbrought reports of great preparations on the part of the English. Asneither party dared offend these wavering tribes, their warriors couldpass with impunity from one to the other, and were paid by each forbringing information, not always trustworthy. They declared that theEnglish were gathering in force to renew the attempt made by Johnson theyear before against Crown Point and Ticonderoga, as well as that made byShirley against forts Frontenac and Niagara. Vaudreuil had spared noeffort to meet the double danger. Lotbinière, a Canadian engineer, hadbeen busied during the winter in fortifying Ticonderoga, while Pouchot, a captain in the battalion of Béarn, had rebuilt Niagara, and two Frenchengineers were at work in strengthening the defences of Frontenac. TheGovernor even hoped to take the offensive, anticipate the movements ofthe English, capture Oswego, and obtain the complete command of LakeOntario. Early in the spring a blow had been struck which materiallyaided these schemes. 

The English had built two small forts to guard the Great Carrying Placeon the route to Oswego. One of these, Fort Williams, was on the Mohawk;the other, Fort Bull, a mere collection of storehouses surrounded by apalisade, was four miles distant, on the bank of Wood Creek. Here agreat quantity of stores and ammunition had imprudently been collectedagainst the opening campaign. In February Vaudreuil sent Léry, a colonyofficer, with three hundred and sixty-two picked men, soldiers, Canadians, and Indians, to seize these two posts. Towards the end ofMarch, after extreme hardship, they reached the road that connectedthem, and at half-past five in the morning captured twelve men goingwith wagons to Fort Bull. Learning from them the weakness of that place, they dashed forward to surprise it. The thirty provincials of Shirley'sregiment who formed the garrison had barely time to shut the gate, whilethe assailants fired on them through the loopholes, of which they gotpossession in the tumult. Léry called on the defenders to yield; butthey refused, and pelted the French for an hour with bullets andhand-grenades. The gate was at last beat down with axes, and they weresummoned again; but again refused, and fired hotly through the opening. The French rushed in, shouting _Vive le roi_, and a frightful strugglefollowed. All the garrison were killed, except two or three who hidthemselves till the slaughter was over; the fort was set on fire andblown to atoms by the explosion of the magazines; and Léry thenwithdrew, not venturing to attack Fort Williams. Johnson, warned byIndians of the approach of the French, had pushed up the Mohawk withreinforcements; but came too late. [377]

[Footnote 377: _Bigot au Ministre, 12 Avril, 1756. Vaudreuil auMinistre, 1 Juin, 1756. Ibid. , 8 Juin, 1756. Journal de ce qui s'estpassé en Canada depuis le Mois d'Octobre, 1755, jusqu'au Mois de Juin, 1756. Shirley to Fox, 7 May, 1756. Conduct of Major-General Shirleybriefly 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 operationsin the direction of Oswego sufficiently to give the French time forsecuring all their posts on Lake Ontario. Before the end of June thiswas in good measure done. The battalion of Béarn lay encamped before thenow strong fort of Niagara, and the battalions of Guienne and La Sarre, with a body of Canadians, guarded Frontenac against attack. Those of LaReine and Languedoc had been sent to Ticonderoga, while the Governor, with Montcalm and Lévis, still remained at Montreal watching the turn ofevents. [378] Hither, too, came the intendant François Bigot, the mostaccomplished knave in Canada, yet indispensable for his vigor andexecutive skill; Bougainville, who had disarmed the jealousy ofVaudreuil, and now stood high in his good graces; and theAdjutant-General, Montreuil, clearly a vain and pragmatic personage, who, having come to Canada with Dieskau the year before, thought itbehooved him to give the General the advantage of his experience. "Ilike M. De Montcalm very much, " he writes to the minister, "and will dothe impossible to deserve his confidence. I have spoken to him in thesame terms as to M. Dieskau; thus: 'Trust only the French regulars foran expedition, but use the Canadians and Indians to harass the enemy. Don't expose yourself; send me to carry your orders to points ofdanger. ' The colony officers do not like those from France. TheCanadians are independent, spiteful, lying, boastful; very good forskirmishing, very brave behind a tree, and very timid when not undercover. I think both sides will stand on the defensive. It does not seemto me that M. De Montcalm means to attack the enemy; and I think he isright. In this country a thousand men could stop three thousand. "[379]

[Footnote 378: _Correspondance de Montcalm, Vaudreuil, et Lévis. _]

[Footnote 379: _Montreuil au Ministre, 12 Juin, 1756_. The original isin cipher. ] "M. De Vaudreuil overwhelms me with civilities, " Montcalmwrites to the Minister of War. "I think that he is pleased with myconduct towards him, and that it persuades him there are generalofficers in France who can act under his orders without prejudice orill-humor. "[380] "I am on good terms with him, " he says again; "but notin his confidence, which he never gives to anybody from France. Hisintentions are good, but he is slow and irresolute. "[381]

[Footnote 380: _Montcalm au Ministre, 12 Juin, 1756. _]

[Footnote 381: _Ibid. , 19 Juin, 1756. _ "Je suis bien avec luy, sans saconfiance, qu'il ne donne jamais à personne de la France. " Erroneouslyrendered in _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, X. 421. ]

Indians presently brought word that ten thousand English were coming toattack Ticonderoga. A reinforcement of colony regulars was at oncedespatched to join the two battalions already there; a third battalion, Royal Roussillon, was sent after them. The militia were called out andordered to follow with all speed, while both Montcalm and Lévis hastenedto the supposed scene of danger. [382] They embarked in canoes on theRichelieu, coasted the shore of Lake Champlain, passed Fort Frederic orCrown Point, where all was activity and bustle, and reached Ticonderogaat the end of June. They found the fort, on which Lotbinière had been atwork all winter, advanced towards completion. It stood on the crown ofthe promontory, and was a square with four bastions, a ditch, blown insome parts out of the solid rock, bomb-proofs, barracks of stone, and asystem of exterior defences as yet only begun. The rampart consisted oftwo parallel walls ten feet apart, built of the trunks of trees, andheld together by transverse logs dovetailed at both ends, the spacebetween being filled with earth and gravel well packed. [383] Such wasthe first Fort Ticonderoga, or Carillon, --a structure quite distinctfrom the later fort of which the ruins still stand on the same spot. Theforest had been hewn away for some distance around, and the tents of theregulars and huts of the Canadians had taken its place; innumerable barkcanoes lay along the strand, and gangs of men toiled at the unfinishedworks. 

[Footnote 382: _Montcalm au Ministre, 26 Juin, 1756. Détail de ce quis'est passé, Oct. 1755 Juin, 1756. _]

[Footnote 383: _Lotbinière au Ministre, 31 Oct. 1756. Montcalm auMinistre, 20 Juillet, 1756. _]

Ticonderoga was now the most advanced position of the French, and CrownPoint, which had before held that perilous honor, was in the secondline. Lévis, to whom had been assigned the permanent command of thispost of danger, set out on foot to explore the neighboring woods andmountains, and slept out several nights before he reappeared at thecamp. "I do not think, " says Montcalm, "that many high officers inEurope would have occasion to take such tramps as this. I cannot speaktoo well of him. Without being a man of brilliant parts, he has goodexperience, good sense, and a quick eye; and, though I had served withhim before, I never should have thought that he had such promptness andefficiency. He has turned his campaigns to good account. "[384] Léviswrites of his chief with equal warmth. "I do not know if the Marquis deMontcalm is pleased with me, but I am sure that I am very much so withhim, and shall always be charmed to serve under his orders. It is notfor me, Monseigneur, to speak to you of his merit and his talents. Youknow him better than anybody else; but I may have the honor of assuringyou that he has pleased everybody in this colony, and manages affairswith the Indians extremely well. "[385]

[Footnote 384: _Montcalm au Ministre, 20 Juillet, 1756. _]

[Footnote 385: _Lévis au Ministre, 17 Juillet, 1756. _]

The danger from the English proved to be still remote, and there wasample leisure in the camp. Duchat, a young captain in the battalion ofLanguedoc, used it in writing to his father a long account of what hesaw about him, --the forests full of game; the ducks, geese, andpartridges; 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 tentimes more people than ours; but these wretches have not the leastknowledge 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 Frenchsend them a band of _hairdressers_, whom they would be very glad todispense with. It is incredible what a quantity of scalps they bring us. In Virginia they have committed unheard-of cruelties, carried offfamilies, burned a great many houses, and killed an infinity of people. These miserable English are in the extremity of distress, and repent toolate the unjust war they began against us. It is a pleasure to make warin Canada. One is troubled neither with horses nor baggage; the Kingprovides 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 onthe mess-table. Luckily the lakes are full of fish, and both officersand soldiers have to turn fishermen. "[386]

[Footnote 386: _Relation de M. Duchat, Capitaine au Régiment deLanguedoc, écrite au Camp de Carillon, 15 Juillet, 1756. _]

Meanwhile, at the head of Lake George, the raw bands of ever-active NewEngland were mustering for the fray. 

Chapter 12

1756

Oswego

When, at the end of the last year, Shirley returned from his bootlessOswego campaign, he called a council of war at New York and laid beforeit his scheme for the next summer's operations. It was a comprehensiveone: to master Lake Ontario by an overpowering naval force and seize theFrench forts upon it, Niagara, Frontenac, and Toronto; attackTiconderoga and Crown Point on the one hand, and Fort Duquesne on theother, and at the same time perplex and divide the enemy by an inroaddown the Chaudière upon the settlements about Quebec. [387] The councilapproved the scheme; but to execute it the provinces must raise at leastsixteen thousand men. This they refused to do. Pennsylvania and Virginiawould take no active part, and were content with defending themselves. The attack on Fort Duquesne was therefore abandoned, as was also thediversion towards Quebec. The New England colonies were discouraged byJohnson's failure to take Crown Point, doubtful of the militaryabilities of Shirley, and embarrassed by the debts of the last campaign;but when they learned that Parliament would grant a sum of money inpartial compensation for their former sacrifices, [388] they plunged intonew debts without hesitation, and raised more men than the General hadasked; though, with their usual jealousy, they provided that theirsoldiers should be employed for no other purpose than the attack onTiconderoga and Crown Point. Shirley chose John Winslow to command them, and gave him a commission to that effect; while he, to clinch hisauthority, asked and obtained supplementary commissions from everygovernment that gave men to the expedition. [389] For the movementagainst the fort of Lake Ontario, which Shirley meant to command inperson, he had the remains of his own and Pepperell's regiments, the twoshattered battalions brought over by Braddock, the "Jersey Blues, " fourprovincial companies from North Carolina, and the four King's companiesof New York. His first care was to recruit their ranks and raise them totheir full complement; which, when effected, would bring them up to theinsufficient strength of about forty-four hundred men. 

[Footnote 387: _Minutes of Council of War held at New York, 12 and 13Dec. 1755. Shirley to Robinson, 19 Dec. 1755. The Conduct ofMajor-General Shirley briefly stated. Review of Military Operations inNorth America. _]

[Footnote 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 expenseincurred by the several colonies; Massachusetts having £54, 000, Connecticut £26, 000, and New York £15, 000, the rest being given to NewHampshire, Rhode Island, and New Jersey. ]

[Footnote 389: _Letter and Order Books of General Winslow, 1756. _]

While he was struggling with contradictions and cross purposes, awithering blow fell upon him; he learned that he was superseded in thecommand. The cabal formed against him, with Delancey at its head, hadwon over Sir Charles Hardy, the new governor of New York, and hadpainted Shirley's conduct in such colors that the Ministry removed him. It was essential for the campaign that a successor should be sent atonce, to form plans on the spot and make preparations accordingly. TheMinistry were in no such haste. It was presently announced that ColonelDaniel Webb would be sent to America, followed by General JamesAbercromby; who was to be followed in turn by the Earl of Loudon, thedestined commander-in-chief. Shirley was to resign his command to Webb, Webb to Abercromby, and Abercromby to Loudon. [390] It chanced that thetwo former arrived in June at about the same time, while the Earl camein July; and meanwhile it devolved on Shirley to make ready for them. Unable to divine what their plans would be, he prepared the campaign inaccordance with his own. 

[Footnote 390: _Fox to Shirley, 13 March, 1756. Ibid. , 31 March, 1756. Order to Colonel Webb, 31 March, 1756. Order to Major-GeneralAbercromby, 1 April, 1756. Halifax to Shirley, 1 April, 1756. Shirley toFox, 13 June, 1756. _]

His star, so bright a twelvemonth before, was now miserably dimmed. Inboth his public and private life he was the butt of adversity. He hadlost two promising sons; he had made a mortifying failure as a soldier;and triumphant enemies were rejoicing in his fall. It is to the creditof his firmness and his zeal in the cause that he set himself to histask with as much vigor as if he, and not others, were to gather thefruits. His chief care was for his favorite enterprise in the directionof Lake Ontario. Making Albany his headquarters, he rebuilt the fort atthe Great Carrying Place destroyed in March by the French, sent troopsto guard the perilous route to Oswego, and gathered provisions andstores 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 ofMay they moved a short distance up the Hudson, and encamped at a placecalled Half-Moon, where the navigation was stopped by rapids. Here andat 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 raisingand equipping men, and the example of Massachusetts may serve for themall. The Assembly or "General Court" voted the required number, andchose a committee of war authorized to impress provisions, munitions, stores, clothing, tools, and other necessaries, for which fair priceswere to be paid within six months. The Governor issued a proclamationcalling for volunteers. If the full number did not appear within thetime named, the colonels of militia were ordered to muster theirregiments, and immediately draft out of them men enough to meet theneed. A bounty of six dollars was offered this year to stimulateenlistment, and the pay of a private soldier was fixed at one pound sixshillings a month, Massachusetts currency. If he brought a gun, he hadan additional bounty of two dollars. A powderhorn, bullet-pouch, blanket, knapsack, and "wooden bottle, " or canteen, were supplied by theprovince; 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 ofthe campaign. In the next year it was announced that the soldier shouldreceive, besides his pay, "a coat and soldier's hat. " The coat was ofcoarse blue cloth, to which breeches of red or blue were afterwardsadded. Along with his rations, he was promised a gill of rum each day, aprivilege of which he was extremely jealous, deeply resenting everyabridgment of it. He was enlisted for the campaign, and could not berequired to serve above a year at farthest. 

[Footnote 391: _Letter and Order Books of Winslow, 1756. _]

The complement of a regiment was five hundred, divided into companies offifty; and as the men and officers of each were drawn from the sameneighborhood, they generally knew each other. The officers, thoughnominally appointed by the Assembly, were for the most part the virtualchoice of the soldiers themselves, from whom they were oftenindistinguishable in character and social standing. Hence discipline wasweak. The pay--or, as it was called, the wages--of a colonel was twelvepounds sixteen shillings, Massachusetts currency, a month; that of acaptain, five pounds eight shillings, --an advance on the pay of the lastyear; and that of a chaplain, six pounds eight shillings. [392] Penaltieswere enacted against "irreligion, immorality, drunkenness, debauchery, and profaneness. " The ordinary punishments were the wooden horse, irons, or, in bad cases, flogging. 

[Footnote 392: _Vote of General Court, 26 Feb. 1756. _]

Much difficulty arose from the different rules adopted by the variouscolonies for the regulation of their soldiers. Nor was this the onlysource of trouble. Besides its war committee, the Assembly of each ofthe four New England colonies chose another committee "for clothing, arming, paying, victualling, and transporting" its troops. They were togo to the scene of operations, hire wagons, oxen, and horses, buildboats and vessels, and charge themselves with the conveyance of allsupplies belonging to their respective governments. They were to keep incorrespondence with the committee of war at home, to whom they wereresponsible; and the officer commanding the contingent of their colonywas required to furnish them with guards and escorts. Thus fourindependent committees were engaged in the work of transportation at thesame time, over the same roads, for the same object. Each colony choseto keep the control of its property in its own hands. The inconvenienceswere obvious: "I wish to God, " wrote Lord Loudon to Winslow, "you couldpersuade your people to go all one way. " The committees themselves didnot always find their task agreeable. One of their number, John Ashley, of Massachusetts, writes in dudgeon to Governor Phipps: "Sir, I am aptto think that things have been misrepresented to your Honor, or else Iam certain I should not suffer in my character, and be styled a damnedrascal, and ought to be put in irons, etc. , when I am certain I haveexerted myself to the utmost of my ability to expedite the businessassigned me by the General Court. " At length, late in the autumn, Loudonpersuaded the colonies to forego this troublesome sort of independence, and turn over their stores to the commissary-general, receipts beingduly given. [393]

[Footnote 393: The above particulars are gathered from the voluminouspapers 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 tomilitary affairs in 1755 and 1756. The _Letter and Order Books ofWinslow_, in the Library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, havesupplied 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 ofthe Hudson to Stillwater, whence there was water carriage to Saratoga. Here stores were again placed in wagons and carried several miles toUpper Falls; thence by boat to Fort Edward; and thence, fourteen milesacross country, to Fort William Henry at Lake George, where the army wasto embark for Ticonderoga. Each of the points of transit below FortEdward was guarded by a stockade and two or more companies ofprovincials. They were much pestered by Indians, who now and thenscalped a straggler, and escaped with their usual nimbleness. From timeto time strong bands of Canadians and Indians approached by way of SouthBay or Wood Creek, and threatened more serious mischief. It issurprising that some of the trains were not cut off, for the escortswere often reckless and disorderly to the last degree. Sometimes theinvaders showed great audacity. Early in June Colonel Fitch at Albanyscrawls a hasty note to Winslow: "Friday, 11 o'clock: Sir, about half anhour since, a party of near fifty French and Indians had the impudenceto come down to the river opposite to this city and captivate two men;"and Winslow replies with equal quaintness: "We daily discover theIndians about us; but not yet have been so happy as to obtain any ofthem. "[394]

[Footnote 394: Vaudreuil, in his despatch of 12 August, givesparticulars of these raids, with an account of the scalps taken on eachoccasion. He thought the results disappointing. ]

Colonel Jonathan Bagley commanded at Fort William Henry, where gangs ofmen were busied under his eye in building three sloops and makingseveral hundred whaleboats to carry the army of Ticonderoga. The seasonwas advancing fast, and Winslow urged him to hasten on the work; towhich the humorous Bagley answered; "Shall leave no stone unturned;every wheel shall go that rum and human flesh can move. "[395] Afortnight after he reports: "I must really confess I have almost worethe men out, poor dogs. Pray where are the committee, or what are theyabout?" He sent scouts to watch the enemy, with results not quitesatisfactory. "There is a vast deal of news here; every party bringsabundance, but all different. " Again, a little later: "I constantly keepout small scouting parties to the eastward and westward of the lake, andmake no discovery but the tracks of small parties who are plaguing usconstantly; but what vexes me most, we can't catch one of the sonsof----. I have sent out skulking parties some distance from the sentriesin the night, to lie still in the bushes to intercept them; but theflies are so plenty, our people can't bear them. "[396] Colonel DavidWooster, at Fort Edward, was no more fortunate in his attempts to takesatisfaction on his midnight visitors; and reports that he has not thusfar been able "to give those villains a dressing. "[397] The English, however, were fast learning the art of forest war, and the partisanchief, Captain Robert Rogers, began already to be famous. On theseventeenth of June he and his band lay hidden in the bushes within theoutposts of Ticonderoga, and made a close survey of the fort andsurrounding camps. [398] His report was not cheering. Winslow's so-calledarmy had now grown to nearly seven thousand men; and these, it wasplain, were not too many to drive the French from their stronghold. 

[Footnote 395: _Bagley to Winslow, 2 July, 1756. _]

[Footnote 396: _Ibid. , 15 July, 1756. _]

[Footnote 397: _Wooster to Winslow, 2 June, 1756. _]

[Footnote 398: _Report of Rogers, 19 June, 1756. _ Much abridged in hispublished _Journals_. ]

While Winslow pursued his preparations, tried to settle disputes of rankamong the colonels of the several colonies, and strove to bring orderout of the little chaos of his command, Sir William Johnson was engagedin a work for which he was admirably fitted. This was the attaching ofthe Five Nations to the English interest. Along with his patent ofbaronetcy, which reached him about this time, he received, direct fromthe Crown, the commission of "Colonel, Agent, and Sole Superintendent ofthe Six Nations and other Northern Tribes. "[399] Henceforth he wasindependent of governors and generals, and responsible to the Courtalone. His task was a difficult one. The Five Nations would fain haveremained neutral, and let the European rivals fight it out; but, onaccount of their local position, they could not. The exactions and liesof the Albany traders, the frauds of land-speculators, the contradictoryaction of the different provincial governments, joined to Englishweakness and mismanagement in the last war, all conspired to alienatethem and to aid the efforts of the French agents, who cajoled andthreatened them by turns. But for Johnson these intrigues would haveprevailed. He had held a series of councils with them at Fort Johnsonduring the winter, and not only drew from them a promise to stand by theEnglish, 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]

[Footnote 399: _Fox to Johnson, 13 March, 1756. Papers of Sir WilliamJohnson. _]

[Footnote 400: _Conferences between Sir William Johnson and the Indians, Dec. 1755, to Feb. 1756_, in _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, VII. 44-74. _Account ofConferences 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 oneRed Head, its chief sachem; and first of all it behooved the baronet tocondole their affliction. The ceremony was long, with compliments, lugubrious speeches, wampum-belts, the scalp of an enemy to replace thedeparted, and a final glass of rum for each of the assembled mourners. The conferences lasted a fortnight; and when Johnson took his leave, thetribes stood pledged to lift the hatchet for the English. [401]

[Footnote 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 helplessfor a time; then rose from his sick bed to meet another congregation ofIndians. These were deputies of the Five Nations, with Mohegans from theHudson, and Delawares and Shawanoes from the Susquehanna, whom he hadpersuaded to visit him in hope that he might induce them to cease frommurdering the border settlers. All their tribesmen were in arms againstthe English; but he prevailed at last, and they accepted the war-belt athis hands. The Delawares complained that their old conquerors, the FiveNations, had forced them "to wear the petticoat, " that is, to be countednot 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, andyelled all night. [402] In spite of Piquet, the two Joncaires, and therest of the French agents, Johnson had achieved a success. But would theIndians keep their word? It was more than doubtful. While some of themtreated with him on the Mohawk, others treated with Vaudreuil atMontreal. [403] A display of military vigor on the English side, crownedby some signal victory, would alone make their alliance sure. 

[Footnote 402: _Minutes of Councils at Fort Johnson, 9 July to 12 July_, in _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, VII. 152-160. ]

[Footnote 403: _Conferences between M. De Vaudreuil and the FiveNations, 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; forwhile he strove to make friends of the Delawares and Shawanoes, GovernorMorris of Pennsylvania declared war against them, and Governor Belcherof New Jersey followed his example; though persuaded at last to hold hishand till the baronet had tried the virtue of pacific measures. [404]

[Footnote 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 Nationwarriors at Oswego to aid him in his cherished enterprise againstNiagara and Frontenac. The warriors had promised him to come; but therewas small hope that they would do so. Meanwhile he was at Albanypursuing his preparations, posting his scanty force in the forts newlybuilt on the Mohawk and the Great Carrying Place, and sending forwardstores and provisions. Having no troops to spare for escorts, heinvented a plan which, like everything he did, was bitterly criticised. He took into pay two thousand boatmen, gathered from all parts of thecountry, including many whale-men from the eastern coasts of NewEngland, divided them into companies of fifty, armed each with a gun anda hatchet, and placed them under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel JohnBradstreet. [405] Thus organized, they would, he hoped, require noescort. Bradstreet was a New England officer who had been a captain inthe last war, somewhat dogged and self-opinioned, but brave, energetic, and well fitted for this kind of service. 

[Footnote 405: _Shirley to Fox, 7 May, 1756. Shirley to Abercromby, 27June, 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 withAlbany. [406] Nevertheless Bradstreet safely conducted a convoy ofprovisions and military stores to the garrison; and on the third of Julyset out on his return with the empty boats. The party were pushing theirway up the river in three divisions. The first of these, consisting of ahundred boats and three hundred men, with Bradstreet at their head, wereabout nine miles from Oswego, when, at three in the afternoon, theyreceived a heavy volley from the forest on the east bank. It was firedby a part of Villiers' command, consisting, by English accounts, ofabout seven hundred men. A considerable number of the boatmen werekilled or disabled, and the others made for the shelter of the westernshore. Some prisoners were taken in the confusion; and if the French hadbeen content to stop here, they might fairly have claimed a kind ofvictory; but, eager to push their advantage, they tried to cross undercover of an island just above. Bradstreet saw the movement, and landedon the island with six or eight followers, among whom was young CaptainSchuyler, afterwards General Schuyler of the Revolution. Their fire keptthe enemy in check till others joined them, to the number of abouttwenty. These a second and a third time beat back the French, who nowgave over the attempt, and made for another ford at some distance above. Bradstreet saw their intention; and collecting two hundred and fiftymen, 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 boatshad come up, and that the men had landed. Bradstreet ordered them tostay where they were, and defend the lower crossing: then hastenedforward; but when he reached the upper ford, the French had passed theriver, and were ensconced in a pine-swamp near the shore. Here heattacked them; and both parties fired at each other from behind treesfor an hour, with little effect. Bradstreet at length encouraged his mento make a rush at the enemy, who were put to flight and driven into theriver, where many were shot or drowned as they tried to cross. Anotherparty of the French had meanwhile passed by a ford still higher up tosupport their comrades; but the fight was over before they reached thespot, and they in their turn were set upon and driven back across thestream. Half an hour after, Captain Patten arrived from Onondaga withthe grenadiers of Shirley's regiment; and late in the evening twohundred men came from Oswego to reinforce the victors. In the morningBradstreet prepared to follow the French to their camp, twelve milesdistant; but was prevented by a heavy rain which lasted all day. On theMonday following, he and his men reached Albany, bringing two prisoners, eighty French muskets, and many knapsacks picked up in the woods. He hadlost between sixty and seventy killed, wounded, and taken. [407]

[Footnote 406: _Détail de ce qui s'est passé en Canada, Oct. 1755 Juin, 1756_. ]

[Footnote 407: _Letter of J. Choate, Albany, 12 July, 1756_, inMassachusetts 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. 121 (1860). Mante, 60. Bradstreet's conduct onthis 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 saysthat Villiers had four hundred men. Another gives him five hundred, anda third eight hundred, against fifteen hundred English, of whom theykilled eight hundred, or an Englishman apiece. A fourth writer boaststhat six hundred Frenchmen killed nine hundred English. A fifth contentshimself with four hundred; but thinks that forty more would have beenslain if the Indians had not fired too soon. He says further that therewere three hundred boats; and presently forgetting himself, adds thatfive hundred were taken or destroyed. A sixth announces a great captureof stores and provisions, though all the boats were empty. A seventhreports that the Canadians killed about three hundred, and would havekilled more but for the bad quality of their tomahawks. An eighth, withrare modesty, puts the English loss at fifty or sixty. That of Villiersis 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 futuretriumphs cheaply bought. [408]

[Footnote 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 duR. 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, wheretheir 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 twoprisoners declared that the French meant to attack it, instead ofwaiting to be attacked from it. Nor was the news from that quarterreassuring. The engineer, Mackellar, wrote that the works were incapableof defence; and Colonel Mercer, the commandant, reported generaldiscontent in the garrison. [409] Captain John Vicars, an invalid officerof Shirley's regiment, arrived at Albany with yet more deplorableaccounts. He had passed the winter at Oswego, where he declared thedearth of food to have been such that several councils of war had beenheld on the question of abandoning the place from sheer starvation. Morethan 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 ofthe men were lodged in barracks, though without beds, while many lay allwinter in huts on the bare ground. Scurvy and dysentery made frightfulhavoc. "In January, " says Vicars, "we were informed by the Indians thatwe were to be attacked. The garrison was then so weak that the strongestguard we proposed to mount was a subaltern and twenty men; but we wereseldom able to mount more than sixteen or eighteen, and half of thosewere obliged to have sticks in their hands to support them. The men wereso weak that the sentries often fell down on their posts, and lay theretill the relief came and lifted them up. " His own company of fifty wasreduced to ten. The other regiment of the garrison, Pepperell's, or thefifty-first, was quartered at Fort Ontario, on the other side of theriver; and being better sheltered, suffered less. 

[Footnote 409: _Mackellar to Shirley, June, 1756. Mercer to Shirley, 2July, 1756. _]

The account given by Vicars of the state of the defences was scarcelymore flattering. He reported that the principal fort had no cannon onthe side most exposed to attack. Two pieces had been mounted on thetrading-house in the centre; but as the concussion shook down the stonesfrom the wall whenever they were fired, they had since been removed. Thesecond 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 therewere no loopholes in the stockades; so that they could not fire out ofthe fort but by opening the gate and firing out of that. "[410]

[Footnote 410: _Information of Captain John Vicars, of the Fiftieth(Shirley's) Regiment, _ enclosed with a despatch of Lord Loudon. Vicarswas a veteran British officer who left Oswego with Bradstreet on thethird 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 thetwo emaciated regiments. The place must be defended at any cost. Itsfall would ruin not only the enterprise against Niagara and Frontenac, but also that against Ticonderoga and Crown Point; since, having nothingmore to fear on Lake Ontario, the French could unite their whole forceon Lake Champlain, whether for defence or attack. 

Towards the end of June Abercromby and Webb arrived at Albany, bringinga reinforcement of nine hundred regulars, consisting of Otway'sregiment, or a part of it, and a body of Highlanders. Shirley resignedhis command, and Abercromby requested him to go to New York, wait theretill Lord Loudon arrived, and lay before him the state of affairs. [411]Shirley waited till the twenty-third of July, when the Earl at lengthappeared. He was a rough Scotch lord, hot and irascible; and thecommunications of his predecessor, made, no doubt, in a manner somewhatpompous and self-satisfied, did not please him. "I got fromMajor-General Shirley, " he says, "a few papers of very little use; onlyhe insinuated to me that I would find everything prepared, and havenothing to do but to pull laurels; which I understand was his constantconversation before my arrival. "[412]

[Footnote 411: _Shirley to Fox, 4 July, 1756. _]

[Footnote 412: _Loudon (to Fox?), 19 Aug. 1756. _]

Loudon sailed up the Hudson in no placid mood. On reaching Albany heabandoned the attempt against Niagara and Frontenac; and had resolved toturn his whole force against Ticonderoga, when he was met by an obstaclethat both perplexed and angered him. By a royal order lately issued, all general and field officers with provincial commissions were to takerank only as eldest captains when serving in conjunction with regulartroops. [413] Hence the whole provincial army, as Winslow observes, mightbe put under the command of any British major. [414] The announcement ofthis regulation naturally caused great discontent. The New Englandofficers held a meeting, and voted with one voice that in their beliefits enforcement would break up the provincial army and prevent theraising of another. Loudon, hearing of this, desired Winslow to meet himat Albany for a conference on the subject. Thither Winslow went withsome of his chief officers. The Earl asked them to dinner, and there wasmuch talk, with no satisfactory result; whereupon, somewhat chafed, herequired Winslow to answer in writing, yes or no, whether the provincialofficers would obey the commander-in-chief and act in conjunction withthe regulars. Thus forced to choose between acquiescence and flatmutiny, they declared their submission to his orders, at the same timeasking as a favor that they might be allowed to act independently; towhich Loudon gave for the present an unwilling assent. Shirley, who, inspite of his removal from command, had the good of the service deeply atheart, was much troubled at this affair, and wrote strong letters toWinslow in the interest of harmony. [415]

[Footnote 413: _Order concerning the Rank of Provincial General andField Officers in North America. Given at our Court at Kensington, 12May, 1756. _]

[Footnote 414: _Winslow to Shirley, 21 Aug. 1756. _]

[Footnote 415: _Correspondence of Loudon, Abercromby, and Shirley, July, Aug. 1756. Record of Meeting of Provincial Officers, July, 1756. Letterand Order Books of Winslow. _]

Loudon next proceeded to examine the state of the provincial forces, andsent Lieutenant-Colonel Burton, of the regulars, to observe and reportupon it. Winslow by this time had made a forward movement, and was nowat Lake George with nearly half his command, while the rest were at FortEdward under Lyman, or in detachments at Saratoga and the other smallposts below. Burton found Winslow's men encamped with their right onwhat are now the grounds of Fort William Henry Hotel, and their leftextending southward between the mountain in their front and the marsh intheir rear. "There are here, " he reports, "about twenty-five hundredmen, five hundred of them sick, the greatest part of them what theycall poorly; they bury from five to eight daily, and officers inproportion; extremely indolent, and dirty to a degree. " Then, invernacular English, he describes the infectious condition of the fort, which was full of the sick. "Their camp, " he proceeds, "is nastier thananything I could conceive; their----, kitchens, graves, and places forslaughtering cattle all mixed through their encampment; a great waste ofprovisions, the men having just what they please; no great command keptup. Colonel Gridley governs the general; not in the least alert; onlyone advanced guard of a subaltern and twenty-four men. The cannon andstores in great confusion. " Of the camp at Fort Edward he gives a betteraccount. "It is much cleaner than at Fort William Henry, but notsufficiently so to keep the men healthy; a much better command kept uphere. General Lyman very ready to order out to work and to assist theengineers with any number of men they require, and keeps a succession ofscouting-parties out towards Wood Creek and South Bay. "[416]

[Footnote 416: _Burton to Loudon, 27 Aug. 1756_. ]

The prejudice of the regular officer may have colored the picture, butit is certain that the sanitary condition of the provincial camps wasextremely bad. "A grievous sickness among the troops, " writes aMassachusetts surgeon at Fort Edward; "we bury five or six a day. Notmore than two thirds of our army fit for duty. Long encampments are thebane of New England men. "[417] Like all raw recruits, they did not knowhow to take care of themselves; and their officers had not theexperience, knowledge, or habit of command to enforce sanitary rules. The same evils were found among the Canadians when kept long in oneplace. Those in the camp of Villiers are reported at this time as nearlyall sick. [418]

[Footnote 417: _Dr. Thomas Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, 28 Aug. 1756_. ]

[Footnote 418: Bougainville, _Journal_. ]

Another penman, very different from the military critic, was also on thespot, noting down every day what he saw and felt. This was John Graham, minister of Suffield, in Connecticut, and now chaplain of Lyman'sregiment. His spirit, by nature far from buoyant, was depressed bybodily ailments, and still more by the extremely secular character ofhis 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 hereached the camp at Fort Edward, where deep despondency fell upon him. "Labor under great discouragements, " says the Diary, under date of Julytwenty-eighth; "for find my business but mean in the esteem of many, andthink there's not much for a chaplain to do. " Again, Tuesday, Augustseventeenth: "Breakfasted this morning with the General. But a gracelessmeal; never a blessing asked, nor thanks given. At the evening sacrificea more open scene of wickedness. The General and head officers, withsome of the regular officers, in General Lyman's tent, within four rodsof the place of public prayers. None came to prayers; but they fixed atable without the door of the tent, where a head colonel was posted tomake punch in the sight of all, they within drinking, talking, andlaughing during the whole of the service, to the disturbance anddisaffection of most present. This was not only a bare neglect, but anopen contempt, of the worship of God by the heads of this army. 'Twasbut last Sabbath that General Lyman spent the time of divine service inthe afternoon in his tent, drinking in company with Mr. Gordon, aregular officer. I have oft heard cursing and swearing in his presenceby some provincial field-officers, but never heard a reproof nor so muchas a check to them come from his mouth, though he never uses suchlanguage 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 voicesunder his window, where one Colonel Glasier was berating, in unhallowedlanguage, the captain of the guard; and here the chaplain's Journalabruptly ends. [419]

[Footnote 419: I owe to my friend George S. Hale, Esq. , the opportunityof 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, appearedon the same spot some time after. This was Chaplain William Crawford, ofWorcester, who, having neglected to bring money to the war, sufferedmuch annoyance, aggravated by what he thought a want of dueconsideration for his person and office. His indignation finds vent in aletter to his townsman, Timothy Paine, member of the General Court: "Noman can reasonably expect that I can with any propriety discharge theduty of a chaplain when I have nothing either to eat or drink, nor anyconveniency to write a line other than to sit down upon a stump and puta piece of paper upon my knee. As for Mr. Weld [_another chaplain_], heis easy and silent whatever treatment he meets with, and I suppose theythought to find me the same easy and ductile person; but may the wideyawning earth devour me first! The state of the camp is just such as oneat home would guess it to be, --nothing but a hurry and confusion of viceand wickedness, with a stygian atmosphere to breathe in. "[420] The viceand wickedness of which he complains appear to have consisted in afrequent infraction of the standing order against "Curseing andSwareing, " as well as of that which required attendance on dailyprayers, and enjoined "the people to appear in a decent manner, cleanand shaved, " at the two Sunday sermons. [421]

[Footnote 420: The autograph letter is in Massachusetts Archives, LVI. No. 142. The same volume contains a letter from Colonel Frye, ofMassachusetts, in which he speaks of the forlorn condition in whichChaplain Weld reached the camp. Of Chaplain Crawford, he says that hecame decently clothed, but without bed or blanket, till he, Frye, lentthem to him, and got Captain Learned to take him into his tent. Chaplains usually had a separate tent, or shared that of the colonel. ]

[Footnote 421: _Letter and Order Books of Winslow_. ]

At the beginning of August Winslow wrote to the committees of theseveral provinces: "It looks as if it won't be long before we are fitfor a remove, "--that is, for an advance on Ticonderoga. On the twelfthLoudon sent Webb with the forty-fourth regiment and some of Bradstreet'sboatmen to reinforce Oswego. [422] They had been ready for a month; butconfusion and misunderstanding arising from the change of command hadprevented their departure. [423] Yet the utmost anxiety had prevailed forthe safety of that important post, and on the twenty-eighth SurgeonThomas Williams wrote: "Whether Oswego is yet ours is uncertain. Wouldhope it is, as the reverse would be such a terrible shock as the countrynever felt, and may be a sad omen of what is coming upon poor sinful NewEngland. Indeed we can't expect anything but to be severely chastenedtill we are humbled for our pride and haughtiness. "[424]

[Footnote 422: _Loudon (to Fox?), 19 Aug. 1756_. ]

[Footnote 423: _Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly stated. Shirleyto Loudon, 4 Sept. 1756. Shirley to Fox, 16 Sept. 1756_. ]

[Footnote 424: _Thomas Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, 28 Aug. 1756_. ]

His foreboding proved true. Webb had scarcely reached the Great CarryingPlace, when tidings of disaster fell upon him like a thunderbolt. TheFrench had descended in force upon Oswego, taken it with all itsgarrison; and, as report ran, were advancing into the province, sixthousand strong. Wood Creek had just been cleared, with great labor, ofthe trees that choked it. Webb ordered others to be felled and throwninto the stream to stop the progress of the enemy; then, with shamefulprecipitation, he burned the forts of the Carrying Place, and retreateddown the Mohawk to German Flats. Loudon ordered Winslow to think no moreof Ticonderoga, but to stay where he was and hold the French in check. All was astonishment and dismay at the sudden blow. "Oswego has changedmasters, and I think we may justly fear that the whole of our countrywill soon follow, unless a merciful God prevent, and awake a sinfulpeople to repentance and reformation. " Thus wrote Dr. Thomas Williams tohis wife from the camp at Fort Edward. "Such a shocking affair has neverfound a place in English annals, " wrote the surgeon's young relative, Colonel William Williams. "The loss is beyond account; but the dishonordone His Majesty's arms is infinitely greater. "[425] It remains to seehow the catastrophe befell. 

[Footnote 425: _Colonel William Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, 30Aug. 1756_. ]

Since Vaudreuil became chief of the colony he had nursed the plan ofseizing Oswego, yet hesitated to attempt it. Montcalm declares that heconfirmed the Governor's wavering purpose; but Montcalm himself hadhesitated. In July, however, there came exaggerated reports that theEnglish were moving upon Ticonderoga in greatly increased numbers; andboth Vaudreuil and the General conceived that a feint against Oswegowould draw off the strength of the assailants, and, if promptly andsecretly executed, might even be turned successfully into a real attack. Vaudreuil thereupon recalled Montcalm from Ticonderoga. [426] Leaving thepost in the keeping of Lévis and three thousand men, he embarked on LakeChamplain, rowed day and night, and reached Montreal on the nineteenth. Troops were arriving from Quebec, and Indians from the far west. A bandof 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 thethumping of the Indian drum. Bougainville looked on astonished, andthought of the Pyrrhic dance of the Greeks. 

[Footnote 426: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 12 Août, 1756. Montcalm à saFemme, 20 Juillet, 1756_. ]

Montcalm and he left Montreal on the twenty-first, and reached FortFrontenac in eight days. Rigaud, brother of the Governor, had gonethither some time before, and crossed with seven hundred Canadians tothe 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 hadspared. Rigaud relieved him, and took command of the united bands. Withtheir aid the engineer, Descombles, reconnoitred the English forts, andcame back with the report that success was certain. [427] It was but aconfirmation of what had already been learned from deserters andprisoners, who declared that the main fort was but a loopholed wall heldby six or seven hundred men, ill fed, discontented, and mutinous. [428]Others said that they had been driven to desert by the want of goodfood, and that within a year twelve hundred men had died of disease atOswego. [429]

[Footnote 427: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 4 Août, 1756. Vaudreuil àBourlamaque, Juin, 1756_. ]

[Footnote 428: Bougainville, _Journal_. ]

[Footnote 429: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 10 Juillet, 1756. Résumé desNouvelles du Canada, Sept. 1756_. ]

The battalions of La Sarre, Guienne, and Béarn, with the colonyregulars, a body of Canadians, and about two hundred and fifty Indians, were destined for the enterprise. The whole force was a little abovethree thousand, abundantly supplied with artillery. La Sarre and Guiennewere already at Fort Frontenac. Béarn was at Niagara, whence it arrivedin a few days, much buffeted by the storms of Lake Ontario. On thefourth of August all was ready. Montcalm embarked at night with thefirst division, crossed in darkness to Wolf Island, lay there hidden allday, and embarking again in the evening, joined Rigaud at Niaouré Bay atseven o'clock in the morning of the sixth. The second division followed, with provisions, hospital train, and eighty artillery boats; and on theeighth all were united at the bay. On the ninth Rigaud, covered by theuniversal forest, marched in advance to protect the landing of thetroops. Montcalm followed with the first division; and, coasting theshore in bateaux, landed at midnight of the tenth within half a leagueof the first English fort. Four cannon were planted in battery upon thestrand, and the men bivouacked by their boats. So skilful were theassailants and so careless the assailed that the English knew nothing oftheir danger, till in the morning, a reconnoitring canoe discovered theinvaders. Two armed vessels soon came to cannonade them; but their lightguns were no match for the heavy artillery of the French, and they wereforced to keep the offing. 

Descombles, the engineer, went before dawn to reconnoitre the fort, withseveral other officers and a party of Indians. While he was thusemployed, one of these savages, hungry for scalps, took him in the gloomfor an Englishman, and shot him dead. Captain Pouchot, of the battalionof Béarn, replaced him; and the attack was pushed vigorously. TheCanadians and Indians, swarming through the forest, fired all day on thefort under cover of the trees. The second division came up withtwenty-two more cannon; and at night the first parallel was marked outat 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 ona high plateau at the east or right side of the river where it enteredthe lake. It was in the shape of a star, and was formed of trunks oftrees set upright in the ground, hewn flat on two sides, and closelyfitted together, --an excellent defence against musketry or swivels, butworthless against cannon. The garrison, three hundred and seventy inall, were the remnant of Pepperell's regiment, joined to raw recruitslately sent up to fill the places of the sick and dead. They had eightsmall cannon and a mortar, with which on the next day, Friday, thethirteenth, they kept up a brisk fire till towards night; when, aftergrowing more rapid for a time, it ceased, and the fort showed no sign oflife. Not a cannon had yet opened on them from the trenches; but it wascertain that with the French artillery once in action, their woodenrampart would be shivered to splinters. Hence it was that ColonelMercer, commandant at Oswego, thinking it better to lose the fort thanto lose both fort and garrison, signalled to them from across the riverto abandon their position and join him on the other side. Boats weresent to bring them off; and they passed over unmolested, after spikingtheir cannon and firing off their ammunition or throwing it into thewell. 

The fate of Oswego was now sealed. The principal work, called OldOswego, or Fort Pepperell, stood at the mouth of the river on the westside, nearly opposite Fort Ontario, and less than five hundred yardsdistant from it. The trading-house, which formed the centre of theplace, was built of rough stone laid in clay, and the wall whichenclosed it was of the same materials; both would crumble in an instantat the touch of a twelve-pound shot. Towards the west and south they hadbeen protected by an outer line of earthworks, mounted with cannon, andforming an entrenched camp; while the side towards Fort Ontario was leftwholly exposed, in the rash confidence that this work, standing on theopposite heights, would guard against attack from that quarter. On ahill, a fourth of a mile beyond Old Oswego, stood the unfinishedstockade called New Oswego, Fort George, or, by reason of itsworthlessness, Fort Rascal. It had served as a cattle pen before theFrench appeared, but was now occupied by a hundred and fifty Jerseyprovincials. Old Oswego with its outwork was held by Shirley's regiment, chiefly invalids and raw recruits, to whom were now joined the garrisonof Fort Ontario and a number of sailors, boatmen, and laborers. 

Montcalm lost no time. As soon as darkness set in he began a battery atthe brink of the height on which stood the captured fort. His wholeforce toiled all night, digging, setting gabions, and dragging upcannon, some of which had been taken from Braddock. Before daybreaktwenty heavy pieces had been brought to the spot, and nine were alreadyin position. The work had been so rapid that the English imagined theirenemies to number six thousand at least. The battery soon opened fire. Grape and round shot swept the intrenchment and crashed through therotten masonry. The English, says a French officer, "were exposed totheir shoe-buckles. " Their artillery was pointed the wrong way, inexpectation of an attack, not from the east, but from the west. They nowmade a shelter of pork-barrels, three high and three deep, plantedcannon behind them, and returned the French fire with some effect. 

Early in the morning Montcalm had ordered Rigaud to cross the river withthe Canadians and Indians. There was a ford three quarters of a leagueabove the forts;[430] and here they passed over unopposed, the Englishnot having discovered the movement. [431] The only danger was from theriver. Some of the men were forced to swim, others waded to the waist, others to the neck; but they all crossed safely, and presently showedthemselves at the edge of the woods, yelling and firing their guns, toofar for much execution, but not too far to discourage the garrison. 

[Footnote 430: Bougainville, _Journal_. ]

[Footnote 431: Pouchot, I. 76. ]

The garrison were already disheartened. Colonel Mercer, the soul of thedefence, had just been cut in two by a cannon-shot while directing thegunners. Up to this time the defenders had behaved with spirit; butdespair now seized them, increased by the screams and entreaties of thewomen, of whom there were more than a hundred in the place. There was acouncil of officers, and then the white flag was raised. Bougainvillewent to propose terms of capitulation. "The cries, threats, and hideoushowling of our Canadians and Indians, " says Vaudreuil, "made themquickly decide. " "This, " observes the Reverend Father Claude GodefroyCocquard, "reminds me of the fall of Jericho before the shouts of theIsraelites. " The English surrendered prisoners of war, to the number, according to the Governor, of sixteen hundred, [432] which included thesailors, laborers, and women. The Canadians and Indians broke throughall restraint, and fell to plundering. There was an opening ofrum-barrels and a scene of drunkenness, in which some of the prisonershad their share; while others tried to escape in the confusion, and weretomahawked by the excited savages. Many more would have been butchered, but for the efforts of Montcalm, who by unstinted promises succeeded inappeasing his ferocious allies, whom he dared not offend. "It will costthe King, " he says, "eight or ten thousand livres in presents. "[433]

[Footnote 432: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 20 Août, 1756_. He elsewheremakes the number somewhat greater. That the garrison, exclusive ofcivilians, did not exceed at the utmost fourteen hundred, is shown by_Shirley to Loudon, 5 Sept. 1756_. Loudon had charged Shirley withleaving Oswego weakly garrisoned; and Shirley replies by alleging thatthe troops there were in the number as above. It was of course hisinterest to make them appear as numerous as possible. In the printed_Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly stated_, they are put at onlyten hundred and fifty. ]

[Footnote 433: Several English writers say, however, that fifteen ortwenty young men were given up to the Indians to be adopted in place ofwarriors lately killed. ]

The loss on both sides is variously given. By the most trustworthyaccounts, that of the English did not reach fifty killed, and that ofthe French was still less. In the forts and vessels were found above ahundred pieces of artillery, most of them swivels and other light guns, with a large quantity of powder, shot, and shell. The victors burned theforts and the vessels on the stocks, destroyed such provisions andstores as they could not carry away, and made the place a desert. Thepriest Piquet, who had joined the expedition, planted amid the ruin atall cross, graven with the words, _In hoc signo vincunt_; and near itwas set a pole bearing the arms of France, with the inscription, _Manibus date lilia plenis_. Then the army decamped, loaded withprisoners and spoil, descended to Montreal, hung the captured flags inthe 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 theresult of bold enterprise and skilful tactics. With its laurels came itsfruits. Hated Oswego had been laid in ashes, and the would-be assailantsforced to a vain and hopeless defence. France had conquered theundisputed command of Lake Ontario, and her communications with the Westwere safe. A small garrison at Niagara and another at Frontenac wouldnow hold those posts against any effort that the English could make thisyear; and the whole French force could concentrate at Ticonderoga, repelthe threatened attack, and perhaps retort it by seizing Albany. If theEnglish, on the other side, had lost a great material advantage, theyhad lost no less in honor. The news of the surrender was received withindignation in England and in the colonies. Yet the behaviour of thegarrison was not so discreditable as it seemed. The position wasindefensible, 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 wasnot to be expected, they must have yielded at last. 

The French had scarcely gone, when two English scouts, Thomas Harris andJames Conner, came with a party of Indians to the scene of desolation. The ground was strewn with broken casks and bread sodden with rain. Theremains of burnt bateaux and whaleboats were scattered along the shore. The great stone trading-house in the old fort was a smoking ruin; FortRascal was still burning on the neighboring hill; Fort Ontario was amass of ashes and charred logs, and by it stood two poles on which werewritten words which the visitors did not understand. They went back toFort Johnson with their story; and Oswego reverted for a time to thebears, foxes, and wolves. [434]

[Footnote 434: On the capture of Oswego, the authorities examined havebeen very numerous, and only the best need be named. _Livre d'Ordres, Campagne de 1756_, contains all orders from headquarters. _Mémoires pourservir d'Instruction à M. Le Marquis de Montcalm, 21 Juillet; 1756, signé Vaudreuil_. Bougainville, _Journal. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 15Juin, 1756_ (designs against Oswego). _Ibid. , 13 Août, 1755. Ibid. , 30Août_. Pouchot, I. 67-81. _Relation de la Prise des Forts de Chouaguen. Bigot au Ministre, 3 Sept. 1756 Journal du Siége de Chouaguen. Précisdes Événements, 1756. Montcalm au Ministre, 20 Juillet, 1756. Ibid. , 28Août, 1756. Desandrouins à----, même date. Montcalm à sa Femme, 30Août_. Translations of several of the above papers, along with othersless 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 ofsome 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 veryinexact. ]

Chapter 13

1756, 1757

Partisan War

Shirley's grand scheme for cutting New France in twain had come towreck. There was an element of boyishness in him. He made bold planswithout weighing too closely his means of executing them. The year'scampaign would in all likelihood have succeeded if he could have actedpromptly; if he had had ready to his hand a well-trained andwell-officered force, furnished with material of war and means oftransportation, and prepared to move as soon as the streams and lakes ofNew 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 movedin April was not ready to move till August. Of the nine discordantsemi-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 theseason was nearly ended. Having no military establishment, the colonieswere forced to improvise a new army for every campaign. Each of themwatched its neighbors, or, jealous lest it should do more than its justshare, waited for them to begin. Each popular assembly acted under theeye of a frugal constituency, who, having little money, were as chary ofit as their descendants are lavish; and most of them were shaken byinternal conflicts, more absorbing than the great question on which hungthe fate of the continent. Only the four New England colonies were fullyearnest for the war, and one, even of these, was ready to use the crisisas a means of extorting concessions from its Governor in return forgrants of money and men. When the lagging contingents came together atlast, under a commander whom none of them trusted, they were met bystrategical difficulties which would have perplexed older soldiers andan abler general; for they were forced to act on the circumference of avast semicircle, in a labyrinth of forests, without roads, and chokedwith 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 radiatinglines, --one towards Lake Ontario, and the other towards LakeChamplain, --supported by a martial peasantry, supplied from France withmoney and material, dependent on no popular vote, having no will butthat of its chief, and ready on the instant to strike to right or leftas the need required. It was a compact military absolutism confronting aheterogeneous group of industrial democracies, where the force ofnumbers was neutralized by diffusion and incoherence. A long and dismalapprenticeship waited them before they could hope for success; nor couldthey ever put forth their full strength without a radical change ofpolitical conditions and an awakened consciousness of common interestsand a common cause. It was the sense of powerlessness arising from thewant of union that, after the fall of Oswego, spread alarm through thenorthern and middle colonies, and drew these desponding words fromWilliam 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 withintestine divisions, and, if I may be allowed the expression, parsimonious even to prodigality. Our assemblies are diffident of theirgovernors, governors despise their assemblies; and both mutuallymisrepresent each other to the Court of Great Britain. " Militarymeasures, he proceeds, demand secrecy and despatch; but when so manydivided provinces must agree to join in them, secrecy and despatch areimpossible. In conclusion he exclaims: "Canada must be demolished, --_Delenda est Carthago_, --or we are undone. "[435] But Loudonwas not Scipio, and cis-Atlantic Carthage was to stand for some timelonger. 

[Footnote 435: _Review of Military Operations_, 187, 189 (Dublin, 1757). ]

The Earl, in search of a scapegoat for the loss of Oswego, naturallychose Shirley, attacked him savagely, told him that he was of no use inAmerica, and ordered him to go home to England without delay. [436]Shirley, who was then in Boston, answered this indecency with dignityand effect. [437] The chief fault was with Loudon himself, whose latearrival in America had caused a change of command and of plans in thecrisis of the campaign. Shirley well knew the weakness of Oswego; and inearly spring had sent two engineers to make it defensible, withparticular instructions to strengthen Fort Ontario. [438] But they, thinking that the chief danger lay on the west and south, turned alltheir attention thither, and neglected Ontario till it was too late. Shirley was about to reinforce Oswego with a strong body of troops whenthe arrival of Abercromby took the control out of his hands and causedruinous delay. He cannot, however, be acquitted of mismanagement infailing to supply the place with wholesome provisions in the precedingautumn, before the streams were stopped with ice. Hence came the ravagesof disease and famine which, before spring, reduced the garrison to ahundred and forty effective men. Yet there can be no doubt that thechange of command was a blunder. This is the view of Franklin, who knewShirley well, and thus speaks of him: "He would in my opinion, ifcontinued in place, have made a much better campaign than that ofLoudon, which was frivolous, expensive, and disgraceful to our nationbeyond conception. For though Shirley was not bred a soldier, he wassensible and sagacious in himself, and attentive to good advice fromothers, capable of forming judicious plans, and quick and active incarrying them into execution. "[439] He sailed for England in the autumn, disappointed and poor; the bull-headed Duke of Cumberland had beendeeply prejudiced against him, and it was only after long waiting thatthis strenuous champion of British interests was rewarded in his old agewith the petty government of the Bahamas. 

[Footnote 436: _Loudon to Shirley, 6 Sept. 1756_. ]

[Footnote 437: The correspondence on both sides is before me, copiedfrom the originals in the Public Record Office. ]

[Footnote 438: "The principal thing for which I sent Mr. Mackellar toOswego was to strengthen Fort Ontario as much as he possibly could. "_Shirley to Loudon, 4 Sept. 1756. _]

[Footnote 439: _Works of Franklin_, I. 220. ]

Loudon had now about ten thousand men at his command, though not all fitfor duty. They were posted from Albany to Lake George. The Earl himselfwas at Fort Edward, while about three thousand of the provincials stilllay, under Winslow, at the lake. Montcalm faced them at Ticonderoga, with five thousand three hundred regulars and Canadians, in a positionwhere they could defy three times their number. [440] "The sons of Belialare too strong for me, " jocosely wrote Winslow;[441] and he set himselfto intrenching his camp; then had the forest cut down for the space of amile from the lake to the mountains, so that the trees, lying in what hecalls a "promiscuous manner, " formed an almost impenetrable abatis. Anescaped prisoner told him that the French were coming to visit him withfourteen thousand men;[442] but Montcalm thought no more of stirringthan Loudon himself; and each stood watching the other, with the lakebetween them, till the season closed. 

[Footnote 440: "Nous sommes tant à Carillon qu'aux postes avancés 5, 300hommes. " Bougainville, _Journal_. ]

[Footnote 441: _Winslow to Loudon, 29 Sept. 1756_. ]

[Footnote 442: _Examination of Sergeant James Archibald_. ]

Meanwhile the western borders were still ravaged by the tomahawk. NewYork, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia all writhed underthe infliction. Each had made a chain of blockhouses and wooden forts tocover its frontier, and manned them with disorderly bands, lawless, andalmost beyond control. [443] The case was at the worst in Pennsylvania, where the tedious quarrelling of Governor and Assembly, joined to thedoggedly pacific attitude of the Quakers, made vigorous defenceimpossible. Rewards were offered for prisoners and scalps, so bountifulthat the hunting of men would have been a profitable vocation, but forthe extreme wariness and agility of the game. [444] Some of the fortswere well built stockades; others were almost worthless; but the enemyrarely molested even the feeblest of them, preferring to ravage thelonely and unprotected farms. There were two or three exceptions. AVirginian fort was attacked by a war-party under an officer namedDouville, who was killed, and his followers were put to flight. [445] Theassailants were more fortunate at a small stockade called FortGranville, on the Juniata. A large body of French and Indians attackedit in August while most of the garrison were absent protecting thefarmers at their harvest; they set it on fire, and, in spite of a mostgallant resistance by the young lieutenant left in command, took it, andkilled all but one of the defenders. [446]

[Footnote 443: In the public Record Office, _America and West Indies_, LXXXII. , is a manuscript map showing the positions of such of theseposts as were north of Virginia. They are thirty-five in number, fromthe head of James River to a point west of Esopus, on the Hudson. ]

[Footnote 444: _Colonial Records of Pa. _, VII. 76. ]

[Footnote 445: _Washington to Morris, --April, 1756_. ]

[Footnote 446: _Colonial Records of Pa. _, VII. 232, 242; _PennsylvaniaArchives_, II. 744. ]

What sort of resistance the Pennsylvanian borderers would have madeunder political circumstances less adverse may be inferred from anexploit of Colonel John Armstrong, a settler of Cumberland. After theloss of Fort Granville the Governor of the province sent him with threehundred men to attack the Delaware town of Kittanning, a populous nestof savages on the Alleghany, between the two French posts of Duquesneand Venango. Here most of the war-parties were fitted out, and the placewas full of stores and munitions furnished by the French. Here, too, lived the redoubted chief called Captain Jacobs, the terror of theEnglish border. Armstrong set out from Fort Shirley, the farthestoutpost, on the last of August, and, a week after, was within six milesof the Indian town. By rapid marching and rare good luck, his party hadescaped discovery. It was ten o'clock at night, with a bright moon. Theguides were perplexed, and knew neither the exact position of the placenor the paths that led to it. The adventurers threaded the forest insingle file, over hills and through hollows, bewildered and anxious, stopping to watch and listen. At length they heard in the distance thebeating of an Indian drum and the whooping of warriors in the war-dance. Guided by the sounds, they cautiously moved forward, till those in thefront, scrambling down a rocky hill, found themselves on the banks ofthe Alleghany, about a hundred rods below Kittanning. The moon was nearsetting; but they could dimly see the town beyond a great interveningfield of corn. "At that moment, " says Armstrong, "an Indian whistled ina very singular manner, about thirty perches from our front, in the footof the cornfield. " He thought they were discovered; but one Baker, asoldier well versed in Indian ways, told him that it was only somevillage gallant calling to a young squaw. The party then crouched in thebushes, and kept silent. The moon sank behind the woods, and fires soonglimmered through the field, kindled to drive off mosquitoes by some ofthe Indians who, as the night was warm, had come out to sleep in theopen air. The eastern sky began to redden with the approach of day. Manyof the party, spent with a rough march of thirty miles, had fallenasleep. They were now cautiously roused; and Armstrong ordered nearlyhalf of them to make their way along the ridge of a bushy hill thatoverlooked the town, till they came opposite to it, in order to place itbetween 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 withhim, who dashed into the cornfield, shooting down the astonished savagesor driving them into the village, where they turned and made desperatefight. 

It was a cluster of thirty log-cabins, the principal being that of thechief, Jacobs, which was loopholed for musketry, and became the centreof resistance. The fight was hot and stubborn. Armstrong ordered thetown to be set on fire, which was done, though not without loss; for theDelawares at this time were commonly armed with rifles, and used themwell. Armstrong himself was hit in the shoulder. As the flames rose andthe smoke grew thick, a warrior in one of the houses sang hisdeath-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 wereinstantly killed. The fire caught the house of Jacobs, who, trying toescape through an opening in the roof, was shot dead. Bands of Indianswere gathering beyond the river, firing from the other bank, and evencrossing to help their comrades; but the assailants held to their worktill the whole place was destroyed. "During the burning of the houses, "says Armstrong, "we were agreeably entertained by the quick successionof charged guns, gradually firing off as reached by the fire; but muchmore so with the vast explosion of sundry bags and large kegs ofgunpowder, wherewith almost every house abounded; the prisonersafterwards informing us that the Indians had frequently said they had asufficient stock of ammunition for ten years' war with the English. "

These prisoners were eleven men, women, and children, captured in theborder settlements, and now delivered by their countrymen. The day wasfar spent when the party withdrew, carrying their wounded on Indianhorses, and moving perforce with extreme slowness, though expecting anattack every moment. None took place; and they reached the settlementsat last, having bought their success with the loss of seventeen killedand thirteen wounded. [447] A medal was given to each officer, not by theQuaker-ridden Assembly, but by the city council of Philadelphia. 

[Footnote 447: _Report of Armstrong to Governor Denny, 14 Sept. 1756_, in _Colonial Records of Pa. _, VII. 257, --a modest yet very minuteaccount. _A list of the Names of the Persons killed, wounded, andmissing in the late Expedition against the Kittanning_. Hazard, _Pennsylvania Register_, I. 366. ]

The report of this affair made by Dumas, commandant at Fort Duquesne, isworth noting. He says that Attiqué, the French name of Kittanning, wasattacked by "le Général Wachinton, " with three or four hundred men onhorseback; that the Indians gave way; but that five or six Frenchmen whowere in the town held the English in check till the fugitives rallied;that Washington and his men then took to flight, and would have beenpursued but for the loss of some barrels of gunpowder which chanced toexplode during the action. Dumas adds that several large parties are nowon the track of the enemy, and he hopes will cut them to pieces. He thenasks for a supply of provisions and merchandise to replace those whichthe Indians of Attiqué had lost by a fire. [448] Like other officers ofthe day, he would admit nothing but successes in the department underhis command. 

[Footnote 448: _Dumas à Vaudreuil, 9 Sept. 1756_, cited in _Bigot auMinistre, 6 Oct. 1756_, and in Bougainville, _Journal_. ]

Vaudreuil wrote singular despatches at this time to the minister atVersailles. He takes credit to himself for the number of war-partiesthat his officers kept always at work, and fills page after page withdetails of the _coups_ they had struck; how one brought in two Englishscalps, another three, another one, and another seven. He owns that theycommitted frightful cruelties, mutilating and sometimes burning theirprisoners; but he expresses no regret, and probably felt none, since hedeclares that the object of this murderous warfare was to punish theEnglish till they longed for peace. [449]

[Footnote 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 thewilderness. The English at Fort William Henry, having few Indians, couldnot retort in kind; but they kept their scouts and rangers in activemovement. What they most coveted was prisoners, as sources ofinformation. One Kennedy, a lieutenant of provincials, with fivefollowers, white and red, made a march of rare audacity, passed all theFrench posts, took a scalp and two prisoners on the Richelieu, andburned a magazine of provisions between Montreal and St. John. The partywere near famishing on the way back; and Kennedy was brought into FortWilliam Henry in a state of temporary insanity from starvation. [450]Other provincial officers, Peabody, Hazen, Waterbury, and Miller, won acertain distinction in this adventurous service, though few were soconspicuous as the blunt and sturdy Israel Putnam. Winslow writes inOctober that he has just returned from the best "scout" yet made, andthat, being a man of strict truth, he may be entirely trusted. [451]Putnam had gone with six followers down Lake George in a whale-boat to apoint on the east side, opposite the present village of Hague, hid theboat, crossed northeasterly to Lake Champlain, three miles from theFrench fort, climbed the mountain that overlooks it, and made a completereconnoissance; then approached it, chased three Frenchmen, who escapedwithin the lines, climbed the mountain again, and moving westward alongthe ridge, made a minute survey of every outpost between the fort andLake George. [452] These adventures were not always fortunate. On thenineteenth of September Captain Hodges and fifty men were ambushed a fewmiles from Fort William Henry by thrice their number of Canadians andIndians, and only six escaped. Thus the record stands in the _LetterBook_ of Winslow. [453] By visiting the encampments of Ticonderoga, onemay learn how the blow was struck. 

[Footnote 450: _Minute of Lieutenant Kennedy's Scout. Winslow to Loudon, 20 Sept. 1756. _]

[Footnote 451: _Winslow to Loudon, 16 Oct. 1756. _]

[Footnote 452: _Report of a Scout to Ticonderoga, Oct. 1756_, signedIsrael Putnam. ]

[Footnote 453: Compare Massachusetts Archives, LXXVI. 81. ]

After much persuasion, much feasting, and much consumption of tobaccoand brandy, four hundred Indians, Christians from the Missions andheathen from the far west, were persuaded to go on a grand war-partywith the Canadians. Of these last there were a hundred, --a wild crew, bedecked and bedaubed like their Indian companions. Perière, an officerof colony regulars, had nominal command of the whole; and among theleaders of the Canadians was the famous bushfighter, Marin. Bougainvillewas also of the party. In the evening of the sixteenth they all embarkedin canoes at the French advance-post commanded by Contrecoeur, near thepresent steamboat-landing, passed in the gloom under the bare steeps ofRogers Rock, paddled a few hours, landed on the west shore, and sentscouts to reconnoitre. These came back with their reports on the nextday, and an Indian crier called the chiefs to council. Bougainvilledescribes them as they stalked gravely to the place of meeting, wrappedin colored blankets, with lances in their hands. The accomplished youngaide-de-camp studied his strange companions with an interest not unmixedwith disgust. "Of all caprice, " he says, "Indian caprice is the mostcapricious. " They were insolent to the French, made rules for them whichthey did not observe themselves, and compelled the whole party to movewhen and whither they pleased. Hiding the canoes, and lying close in theforest by day, they all held their nocturnal course southward, by thelofty heights of Black Mountain, and among the islets of the Narrows, till the eighteenth. That night the Indian scouts reported that they hadseen the fires of an encampment on the west shore; on which the wholeparty advanced to the attack, an hour before dawn, filing silently underthe dark arches of the forest, the Indians nearly naked, and streakedwith their war-paint of vermilion and soot. When they reached the spotthey found only the smouldering fires of a deserted bivouac. Then therewas a consultation; ending, after much dispute, with the choice by theIndians of a hundred and ten of their most active warriors to attemptsome stroke in the neighborhood of the English fort. Marin joined themwith thirty Canadians, and they set out on their errand; while the restencamped to await the result. At night the adventurers returned, raisingthe death-cry and firing their guns; somewhat depressed by losses theyhad suffered, but boasting that they had surprised fifty-three English, and killed or taken all but one. It was a modest and perhaps aninvoluntary exaggeration. "The very recital of the cruelties theycommitted on the battle-field is horrible, " writes Bougainville. "Theferocity and insolence of these black-souled barbarians makes oneshudder. It is an abominable kind of war. The air one breathes iscontagious of insensibility and hardness. "[454] This was but one of themany such parties sent out from Ticonderoga this year. 

[Footnote 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. Theircaptain was Robert Rogers, of New Hampshire, --a strong, well-knitfigure, in dress and appearance more woodsman than soldier, with aclear, bold eye, and features that would have been good but for theungainly proportions of the nose. [455] He had passed his boyhood in therough surroundings of a frontier village. Growing to manhood, he engagedin some occupation which, he says, led him to frequent journeyings inthe wilderness between the French and English settlements, and gave hima good knowledge of both. [456] It taught him also to speak a littleFrench. 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 withforgery, or complicity in it, seems to have had no scruple in matters ofbusiness, and after the war was accused of treasonable dealings with theFrench and Spaniards in the west. [457] He was ambitious and violent, yetable in more ways than one, by no means uneducated, and so skilled inwoodcraft, so energetic and resolute, that his services were invaluable. In recounting his own adventures, his style is direct, simple, withoutboasting, and to all appearance without exaggeration. During the pastsummer he had raised a band of men, chiefly New Hampshire borderers, andmade a series of daring excursions which gave him a prominent place inthis hardy by-play of war. In the spring of the present year he raisedanother company, and was commissioned as its captain, with his brotherRichard as his first lieutenant, and the intrepid John Stark as hissecond. In July still another company was formed, and Richard Rogers waspromoted to command it. Before the following spring there were sevensuch; and more were afterwards added, forming a battalion dispersed onvarious service, but all under the orders of Robert Rogers, with therank of major. [458] These rangers wore a sort of woodland uniform, whichvaried in the different companies, and were armed with smooth-bore guns, loaded with buckshot, bullets, or sometimes both. 

[Footnote 455: A large engraved portrait of him, nearly at full length, is before me, printed at London in 1776. ]

[Footnote 456: Rogers, _Journals, Introduction_ (1765). ]

[Footnote 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. ]

[Footnote 458: Rogers, _Journals. Report of the Adjutant-General of NewHampshire_ (1866), II. 158, 159. ]

The best of them were commonly employed on Lake George; and nothing cansurpass the adventurous hardihood of their lives. Summer and winter, dayand night, were alike to them. Embarked in whaleboats or birch-canoes, they glided under the silent moon or in the languid glare of abreathless August day, when islands floated in dreamy haze, and the hotair was thick with odors of the pine; or in the bright October, when thejay screamed from the woods, squirrels gathered their winter hoard, andcongregated blackbirds chattered farewell to their summer haunts; whengay mountains basked in light, maples dropped leaves of rustling gold, sumachs glowed like rubies under the dark green of the unchangingspruce, and mossed rocks with all their painted plumage lay double inthe watery mirror: that festal evening of the year, when jocund Naturedisrobes herself, to wake again refreshed in the joy of her undyingspring. Or, in the tomb-like silence of the winter forest, with breathfrozen on his beard, the ranger strode on snow-shoes over the spotlessdrifts; and, like Dürer's knight, a ghastly death stalked ever at hisside. There were those among them for whom this stern life had afascination that made all other existence tame. 

Rogers and his men had been in active movement since midwinter. InJanuary they skated down Lake George, passed Ticonderoga, hid themselvesby the forest-road between that post and Crown Point, intercepted twosledges loaded with provisions, and carried the drivers to Fort WilliamHenry. In February they climbed a hill near Crown Point and made a planof the works; then lay in ambush by the road from the fort to theneighboring village, captured a prisoner, burned houses and barns, killed fifty cattle, and returned without loss. At the end of the monththey went again to Crown Point, burned more houses and barns, andreconnoitred Ticonderoga on the way back. Such excursions were repeatedthroughout the spring and summer. The reconnoissance of Ticonderoga andthe catching of prisoners there for the sake of information were alwayscapital objects. The valley, four miles in extent, that lay between thefoot of Lake George and the French fort, was at this time guarded byfour distinct outposts or fortified camps. Watched as it was at allpoints, 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 helay in ambush with eleven followers on a path between the fort and thenearest camp. A large body of soldiers passed; the rangers counted ahundred and eighteen, and lay close in their hiding-place. Soon aftercame a party of twenty-two. They fired on them, killed six, capturedone, and escaped with him to Fort William Henry. In October Rogers waspassing with twenty men in two whaleboats through the seeming solitudeof the Narrows when a voice called to them out of the woods. It was thatof Captain Shepherd, of the New Hampshire regiment, who had beencaptured two months before, and had lately made his escape. He told themthat the French had the fullest information of the numbers and movementsof the English; that letters often reached them from within the Englishlines; and that Lydius, a Dutch trader at Albany, was their principalcorrespondent. [459] Arriving at Ticonderoga, Rogers cautiouslyapproached the fort, till, about noon, he saw a sentinel on the roadleading thence to the woods. Followed by five of his men, he walkeddirectly 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 hasteto the boats, and carried to the English fort, where he gave importantinformation. 

[Footnote 459: _Letter and Order Books of Winslow_. "One Lydiass . .. Whom we suspect for a French spy; he lives better than anybody, withoutany 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. Heembarked at the end of June with fifty men in five whaleboats, madelight and strong, expressly for this service, rowed about ten miles downLake George, landed on the east side, carried the boats six miles over agorge of the mountains, launched them again in South Bay, and rowed downthe narrow prolongation of Lake Champlain under cover of darkness. Atdawn they were within six miles of Ticonderoga. They landed, hid theirboats, and lay close all day. Embarking again in the evening, they rowedwith muffled oars under the shadow of the eastern shore, and passed soclose to the French fort that they heard the voices of the sentinelscalling the watchword. In the morning they had left it five milesbehind. Again they hid in the woods; and from their lurking-place sawbateaux passing, some northward, and some southward, along the narrowlake. 

Crown Point was ten or twelve miles farther on. They tried to pass itafter nightfall, but the sky was too clear and the stars too bright; andas they lay hidden the next day, nearly a hundred boats passed beforethem on the way to Ticonderoga. Some other boats which appeared aboutnoon landed near them, and they watched the soldiers at dinner, within amusket-shot of their lurking-place. The next night was more favorable. They embarked at nine in the evening, passed Crown Point unseen, and hidthemselves as before, ten miles below. It was the seventh of July. Thirty boats and a schooner passed them, returning towards Canada. Onthe next night they rowed fifteen miles farther, and then sent men toreconnoitre, who reported a schooner at anchor about a mile off. Theywere preparing to board her, when two sloops appeared, coming up thelake at but a short distance from the land. They gave them a volley, andcalled on them to surrender; but the crews put off in boats and madefor the opposite shore. They followed and seized them. Out of twelve mentheir fire had killed three and wounded two, one of whom, says Rogers inhis report, "could not march, therefore we put an end to him, to preventdiscovery. "[460] They sank the vessels, which were laden with wine, brandy, and flour, hid their boats on the west shore, and returned onfoot with their prisoners. [461]

[Footnote 460: _Report of Rogers to Sir William Johnson, July, 1756. _This incident is suppressed in the printed _Journals_, which merely saythat the man "soon died. "]

[Footnote 461: _Rogers, Journals, 20. Shirley to Fox, 26 July, 1756. _"This afternoon Capt. Rogers came down with 4 scalps and 8 prisonerswhich he took on Lake Champlain, between 20 and 30 miles beyond CrownPoint. " _Surgeon Williams to his Wife, 16 July_, 1756. ]

Some weeks after, Rogers returned to the place where he had left theboats, embarked in them, reconnoitred the lake nearly to St. John, hidthem again eight miles north of Crown Point, took three prisoners nearthat post, and carried them to Fort William Henry. In the next month theFrench found several English boats in a small cove north of Crown Point. Bougainville propounds five different hypotheses to account for theirbeing there; and exploring parties were sent out in the vain attempt tofind some water passage by which they could have reached the spotwithout passing under the guns of two French forts. [462]

[Footnote 462: Bougainville, _Journal_. ]

The French, on their side, still kept their war-parties in motion, andVaudreuil faithfully chronicled in his despatches every English scalpthey brought in. He believed in Indians, and sent them to Ticonderoga innumbers that were sometimes embarrassing. Even Pottawattamies from LakeMichigan were prowling about Winslow's camp and silently killing hissentinels with arrows, while their "medicine men" remained atTiconderoga practising sorcery and divination to aid the warriors orlearn how it fared with them. Bougainville writes in his Journal on thefifteenth of October: "Yesterday the old Pottawattamies who have stayedhere 'made medicine' to get news of their brethren. The lodge trembled, the sorcerer sweated drops of blood, and the devil came at last and toldhim that the warriors would come back with scalps and prisoners. Asorcerer in the medicine lodge is exactly like the Pythoness on thetripod or the witch Canidia invoking the shades. " The diviner was notwholly at fault. Three days after, the warriors came back with aprisoner. [463]

[Footnote 463: This kind of divination was practised by Algonkin tribesfrom the earliest times. ]

Till November, the hostile forces continued to watch each other from theopposite ends of Lake George. Loudon repeated his orders to Winslow tokeep the defensive, and wrote sarcastically to the Colonial Minister: "Ithink I shall be able to prevent the provincials doing anything veryrash, without their having it in their power to talk in the language ofthis country that they could have taken all Canada if they had not beenprevented by the King's servants. " Winslow tried to console himself forthe failure of the campaign, and wrote in his odd English to Shirley:"Am sorry that this years' performance has not succeeded as wasintended; have only to say I pushed things to the utmost of my power tohave been sooner in motion, which was the only thing that should havecarried us to Crown Point; and though I am sensible that we are doingour 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 sixcompanies. [464] Winslow's men followed their example. Major Eyre, withfour hundred regulars, took possession of Fort William Henry, and theprovincials marched for home, their ranks thinned by camp diseases andsmall-pox. [465] In Canada the regulars were quartered on theinhabitants, who took the infliction as a matter of course. In theEnglish provinces the question was not so simple. Most of the Britishtroops were assigned to Philadelphia, New York, and Boston; and Loudondemanded free quarters for them, according to usage then prevailing inEngland during war. Nor was the demand in itself unreasonable, seeingthat the troops were sent over to fight the battles of the colonies. InPhiladelphia lodgings were given them in the public-houses, which, however, could not hold them all. A long dispute followed between theGovernor, who seconded Loudon's demand, and the Assembly, during whichabout half the soldiers lay on straw in outhouses and sheds till nearmidwinter, many sickening, and some dying from exposure. Loudon grewfurious, and threatened, if shelter were not provided, to send Webb withanother regiment and billet the whole on the inhabitants; on which theAssembly yielded, and quarters were found. [466]

[Footnote 464: Bougainville, _Journal_. Malartic, _Journal_. ]

[Footnote 465: _Letter and Order Books of Winslow. Winslow to Halifax, 30 Dec. 1756. _]

[Footnote 466: _Loudon to Denny, 28 Oct. 1756. Colonial Records of Pa_. , VII. 358-380. _Loudon to Pitt, 10 March, 1757. Notice of ColonelBouquet_, in _Pennsylvania Magazine_, III. 124. _The Conduct of a NobleCommander in America impartially reviewed_ (1758). ]

In New York the privates were quartered in barracks, but the officerswere left to find lodging for themselves. Loudon demanded that provisionshould be made for them also. The city council hesitated, afraid ofincensing the people if they complied. Cruger, the mayor, came toremonstrate. "God damn my blood!" replied the Earl; "if you do notbillet my officers upon free quarters this day, I'll order here all thetroops in North America, and billet them myself upon this city. " Beingno respecter of persons, at least in the provinces, he began with OliverDelancey, brother of the late acting Governor, and sent six soldiers tolodge under his roof. Delancey swore at the unwelcome guests, on whichLoudon sent him six more. A subscription was then raised among thecitizens, and the required quarters were provided. [467] In Boston therewas for the present less trouble. The troops were lodged in the barracksof Castle William, and furnished with blankets, cooking utensils, andother necessaries. [468]

[Footnote 467: Smith, _Hist. Of N. Y. _, Part II. 242. _William Carry toJohnson, 15 Jan. 1757_, in Stone, _Life of Sir William Johnson_, II. 24, _note. Loudon to Hardy, 21 Nov. 1756. _]

[Footnote 468: Massachusetts Archives, LXXVI. 153. ]

Major Eyre and his soldiers, in their wilderness exile by the borders ofLake George, whiled the winter away with few other excitements than theevening howl of wolves from the frozen mountains, or some nocturnalsavage shooting at a sentinel from behind a stump on the moonlit fieldsof 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 atFort William Henry in making snow-shoes and other preparation, and setout on the seventeenth. Captain Spikeman was second in command, withLieutenants Stark and Kennedy, several other subalterns, and twogentlemen volunteers enamoured of adventure. They marched down thefrozen lake and encamped at the Narrows. Some of them, unaccustomed tosnow-shoes, had become unfit for travel, and were sent back, thusreducing the number to seventy-four. In the morning they marched again, by icicled rocks and ice-bound waterfalls, mountains gray with nakedwoods and fir-trees bowed down with snow. On the nineteenth they reachedthe west shore, about four miles south of Rogers Rock, marched west ofnorth eight miles, and bivouacked among the mountains. On the nextmorning they changed their course, marched east of north all day, passedTiconderoga undiscovered, and stopped at night some five miles beyondit. The weather was changing, and rain was coming on. They scraped awaythe snow with their snow-shoes, piled in it a bank around them, madebeds of spruce-boughs, built fires, and lay down to sleep, while thesentinels kept watch in the outer gloom. In the morning there was adrizzling rain, and the softened snow stuck to their snow-shoes. Theymarched eastward three miles through the dripping forest, til theyreached the banks of Lake Champlain, near what is now called Five MilePoint, and presently saw a sledge, drawn by horses, moving on the icefrom Ticonderoga towards Crown Point. Rogers sent Stark along the shoreto the left to head it off, while he with another party, covered by thewoods, moved in the opposite direction to stop its retreat. He soon saweight or ten more sledges following the first, and sent a messenger toprevent Stark from showing himself too soon; but Stark was already onthe ice. 

All the sledges turned back in hot haste. The rangers ran in pursuit andcaptured three of them, with seven men and six horses, while the restescaped to Ticonderoga. The prisoners, being separately examined, toldan ominous tale. There were three hundred and fifty regulars atTiconderoga; two hundred Canadians and forty-five Indians had latelyarrived there, and more Indians were expected that evening, --alldestined to waylay the communications between the English forts, and allprepared to march at a moment's notice. The rangers were now in greatperil. The fugitives would give warning of their presence, and theFrench and Indians, in overwhelming force, would no doubt cut off theirretreat. 

Rogers at once ordered his men to return to their last night'sencampment, rekindle the fires, and dry their guns, which were wet bythe rain of the morning. Then they marched southward in single filethrough the snow-encumbered forest, Rogers and Kennedy in the front, Spikeman in the centre, and Stark in the rear. In this order they movedon over broken and difficult ground till two in the afternoon, when theycame upon a valley, or hollow, scarcely a musket-shot wide, which ranacross their line of march, and, like all the rest of the country, wasburied in thick woods. The front of the line had descended the firsthill, and was mounting that on the farther side, when the foremost menheard 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 ridgeabove them. Kennedy was killed outright, as also was Gardner, one of thevolunteers. Rogers was grazed in the head by a bullet, and others weredisabled or hurt. The rest returned the fire, while a swarm of Frenchand Indians rushed upon them from the ridge and the slopes on eitherhand, killing several more, Spikeman among the rest, and capturingothers. The rangers fell back across the hollow and regained the hillthey had just descended. Stark with the rear, who were at the top whenthe fray began, now kept the assailants in check by a brisk fire tilltheir comrades joined them. Then the whole party, spreading themselvesamong the trees that covered the declivity, stubbornly held their groundand beat back the French in repeated attempts to dislodge them. As theassailants were more than two to one, what Rogers had most to dread wasa 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. Thefight lasted several hours, during which there was much talk between thecombatants. The French called out that it was a pity so many brave menshould be lost, that large reinforcements were expected every moment, and that the rangers would then be cut to pieces without mercy; whereasif they surrendered at once they should be treated with the utmostkindness. They called to Rogers by name, and expressed great esteem forhim. Neither threats nor promises had any effect, and the firing went ontill darkness stopped it. Towards evening Rogers was shot through thewrist; and one of the men, John Shute, used to tell in his old age howhe saw another ranger trying to bind the captain's wound with the ribbonof his own queue. 

As Ticonderoga was but three miles off, it was destruction to stay wherethey were; and they withdrew under cover of night, reduced toforty-eight effective and six wounded men. Fourteen had been killed, andsix captured. Those that were left reached Lake George in the morning, and Stark, with two followers, pushed on in advance to bring a sledgefor the wounded. The rest made their way to the Narrows, where theyencamped, and presently descried a small dark object on the ice farbehind them. It proved to be one of their own number, Sergeant JoshuaMartin, who had received a severe wound in the fight, and was left fordead; but by desperate efforts had followed on their tracks, and was nowbrought to camp in a state of exhaustion. He recovered, and lived to anadvanced age. The sledge sent by Stark came in the morning, and thewhole 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 andfifty in all. Vaudreuil says that they consisted of eighty-nine regularsand ninety Canadians and Indians. With his usual boastful exaggeration, he declares that forty English were left dead on the field, and thatonly three reached Fort William Henry alive. He says that the fight wasextremely hot and obstinate, and admits that the French lostthirty-seven killed and wounded. Rogers makes the number much greater. That it was considerable is certain, as Lusignan, commandant atTiconderoga, wrote immediately for reinforcements. [469]

[Footnote 469: Rogers, _Journals_, 38-44. Caleb Stark, _Memoir andCorrespondence of John Stark_, 18, 412. _Return of Killed, Wounded, andMissing in the Action near Ticonderoga, Jan. 1757_; all the names arehere given. James Abercromby, aide-de-camp to his uncle, GeneralAbercromby, wrote to Rogers from Albany: "You cannot imagine how allranks of people here are pleased with your conduct and your men'sbehavior. "

The accounts of the French writers differ from each other, but agree inplacing the English force at from seventy to eighty, and their own muchhigher. The principal report is that of _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 19Avril, 1757_ (his second letter of this date). Bougainville, Montcalm, Malartic, and Montreuil all speak of the affair, placing the Englishloss much higher than is shown by the returns. The story, repeated inmost of the French narratives, that only three of the rangers reachedFort William Henry, seems to have arisen from the fact that Stark withtwo men went thither in advance of the rest. As regards the antecedentsof the combat, the French and English accounts agree. ]

The effects of his wound and an attack of small-pox kept Rogers quietfor a time. Meanwhile the winter dragged slowly away, and the ice ofLake George, cracking with change of temperature, uttered its strangecry of agony, heralding that dismal season when winter begins to relaxits grip, but spring still holds aloof; when the sap stirs in thesugar-maples, but the buds refuse to swell, and even the catkins of thewillows will not burst their brown integuments; when the forest ispatched with snow, though on its sunny slopes one hears in the stillnessthe whisper of trickling waters that ooze from the half-thawed soil andsaturated beds of fallen leaves; when clouds hang low on the darkenedmountains, 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 snowpowdering the waste, and wrapping it again in the pall of winter. 

In this cheerless season, on St. Patrick's Day, the seventeenth ofMarch, the Irish soldiers who formed a part of the garrison of FortWilliam Henry were paying homage to their patron saint in libations ofheretic rum, the product of New England stills; and it is said that JohnStark's rangers forgot theological differences in their zeal to sharethe festivity. The story adds that they were restrained by theircommander, and that their enforced sobriety proved the saving of thefort. This may be doubted; for without counting the English soldiers ofthe garrison who had no special call to be drunk that day, the fort wasin no danger till twenty-four hours after, when the revellers had hadtime to rally from their pious carouse. Whether rangers or Britishsoldiers, it is certain that watchmen were on the alert during the nightbetween the eighteenth and nineteenth, and that towards one in themorning they heard a sound of axes far down the lake, followed by thefaint glow of a distant fire. The inference was plain, that an enemy wasthere, and that the necessity of warming himself had overcome hiscaution. Then all was still for some two hours, when, listening in thepitchy darkness, the watchers heard the footsteps of a great body of menapproaching on the ice, which at the time was bare of snow. The garrisonwere at their posts, and all the cannon on the side towards the lakevomited grape and round-shot in the direction of the sound, whichthereafter was heard no more. 

Those who made it were a detachment, called by Vaudreuil an army, sentby him to seize the English fort. Shirley had planned a similar strokeagainst Ticonderoga a year before; but the provincial levies had come inso slowly, and the ice had broken up so soon, that the scheme wasabandoned. Vaudreuil was more fortunate. The whole force, regulars, Canadians, and Indians, was ready to his hand. No pains were spared inequipping them. Overcoats, blankets, bear-skins to sleep on, tarpaulinsto sleep under, spare moccasons, spare mittens, kettles, axes, needles, awls, flint and steel, and many miscellaneous articles were provided, tobe dragged by the men on light Indian sledges, along with provisions fortwelve days. The cost of the expedition is set at a million francs, answering to more than as many dollars of the present time. To thedisgust of the officers from France, the Governor named his brotherRigaud for the chief command; and before the end of February the wholeparty was on its march along the ice of Lake Champlain. They restednearly a week at Ticonderoga, where no less than three hundred shortscaling-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 daysalong Lake George, they neared the fort on the evening of theeighteenth, and prepared for a general assault before daybreak. 

The garrison, including rangers, consisted of three hundred andforty-six effective men. [470] The fort was not strong, and a resoluteassault by numbers so superior must, it seems, have overpowered thedefenders; but the Canadians and Indians who composed most of theattacking force were not suited for such work; and, disappointed in hishope of a surprise, Rigaud withdrew them at daybreak, after trying invain to burn the buildings outside. A few hours after, the whole bodyreappeared, filing off to surround the fort, on which they kept up abrisk but harmless fire of musketry. In the night they were heard againon the ice, approaching as if for an assault; and the cannon, firingtowards 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 inthe lake, and a large number of bateaux on the shore were seen to be onfire. A party sallied to save them; but it was too late. In the morningthey were all consumed, and the enemy had vanished. 

[Footnote 470: _Strength of the Garrison of Fort William Henry when theEnemy 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 theFrench filed out of the woods and marched across the ice in procession, ostentatiously carrying their scaling-ladders, and showing themselves tothe best effect. They stopped at a safe distance, fronting towards thefort, and several of them advanced, waving a red flag. An officer with afew men went to meet them, and returned bringing Le Mercier, chief ofthe Canadian artillery, who, being led blindfold into the fort, announced himself as bearer of a message from Rigaud. He was conductedto the room of Major Eyre, where all the British officers wereassembled; and, after mutual compliments, he invited them to give up theplace peaceably, promising the most favorable terms, and threatening ageneral assault and massacre in case of refusal. Eyre said that heshould defend himself to the last; and the envoy, again blindfolded, wasled back to whence he came. 

The whole French force now advanced as if to storm the works, and thegarrison prepared to receive them. Nothing came of it but a fusillade, to which the British made no reply. At night the French were heardadvancing again, and each man nerved himself for the crisis. The realattack, however, was not against the fort, but against the buildingsoutside, which consisted of several storehouses, a hospital, a saw-mill, and the huts of the rangers, besides a sloop on the stocks and piles ofplanks and cord-wood. Covered by the night, the assailants crept up withfagots of resinous sticks, placed them against the farther side of thebuildings, kindled them, and escaped before the flame rose; while thegarrison, straining their ears in the thick darkness, fired whereverthey heard a sound. Before morning all around them was in a blaze, andthey had much ado to save the fort barracks from the shower of burningcinders. At ten o'clock the fires had subsided, and a thick fall of snowbegan, filling the air with a restless chaos of large moist flakes. Thislasted all day and all the next night, till the ground and the ice werecovered to a depth of three feet and more. The French lay close in theircamps till a little before dawn on Tuesday morning, when twentyvolunteers from the regulars made a bold attempt to burn the sloop onthe stocks, with several storehouses and other structures, and severalhundred scows and whaleboats which had thus far escaped. They were onlyin part successful; but they fired the sloop and some buildings near it, and stood far out on the ice watching the flaming vessel, a superbbonfire amid the wilderness of snow. The spectacle cost the volunteers afourth 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 followerstoiling towards Canada on snow-shoes. Before they reached it many ofthem were blinded for a while by the insufferable glare, and theircomrades led them homewards by the hand. [471]

[Footnote 471: _Eyre to Loudon, 24 March, 1757. Ibid. , 25 March_, enclosed in Loudon's despatch of 25 April, 1757. _Message of Rigaud toMajor 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, acurious mixture of truth and error. _Relation de la Campagne sur le LacSt. 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 leCanada, 1749-1760. _

The French loss in killed and wounded is set by Montcalm at eleven. Thatof the English was seven, slightly wounded, chiefly in sorties. Theytook three prisoners. Stark was touched by a bullet, for the only timein his adventurous life. ]

Chapter 14

1757

Montcalm and Vaudreuil

Spring came at last, and the Dutch burghers of Albany heard, faint fromthe far height, the clamor of the wild-fowl, streaming in long filesnorthward to their summer home. As the aerial travellers winged theirway, the seat of war lay spread beneath them like a map. First the blueHudson, slumbering among its forests, with the forts along its banks, Half-Moon, Stillwater, Saratoga, and the geometric lines and earthenmounds of Fort Edward. Then a broad belt of dingy evergreen; and beyond, released from wintry fetters, the glistening breast of Lake George, withFort William Henry at its side, amid charred ruins and a desolation ofprostrate forests. Hence the lake stretched northward, like some broadriver, trenched between mountain ranges still leafless and gray. Thenthey looked down on Ticonderoga, with the flag of the Bourbons, like aflickering white speck, waving on its ramparts; and next on Crown Pointwith its tower of stone. Lake Champlain now spread before them, wideningas they flew: on the left, the mountain wilderness of the Adirondacks, like a stormy sea congealed; on the right, the long procession of theGreen Mountains; and, far beyond, on the dim verge of the eastern sky, the White Mountains throned in savage solitude. They passed over thebastioned square of Fort St. John, Fort Chambly guarding the rapids ofthe Richelieu, and the broad belt of the St. Lawrence, with Montrealseated on its bank. Here we leave them, to build their nests and hatchtheir brood among the fens of the lonely North. 

Montreal, the military heart of Canada, was in the past winter itssocial centre also, where were gathered conspicuous representatives bothof Old France and of New; not men only, but women. It was a sparklingfragment of the reign of Louis XV. Dropped into the American wilderness. Montcalm was here with his staff and his chief officers, now ponderingschemes of war, and now turning in thought to his beloved Château ofCandiac, his mother, children, and wife, to whom he sent letters withevery 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 loveyou tenderly, dearest. " He says that he has sent her a packet ofmarten-skins for a muff, "and another time I shall send some to ourdaughter; but I should like better to bring them myself. " Of this eldestdaughter he writes in reply to a letter of domestic news from Madame deMontcalm: "The new gown with blonde trimmings must be becoming, for sheis pretty. " Again, "There is not an hour in the day when I do not thinkof you, my mother and my children. " He had the tastes of a countrygentleman, 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, andwas well pleased to hear of its prosperity. "It seems to be a goodthing, which pleases me very much. Bougainville and I talk a great dealabout the oil-mill. " Some time after, when the King sent him the coveteddecoration of the _cordon rouge_, he informed Madame de Montcalm of thehonor done him, and added: "But I think I am better pleased with whatyou tell me of the success of my oil-mill. "

To his mother he writes of his absorbing occupations, and says: "You cantell 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 forsome little solace in his banishment; for he writes to Bourlamaque, whom he had left at Quebec, after a visit which he had himself madethere early in the winter: "I am glad you sometimes speak of me to thethree ladies in the Rue du Parloir; and I am flattered by theirremembrance, especially by that of one of them, in whom I find atcertain moments too much wit and too many charms for my tranquillity. "These ladies of the Rue du Parloir are several times mentioned in hisfamiliar correspondence with Bourlamaque. 

His station obliged him to maintain a high standard of living, to hisgreat financial detriment, for Canadian prices were inordinate. "I mustlive creditably, and so I do; sixteen persons at table every day. Once afortnight I dine with the Governor-General and with the Chevalier deLévis, who lives well too. He has given three grand balls. As for me, upto Lent I gave, besides dinners, great suppers, with ladies, three timesa 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 whohad been at supper. It is very expensive, not very amusing, and oftentedious. At Quebec, where we spent a month, I gave receptions orparties, often at the Intendant's house. I like my gallant Chevalier deLévis 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 mydaughters, and all affection and respect to my mother. I live only inthe hope of joining you all again. Nevertheless, Montreal is as good aplace as Alais even in time of peace, and better now, because theGovernment is here; for the Marquis de Vaudreuil, like me, spent only amonth at Quebec. As for Quebec, it is as good as the best cities ofFrance, except ten or so. Clear sky, bright sun; neither spring norautumn, only summer and winter. July, August, and September, hot as inLanguedoc: winter insupportable; one must keep always indoors. Theladies _spirituelles, galantes, dévotes_. Gambling at Quebec, dancingand conversation at Montreal. My friends the Indians, who are oftenunbearable, and whom I treat with perfect tranquillity and patience, arefond of me. If I were not a sort of general, though very subordinate tothe Governor, I could gossip about the plans of the campaign, which itis likely will begin on the tenth or fifteenth of May. I worked at theplan of the last affair [_Rigaud's expedition to Fort William Henry_], which might have turned out better, though good as it was. I wantedonly eight hundred men. If I had had my way, Monsieur de Lévis orMonsieur de Bougainville would have had charge of it. However, the thingwas all right, and in good hands. The Governor, who is extremely civilto me, gave it to his brother; he thought him more used to wintermarches. Adieu, my heart; I adore and love you!"

To meet his manifold social needs, he sends to his wife orders forprunes, olives, anchovies, muscat wine, capers, sausages, confectionery, cloth for liveries, and many other such items; also for scent-bags oftwo kinds, and perfumed pomatum for presents; closing in postscript withan injunction not to forget a dozen pint-bottles of English lavender. Some months after, he writes to Madame de Saint-Véran: "I have goteverything that was sent me from Montpellier except the sausages. I havelost a third of what was sent from Bordeaux. The English captured it onboard the ship called 'La Superbe;' and I have reason to fear thateverything sent from Paris is lost on board 'La Liberté. ' I am runninginto debt here. Pshaw! I must live. I do not worry myself. Best love toyou, my mother. "

When Rigaud was about to march with his detachment against Fort WilliamHenry, Montcalm went over to La Prairie to see them. "I reviewed them, "he writes to Bourlamaque, "and gave the officers a dinner, which, ifanybody else had given it, I should have said was a grand affair. Therewere two tables, for thirty-six persons in all. On Wednesday there wasan Assembly at Madame Varin's; on Friday the Chevalier de Lévis gave aball. He invited sixty-five ladies, and got only thirty, with a greatcrowd of men. Rooms well lighted, excellent order, excellent service, plenty of refreshments of every sort all through the night; and thecompany stayed till seven in the morning. As for me, I went to bedearly. I had had that day eight ladies at a supper given to MadameVarin. To-morrow I shall have half-a-dozen at another supper, given to Idon't know whom, but incline to think it will be La Roche Beaucour. Thegallant Chevalier is to give us still another ball. "

Lent put a check on these festivities. "To-morrow, " he tellsBourlamaque, "I shall throw myself into devotion with might and main (_àcorps perdu_). It will be easier for me to detach myself from the worldand 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 intheir refectory at a quarter before six. "

In May there was a complete revival of social pleasures, and Montcalmwrote to Bourlamaque: "Madame de Beaubassin's supper was very gay. Therewere toasts to the Rue du Parloir and to the General. To-day I must givea 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 withLa Barolon, who goes thither with a husband of hers, bound to the Ohiowith Villejoin and Louvigny. The Chevalier de Lévis amuses himself verymuch here. He and his friends spend all their time with Madame deLenisse. "

Under these gayeties and gallantries there were bitter heart-burnings. Montcalm hints at some of them in a letter to Bourlamaque, written atthe time of the expedition to Fort William Henry, which, in the words ofMontcalm, who would have preferred another commander, the Governor hadordered to march "under the banners of brother Rigaud. " "After he got myletter on Sunday evening, " says the disappointed General, "Monsieur deVaudreuil sent me his secretary with the instructions he had given hisbrother, " which he had hitherto withheld. "This gave rise after dinnerto a long conversation with him; and I hope for the good of the servicethat his future conduct will prove the truth of his words. I spoke tohim with frankness and firmness of the necessity I was under ofcommunicating to him my reflections; but I did not name any of thepersons who, to gain his good graces, busy themselves with destroyinghis confidence in me. I told him that he would always find me disposedto aid in measures tending to our success, even should his views, whichalways ought to prevail, be different from mine; but that I daredflatter myself that he would henceforward communicate his plans to mesooner; for, though his knowledge of the country gave greater weight tohis opinions, he might rest satisfied that I should second him inmethods and details. This explanation passed off becomingly enough, andended 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 todo the same with mine, after making a note of anything you may want tokeep. " But Bourlamaque kept all the letters, and bound them in a volume, which still exists. [472]

[Footnote 472: The preceding extracts are from _Lettres de Montcalm àMadame de Saint-Véran, sa Mère, et à Madame de Montcalm, sa Femme_, 1756, 1757 (_Papiers de Famille_); and _Lettres de Montcalm àBourlamaque_, 1757. See Appendix E. ]

Montcalm was not at this time fully aware of the feeling of Vaudreuiltowards him. The touchy egotism of the Governor and his jealousattachment to the colony led him to claim for himself and the Canadiansthe merit of every achievement and to deny it to the French troops andtheir general. Before the capture of Oswego was known, he wrote to thenaval minister that Montcalm would never have dared attack that place ifhe had not encouraged him and answered his timid objections. [473] "I amconfident that I shall reduce it, " he adds; "my expedition is sure tosucceed if Monsieur de Montcalm follows the directions I have givenhim. " When the good news came he immediately wrote again, declaring thatthe victory was due to his brother Rigaud and the Canadians, who, hesays, had been ill-used by the General, and not allowed either to enterthe fort or share the plunder, any more than the Indians, who were soangry at the treatment they had met that he had great difficulty inappeasing 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 thehonor of repeating it to you, especially as it relates to myself. I knowhow to do violence to my self-love. The measures I took assured ourvictory, in spite of opposition. If I had been less vigilant and firm, Oswego would still be in the hands of the English. I cannot sufficientlycongratulate myself on the zeal which my brother and the Canadians andIndians showed on this occasion; for without them my orders would havebeen 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 thebud. "[474]

[Footnote 473: _Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine_, 13 _Août_, 1756. ]

[Footnote 474: _Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine_, 1 _Sept. _ 1756. ]

The pronouns "I" and "my" recur with monotonous frequency in hiscorrespondence. "I have laid waste all the British provinces. " "Bypromptly uniting my forces at Carillon, I have kept General Loudon incheck, though he had at his disposal an army of about twenty thousandmen;"[475] and so without end, in all varieties of repetition. It is noless characteristic that he here assigns to his enemies double theiractual force. 

[Footnote 475: _Ibid. _, 6 _Nov. _ 1756. ]

He has the faintest of praise for the troops from France. "They aregenerally good, but thus far they have not absolutely distinguishedthemselves. I do justice to the firmness they showed at Oswego; but itwas only the colony troops, Canadians, and Indians who attacked theforts. Our artillery was directed by the Chevalier Le Mercier and M. Frémont [_colony officers_], and was served by our colony troops and ourmilitia. The officers from France are more inclined to defence thanattack. Far from spending the least thing here, they lay by their pay. They saved the money allowed them for refreshments, and had it in pocketat the end of the campaign. They get a profit, too, out of theirprovisions, by having certificates made under borrowed names, so thatthey can draw cash for them on their return. It is the same with thesoldiers, who also sell their provisions to the King and get paid forthem. In conjunction with M. Bigot, I labor to remedy all these abuses;and the rules we have established have saved the King a considerableexpense. M. De Montcalm has complained very much of these rules. " TheIntendant Bigot, who here appears as a reformer, was the centre of amonstrous system of public fraud and robbery; while the charges againstthe French officers are unsupported. Vaudreuil, who never loses anopportunity 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 officersthreaten them with sticks or swords? The Canadians are obliged to carrythese gentry on their shoulders, through the cold water, over rocks thatcut their feet; and if they make a false step they are abused. Cananything be harder? Finally, Monsieur de Montcalm is so quick-temperedthat he goes to the length of striking the Canadians. How can herestrain his officers when he cannot restrain himself? Could any examplebe more contagious? This is the way our Canadians are treated. Theydeserve something better. " He then enlarges on their zeal, hardihood, and bravery, and adds that nothing but their blind submission to hiscommands prevents many of them from showing resentment at the usage theyhad to endure. The Indians, he goes on to say, are not so gentle andyielding; and but for his brother Rigaud and himself, might have goneoff in a rage. "After the campaign of Oswego they did not hesitate totell me that they would go wherever I sent them, provided I did not putthem under the orders of M. De Montcalm. They told me positively thatthey could not bear his quick temper. I shall always maintain the mostperfect union and understanding with M. Le Marquis de Montcalm, but Ishall be forced to take measures which will assure to our Canadians andIndians treatment such as their zeal and services merit. "[476]

[Footnote 476: _Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 23 Oct. 1756_. Theabove extracts are somewhat condensed in the translation. See the letterin Dussieux, 279. ]

To the subject of his complaints Vaudreuil used a different language;for Montcalm says, after mentioning that he had had occasion to punishsome of the Canadians at Oswego: "I must do Monsieur de Vaudreuil thejustice to say that he approved my proceedings. " He treated the Generalwith the blandest politeness. "He is a good-natured man, " continuesMontcalm, "mild, with no character of his own, surrounded by people whotry to destroy all his confidence in the general of the troops fromFrance. I am praised excessively, in order to make him jealous, excitehis Canadian prejudices, and prevent him from dealing with me frankly, or adopting my views when he can help it. "[477] He elsewhere complainsthat Vaudreuil gave to both him and Lévis orders couched in suchequivocal terms that he could throw the blame on them in case ofreverse. [478] Montcalm liked the militia no better than the Governorliked the regulars. "I have used them with good effect, though not inplaces exposed to the enemy's fire. They know neither discipline norsubordination, and think themselves in all respects the first nation onearth. " He is sure, however, that they like him: "I have gained theutmost confidence of the Canadians and Indians; and in the eyes of theformer, when I travel or visit their camps, I have the air of a tribuneof the people. "[479] "The affection of the Indians for me is so strongthat there are moments when it astonishes the Governor. "[480] "TheIndians are delighted with me, " he says in another letter; "theCanadians are pleased with me; their officers esteem and fear me, andwould be glad if the French troops and their general could be dispensedwith; and so should I. "[481] And he writes to his mother: "The part Ihave to play is unique: I am a general-in-chief subordinated; sometimeswith 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]

[Footnote 477: _Montcalm au Ministre de la Guerre, 11 Juillet, 1757. _]

[Footnote 478: _Montcalm au Ministre de la Guerre, 1 Nov. 1756. _]

[Footnote 479: _Ibid. , 18 Sept. 1757. _]

[Footnote 480: _Ibid. , 4 Nov. 1757. _]

[Footnote 481: _Ibid. , 28 Août, 1756. _]

[Footnote 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 byhis friend Bougainville, who says that the Indians had a great likingfor him, and that he "knew how to manage them as well as if he had beenborn in their wigwams. "[483] And while Vaudreuil complains that theCanadians are ill-used by Montcalm, Bougainville declares that theregulars are ill-used by Vaudreuil. "One must be blind not to see thatwe are treated as the Spartans treated the Helots. " Then he comments onthe jealous reticence of the Governor. "The Marquis de Montcalm has notthe honor of being consulted; and it is generally through public rumorthat he first hears of Monsieur de Vaudreuil's military plans. " He callsthe Governor "a timid man, who can neither make a resolution nor keepone;" and he gives another trait of him, illustrating it, after hisusual way, by a parallel from the classics: "When V. Produces an idea hefalls in love with it, as Pygmalion did with his statue. I can forgivePygmalion, for what he produced was a masterpiece. "[484]

[Footnote 483: _Bougainville à Saint-Laurens, 19 Août, 1757. _]

[Footnote 484: Bougainville, _Journal_. ]

The exceeding touchiness of the Governor was sorely tried by certainindiscretions on the part of the General, who in his rapid and vehementutterances sometimes forgot the rules of prudence. His anger, though notdeep, was extremely impetuous; and it is said that his irritationagainst Vaudreuil sometimes found escape in the presence of servants andsoldiers. [485] There was no lack of reporters, and the Governor was toldeverything. The breach widened apace, and Canada divided itself into twocamps: that of Vaudreuil with the colony officers, civil and military, and that of Montcalm with the officers from France. The principalexception was the Chevalier de Lévis. This brave and able commander hadan easy and adaptable nature, which made him a sort of connecting linkbetween the two parties. "One should be on good terms with everybody, "was a maxim which he sometimes expressed, and on which he shaped hisconduct with notable success. The Intendant Bigot also, an adroit andaccomplished person, had the skill to avoid breaking with either side. 

[Footnote 485: _Événements de la Guerre en Canada, 1759, 1760. _]

But now the season of action was near, and domestic strife must giveplace to efforts against the common foe. "God or devil!" Montcalm wroteto 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. Burnthis letter. " The prospects, on the whole, were hopeful. The victory atOswego had wrought marvels among the Indians, inspired the faithful, confirmed the wavering, and daunted the ill-disposed. The whole West wasastir, ready to pour itself again in blood and fire against the Englishborder; and even the Cherokees and Choctaws, old friends of the Britishcolonies, seemed on the point of turning against them. [486] The FiveNations were half won for France. In November a large deputation of themcame to renew the chain of friendship at Montreal. "I have laid Oswegoin ashes, " said Vaudreuil; "the English quail before me. Why do younourish serpents in your bosom? They mean only to enslave you. " Thedeputies trampled under foot the medals the English had given them, andpromised the "Devourer of Villages, " for so they styled the Governor, that they would never more lift the hatchet against his children. Thechief difficulty was to get rid of them; for, being clothed and fed atthe expense of the King, they were in no haste to take leave; andlearning that New Year's Day was a time of visits, gifts, andhealth-drinking, they declared that they would stay to share itspleasures; which they did, to their own satisfaction and the annoyanceof those who were forced to entertain them and their squaws. [487] Anactive siding with France was to be expected only from the western bandsof the Confederacy. Neutrality alone could be hoped for from the others, who were too near the English safely to declare against them; while fromone of the tribes, the Mohawks, even neutrality was doubtful. 

[Footnote 486: _Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 19 Avril, 1757_. ]

[Footnote 487: _Montcalm au Ministre de la Guerre, 24 Avril, 1757;Relation de l'Ambassade des Cinq Nations à Montreal, jointe á la lettreprécédente. Procès-verbal de différentes Entrevues entre M. De Vaudreuilet les Deputés des Nations sauvages du 13 au 30 Déc. 1756. Malartic, Journal. Montcalm á Madame de Saint-Véran, 1 Avril, 1757_. ]

Vaudreuil, while disliking the French regulars, felt that he could notdispense with them, and had asked for a reinforcement. His request wasgranted; and the Colonial Minister informed him that twenty-four hundredmen had been ordered to Canada to strengthen the colony regulars and thebattalions of Montcalm. [488] This, according to the estimate of theMinister, would raise the regular force in Canada to sixty-six hundredrank and file. [489] The announcement was followed by another, lessagreeable. It was to the effect that a formidable squadron was fittingout in British ports. Was Quebec to be attacked, or Louisbourg?Louisbourg was beyond reach of succor from Canada; it must rely on itsown strength and on help from France. But so long as Quebec wasthreatened, all the troops in the colony must be held ready to defendit, and the hope of attacking England in her own domains must beabandoned. Till these doubts were solved, nothing could be done; andhence great activity in catching prisoners for the sake of news. A fewwere brought in, but they knew no more of the matter than the Frenchthemselves; and Vaudreuil and Montcalm rested for a while in suspense. 

[Footnote 488: _Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, Mars, 1757. _]

[Footnote 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. TheEnglish 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 possibleattack on Quebec, but with the reduction of Louisbourg as its immediateobject, --an important object, no doubt, but one that had no directbearing on the main question of controlling the interior of thecontinent. Pitt, then for a brief space at the head of the Government, accepted the suggestion, and set himself to executing it; but he washampered by opposition, and early in April was forced to resign. Then, followed a contest of rival claimants to office; and the war againstFrance was made subordinate to disputes of personal politics. Meanwhileone Florence Hensey, a spy at London, had informed the French Court thata great armament was fitting out for America, though he could not tellits precise destination. Without loss of time three French squadronswere 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. Everythingdepended on speed; yet their fleet, under Admiral Holbourne, consistingof fifteen ships of the line and three frigates, with about fivethousand troops on board, did not get to sea till the fifth of May, whenit made sail for Halifax, where Loudon was to meet it with additionalforces. 

Loudon had drawn off the best part of the troops from the northernfrontier, and they were now at New York waiting for embarkation. Thatthe design might be kept secret, he laid an embargo on colonialshipping, --a measure which exasperated the colonists without answeringits purpose. Now ensued a long delay, during which the troops, theprovincial levies, the transports destined to carry them, and the shipsof war which were to serve as escort, all lay idle. In the intervalLoudon showed great activity in writing despatches and other avocationsmore or less proper to a commander, being always busy, without, according to Franklin, accomplishing anything. One Innis, who had comewith a message from the Governor of Pennsylvania, and had waited above afortnight 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. Hewas waiting for news of Holbourne, and he waited in vain. He knew onlythat a French fleet had been seen off the coast strong enough tooverpower his escort and sink all his transports. [491] But the seasonwas growing late; he must act quickly if he was to act at all. He andSir Charles Hardy agreed between them that the risk must be run; and onthe twentieth of June the whole force put to sea. They met no enemy, andentered Halifax harbor on the thirtieth. Holbourne and his fleet had notyet appeared; but his ships soon came straggling in, and before thetenth of July all were at anchor before the town. Then there was moredelay. The troops, nearly twelve thousand in all, were landed, and weekswere spent in drilling them and planting vegetables for theirrefreshment. Sir Charles Hay was put under arrest for saying that thenation's money was spent in sham battles and raising cabbages. Someattempts were made to learn the state of Louisbourg; and Captain Gorham, of the rangers, who reconnoitred it from a fishing vessel, brought backan imperfect report, upon which, after some hesitation, it was resolvedto proceed to the attack. The troops were embarked again, and all wasready, when, on the fourth of August, a sloop came from Newfoundland, bringing letters found on board a French vessel lately captured. Fromthese it appeared that all three of the French squadrons were united inthe harbor of Louisbourg, to the number of twenty-two ships of the line, besides several frigates, and that the garrison had been increased to atotal force of seven thousand men, ensconced in the strongest fortressof the continent. So far as concerned the naval force, the account wastrue. La Motte, the French admiral, had with him a fleet carrying anaggregate of thirteen hundred and sixty cannon, anchored in a shelteredharbor under the guns of the town. Success was now hopeless, and thecostly enterprise was at once abandoned. Loudon with his troops sailedback for New York, and Admiral Holbourne, who had been joined by fouradditional ships, steered for Louisbourg, in hopes that the French fleetwould come out and fight him. He cruised off the port; but La Motte didnot accept the challenge. 

[Footnote 490: _Works of Franklin_, I. 219. Franklin intimates thatwhile Loudon was constantly writing, he rarely sent off despatches. Thisis a mistake; there is abundance of them, often tediously long, in thePublic Record Office. ]

[Footnote 491: _Loudon to Pitt_, 30 _May_, 1757. He had not learnedPitt's resignation. ]

The elements declared for France. A September gale, of fury rare even onthat tempestuous coast, burst upon the British fleet. "It blew a perfecthurricane, " says the unfortunate Admiral, "and drove us right on shore. "One ship was dashed on the rocks, two leagues from Louisbourg. Ashifting of the wind in the nick of time saved the rest from totalwreck. Nine were dismasted; others threw their cannon into the sea. Notone was left fit for immediate action; and had La Motte sailed out ofLouisbourg, he would have had them all at his mercy. 

Delay, the source of most of the disasters that befell England and hercolonies at this dismal epoch, was the ruin of the Louisbourgexpedition. The greater part of La Motte's fleet reached its destinationa full month before that of Holbourne. Had the reverse taken place, thefortress must have fallen. As it was, the ill-starred attempt, drawingoff the British forces from the frontier, where they were needed most, did for France more than she could have done for herself, and gaveMontcalm and Vaudreuil the opportunity to execute a scheme which theyhad nursed since the fall of Oswego. [492]

[Footnote 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 aNoble Commander in America impartially reviewed_ (London, 1758). Beatson, _Naval and Military Memoirs_, II. 49-59. _Answer to the Letterto two Great Men_ (London, 1760). Entick, II. 168, 169. _Holbourne toLoudon_, 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'AmiralHolbourne_. Chevalier Johnstone, _Campaign of Louisbourg. LondonMagazine_, 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 reportsof 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 ofwar. Bougainville says that as early as the ninth of June there weretwenty-one ships of war, including five frigates, at Louisbourg. To thisthe list given by Knox closely answers. ]

Chapter 15

1757

Fort William Henry

"I am going on the ninth to sing the war-song at the Lake of TwoMountains, 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 tellyou by the end of this month or the beginning of next. " Thus Montcalmwrote to his wife from Montreal early in July. All doubts had beensolved. Prisoners taken on the Hudson and despatches from Versailles hadmade it certain that Loudon was bound to Louisbourg, carrying with himthe best of the troops that had guarded the New York frontier. The timewas come, not only to strike the English on Lake George, but perhaps toseize Fort Edward and carry terror to Albany itself. Only one difficultyremained, the want of provisions. Agents were sent to collect corn andbacon among the inhabitants; the curés and militia captains were orderedto aid in the work; and enough was presently found to feed twelvethousand men for a month. [493]

[Footnote 493: Vaudreuil, _Lettres circulates aux Curés et auxCapitaines de Milice des Paroisses du Gouvernement de Montreal, 16 Juin, 1757. _]

The emissaries of the Governor had been busy all winter among the tribesof the West and North; and more than a thousand savages, lured byprospect of gifts, scalps, and plunder, were now encamped at Montreal. Many of them had never visited a French settlement before. All wereeager to see Montcalm, whose exploit in taking Oswego had inflamed theirimagination; and one day, on a visit of ceremony, an orator fromMichillimackinac addressed the General thus: "We wanted to see thisfamous man who tramples the English under his feet. We thought we shouldfind him so tall that his head would be lost in the clouds. But you area little man, my Father. It is when we look into your eyes that we seethe greatness of the pine-tree and the fire of the eagle. "[494]

[Footnote 494: Bougainville, _Journal_. ]

It remained to muster the Mission Indians settled in or near the limitsof the colony; and it was to this end that Montcalm went to sing thewar-song with the converts of the Two Mountains. Rigaud, Bougainville, young Longueuil, and others were of the party; and when they landed, theIndians came down to the shore, their priests at their head, and greetedthe General with a volley of musketry; then received him after dark intheir grand council-lodge, where the circle of wild and savage visages, half seen in the dim light of a few candles, suggested to Bougainville amidnight conclave of wizards. He acted vicariously the chief part in theceremony. "I sang the war-song in the name of M. De Montcalm, and wasmuch applauded. It was nothing but these words: 'Let us trample theEnglish under our feet, ' chanted over and over again, in cadence withthe movements of the savages. " Then came the war-feast, against whichoccasion Montcalm had caused three oxen to be roasted. [495] On the nextday the party went to Caughnawaga, or Saut St. Louis, where the ceremonywas repeated; and Bougainville, who again sang the war-song in the nameof his commander, was requited by adoption into the clan of the Turtle. Three more oxen were solemnly devoured, and with one voice the warriorstook up the hatchet. 

[Footnote 495: Bougainville describes a ceremony in the Mission Churchof 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 onthe same spot, and heard the descendants of the same warriors and squawssing like their ancestors. Great changes have since taken place at thisold mission. ]

Meanwhile troops, Canadians and Indians, were moving by detachments upLake Champlain. Fleets of bateaux and canoes followed each other day byday 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 Maywith the battalions of Béarn and Royal Roussillon, finishing the fort, sending out war-parties, and trying to discover the force and designs ofthe English at Fort William Henry. 

Ticonderoga is a high rocky promontory between Lake Champlain on thenorth and the mouth of the outlet of Lake George on the south. Near itsextremity and close to the fort were still encamped the two battalionsunder Bourlamaque, while bateaux and canoes were passing incessantly upthe river of the outlet. There were scarcely two miles of navigablewater, at the end of which the stream fell foaming over a high ledge ofrock that barred the way. Here the French were building a saw-mill; anda wide space had been cleared to form an encampment defended on allsides by an abattis, within which stood the tents of the battalions ofLa Reine, La Sarre, Languedoc, and Guienne, all commanded by Lévis. Above the cascade the stream circled through the forest in a series ofbeautiful rapids, and from the camp of Lévis a road a mile and a halflong had been cut to the navigable water above. At the end of this roadthere was another fortified camp, formed of colony regulars, Canadians, and Indians, under Rigaud. It was scarcely a mile farther to LakeGeorge, where on the western side there was an outpost, chiefly ofCanadians and Indians; while advanced parties were stationed at BaldMountain, now called Rogers Rock, and elsewhere on the lake, to watchthe movements of the English. The various encampments just mentionedwere ranged along a valley extending four miles from Lake Champlain toLake George, and bordered by mountains wooded to the top. 

Here was gathered a martial population of eight thousand men, includingthe brightest civilization and the darkest barbarism: from thescholar-soldier Montcalm and his no less accomplished aide-de-camp; fromLévis, conspicuous for graces of person; from a throng of courtly youngofficers, who would have seemed out of place in that wilderness had theynot done their work so well in it; from these to the foulest man eatingsavage 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 theyall bivouacked where they saw fit: for no man could control them. "I seeno difference, " says Bougainville, "in the dress, ornaments, dances, andsongs of the various western nations. They go naked, excepting a stripof cloth passed through a belt, and paint themselves black, red, blue, and other colors. Their heads are shaved and adorned with bunches offeathers, and they wear rings of brass wire in their ears. They wearbeaver-skin blankets, and carry lances, bows and arrows, and quiversmade 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 itonce for all, one must be the slave of these savages, listen to them dayand night, in council and in private, whenever the fancy takes them, orwhenever a dream, a fit of the vapors, or their perpetual craving forbrandy, gets possession of them; besides which they are always wantingsomething for their equipment, arms, or toilet, and the general of thearmy 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 aweek; they would consume them in three days, and come for more. On oneoccasion they took the matter into their own hands, and butchered anddevoured eighteen head of cattle intended for the troops; nor did anyofficer dare oppose this "St. Bartholomew of the oxen, " as Bougainvillecalls it. "Their paradise is to be drunk, " says the young officer. Theirparadise was rather a hell; for sometimes, when mad with brandy, theygrappled and tore each other with their teeth like wolves. They werecontinually "making medicine, " that is, consulting the Manitou, to whomthey hung up offerings, sometimes a dead dog, and sometimes thebelt-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 influenceover them. They were armed with guns, which they well knew how to use. Their dress, though savage, was generally decent, and they were notcannibals; though in other respects they retained all their traditionalferocity and most of their traditional habits. They held frequentwar-feasts, one of which is described by Roubaud, Jesuit missionary ofthe Abenakis of St. Francis, whose flock formed a part of the companypresent. 

"Imagine, " says the father, "a great assembly of savages adorned withevery ornament most suited to disfigure them in European eyes, paintedwith vermilion, white, green, yellow, and black made of soot and thescrapings of pots. A single savage face combines all these differentcolors, methodically laid on with the help of a little tallow, whichserves for pomatum. The head is shaved except at the top, where there isa small tuft, to which are fastened feathers, a few beads of wampum, orsome such trinket. Every part of the head has its ornament. Pendantshang from the nose and also from the ears, which are split in infancyand drawn down by weights till they flap at last against the shoulders. The rest of the equipment answers to this fantastic decoration: a shirtbedaubed with vermilion, wampum collars, silver bracelets, a large knifehanging on the breast, moose-skin moccasons, and a belt of variouscolors always absurdly combined. The sachems and war-chiefs aredistinguished from the rest: the latter by a gorget, and the former by amedal, with the King's portrait on one side, and on the other Mars andBellona joining hands, with the device, _Virtues et Honor_. "

Thus attired, the company sat in two lines facing each other, withkettles in the middle filled with meat chopped for distribution. To adignified silence succeeded songs, sung by several chiefs in succession, and compared by the narrator to the howling of wolves. Then followed aspeech from the chief orator, highly commended by Roubaud, who could nothelp admiring this effort of savage eloquence. "After the harangue, " hecontinues, "they proceeded to nominate the chiefs who were to takecommand. As soon as one was named he rose and took the head of someanimal that had been butchered for the feast. He raised it aloft so thatall 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. Thechief, with the head in his hand, passed down between the lines, singinghis war-song, bragging of his exploits, taunting and defying the enemy, and glorifying himself beyond all measure. To hear his self-laudation inthese moments of martial transport one would think him a conquering heroready to sweep everything before him. As he passed in front of the othersavages, they would respond by dull broken cries jerked up from thedepths of their stomachs, and accompanied by movements of their bodiesso odd that one must be well used to them to keep countenance. In thecourse of his song the chief would utter from time to time somegrotesque witticism; then he would stop, as if pleased with himself, orrather to listen to the thousand confused cries of applause that greetedhis ears. He kept up his martial promenade as long as he liked thesport; and when he had had enough, ended by flinging down the head ofthe animal with an air of contempt, to show that his warlike appetitecraved meat of another sort. "[496] Others followed with similar songsand pantomime, and the festival was closed at last by ladling out themeat from the kettles, and devouring it. 

[Footnote 496: _Lettre du Père_ . .. (Roubaud), _Missionnaire chez lesAbnakis, 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 athousand Indians, watching four or five English prisoners, who, with thewar-party that had captured them, were approaching in a boat from thefarther side of the water. Suddenly the whole savage crew broke awaytogether and ran into the neighboring woods, whence they soon emerged, yelling diabolically, each armed with a club. The wretched prisonerswere to be forced to "run the gauntlet" which would probably have killedthem. 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 andforbade the game; upon which, according to rule in such cases, the restabandoned it. On this same day the missionary met troops of Indiansconducting several bands of English prisoners along the road that ledthrough the forest from the camp of Lévis. Each of the captives was heldby a cord made fast about the neck; and the sweat was starting fromtheir brows in the extremity of their horror and distress. Roubaud'stent was at this time in the camp of the Ottawas. He presently saw alarge number of them squatted about a fire, before which meat wasroasting on sticks stuck in the ground; and, approaching, he saw that itwas the flesh of an Englishman, other parts of which were boiling in akettle, while near by sat eight or ten of the prisoners, forced to seetheir comrade devoured. The horror-stricken priest began to remonstrate;on which a young savage fiercely replied in broken French: "You haveFrench taste; I have Indian. This is good meat for me;" and the feasterspressed him to share it. 

Bougainville says that this abomination could not be prevented; whichonly means that if force had been used to stop it, the Ottawas wouldhave gone home in a rage. They were therefore left to finish their mealundisturbed. Having eaten one of their prisoners, they began to treatthe rest with the utmost kindness, bringing them white bread, andattending to all their wants--a seeming change of heart due to the factthat they were a valuable commodity, for which the owners hoped to get agood price at Montreal. Montcalm wished to send them thither at once, towhich after long debate the Indians consented, demanding, however, areceipt in full, and bargaining that the captives should be suppliedwith shoes and blankets. [497]

[Footnote 497: _Journal de l'Expédition contre le Fort George_ [WilliamHenry] _du 12 Juillet au 16 Août_, 1757. Bougainville, _Journal. Lettredu P. Roubaud_. ]

These unfortunates belonged to a detachment of three hundredprovincials, chiefly New Jersey men, sent from Fort William Henry undercommand of Colonel Parker to reconnoitre the French outposts. Montcalm'sscouts discovered them; on which a band of Indians, considerably morenumerous, went to meet them under a French partisan named Corbière, andambushed themselves not far from Sabbath Day Point. Parker had rashlydivided his force; and at daybreak of the twenty-sixth of July three ofhis boats fell into the snare, and were captured without a shot. Threeothers followed, in ignorance of what had happened, and shared the fateof the first. When the rest drew near, they were greeted by a deadlyvolley 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 thewater to escape, while the Indians leaped after them and speared themwith their lances like fish. "Terrified, " says Bougainville, "by thesight 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 thebodies were eaten on the spot. The journalist adds that the victory soelated the Indians that they became insupportable; "but here in theforests of America we can no more do without them than without cavalryon the plain. "[498]

[Footnote 498: Bougainville, _Journal_. Malartic, _Journal. Montcalm àVaudreuil, 27 Juillet, 1757. Webb to Loudon, 1 Aug. 1757. Webb toDelancey, 30 July, 1757. Journal de l'Expédition contre le Fort George. London Magazine_, 1757, 457. Miles, _French and Indian Wars. BostonGazette, 15 Aug. 1757. _]

Another success at about the same time did not tend to improve theirmanners. A hundred and fifty of them, along with a few Canadians underMarin, made a dash at Fort Edward, killed or drove in the pickets, andreturned with thirty-two scalps and a prisoner. It was found, however, that the scalps were far from representing an equal number of heads, theIndians having learned the art of making two or three out of one byjudicious division. [499]

[Footnote 499: This affair was much exaggerated at the time. I followBougainville, who had the facts from Marin. According to him, thethirty-two scalps represented eleven killed; which exactly answers tothe English loss as stated by Colonel Frye in a letter from FortEdward. ]

Preparations were urged on with the utmost energy. Provisions, campequipage, ammunition, cannon, and bateaux were dragged by gangs of menup the road from the camp of Lévis to the head of the rapids. The workwent on through heat and rain, by day and night, till, at the end ofJuly, all was done. Now, on the eve of departure, Montcalm, anxious forharmony among his red allies, called them to a grand council near thecamp of Rigaud. Forty-one tribes and sub-tribes, Christian and heathen, from the east and from the west, were represented in it. Here were themission savages, --Iroquois of Caughnawaga, Two Mountains, and LaPrésentation; Hurons of Lorette and Detroit; Nipissings of LakeNipissing; Abenakis of St. Francis, Becancour, Missisqui, and thePenobscot; Algonkins of Three Rivers and Two Mountains; Micmacs andMalecites from Acadia: in all eight hundred chiefs and warriors. Withthese came the heathen of the west, --Ottawas of seven distinct bands;Ojibwas from Lake Superior, and Mississagas from the region of LakesErie and Huron; Pottawattamies and Menomonies from Lake Michigan; Sacs, Foxes, and Winnebagoes from Wisconsin; Miamis from the prairies ofIllinois, and Iowas from the banks of the Des Moines: nine hundred andseventy-nine chiefs and warriors, men of the forests and men of theplains, hunters of the moose and hunters of the buffalo, bearers ofsteel hatchets and stone war-clubs, of French guns and of flint-headedarrows. All sat in silence, decked with ceremonial paint, scalp-locks, eagle plumes, or horns of buffalo; and the dark and wild assemblage wasedged with white uniforms of officers from France, who came in numbersto the spectacle. Other officers were also here, all belonging to thecolony. They had been appointed to the command of the Indian allies, over whom, however, they had little or no real authority. First amongthem was the bold and hardy Saint-Luc de la Corne, who was calledgeneral of the Indians; and under him were others, each assigned to sometribe or group of tribes, --the intrepid Marin; Charles Langlade, who hadleft his squaw wife at Michillimackinac to join the war; Niverville, Langis, La Plante, Hertel, Longueuil, Herbin, Lorimier, Sabrevois, andFleurimont; men familiar from childhood with forests and savages. Eachtribe had its interpreter, often as lawless as those with whom he hadspent his life; and for the converted tribes there were threemissionaries, --Piquet for the Iroquois, Mathevet for the Nipissings, whowere half heathen, and Roubaud for the Abenakis. [500]

[Footnote 500: The above is chiefly from _Tableau des Sauvages qui setrouvent 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 underthe head of Christians, it is stated that a few of the Ottawas ofDetroit and Michillimackinac still retained the faith. ]

There was some complaint among the Indians because they were crowdedupon by the officers who came as spectators. This difficulty beingremoved, the council opened, Montcalm having already explained his plansto the chiefs and told them the part he expected them to play. 

Pennahouel, chief of the Ottawas, and senior of all the Assembly, roseand said: "My father, I, who have counted more moons than any here, thank you for the good words you have spoken. I approve them. Nobodyever spoke better. It is the Manitou of War who inspires you. "

Kikensick, chief of the Nipissings, rose in behalf of the ChristianIndians, and addressed the heathen of the west. "Brothers, we thank youfor coming to help us defend our lands against the English. Our cause isgood. 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. Thelake, red with the blood of Corlaer [_the English_] bears witnessforever to your achievement. We too share your glory, and are proud ofwhat you have done. " Then, turning to Montcalm: "We are even more gladthan you, my father, who have crossed the great water, not for your ownsake, but to obey the great King and defend his children. He has boundus all together by the most solemn of ties. Let us take care thatnothing shall separate us. "

The various interpreters, each in turn, having explained this speech tothe Assembly, it was received with ejaculations of applause; and whenthey had ceased, Montcalm spoke as follows: "Children, I am delighted tosee you all joined in this good work. So long as you remain one, theEnglish cannot resist you. The great King has sent me to protect anddefend you; but above all he has charged me to make you happy andunconquerable, by establishing among you the union which ought toprevail among brothers, children of one father, the great Onontio. " Thenhe held out a prodigious wampum belt of six thousand beads: "Take thissacred pledge of his word. The union of the beads of which it is made isthe sign of your united strength. By it I bind you all together, so thatnone of you can separate from the rest till the English are defeated andtheir fort destroyed. "

Pennahouel took up the belt and said: "Behold, brothers, a circle drawnaround us by the great Onontio. Let none of us go out from it; for solong as we keep in it, the Master of Life will help all ourundertakings. " Other chiefs spoke to the same effect, and the councilclosed in perfect harmony. [501] Its various members bivouacked togetherat 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 themissions confessed their sins all day; while their heathen brothers hungan 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 tothe devil. Hereupon they took counsel of Montcalm. "Better say it sothan not at all, " replied the military casuist. Brandy being prudentlydenied them, the allies grew restless; and the greater part paddled upthe lake to a spot near the place where Parker had been defeated. Herethey encamped to wait the arrival of the army, and amused themselvesmeantime with killing rattlesnakes, there being a populous "den" ofthose reptiles among the neighboring rocks. 

[Footnote 501: Bougainville, _Journal_. ]

Montcalm sent a circular letter to the regular officers, urging them todispense for a while with luxuries, and even comforts. "We have but fewbateaux, and these are so filled with stores that a large division ofthe army must go by land;" and he directed that everything notabsolutely necessary should be left behind, and that a canvas shelter toevery two officers should serve them for a tent, and a bearskin for abed. "Yet I do not forbid a mattress, " he adds. "Age and infirmities maymake it necessary to some; but I shall not have one myself, and make nodoubt that all who can will willingly imitate me. "[502]

[Footnote 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 withtwenty-five hundred men, Canadians, regulars, and Iroquois. He set outat daybreak of the thirtieth of July, his men carrying nothing but theirknapsacks, blankets, and weapons. Guided by the unerring Indians, theyclimbed the steep gorge at the side of Rogers Rock, gained the valleybeyond, and marched southward along a Mohawk trail which threaded theforest 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, nowcalled Northwest Bay, where they were to wait for Montcalm, and kindlethree fires as a signal that they had reached the rendezvous. [503]

[Footnote 503: _Guerre du Canada, par le Chevalier de Lévis_. Thismanuscript of Lévis is largely in the nature of a journal. ]

Montcalm left a detachment to hold Ticonderoga; and then, on the firstof August, at two in the afternoon, he embarked at the Burned Camp withall his remaining force. Including those with Lévis, the expeditioncounted about seven thousand six hundred men, of whom more than sixteenhundred were Indians. [504] At five in the afternoon they reached theplace where the Indians, having finished their rattlesnake hunt, weresmoking their pipes and waiting for the army. The red warriors embarked, and joined the French flotilla; and now, as evening drew near, was seenone of those wild pageantries of war which Lake George has oftenwitnessed. A restless multitude of birch canoes, filled with paintedsavages, glided by shores and islands, like troops of swimmingwater-fowl. Two hundred and fifty bateaux came next, moved by sail andoar, some bearing the Canadian militia, and some the battalions of OldFrance in trim and gay attire: first, La Reine and Languedoc; then thecolony regulars; then La Sarre and Guienne; then the Canadian brigade ofCourtemanche; then the cannon and mortars, each on a platform sustainedby two bateaux lashed side by side, and rowed by the militia ofSaint-Ours; then the battalions of Béarn and Royal Roussillon; then theCanadians of Gaspé, with the provision-bateaux and the field-hospital;and, lastly, a rear guard of regulars closed the line. So, under theflush of sunset, they held their course along the romantic lake, to playtheir part in the historic drama that lends a stern enchantment to itsfascinating scenery. They passed the Narrows in mist and darkness; andwhen, a little before dawn, they rounded the high promontory of TongueMountain, they saw, far on the right, three fiery sparks shining throughthe gloom. These were the signal-fires of Lévis, to tell them that hehad reached the appointed spot. [505]

[Footnote 504: _État de l'Armée Française devant le Fort George, autrement Guillaume-Henri, le 3 Août, 1757. Tableau des Sauvages qui setrouvent à l'Armée du Marquis de Montcalm, le 28 Juillet, 1757_. Thisgives 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 lesCamps de Carillon, le 29 Juillet, 1757_. This gives a total of 8, 019men, of whom about four hundred were left in garrison at Ticonderoga. ]

[Footnote 505: The site of the present village of Bolton. ]

Lévis had arrived the evening before, after his hard march through thesultry midsummer forest. His men had now rested for a night, and at tenin the morning he marched again. Montcalm followed at noon, and coastedthe western shore, till, towards evening, he found Lévis waiting for himby the margin of a small bay not far from the English fort, thoughhidden from it by a projecting point of land. Canoes and bateaux weredrawn up on the beach, and the united forces made their bivouactogether. 

The earthen mounds of Fort William Henry still stand by the brink ofLake George; and seated at the sunset of an August day under the pinesthat cover them, one gazes on a scene of soft and soothing beauty, wheredreamy waters reflect the glories of the mountains and the sky. As itis to-day, so it was then; all breathed repose and peace. The splash ofsome leaping trout, or the dipping wing of a passing swallow, alonedisturbed the summer calm of that unruffled mirror. 

About ten o'clock at night two boats set out from the fort toreconnoitre. They were passing a point of land on their left, two milesor more down the lake, when the men on board descried through the glooma strange object against the bank; and they rowed towards it to learnwhat it might be. It was an awning over the bateaux that carried Roubaudand his brother missionaries. As the rash oarsmen drew near, thebleating of a sheep in one of the French provision-boats warned them ofdanger; and turning, they pulled for their lives towards the easternshore. Instantly more than a thousand Indians threw themselves intotheir canoes and dashed in hot pursuit, making the lake and themountains ring with the din of their war-whoops. The fugitives hadnearly reached land when their pursuers opened fire. They replied; shotone Indian dead, and wounded another; then snatched their oars again, and gained the beach. But the whole savage crew was upon them. Severalwere killed, three were taken, and the rest escaped in the darkwoods. [506] The prisoners were brought before Montcalm, and gave himvaluable information of the strength and position of the English. [507]

[Footnote 506: _Lettre du Père Roubaud, 21 Oct. 1757_. Roubaud, who sawthe whole, says that twelve hundred Indians joined the chase, and thattheir yells were terrific. ]

[Footnote 507: The remains of Fort William Henry are now--1882--crowdedbetween a hotel and the wharf and station of a railway. While I write, ascheme is on foot to level the whole for other railway structures. WhenI first knew the place the ground was in much the same state as in thetime of Montcalm. ]

The Indian who was killed was a noted chief of the Nipissings; and histribesmen howled in grief for their bereavement. They painted his facewith vermilion, tied feathers in his hair, hung pendants in his ears andnose, clad him in a resplendent war-dress, put silver bracelets on hisarms, hung a gorget on his breast with a flame colored ribbon, andseated 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 hiskettle by his side. Then they all crouched about him in lugubrioussilence. A funeral harangue followed; and next a song and solemn danceto the booming of the Indian drum. In the gray of the morning theyburied him as he sat, and placed food in the grave for his journey tothe land of souls. [508]

[Footnote 508: _Lettre du Père Roubaud_. ]

As the sun rose above the eastern mountains the French camp was allastir. The column of Lévis, with Indians to lead the way, moved throughthe forest towards the fort, and Montcalm followed with the main body;then the artillery boats rounded the point that had hid them from thesight of the English, saluting them as they did so with musketry andcannon; while a host of savages put out upon the lake, ranged theircanoes abreast in a line from shore to shore, and advanced slowly, withmeasured paddle-strokes and yells of defiance. 

The position of the enemy was full in sight before them. At the head ofthe lake, towards the right, stood the fort, close to the edge of thewater. On its left was a marsh; then the rough piece of ground whereJohnson 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 westernmountain the forest had been cut down and burned, and the ground wascumbered with blackened stumps and charred carcasses and limbs of fallentrees, strewn in savage disorder one upon another. [509] This was thework of Winslow in the autumn before. Distant shouts and war-cries, theclatter of musketry, white puffs of smoke in the dismal clearing andalong the scorched edge of the bordering forest, told that Lévis'Indians were skirmishing with parties of the English, who had gone outto save the cattle roaming in the neighborhood, and burn someout-buildings that would have favored the besiegers. Others were takingdown the tents that stood on a plateau near the foot of the mountain onthe right, and moving them to the entrenchment on the hill. The garrisonsallied from the fort to support their comrades, and for a time thefiring was hot. 

[Footnote 509: _Précis des Événements de la Campagne de 1757 en laNouvelle France. _]

Fort William Henry was an irregular bastioned square, formed byembankments of gravel surmounted by a rampart of heavy logs, laid intiers crossed one upon another, the interstices filled with earth. Thelake protected it on the north, the marsh on the east, and ditches with_chevaux-de-frise_ on the south and west. Seventeen cannon, great andsmall, besides several mortars and swivels, were mounted upon it;[510]and a brave Scotch veteran, Lieutenant-Colonel Monro, of thethirty-fifth regiment, was in command. 

[Footnote 510: _État des Effets et Munitions de Guerre qui se sonttrouvés au Fort Guillaume-Henri. _ There were six more guns in theentrenched camp. ]

General Webb lay fourteen miles distant at Fort Edward, with twenty-sixhundred men, chiefly provincials. On the twenty-fifth of July he hadmade a visit to Fort William Henry, examined the place, given someorders, and returned on the twenty-ninth. He then wrote to the Governorof New York, telling him that the French were certainly coming, begginghim to send up the militia, and saying: "I am determined to march toFort William Henry with the whole army under my command as soon as Ishall hear of the farther approach of the enemy. " Instead of doing so hewaited three days, and then sent up a detachment of two hundred regularsunder Lieutenant-Colonel Young, and eight hundred Massachusetts menunder Colonel Frye. This raised the force at the lake to two thousandand two hundred, including sailors and mechanics, and reduced that ofWebb to sixteen hundred, besides half as many more distributed at Albanyand the intervening forts. [511] If, according to his spirited intention, he should go to the rescue of Monro, he must leave some of his troopsbehind him to protect the lower posts from a possible French inroad byway of South Bay. Thus his power of aiding Monro was slight, so rashlyhad Loudon, intent on Louisburg, left this frontier open to attack. Thedefect, however, was as much in Webb himself as in his resources. Hisconduct in the past year had raised doubts of his personal courage; andthis was the moment for answering them. Great as was the disparity ofnumbers, the emergency would have justified an attempt to save Monro atany risk. That officer sent him a hasty note, written at nine o'clock onthe morning of the third, telling him that the French were in sight onthe lake; and, in the next night, three rangers came to Fort Edward, bringing another short note, dated at six in the evening, announcingthat the firing had begun, and closing with the words: "I believe youwill 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 accesscut off. But Webb lay quiet, sending expresses to New England for helpwhich could not possibly arrive in time. On the next night another notecame from Monro to say that the French were upon him in great numbers, well supplied with artillery, but that the garrison were all in goodspirits. "I make no doubt, " wrote the hardpressed officer, "that youwill soon send us a reinforcement;" and again on the same day: "We arevery certain that a part of the enemy have got between you and us uponthe high road, and would therefore be glad (if it meets with yourapprobation) the whole army was marched. "[512] But Webb gave nosign. [513]

[Footnote 511: Frye, _Journal of the Attack of Fort William Henry. Webbto Loudon, 1 Aug. 1757. Ibid. , 5 Aug. 1757. _]

[Footnote 512: _Copy of four Letters from Lieutenant-Colonel Monro toMajor-General Webb, enclosed in the General's Letter of the fifth ofAugust to the Earl of Loudon_. ]

[Footnote 513: "The number of troops remaining under my Command at thisplace [_Fort Edward_], excluding the Posts on Hudson's River, amounts tobut sixteen hundred men fit for duty, with which Army, so much inferiorto that of the enemy, I did not think it prudent to pursue my firstintentions of Marching to their Assistance. " _Webb to Loudon, 5 Aug. 1757. _]

When the skirmishing around the fort was over, La Corne, with a body ofIndians, occupied the road that led to Fort Edward, and Lévis encampedhard by to support him, while Montcalm proceeded to examine the groundand settle his plan of attack. He made his way to the rear of theentrenched camp and reconnoitred it, hoping to carry it by assault; butit had a breastwork of stones and logs, and he thought the attempt toohazardous. The ground where he stood was that where Dieskau had beendefeated; and as the fate of his predecessor was not of flatteringaugury, he resolved to besiege the fort in form. 

He chose for the site of his operations the ground now covered by thevillage of Caldwell. A little to the north of it was a ravine, beyondwhich he formed his main camp, while Lévis occupied a tract of dryground beside the marsh, whence he could easily move to interceptsuccors from Fort Edward on the one hand, or repel a sortie from FortWilliam Henry on the other. A brook ran down the ravine and entered thelake at a small cove protected from the fire of the fort by a point ofland; and at this place, still called Artillery Cove, Montcalm preparedto debark his cannon and mortars. 

Having made his preparations, he sent Fontbrune, one of hisaides-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, andmake them observe the terms of a capitulation, as I might not have powerto do under other circumstances; and an obstinate defence on your partcould only retard the capture of the place a few days, and endanger anunfortunate garrison which cannot be relieved, in consequence of thedispositions I have made. I demand a decisive answer within an hour. "Monro replied that he and his soldiers would defend themselves to thelast. While the flags of truce were flying, the Indians swarmed over thefields before the fort; and when they learned the result, an Abenakichief shouted in broken French: "You won't surrender, eh! Fire awaythen, and fight your best; for if I catch you, you shall get noquarter. " Monro emphasized his refusal by a general discharge of hiscannon. 

The trenches were opened on the night of the fourth, --a task of extremedifficulty, as the ground was covered by a profusion of half-burnedstumps, roots, branches, and fallen trunks. Eight hundred men toiledtill daylight with pick, spade, and axe, while the cannon from the fortflashed through the darkness, and grape and round-shot whistled andscreamed over their heads. Some of the English balls reached the campbeyond the ravine, and disturbed the slumbers of the officers off duty, as they lay wrapped in their blankets and bear-skins. Before daybreakthe 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, safein their burrows; one gang relieved another, and the work went on allday. 

The Indians were far from doing what was expected of them. Instead ofscouting in the direction of Fort Edward to learn the movements of theenemy and prevent surprise, they loitered about the camp and in thetrenches, or amused themselves by firing at the fort from behind stumpsand logs. Some, in imitation of the French, dug little trenches forthemselves, in which they wormed their way towards the rampart, and nowand then picked off an artillery-man, not without loss on their ownside. On the afternoon of the fifth, Montcalm invited them to a council, gave them belts of wampum, and mildly remonstrated with them. "Whyexpose yourselves without necessity? I grieve bitterly over the lossesthat you have met, for the least among you is precious to me. No doubtit 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 alwayskeep parties on the road between the two forts. " And he gently hintedthat their place was not in his camp, but in that of Lévis, wheremissionaries were provided for such of them as were Christians, and foodand ammunition for them all. They promised, with excellent docility, todo everything he wished, but added that there was something on theirhearts. Being encouraged to relieve themselves of the burden, theycomplained that they had not been consulted as to the management of thesiege, but were expected to obey orders like slaves. "We know more aboutfighting in the woods than you, " said their orator; "ask our advice, andyou will be the better for it. "[514]

[Footnote 514: Bougainville, _Journal_. ]

Montcalm assured them that if they had been neglected, it was onlythrough the hurry and confusion of the time; expressed high appreciationof their talents for bush-fighting, promised them ample satisfaction, and ended by telling them that in the morning they should hear the bigguns. This greatly pleased them, for they were extremely impatient forthe artillery to begin. About sunrise the battery of the left openedwith eight heavy cannon and a mortar, joined, on the next morning, bythe battery of the right, with eleven pieces more. The fort replied withspirit. The cannon thundered all day, and from a hundred peaks and cragsthe astonished wilderness roared back the sound. The Indians weredelighted. They wanted to point the guns; and to humor them, they werenow and then allowed to do so. Others lay behind logs and fallen trees, and yelled their satisfaction when they saw the splinters fly from thewooden rampart. 

Day after day the weary roar of the distant cannonade fell on the earsof Webb in his camp at Fort Edward. "I have not yet received the leastreinforcement, " he writes to Loudon; "this is the disagreeable situationwe are at present in. The fort, by the heavy firing we hear from thelake, is still in our possession; but I fear it cannot long hold outagainst so warm a cannonading if I am not reinforced by a sufficientnumber 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 themarrived soon after he sent Loudon the above letter. Then, by strippingall the forts below, he could bring together forty-five hundred men;while several French deserters assured him that Montcalm had nearlytwelve thousand. To advance to the relief of Monro with a force soinferior, through a defile of rocks, forests, and mountains, made bynature for ambuscades, --and this too with troops who had neither thesteadiness of regulars nor the bush-fighting skill of Indians, --was anenterprise for firmer nerve than his. 

He had already warned Monro to expect no help from him. At midnight ofthe fourth, Captain Bartman, his aide-de-camp, wrote: "The General hasordered me to acquaint you he does not think it prudent to attempt ajunction or to assist you till reinforced by the militia of thecolonies, for the immediate march of which repeated expresses have beensent. " The letter then declared that the French were in completepossession of the road between the two forts, that a prisoner justbrought in reported their force in men and cannon to be very great, andthat, unless the militia came soon, Monro had better make what terms hecould with the enemy. [515]

[Footnote 515: Frye, in his _Journal_, gives the letter in full. Aspurious translation of it is appended to a piece called _Jugementimpartial sur les Opérations militaires en Canada_. ]

The chance was small that this letter would reach its destination; andin fact the bearer was killed by La Corne's Indians, who, in strippingthe body, found the hidden paper, and carried it to the General. Montcalm kept it several days, till the English rampart was halfbattered down; and then, after saluting his enemy with a volley from allhis cannon, he sent it with a graceful compliment to Monro. It wasBougainville who carried it, preceded by a drummer and a flag. He wasmet at the foot of the glacis, blindfolded, and led through the fort andalong the edge of the lake to the entrenched camp, where Monro was atthe time. "He returned many thanks, " writes the emissary in his Diary, "for the courtesy of our nation, and protested his joy at having to dowith so generous an enemy. This was his answer to the Marquis deMontcalm. Then they led me back, always with eyes blinded; and ourbatteries began to fire again as soon as we thought that the Englishgrenadiers who escorted me had had time to re-enter the fort. I hopeGeneral Webb's letter may induce the English to surrender thesooner. "[516]

[Footnote 516: Bougainville, _Journal. Bougainville au Ministre, 19Août, 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 ofhigh ground, reaching to the fort and serving as the garden of thegarrison. [517] Logs and fascines in large quantities were thrown intothe hollow, and hurdles were laid over them to form a causeway for thecannon. Then the sap was continued up the acclivity beyond, a trench wasopened in the garden, and a battery begun, not two hundred and fiftyyards from the fort. The Indians, in great number, crawled forward amongthe beans, maize, and cabbages, and lay there ensconced. On the night ofthe 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 anda burst of yells which echoed among the mountains; followed byresponsive whoops pealing through the darkness from the various campsand lurking-places of the savage warriors far and near. 

[Footnote 517: Now (1882) the site of Fort William Henry Hotel, with itsgrounds. The hollow is partly filled by the main road of Caldwell. ]

The position of the besieged was now deplorable. More than three hundredof 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 withthe sick. A sortie from the entrenched camp and another from the forthad been repulsed with loss. All their large cannon and mortars had beenburst, or disabled by shot; only seven small pieces were left fit forservice;[518] and the whole of Montcalm's thirty-one cannon and fifteenmortars and howitzers would soon open fire, while the walls were alreadybreached, and an assault was imminent. Through the night of the eighththey fired briskly from all their remaining pieces. In the morning theofficers held a council, and all agreed to surrender if honorable termscould be had. A white flag was raised, a drum was beat, andLieutenant-Colonel Young, mounted on horseback, for a shot in the foothad disabled him from walking, went, followed by a few soldiers, to thetent of Montcalm. 

[Footnote 518: Frye, _Journal_. ]

It was agreed that the English troops should march out with the honorsof war, and be escorted to Fort Edward by a detachment of French troops;that they should not serve for eighteen months; and that all Frenchprisoners captured in America since the war began should be given upwithin three months. The stores, munitions, and artillery were to be theprize of the victors, except one field-piece, which the garrison were toretain in recognition of their brave defence. 

Before signing the capitulation Montcalm called the Indian chiefs tocouncil, and asked them to consent to the conditions, and promise torestrain their young warriors from any disorder. They approvedeverything and promised everything. The garrison then evacuated thefort, and marched to join their comrades in the entrenched camp, whichwas included in the surrender. No sooner were they gone than a crowd ofIndians clambered through the embrasures in search of rum and plunder. All the sick men unable to leave their beds were instantlybutchered. [519] "I was witness of this spectacle, " says the missionaryRoubaud; "I saw one of these barbarians come out of the casemates with ahuman head in his hand, from which the blood ran in streams, and whichhe paraded as if he had got the finest prize in the world. " There waslittle left to plunder; and the Indians, joined by the more lawless ofthe Canadians, turned their attention to the entrenched camp, where allthe English were now collected. 

[Footnote 519: _Attestation of William Arbuthnot, Captain in Frye'sRegiment. _]

The French guard stationed there could not or would not keep out therabble. By the advice of Montcalm the English stove their rum-barrels;but the Indians were drunk already with homicidal rage, and the glitterof their vicious eyes told of the devil within. They roamed among thetents, intrusive, insolent, their visages besmirched with war-paint;grinning like fiends as they handled, in anticipation of the knife, thelong hair of cowering women, of whom, as well as of children, there weremany in the camp, all crazed with fright. Since the last war the NewEngland border population had regarded Indians with a mixture ofdetestation and horror. Their mysterious warfare of ambush and surprise, their midnight onslaughts, their butcheries, their burnings, and alltheir nameless atrocities, had been for years the theme of firesidestory; and the dread they excited was deepened by the distrust anddejection of the time. The confusion in the camp lasted through theafternoon. "The Indians, " says Bougainville, "wanted to plunder thechests of the English; the latter resisted; and there was fear thatserious disorder would ensue. The Marquis de Montcalm ran thitherimmediately, and used every means to restore tranquillity: prayers, threats, caresses, interposition of the officers and interpreters whohave some influence over these savages. "[520] "We shall be but too happyif we can prevent a massacre. Detestable position! of which nobody whohas not been in it can have any idea, and which makes victory itself asorrow to the victors. The Marquis spared no efforts to prevent therapacity of the savages and, I must say it, of certain personsassociated with them, from resulting in something worse than plunder. At last, at nine o'clock in the evening, order seemed restored. TheMarquis even induced the Indians to promise that, besides the escortagreed upon in the capitulation, two chiefs for each tribe shouldaccompany the English on their way to Fort Edward. "[521] He also orderedLa Corne and the other Canadian officers attached to the Indians to seethat no violence took place. He might well have done more. In view ofthe disorders of the afternoon, it would not have been too much if hehad ordered the whole body of regular troops, whom alone he could trustfor the purpose, to hold themselves ready to move to the spot in case ofoutbreak, and shelter their defeated foes behind a hedge of bayonets. 

[Footnote 520: _Bougainville au Ministre, 19 Août, 1757. _]

[Footnote 521: Bougainville, _Journal_. ]

Bougainville was not to see what ensued; for Montcalm now sent him toMontreal, as a special messenger to carry news of the victory. Heembarked 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 quietmountains sleeping under the flush of dawn, there was nothing in thewild tranquillity of the scene to suggest the tragedy which even thenwas beginning on the shore he had left behind. 

The English in their camp had passed a troubled night, agitated bystrange rumors. In the morning something like a panic seized them; forthey distrusted not the Indians only, but the Canadians. In their hasteto be gone they got together at daybreak, before the escort of threehundred regulars had arrived. They had their muskets, but no ammunition;and few or none of the provincials had bayonets. Early as it was, theIndians were on the alert; and, indeed, since midnight great numbers ofthem had been prowling about the skirts of the camp, showing, saysColonel Frye, "more than usual malice in their looks. " Seventeen woundedmen of his regiment lay in huts, unable to join the march. In thepreceding afternoon Miles Whitworth, the regimental surgeon, had passedthem over to the care of a French surgeon, according to an agreementmade at the time of the surrender; but, the Frenchman being absent, theother remained with them attending to their wants. The French surgeonhad caused special sentinels to be posted for their protection. Thesewere 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 theeyes of Whitworth, and in presence of La Corne and other Canadianofficers, as well as of a French guard stationed within forty feet ofthe spot; and, declares the surgeon under oath, "none, either officer orsoldier, protected the said wounded men. "[522] The opportune butcheryrelieved them of a troublesome burden. 

[Footnote 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 theIndians in order to appease them. To this the English at length agreed;but it only increased the excitement of the mob. They demanded rum; andsome of the soldiers, afraid to refuse, gave it to them from theircanteens, 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 roadthat 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 thatresisted, and, seizing upon shrieking women and children, dragged themoff or murdered them on the spot. It is said that some of theinterpreters secretly fomented the disorder. [523] Suddenly there rosethe screech of the war-whoop. At this signal of butchery, which wasgiven by Abenaki Christians from the mission of the Penobscot, [524] amob of savages rushed upon the New Hampshire men at the rear of thecolumn, and killed or dragged away eighty of them. [525] A frightfultumult ensued, when Montcalm, Lévis, Bourlamaque, and many other Frenchofficers, who had hastened from their camp on the first news ofdisturbance, threw themselves among the Indians, and by promises andthreats tried to allay their frenzy. "Kill me, but spare the English whoare under my protection, " exclaimed Montcalm. He took from one of them ayoung officer whom the savage had seized; upon which several otherIndians immediately tomahawked their prisoners, lest they too should betaken from them. One writer says that a French grenadier was killed andtwo wounded in attempting to restore order; but the statement isdoubtful. The English seemed paralyzed, and fortunately did not attempta resistance, which, without ammunition as they were, would have endedin a general massacre. Their broken column straggled forward in wilddisorder, amid the din of whoops and shrieks, till they reached theFrench advance-guard, which consisted of Canadians; and here theydemanded protection from the officers, who refused to give it, tellingthem that they must take to the woods and shift for themselves. Frye wasseized by a number of Indians, who, brandishing spears and tomahawks, threatened him with death and tore off his clothing, leaving nothing butbreeches, shoes, and shirt. Repelled by the officers of the guard, hemade for the woods. A Connecticut soldier who was present says of himthat he leaped upon an Indian who stood in his way, disarmed and killedhim, and then escaped; but Frye himself does not mention the incident. Captain Burke, also of the Massachusetts regiment, was stripped, after aviolent struggle, of all his clothes; then broke loose, gained thewoods, spent the night shivering in the thick grass of a marsh, and onthe next day reached Fort Edward. Jonathan Carver, a provincialvolunteer, declares that, when the tumult was at its height, he sawofficers of the French army walking about at a little distance andtalking with seeming unconcern. Three or four Indians seized him, brandished their tomahawks over his head, and tore off most of hisclothes, while he vainly claimed protection from a sentinel, who calledhim an English dog, and violently pushed him back among his tormentors. Two of them were dragging him towards the neighboring swamp, when anEnglish officer, stripped of everything but his scarlet breeches, ranby. One of Carver's captors sprang upon him, but was thrown to theground; whereupon the other went to the aid of his comrade and drove histomahawk into the back of the Englishman. As Carver turned to run, anEnglish 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 fromhis protector, and, as Carver judged by his shrieks, was murdered. Hehimself escaped to the forest, and after three days of famine reachedFort Edward. 

[Footnote 523: This is stated by Pouchot and Bougainville; the latter ofwhom confirms the testimony of the English witnesses, that Canadianofficers present did nothing to check the Indians. ]

[Footnote 524: See note, end of chapter. ]

[Footnote 525: Belknap, _History of New Hampshire_, says that eightywere killed. Governor Wentworth, writing immediately after the event, says "killed or captivated. "]

The bonds of discipline seem for the time to have been completelybroken; for while Montcalm and his chief officers used every effort torestore order, even at the risk of their lives, many other officers, chiefly of the militia, failed atrociously to do their duty. How manyEnglish were killed it is impossible to tell with exactness. Roubaudsays that he saw forty or fifty corpses scattered about the field. Lévissays fifty; which does not include the sick and wounded before murderedin the camp and fort. It is certain that six or seven hundred personswere carried off, stripped, and otherwise maltreated. Montcalm succeededin 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 theirwants by buying back from their captors the clothing that had been tornfrom them. Many of the fugitives had taken refuge in the fort, whitherMonro himself had gone to demand protection for his followers; and hereRoubaud presently found a crowd of half-frenzied women, crying inanguish for husbands and children. All the refugees and redeemedprisoners were afterwards conducted to the entrenched camp, where foodand shelter were provided for them and a strong guard set for theirprotection until the fifteenth, when they were sent under an escort toFort Edward. Here cannon had been fired at intervals to guide those whohad 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 setout for Montreal, carrying with them their plunder and some two hundredprisoners, who, it is said, could not be got out of their hands. Thesoldiers were set to the work of demolishing the English fort; and thetask occupied several days. The barracks were torn down, and the hugepine-logs of the rampart thrown into a heap. The dead bodies that filledthe casemates were added to the mass, and fire was set to the whole. Themighty funeral pyre blazed all night. Then, on the sixteenth, the armyreimbarked. The din of ten thousand combatants, the rage, the terror, the agony, were gone; and no living thing was left but the wolves thatgathered from the mountains to feast upon the dead. [526]

[Footnote 526: The foregoing chapter rests largely on evidence neverbefore brought to light, including the minute _Journal_ ofBougainville, --document which can hardly be commended too much, --thecorrespondence of Webb, a letter of Colonel Frye, written just after themassacre, and a journal of the siege, sent by him to Governor Pownall ashis official report. Extracts from these, as well as from the affidavitof 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 asnumerous reports of the siege, official and semi-official. The longletter of the Jesuit Roubaud, printed anonymously in the _LettresÉdifiantes et Curieuses_, gives a remarkably vivid account of what hesaw. He was an intelligent person, who may be trusted where he has nomotive for lying. Curious particulars about him will be found in a papercalled, _The deplorable Case of Mr. Roubaud_, printed in the _HistoricalMagazine, Second Series_, VIII. 282. Compare Verreau, _Report onCanadian Archives_, 1874. 

Impressions of the massacre at Fort William Henry have hitherto beenderived chiefly from the narrative of Captain Jonathan Carver, in his_Travels_. He has discredited himself by his exaggeration of the numberkilled; but his account of what he himself saw tallies with that of theother witnesses. He is outdone in exaggeration by an anonymous Frenchwriter of the time, who seems rather pleased at the occurrence, andaffirms that all the English were killed except seven hundred, theselast being captured, so that none escaped (_Nouvelles du Canada envoyéesde Montréal, Août_, 1757). Carver puts killed and captured together atfifteen hundred. Vaudreuil, who always makes light of Indianbarbarities, goes to the other extreme, and avers that no more than fiveor six were killed. Lévis and Roubaud, who saw everything, and werecertain not to exaggerate the number, give the most trustworthy evidenceon this point. The capitulation, having been broken by the allies ofFrance, was declared void by the British Government. 

_The Signal of Butchery_. Montcalm, Bougainville, and several others saythat the massacre was begun by the Abenakis of Panaouski. Father Martin, in quoting the letter in which Montcalm makes this statement, insertsthe word _idolâtres_, which is not in the original. Dussieux andO'Callaghan give the passage correctly. This Abenaki band, ancestors ofthe present Penobscots, were no idolaters, but had been converted morethan half a century. In the official list of the Indian allies they areset down among the Christians. Roubaud, who had charge of them duringthe 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. "]

Chapter 16

1757, 1758

A Winter of Discontent

Loudon, on his way back from Halifax, was at sea off the coast of NovaScotia when a despatch-boat from Governor Pownall of Massachusettsstartled him with news that Fort William Henry was attacked; and a fewdays after he learned by another boat that the fort was taken and thecapitulation "inhumanly and villanously broken. " On this he sent Webborders to hold the enemy in check without risking a battle till heshould himself arrive. "I am on the way, " these were his words, "with aforce sufficient to turn the scale, with God's assistance; and then Ihope we shall teach the French to comply with the laws of nature andhumanity. For although I abhor barbarity, the knowledge I have of Mr. Vaudreuil's behavior when in Louisiana, from his own letters in mypossession, and the murders committed at Oswego and now at Fort WilliamHenry, will oblige me to make those gentlemen sick of such inhumanvillany whenever it is in my power. " He reached New York on the last dayof August, and heard that the French had withdrawn. He nevertheless senthis troops up the Hudson, thinking, he says, that he might still attackTiconderoga; a wild scheme, which he soon abandoned, if he everseriously entertained it. [527]

[Footnote 527: _Loudon to Webb, 20 Aug. 1757. London to Holdernesse, Oct. 1757. Loudon to Pownall, 16_ [_18?_] _Aug. 1757_. A passage in thislast letter, in which Loudon says that he shall, if prevented byhead-winds from getting into New York, disembark the troops on LongIsland, is perverted by that ardent partisan, William Smith, thehistorian of New York, into the absurd declaration "that he shouldencamp on Long Island for the defence of the continent. "]

Webb had remained at Fort Edward in mortal dread of attack. Johnson hadjoined him with a band of Mohawks; and on the day when Fort WilliamHenry surrendered there had been some talk of attempting to throwsuccors 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 fromthe neighboring provinces. In a few days thousands of them werebivouacked on the fields about Fort Edward, doing nothing, disgustedand mutinous, declaring that they were ready to fight, but not to liestill without tents, blankets, or kettles. Webb writes on the fourteenththat most of those from New York had deserted, threatening to kill theirofficers if they tried to stop them. Delancey ordered them to be firedupon. A sergeant was shot, others were put in arrest, and all wasdisorder till the seventeenth; when Webb, learning that the French weregone, sent them back to their homes. [528]

[Footnote 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 ofthe enemy were grossly exaggerated; there was a cry that they wouldseize Albany and New York itself;[529] while it was reported that Webb, as much frightened as the rest, was for retreating to the Highlands ofthe Hudson. [530] This was the day after the capitulation, when a partonly of the militia had yet appeared. If Montcalm had seized the moment, and marched that afternoon to Fort Edward, it is not impossible that inthe confusion he might have carried it by a _coup-de-main. _

[Footnote 529: _Captain Christie to Governor Wentworth, 11 Aug. 1757. Ibid. , to Governor Pownall, same date. _]

[Footnote 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 withone victory when he should have gained two. But the Governor hadenjoined upon him as a matter of the last necessity that the Canadiansshould be at their homes before September to gather the crops, and hewould have been the first to complain had the injunction beendisregarded. To besiege Fort Edward was impossible, as Montcalm had nomeans of transporting cannon thither; and to attack Webb without themwas a risk which he had not the rashness to incur. 

It was Bougainville who first brought Vaudreuil the news of the successon Lake George. A day or two after his arrival, the Indians, who hadleft the army after the massacre, appeared at Montreal, bringing abouttwo hundred English prisoners. The Governor rebuked them for breakingthe capitulation, on which the heathen savages of the West declared thatit was not their fault, but that of the converted Indians, who, infact, had first raised the war-whoop. Some of the prisoners werepresently bought from them at the price of two kegs of brandy each; andthe inevitable consequences followed. 

"I thought, " writes Bougainville, "that the Governor would have toldthem they should have neither provisions nor presents till all theEnglish were given up; that he himself would have gone to their huts andtaken the prisoners from them; and that the inhabitants would beforbidden, under the severest penalties, from selling or giving thembrandy. I saw the contrary; and my soul shuddered at the sights my eyesbeheld. On the fifteenth, at two o'clock, in the presence of the wholetown, they killed one of the prisoners, put him into the kettle, andforced his wretched countrymen to eat of him. " The Intendant Bigot, thefriend of the Governor, confirms this story; and another French writersays that they "compelled mothers to eat the flesh of theirchildren. "[531] Bigot declares that guns, canoes, and other presentswere given to the Western tribes before they left Montreal; and he adds, "they must be sent home satisfied at any cost. " Such were the painstaken to preserve allies who were useful chiefly through the terrorinspired by their diabolical cruelties. This time their ferocity costthem dear. They had dug up and scalped the corpses in the graveyard ofFort William Henry, many of which were remains of victims of thesmall-pox; and the savages caught the disease, which is said to havemade great havoc among them. [532]

[Footnote 531: "En chemin faisant et même en entrant à Montréal ils lesont mangés et fait manger aux autres prisonniers. " _Bigot au Ministre, 24 Août, 1757. _

"Des sauvages out fait manger aux mères la chair de leurs enfants. "_Jugement impartial sur les Opérations militaires en Canada_. A Frenchdiary kept in Canada at this time, and captured at sea, is cited byHutchinson as containing similar statements. ]

[Footnote 532: One of these corpses was that of Richard Rogers, brotherof the noted partisan Robert Rogers. He had died of small-pox some timebefore. Rogers, _Journals_, 55, _note_. ]

Vaudreuil, in reporting what he calls "my capture of Fort WilliamHenry, " takes great credit to himself for his "generous procedures"towards the English prisoners; alluding, it seems, to his having boughtsome of them from the Indians with the brandy which was sure to causethe murder of others. [533] His obsequiousness to his red allies did notcease with permitting them to kill and devour before his eyes those whomhe was bound in honor and duty to protect. "He let them do what theypleased, " says a French contemporary; "they were seen roaming aboutMontreal, knife in hand, threatening everybody, and often insultingthose they met. When complaint was made, he said nothing. Far from it;instead of reproaching them, he loaded them with gifts, in the beliefthat their cruelty would then relent. "[534]

[Footnote 533: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 15 Sept. 1757. _]

[Footnote 534: _Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. _]

Nevertheless, in about a fortnight all, or nearly all, the survivingprisoners were bought out of their clutches; and then, after a finaldistribution of presents and a grand debauch at La Chine, the wholesavage 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, therewas a thriving settlement of German peasants from the Palatinate, whowere so ill-disposed towards the English that Vaudreuil had had goodhope of stirring them to revolt, while at the same time persuading theirneighbors, the Oneida Indians, to take part with France. [535] As hismeasures to this end failed, he resolved to attack them. Therefore, atthree o'clock in the morning of the twelfth of November, three hundredcolony troops, Canadians and Indians, under an officer named Belêtre, wakened the unhappy peasants by a burst of yells, and attacked the smallpicket forts which they had built as places of refuge. These were takenone by one and set on fire. The sixty dwellings of the settlement, withtheir barns and outhouses, were all burned, forty or fifty of theinhabitants were killed, and about three times that number, chieflywomen and children, were made prisoners, including Johan Jost Petrie, the magistrate of the place. Fort Herkimer was not far off, with agarrison of two hundred men under Captain Townshend, who at the firstalarm 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 ofdestruction, killed a great number of hogs, sheep, cattle, and horses, and then made a hasty retreat. Lord Howe, pushing up the river fromSchenectady with troops and militia, found nothing but an abandonedslaughter-field. Vaudreuil reported the affair to the Court, and summedup the results with pompous egotism: "I have ruined the plans of theEnglish; I have disposed the Five Nations to attack them; I have carriedconsternation and terror into all those parts. "[536]

[Footnote 535: _Dépêches de Vaudreuil, 1757. _]

[Footnote 536: _Loudon to Pitt, 14 Feb. 1758. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 12Fév. 1758. Ibid. , 28 Nov. 1758. _ Bougainville, _Journal. Summary of M. De Belêtre's Campaign_, in _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, X. 672. Extravagantreports of the havoc made were sent to France. It was pretended thatthree thousand cattle, three thousand sheep (Vaudreuil says fourthousand), and from five hundred to fifteen hundred horses weredestroyed, with other personal property to the amount of 1, 500, 000livres. These official falsehoods are contradicted in a letter fromQuebec, _Daine au Maréchal de Belleisle, 19 Mai, 1758_. Levis says thatthe whole population of the settlement, men, women, and children, wasnot above three hundred. ]

Montcalm, his summer work over, went to Montreal; and thence inSeptember to Quebec, a place more to his liking. "Come as soon as youcan, " he wrote to Bourlamaque, "and I will tell a certain fair lady howeager you are. " Even Quebec was no paradise for him; and he writes againto the same friend: "My heart and my stomach are both ill at ease, thelatter being the worse. " To his wife he says: "The price of everythingis rising. I am ruining myself; I owe the treasurer twelve thousandfrancs. I long for peace and for you. In spite of the public distress, we have balls and furious gambling. " In February he returned to Montrealin a sleigh on the ice of the St. Lawrence, --a mode of travelling whichhe describes as cold but delicious. Montreal pleased him less than ever, especially as he was not in favor at what he calls the Court, meaningthe circle of the Governor-General. "I find this place so amusing, " hewrites ironically to Bourlamaque, "that I wish Holy Week could belengthened, to give me a pretext for neither making nor receivingvisits, staying at home, and dining there almost alone. Burn all myletters, as I do yours. " And in the next week: "Lent and devotion haveupset my stomach and given me a cold; which does not prevent me fromhaving the Governor-General at dinner to-day to end his lenten fast, according to custom here. " Two days after he announces: "To-day a granddinner at Martel's; twenty-three persons, all big-wigs (_les grossesperruques_); no ladies. We still have got to undergo those of Péan, Deschambault, and the Chevalier de Lévis. I spend almost every eveningin 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 toowas Lévis. The Governor also made visits of compliment at the houses ofthe 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 atthe Governor's. Péan has gone up to La Chine to spend six days with thereigning 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 togo; and I think that at the end of the next campaign I shall askbluntly, blindly, for my recall, only because I am bored. "[537]

[Footnote 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 hismother, "ask for a place in the colony troops for anybody. You need notbe an Oedipus to guess this riddle. Here are four lines fromCorneille:--

 "'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 toserve the King. If they could but do without me; if they could butspring 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]

[Footnote 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 publicdistress, which broke at last into riot. Towards midwinter no flour wasto be had in Montreal; and both soldiers and people were required toaccept a reduced ration, partly of horse-flesh. A mob gathered beforethe Governor's house, and a deputation of women beset him, crying outthat the horse was the friend of man, and that religion forbade him tobe eaten. In reply he threatened them with imprisonment and hanging; butwith little effect, and the crowd dispersed, only to stir up thesoldiers quartered in the houses of the town. The colony regulars, ill-disciplined at the best, broke into mutiny, and excited thebattalion of Béarn to join them. Vaudreuil was helpless; Montcalm was inQuebec; and the task of dealing with the mutineers fell upon Lévis, whoproved equal to the crisis, took a high tone, threatened death to thefirst soldier who should refuse horse-flesh, assured them at the sametime that he ate it every day himself, and by a characteristic minglingof authority and tact, quelled the storm. [539]

[Footnote 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 hadwritten from Niagara that three thousand savages were waiting to be letloose against the English borders. "What a scourge!" exclaimsBougainville. "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 Hebecourtkept watch and ward at Ticonderoga, begirt with snow and ice, and muchplagued by English rangers, who sometimes got into the ditchitself. [540] This was to reconnoitre the place in preparation for awinter attack which Loudon had planned, but which, like the rest of hisschemes, fell to the ground. [541] Towards midwinter a band of theseintruders captured two soldiers and butchered some fifteen cattle closeto the fort, leaving tied to the horns of one of them a note addressedto the commandant in these terms: "I am obliged to you, sir, for therest you have allowed me to take and the fresh meat you have sent me. Ishall take good care of my prisoners. My compliments to the Marquis ofMontcalm. " Signed, Rogers. [542]

[Footnote 540: _Montcalm à Bourlamaque, 28 Mars, 1758_. ]

[Footnote 541: _Loudon to Pitt, 14 Feb. 1758_. ]

[Footnote 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 areport came to Montreal that a large party of rangers had been cut topieces a few miles from Ticonderoga, and that Rogers himself was amongthe slain. This last announcement proved false; but the rangers hadsuffered a crushing defeat. Colonel Haviland, commanding at Fort Edward, sent a hundred and eighty of them, men and officers, on a scouting partytowards Ticonderoga; and Captain Pringle and Lieutenant Roche, of thetwenty-seventh regiment, joined them as volunteers, no doubt through alove of hardy adventure, which was destined to be fully satisfied. Rogers commanded the whole. They passed down Lake George on the iceunder cover of night, and then, as they neared the French outposts, pursued their way by land behind Rogers Rock and the other mountains ofthe western shore. On the preceding day, the twelfth of March, Hebecourthad received a reinforcement of two hundred Mission Indians and a bodyof Canadians. The Indians had no sooner arrived than, though nominallyChristians, they consulted the spirits, by whom they were told that theEnglish were coming. On this they sent out scouts, who came backbreathless, declaring that they had found a great number of snow-shoetracks. The superhuman warning being thus confirmed, the whole body ofIndians, joined by a band of Canadians and a number of volunteers fromthe regulars, set out to meet the approaching enemy, and took their wayup the valley of Trout Brook, a mountain gorge that opens from the westupon the valley of Ticonderoga. 

Towards three o'clock on the afternoon of that day Rogers had reached apoint nearly west of the mountain that bears his name. The rough androcky ground was buried four feet in snow, and all around stood the graytrunks of the forest, bearing aloft their skeleton arms and tangledintricacy of leafless twigs. Close on the right was a steep hill, and ata little distance on the left was the brook, lost under ice and snow. Ascout from the front told Rogers that a party of Indians was approachingalong 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 inconfusion. 

Not suspecting that they were but an advance-guard, about half therangers dashed in pursuit, and were soon met by the whole body of theenemy. The woods rang with yells and musketry. In a few minutes somefifty of the pursuers were shot down, and the rest driven back indisorder upon their comrades. Rogers formed them all on the slope of thehill; and here they fought till sunset with stubborn desperation, twicerepulsing the overwhelming numbers of the assailants, and thwarting alltheir efforts to gain the heights in the rear. The combatants were oftennot twenty yards apart, and sometimes they were mixed together. Atlength a large body of Indians succeeded in turning the right flank ofthe rangers. Lieutenant Phillips and a few men were sent by Rogers tooppose the movement; but they quickly found themselves surrounded, andafter a brave defence surrendered on a pledge of good treatment. Rogersnow advised the volunteers, Pringle and Roche, to escape while there wastime, and offered them a sergeant as guide; but they gallantly resolvedto stand by him. Eight officers and more than a hundred rangers lay deadand wounded in the snow. Evening was near and the forest was darkeningfast, when the few survivors broke and fled. Rogers with about twentyfollowers escaped up the mountain; and gathering others about him, madea running fight against the Indian pursuers, reached Lake George, notwithout fresh losses, and after two days of misery regained Fort Edwardwith 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 tyingLieutenant Phillips and his men to trees, hacked them to pieces. 

Captain Pringle and Lieutenant Roche had become separated from the otherfugitives; and, ignorant of woodcraft, they wandered by moonlight amidthe desolation of rocks and snow, till early in the night they met a manwhom they knew as a servant of Rogers, and who said that he could guidethem 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 tillmorning to make a kind of substitute with forked branches, twigs, and afew leather strings. They had no hatchet to cut firewood, no blankets, no overcoats, and no food except part of a Bologna sausage and a littleginger which Pringle had brought with him. There was no game; not even asquirrel was astir; and their chief sustenance was juniper-berries andthe inner bark of trees. But their worst calamity was the helplessnessof their guide. His brain wandered; and while always insisting that heknew the country well, he led them during four days hither and thitheramong a labyrinth of nameless mountains, clambering over rocks, wadingthrough snowdrifts, struggling among fallen trees, till on the fifth daythey saw with despair that they had circled back to their ownstarting-point. On the next morning, when they were on the ice of LakeGeorge, not far from Rogers Rock, a blinding storm of sleet and snowdrove in their faces. Spent as they were, it was death to stop; andbending their heads against the blast, they fought their way forward, now on the ice, and now in the adjacent forest, till in the afternoonthe storm ceased, and they found themselves on the bank of an unknownstream. It was the outlet of the lake; for they had wandered into thevalley of Ticonderoga, and were not three miles from the French fort. In crossing the torrent Pringle lost his gun, and was near losing hislife. All three of the party were drenched to the skin; and, becomingnow for the first time aware of where they were, they resolved onyielding themselves prisoners to save their lives. Night, however, againfound them in the forest. Their guide became delirious, saw visions ofIndians all around, and, murmuring incoherently, straggled off a littleway, seated himself in the snow, and was soon dead. The two officers, themselves but half alive, walked all night round a tree to keep theblood in motion. In the morning, again toiling on, they presently sawthe fort across the intervening snowfields, and approached it, waving awhite handkerchief. Several French officers dashed towards them at fullspeed, and reached them in time to save them from the clutches of theIndians, whose camps were near at hand. They were kindly treated, recovered from the effects of their frightful ordeal, and wereafterwards exchanged. Pringle lived to old age, and died in 1800, seniormajor-general of the British army. [543]

[Footnote 543: Rogers, two days after reaching Fort Edward, made adetailed report of the fight, which was printed in the _New HampshireGazette_ and other provincial papers. It is substantially incorporatedin his published _Journals_, which also contain a long letter fromPringle to Colonel Haviland, dated at Carillon (Ticonderoga), 28 March, and giving an excellent account of his and Roche's adventures. It wassent by a flag of truce, which soon after arrived from Fort Edward witha letter for Vaudreuil. The French accounts of the fight are _Hebecourtà [Vaudreuil?], 15 Mars, 1758. Montcalm au Ministre de la Guerre, 10Avril, 1758_. Bougainville, _Journal. Relation de l'Affaire de Roger, 19Mars_, 1758. _Autre Relation, même date_. Lévis, _Journal_. According toLévis, the French force consisted of 250 Indians and Canadians, and anumber of officers, cadets, and soldiers. Roger puts it at 700. Most ofthe French writers put the force of the rangers, correctly, at about180. Rogers reports his loss at 125. None of the wounded seem to haveescaped, being either murdered after the fight, or killed by exposure inthe woods. The Indians brought in 144 scalps, having no doubt dividedsome of them, after their ingenious custom. Rogers threw off hisovercoat during the fight, and it was found on the field, with hiscommission in the pocket; whence the report of his death. There is anunsupported tradition that he escaped by sliding on his snow-shoes downa precipice of Rogers Rock. ]

Chapter 17

1753-1760

Bigot

At this stormy epoch of Canadian history the sinister figure of theIntendant Bigot moves conspicuous on the scene. Not that he wasanswerable for all the manifold corruption that infected the colony, formuch of it was rife before his time, and had a vitality of its own; buthis office and character made him the centre of it, and, more than anyother man, he marshalled and organized the forces of knavery. 

In the dual government of Canada the Governor represented the King andcommanded the troops; while the Intendant was charged with trade, finance, justice, and all other departments of civil administration. Informer times the two functionaries usually quarrelled; but betweenVaudreuil and Bigot there was perfect harmony. 

François Bigot, in the words of his biographer, was "born in the bosomof the magistracy, " both his father and his grandfather having heldhonorable positions in the parliament of Bordeaux. [544] In appearance hewas not prepossessing, though his ugly, pimpled face was joined witheasy and agreeable manners. In spite of indifferent health, he wasuntiring both in pleasure and in work, a skilful man of business, ofgreat official experience, energetic, good-natured, free-handed, readyto oblige his friends and aid them in their needs at the expense of theKing, his master; fond of social enjoyments, lavish in hospitality. 

[Footnote 544: _Procès de Bigot, Cadet, et autres, Mémoire pour MessireFrançois Bigot, accusé, contre Monsieur le Procureur-Général du Roi, accusateur. _]

A year or two before the war began, the engineer Franquet was sent fromFrance to strengthen Louisbourg and inspect the defences of Canada. Hekept a copious journal, full of curious observation, and affordingbright glimpses not only of the social life of the Intendant, but ofCanadian society in the upper or official class. Thus, among variousmatters of the kind, he gives us the following. Bigot, who was inQuebec, had occasion to go to Montreal to meet the Governor; and thisofficial journey was turned into a pleasure excursion, of which the Kingpaid all the costs. Those favored with invitations, a privilege highlyprized, were Franquet, with seven or eight military officers and acorresponding number of ladies, including the wife of Major Pean, ofwhom Bigot was enamoured. A chief steward, cooks, servants, and otherattendants, followed the party. The guests had been requested to sendtheir portmanteaus to the Intendant's Palace six days before, that theymight be sent forward on sledges along with bedding, table, service, cooking utensils, and numberless articles of comfort and luxury. Orderswere given to the inhabitants along the way, on pain of imprisonment, tolevel the snowdrifts and beat the road smooth with ox-teams, as also toprovide relays of horses. It is true that they were well paid for thislast service; so well that the hire of a horse to Montreal and backagain would cost the King the entire value of the animal. On the eighthof February the party met at the palace; and after a grand dinner setout upon their journey in twenty or more sleighs, some with two guestsand a driver, and the rest with servants and attendants. The processionpassed at full trot along St. Vallier street amid the shouts of anadmiring crowd, stopped towards night at Pointe-aux-Trembles, where eachlooked for lodging; and then they all met and supped with the Intendant. The militia captain of the place was ordered to have fresh horses readyat seven in the morning, when Bigot regaled his friends with tea, coffee, and chocolate, after which they set out again, drove toCap-Santé, and stopped two hours at the house of the militia captain tobreakfast and warm themselves. In the afternoon they reached Ste. Anne-de-la-Pérade, when Bigot gave them a supper at the house in whichhe 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, thewife of Rigaud, who was then governor of the place. Madame de Rigaud, being ill, received her visitors in bed, and ordered an ample dinner tobe provided for them; after which they returned to her chamber forcoffee and conversation. Then they all set out again, saluted by thecannon of the fort. 

Their next stopping-place was Isle-au-Castor, where, being seated atcards before supper, they were agreeably surprised by the appearance ofthe Governor, who had come down from Montreal to meet them with fourofficers, Duchesnaye, Marin, Le Mercier, and Péan. Many were theembraces and compliments; and in the morning they all journeyed ontogether, stopping towards night at the largest house they could find, where their servants took away the partitions to make room, and they satdown to a supper, followed by the inevitable game of cards. On the nextnight they reached Montreal and were lodged at the intendency, theofficial residence of the hospitable Bigot. The succeeding day was spentin visiting persons of eminence and consideration, among whom are to benoted the names, soon to become notorious, of Varin, naval commissary, Martel, King's storekeeper, Antoine Penisseault, and François Maurin. Asuccession of festivities followed, including the benediction of threeflags for a band of militia on their way to the Ohio. All persons ofquality in Montreal were invited on this occasion, and the Governor gavethem a dinner and a supper. Bigot, however, outdid him in the plenitudeof his hospitality, since, in the week before Lent, forty guests suppedevery evening at his table, and dances, masquerades, and cards consumedthe night. [545]

[Footnote 545: Franquet, _Journal_. ]

His chief abode was at Quebec, in the capacious but somewhat uglybuilding known as the Intendant's Palace. Here it was his custom duringthe war to entertain twenty persons at dinner every day; and there wasalso a hall for dancing, with a gallery to which the citizens wereadmitted as spectators. [546] The bounteous Intendant provided a separatedancing-hall for the populace; and, though at the same time he plunderedand ruined them, his gracious demeanor long kept him a place in theirhearts. Gambling was the chief feature of his entertainments, and thestakes grew deeper as the war went on. He played desperately himself, and early in 1758 lost two hundred and four thousand francs, --a losswhich he will knew how to repair. Besides his official residence on thebanks of the St. Charles, he had a country house about five milesdistant, a massive old stone building in the woods at the foot of themountain of Charlebourg; its ruins are now known as Chateau Bigot. Inits day it was called the Hermitage; though the uses to which it wasapplied savored nothing of asceticism. Tradition connects it and itsowner with a romantic, but more than doubtful, story of love, jealousy, and murder. 

[Footnote 546: De Gaspé, _Mémoires_, 119. ]

The chief Canadian families were so social in their habits and soconnected by intermarriage that, along with the French civil andmilitary officers of the colonial establishment, they formed a societywhose members all knew each other, like the corresponding class inVirginia. There was among them a social facility and ease rare indemocratic communities; and in the ladies of Quebec and Montreal wereoften seen graces which visitors from France were astonished to find atthe edge of a wilderness. Yet this small though lively society hadanomalies which grew more obtrusive towards the close of the war. Knavery makes strange companions; and at the tables of high civilofficials and colony officers of rank sat guests as boorish in mannersas they were worthless in character. 

Foremost among these was Joseph Cadet, son of a butcher at Quebec, whoat thirteen went to sea as a pilot's boy, then kept the cows of aninhabitant of Charlebourg, and at last took up his father's trade andprospered in it. [547] 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, andPenisseault, sold to the King, for about twenty-three million francs, provisions which cost them eleven millions, leaving a net profit of abouttwelve millions. It was not legally proved that the Intendant sharedCadet's gains; but there is no reasonable doubt that he did so. Bigot's chief profits rose, however, from other sources. It was hisbusiness 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 houseof Gradis and Son at Bordeaux. He next told the Colonial Minister thatthere were stores enough already in Canada to last three years, and that itwould be more to the advantage of the King to buy them in the colony thanto take the risk of sending them from France. [548] Gradis and Son thenshipped them to Canada in large quantities, while Bréard or his agentdeclared at the custom-house that they belonged to the King, and soescaped the payment of duties. Theywere then, as occasion rose, sold tothe King at a huge profit, always under fictitious names. Often they weresold to some favored merchant or speculator, who sold them in turn toBigot's confederate, the King's storekeeper; and sometimes they passedthrough several successive hands, till the price rose to double or triplethe first cost, the Intendant and his partners sharing the gains withfriends and allies. They would let nobody else sell to the King; andthus a grinding monopoly was established, to the great profit of thosewho held it. [549]

[Footnote 547: _Procès de Bigot, Cadet, et autres, Mémoire pour MessireFrançois Bigot_. Compare _Mémoires sur le Canada_, 1749-1760. ]

[Footnote 548: _Bigot au Ministre, 8 Oct. 1749. _]

[Footnote 549: _Procés de Bigot, Cadet, et autres. Mémoire sur lesFraudes commises dans la Colonie. _ Compare _Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760_. ]

Under the name of a trader named Claverie, Bigot, some time before thewar, set up a warehouse on land belonging to the King and not far fromhis own palace. Here the goods shipped from Bordeaux were collected, tobe sold in retail to the citizens, and in wholesale to favored merchantsand the King. This establishment was popularly known as La Friponne, atMontreal, which was leagued with that of Quebec, and received goods fromit. 

Bigot and his accomplices invented many other profitable frauds. Thus hewas charged with the disposal of the large quantity of furs belonging tohis master, which it was his duty to sell at public auction, after duenotice, to the highest bidder. Instead of this, he sold them privatelyat a low price to his own confederates. It was also his duty to providetransportation for troops, artillery, provisions, and stores, in whichhe made good profit by letting to the King, at high prices, boats orvessels which he had himself bought or hired for the purpose. [550]

[Footnote 550: _Jugement rendu souverainement dans l'Affaire duCanada. _]

Yet these and other illicit gains still left him but the second place aspublic plunderer. Cadet, the commissary-general, reaped an amplerharvest, and became the richest man in the colony. One of the operationsof this scoundrel, accomplished with the help of Bigot, consisted inbuying for six hundred thousand francs a quantity of stores belonging tothe King, and then selling them back to him for one million four hundredthousand. [551] It was further shown on his trial that in 1759 hereceived 1, 614, 354 francs for stores furnished at the post ofMiramichi, while the value of those actually furnished was but 889, 544francs; thus giving him a fraudulent profit of more than seven hundredand twenty-four thousand. [552] Cadet's chief resource was thefalsification of accounts. The service of the King in Canada was fencedabout by rigid formalities. When supplies were wanted at any of themilitary posts, the commandant made a requisition specifying theirnature and quantity, while, before pay could be drawn for them, theKing's storekeeper, the local commissary, and the inspector must settheir names as vouchers to the list, and finally Bigot must signit. [553] But precautions were useless where all were leagued to rob theKing. It appeared on Cadet's trial that by gifts of wine, brandy, ormoney he had bribed the officers, both civil and military, at all theprincipal forts to attest the truth of accounts in which the suppliesfurnished by him were set at more than twice their true amount. Of themany frauds charged against him there was one peculiarly odious. Largenumbers of refugee Acadians were to be supplied with rations to keepthem alive. Instead of wholesome food, mouldered and unsalable salt codwas sent them, and paid for by the King at inordinate prices. [554] Itwas but one of many heartless outrages practised by Canadian officialson this unhappy people. 

[Footnote 551: _Procès de Bigot, Cadet, et autres, Requête duProcureur-Général, 19 Dec_. 1761. ]

[Footnote 552: _Procès de Bigot, Cadet, et autres, Mémoire pour MessireFrançois Bigot_. ]

[Footnote 553: _Mémoire sur le Canada_ (Archives Nationales). ]

[Footnote 554: _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 fixedprice, on pain of having it seized. Thus nearly the whole fell into hishands. Famine ensued; and he then sold it at a great profit, partly tothe King, and partly to its first owners. Another of his devices was tosell provisions to the King which, being sent to the outlying forts, were falsely reported as consumed; on which he sold them to the King asecond time. Not without reason does a writer of the time exclaim: "Thisis the land of abuses, ignorance, prejudice, and all that is monstrousin government. Peculation, monopoly, and plunder have become abottomless abyss. "[555]

[Footnote 555: _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 forthe usual term of three years was thought enough for a young man tomarry upon. It was a favor in the gift of the Governor, who was accusedof sharing the profits. These came partly from the fur-trade, and stillmore from frauds of various kinds. For example, a requisition was madefor supplies as gifts to the Indians in order to keep them friendly orsend them on the war-path; and their number was put many times above thetruth in order to get more goods, which the commandant and hisconfederates then bartered for furs on their own account, instead ofgiving them as presents. "And, " says a contemporary, addressing theColonial Minister, "those who treat the savages so basely are officersof the King, depositaries of his authority, ministers of that GreatOnontio whom they call their father. "[556] At the post of Green Bay, thepartisan officer Marin, and Rigaud, the Governor's brother, made in ashort time a profit of three hundred and twelve thousand francs. [557]"Why is it, " asks Bougainville, "that of all which the King sends to theIndians two thirds are stolen, and the rest sold to them instead ofbeing given?"[558]

[Footnote 556: _Considérations sur l'État présent du Canada_. ]

[Footnote 557: _Mémoire sur les Fraudes commises dans la Colonie_. Bougainville, _Mémoire sur l'État de la Nouvelle France_. ]

[Footnote 558: Bougainville, _Journal_. ]

The transportation of military stores gave another opportunity ofplunder. The contractor would procure from the Governor or the localcommandant an order requiring the inhabitants to serve him as boatmen, drivers, or porters, under a promise of exemption that year from duty assoldiers. This saved him his chief item of expense, and the profits ofhis contract rose in proportion. 

A contagion of knavery ran through the official life of the colony; andto resist it demanded no common share of moral robustness. The officersof the troops of the line were not much within its influence; but thoseof the militia and colony regulars, whether of French or Canadian birth, shared the corruption of the civil service. Seventeen of them, includingsix chevaliers of St. Louis and eight commandants of forts, wereafterwards arraigned for fraud and malversation, though some of thenumber were acquitted. Bougainville gives the names of four otherCanadian officers as honorable exceptions to the generaldemoralization, --Benoît, Repentigny, Lainé, and Le Borgne; "not enough, "he observes, "to save Sodom. "

Conspicuous among these military thieves was Major Péan, whose qualitiesas a soldier have been questioned, but who nevertheless had shown almostas much vigor in serving the King during the Ohio campaign of 1753 ashe afterwards displayed effrontery in cheating him. "Le petit Péan" hadmarried a young wife, Mademoiselle Desméloizes, Canadian like himself, well born, and famed for beauty, vivacity, and wit. Bigot, who was nearsixty, became her accepted lover; and the fortune of Péan was made. Hisfirst success seems to have taken him by surprise. He had bought as aspeculation a large quantity of grain, with money of the King lent himby the Intendant. Bigot, officially omnipotent, then issued an orderraising the commodity to a price far above that paid by Péan, who thusmade a profit of fifty thousand crowns. [559] A few years later hiswealth was estimated at from two to four million francs. Madame Péanbecame a power in Canada, the dispenser of favors and offices; and allwho 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 hispartner, Penisseault; who, though the daughter of a Montreal tradesman, had the air of a woman of rank, and presided with dignity and grace at ahospitable board where were gathered the clerks of Cadet and otherlesser lights of the administrative hierarchy. It was often honored bythe presence of the Chevalier de Lévis, who, captivated by the charms ofthe hostess, condescended to a society which his friends condemned asunworthy of his station. He succeeded Péan in the graces of MadamePenisseault, and after the war took her with him to France; while theaggrieved husband found consolation in the wives of the smallfunctionaries under his orders. [560]

[Footnote 559: _Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. Mémoire sur lesFraudes_, etc. Compare Pouchot, I. 8. ]

[Footnote 560: _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 lowdegree, small in stature, sharp witted, indefatigable, conceited, arrogant, headstrong, capricious, and dissolute. Worthless as he was, hefound a place in the Court circle of the Governor, and aspired tosupplant Bigot in the intendancy. To this end, as well as to savehimself from justice, he had the fatuity to turn informer and lay barethe sins of his confederates, though forced at the same time to betrayhis own. Among his comrades and allies may be mentioned Deschenaux, sonof a shoemaker at Quebec, and secretary to the Intendant; Martel, King'sstorekeeper at Montreal; the humpback Maurin, who is not to beconfounded with the partisan officer Marin; and Corpron, a clerk whomseveral tradesmen had dismissed for rascality, but who was now in theconfidence of Cadet, to whom he made himself useful, and in whoseservice he grew rich. 

Canada was the prey of official jackals, --true lion's providers, sincethey helped to prepare a way for the imperial beast, who, roused at lastfrom his lethargy, was gathering his strength to seize her for his own. Honesty could not be expected from a body of men clothed with arbitraryand ill-defined powers, ruling with absolute sway an unfortunate peoplewho had no voice in their own destinies, and answerable only to anapathetic master three thousand miles away. Nor did the Canadian Church, though supreme, check the corruptions that sprang up and flourishedunder its eye. The Governor himself was charged with sharing theplunder; and though he was acquitted on his trial, it is certain thatBigot 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 afortune. [561] When the Colonial Minister berated the Intendant formaladministration, Vaudreuil became his advocate, and wrote thus in hisdefence: "I cannot conceal from you, Monseigneur, how deeply M. Bigotfeels the suspicions expressed in your letters to him. He does notdeserve 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, theill-disposed are jealous, and insinuate that he has prospered at theexpense of His Majesty. I am certain that it is not true, and thatnobody is a better citizen than he, or has the King's interest more atheart. "[562] For Cadet, the butcher's son, the Governor asked a patentof nobility as a reward for his services. [563] When Péan went to Francein 1758, Vaudreuil wrote to the Colonial Minister: "I have greatconfidence in him. He knows the colony and its needs. You can trust allhe says. He will explain everything in the best manner. I shall beextremely sensible to any kindness you may show him, and hope that whenyou know him you will like him as much as I do. "[564]

[Footnote 561: _Mémoires sur le Canada_, 1749-1760. ]

[Footnote 562: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 15 Oct. 1759. _]

[Footnote 563: _Ibid. , 7 Nov. 1759. _]

[Footnote 564: _Ibid. , 6 Août, 1758. _]

Administrative corruption was not the only bane of Canada. Her financialcondition was desperate. The ordinary circulating medium consisted ofwhat was known as card money, and amounted to only a million of francs. This being insufficient, Bigot, like his predecessor Hocquart, issuedpromissory notes on his own authority, and made them legal tender. Theywere for sums from one franc to a hundred, and were called_ordonnances_. Their issue was blamed at Versailles as an encroachmenton the royal prerogative, though they were recognized by the Ministry inview of the necessity of the case. Every autumn those who held them toany considerable amount might bring them to the colonial treasurer, whogave in return bills of exchange on the royal treasury in France. Atfirst these bills were promptly paid; then delays took place, and thenotes depreciated; till in 1759 the Ministry, aghast at the amount, refused payment, and the utmost dismay and confusion followed. [565]

[Footnote 565: _Réflections sommaires sur le Commerce qui s'est fait enCanada. État présent du Canada_. Compare Stevenson, _Card Money ofCanada_, in _Transactions of the Historical Society of Quebec_, 1873-1875. ]

The vast jarring, discordant mechanism of corruption grewincontrollable; it seized upon Bigot, and dragged him, despite himself, into perils which his prudence would have shunned. He was becoming avictim to the rapacity of his own confederates, whom he dared not offendby refusing his connivance and his signature of frauds which became moreand more recklessly audacious. He asked leave to retire from office, inthe hope that his successor would bear the brunt of the ministerialdispleasure. Péan had withdrawn already, and with the fruits of hisplunder bought land in France, where he thought himself safe. But thoughthe Intendant had long been an object of distrust, and had often beenwarned to mend his ways, [566] yet such was his energy, his executivepower, and his fertility of resource, that in the crisis of the war itwas hard to dispense with him. Neither his abilities, however, nor hisstrong connections in France, nor an ally whom he had secured in thebureau of the Colonial Minister himself, could avail him much longer;and the letters from Versailles became appalling in rebuke and menace. 

[Footnote 566: _Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, 1751-1758. _]

"The ship 'Britannia, '" wrote the Minister, Berryer, "laden with goodssuch as are wanted in the colony, was captured by a privateer from St. Malo, and brought into Quebec. You sold the whole cargo for eighthundred thousand francs. The purchasers made a profit of two millions. You bought back a part for the King at one million, or two hundredthousand more than the price which you sold the whole. With conduct likethis it is no wonder that the expenses of the colony becomeinsupportable. The amount of your drafts on the treasury is frightful. The fortunes of your subordinates throw suspicion on youradministration. " And in another letter on the same day: "How could ithappen that the small-pox among the Indians cost the King a millionfrancs? What does this expense mean? Who is answerable for it? Is it theofficers who command the posts, or is it the storekeepers? You give meno particulars. What has become of the immense quantity of provisionssent to Canada last year? I am forced to conclude that the King's storesare set down as consumed from the moment they arrive, and then sold toHis Majesty at exorbitant prices. Thus the King buys stores in France, and then buys them again in Canada. I no longer wonder at the immensefortunes made in the colony. "[567] Some months later the Ministerwrites: "You pay bills without examination, and then find an error inyour accounts of three million six hundred thousand francs. In theletters from Canada I see nothing but incessant speculation inprovisions and goods, which are sold to the King for ten times more thanthey cost in France. For the last time, I exhort you to give thesethings your serious attention, for they will not escape from mine. "[568]

[Footnote 567: _Le Ministre à Bigot, 19 Jan. 1759. _]

[Footnote 568: _Ibid. , 29 Août, 1759. _]

"I write, Monsieur, to answer your last two letters, in which you tellme that instead of sixteen millions, your drafts on the treasury for1758 will reach twenty-four millions, and that this year they will riseto from thirty-one to thirty-three millions. It seems, then, that thereare 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. Doyou suppose that I can advise the King to approve such anadministration? or do you think that you can take the immense sum ofthirty-three millions out of the royal treasury by merely assuring methat you have signed drafts for it? This, too, for expenses incurredirregularly, often needlessly, always wastefully; which make the fortuneof everybody who has the least hand in them, and about which you knowso little that after reporting them at sixteen millions, you find twomonths after that they will reach twenty-four. You are accused of havinggiven the furnishing of provisions to one man, who under the name ofcommissary-general, has set what prices he pleased; of buying for theKing at second or third hand what you might have got from the producerat half the price; of having in this and other ways made the fortunes ofpersons connected with you; and of living in splendor in the midst of apublic misery, which all the letters from the colony agree in ascribingto bad administration, and in charging M. De Vaudreuil with weakness innot preventing. "[569]

[Footnote 569: _Le Ministre à Bigotû, 29 Août, 1759_ (second letter ofthis date). ]

These drastic utterances seem to have been partly due to a letterwritten by Montcalm in cipher to the Maréchal de Belleisle, thenminister of war. It painted the deplorable condition of Canada, andexposed without reserve the peculations and robberies of those intrustedwith its interests. "It seems, " said the General, "as if they were allhastening to make their fortunes before the loss of the colony; whichmany of them perhaps desire as a veil to their conduct. " He gives amongother cases that of Le Mercier, chief of Canadian artillery, who hadcome to Canada as a private soldier twenty years before, and had soprospered on fraudulent contracts that he would soon be worth nearly amillion. "I have often, " continues Montcalm, "spoken of theseexpenditures to M. De Vaudreuil and M. Bigot; and each throws the blameon the other. "[570] And yet at the same time Vaudreuil was assuring theMinister that Bigot was without blame. 

[Footnote 570: _Montcalm au Ministre de la Guerre, Lettreconfidentielle, 12 Avril, _ 1759. ]

Some two months before Montcalm wrote this letter, the Minister, Berryer, sent a despatch to the Governor and Intendant which filled themwith ire and mortification. It ordered them to do nothing withoutconsulting the general of the French regulars, not only in matters ofwar, but in all matters of administration touching the defence andpreservation of the colony. A plainer proof of confidence on one handand distrust on the other could not have been given. [571]

[Footnote 571: _Le Ministre à Vaudreuil et Bigot, 20 Fév. 1759. _]

One Querdisien-Tremais was sent from Bordeaux as an agent of Governmentto make investigation. He played the part of detective, wormed himselfinto the secrets of the confederates, and after six months of patientinquisition 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 theyafterwards gave up nearly seven millions more. [572] Stormy eventsfollowed, and the culprits found shelter for a time amid the tumults ofwar. Peculation did not cease, but a day of reckoning was at hand. 

[Footnote 572: _Procès de Bigot, Cadet, et autres, Mémoirs pour FrançoisBigot, 3'me partie_. ]

NOTE: The printed documents of the trial of Bigot and the otherpeculators include the defence of Bigot, of which the first partoccupies 303 quarto pages, and the second part 764. Among the otherpapers are the arguments for Péan, Varin, Saint-Blin, Boishébert, Martel, Joncaire-Chabert and several more, along with the elaborate_Jugement rendue_, the _Requêtes du Procureur-Général, _ the _Réponse auxMémoires de M. Bigot et du Sieur Péan, _ etc. , forming together fivequarto volumes, all of which I have carefully examined. These are in theLibrary of Harvard University. There is another set, also of fivevolumes, in the Library of the Historical Society of Quebec, containingmost of the papers just mentioned, and, bound with them, various othersin manuscript, among which are documents in defence of Vaudreuil(printed in part); Estèbe, Corpron, Penisseault, Maurin, and Bréard. Ihave examined this collection also. The manuscript _Ordres du Roy etDépêches des Ministres_, 1757-1760, as well as the letters of Vaudreuil, Bougainville, Daine, Doreil, and Montcalm throw much light on themaladministration of the time; as do many contemporary documents, notably those entitled _Mémoire sur les Fraudes commises dans laColonie, État présent du Canada, _ and _Mémoire sur le Canada_ (ArchivesNationales). The remarkable anonymous work printed by the HistoricalSociety of Quebec under the title _Mémoires sur le Canada depuis 1749jusqu'àé 1760, is full of curious matter concerning Bigot and hisassociates which squares well with other evidence. This is the sourcefrom which Smith, in his _History of Canada_ (Quebec, 1815), drew mostof his information on the subject. A manuscript which seems to be theoriginal draft of this valuable document was preserved at the Bastile, and, with other papers, was thrown into the street when that castle wasdestroyed. They were gathered up, and afterwards bought by a Russiannamed Dubrowski, who carried them to St. Petersburg. Lord Dufferin, whenminister there, procured a copy of the manuscript in question, which isnow in the keeping of Abbé H. Verreau at Montreal, to whose kindness Iowe the opportunity of examining it. In substance it differs little fromthe printed work, though the language and the arrangement often varyfrom it. The author, whoever he may have been, was deeply versed inCanadian affairs of the time, and though often caustic, is generallytrustworthy. 

Chapter 18

1757, 1758

Pitt

The war kindled in the American forest was now raging in fullconflagration among the kingdoms of Europe; and in the midst stoodFrederic of Prussia, a veritable fire-king. He had learned throughsecret agents that he was to be attacked, and that the wrath of MariaTheresa with her two allies, Pompadour and the Empress of Russia, wassoon to wreak itself upon him. With his usual prompt audacity heanticipated his enemies, marched into Saxony, and began the Continentalwar. His position seemed desperate. England, sundered from Austria, herold ally, had made common cause with him; but he had no other friendworth the counting. France, Russia, Austria, Sweden, Saxony, thecollective Germanic Empire, and most of the smaller German States hadjoined hands for his ruin, eager to crush him and divide the spoil, parcelling out his dominions among themselves in advance by solemnmutual compact. Against the five millions of Prussia were arrayedpopulations of more than a hundred million. The little kingdom was openon all sides to attack, and her enemies were spurred on by the bitterestanimosity. It was thought that one campaign would end the war. The warlasted seven years, and Prussia came out of it triumphant. Such awarrior as her indomitable king Europe has rarely seen. If the SevenYears War made the maritime and colonial greatness of England, it alsoraised Prussia to the rank of a first-class Power. 

Frederic began with a victory, routing the Austrians in one of thefiercest of recorded conflicts, the battle of Prague. Then in his turnhe was beaten at Kolin. All seemed lost. The hosts of the coalition wererolling in upon him like a deluge. Surrounded by enemies, in the jaws ofdestruction, hoping for little but to die in battle, this strange herosolaced himself with an exhaustless effusion of bad verses, sometimesmournful, sometimes cynical, sometimes indignant, and sometimesbreathing a dauntless resolution; till, when his hour came, he threwdown his pen to achieve those feats of arms which stamp him one of theforemost soldiers of the world. 

The French and Imperialists, in overwhelming force, thought to crush himat Rosbach. He put them to shameful rout; and then, instead of bonfiresand Te Deums, mocked at them in doggerel rhymes of amazing indecency. While he was beating the French, the Austrians took Silesia from him. Hemarched to recover it, found them strongly posted at Leuthen, eightythousand men against thirty thousand, and without hesitation resolved toattack them. Never was he more heroic than on the eve of this, hiscrowning triumph. "The hour is at hand, " he said to his generals. "Imean, in spite of the rules of military art, to attack Prince Karl'sarmy, which is nearly thrice our own. This risk I must run, or all islost. We must beat him or die, all of us, before his batteries. " Heburst unawares upon the Austrian left, and rolled their whole hosttogether, 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 wrestedfrom her, and the Ministry had an innocent man shot to avert fromthemselves the popular indignation; while the same Ministry, scared by aphantom of invasion, brought over German troops to defend British soil. But now an event took place pregnant with glorious consequence. Thereins of power fell into the hands of William Pitt. He had already heldthem for a brief space, forced into office at the end of 1756 by popularclamor, in spite of the Whig leaders and against the wishes of the King. But the place was untenable. Newcastle's Parliament would not supporthim; the Duke of Cumberland opposed him; the King hated him; and inApril 1757, he was dismissed. Then ensued eleven weeks of bickering anddispute, during which, in the midst of a great war, England was leftwithout a government. It became clear that none was possible withoutPitt; and none with him could be permanent and strong unless joined withthose influences which had thus far controlled the majorities ofParliament. Therefore an extraordinary union was brought about; LordChesterfield acting as go-between to reconcile the ill-assorted pair. One of them brought to the alliance the confidence and support of thepeople; the other, Court management, borough interest, and parliamentaryconnections. Newcastle was made First Lord of the Treasury, and Pitt, the old enemy who had repeatedly browbeat and ridiculed him, becameSecretary of State, with the lead of the House of Commons and fullcontrol of the war and foreign affairs. It was a partnership of magpieand eagle. The dirty work of government, intrigue, bribery, and all thepatronage that did not affect the war, fell to the share of the oldpolitician. If Pitt could appoint generals, admirals, and ambassadors, Newcastle was welcome to the rest. "I will borrow the Duke's majoritiesto carry on the government, " said the new secretary; and with theaudacious self-confidence that was one of his traits, he told the Dukeof Devonshire, "I am sure that I can save this country, and that nobodyelse can. " England hailed with one acclaim the undaunted leader whoasked for no reward but the honor of serving her. The hour had found theman. For the next four years this imposing figure towers supreme inBritish history. 

He had glaring faults, some of them of a sort not to have been expectedin him. Vanity, the common weakness of small minds, was the mostdisfiguring foible of this great one. He had not the simplicity whichbecomes greatness so well. He could give himself theatrical airs, strikeattitudes, and dart stage lightnings from his eyes; yet he wasformidable even in his affectations. Behind his great intellectualpowers lay a burning enthusiasm, a force of passion and fierce intensityof will, that gave redoubled impetus to the fiery shafts of hiseloquence; and the haughty and masterful nature of the man had its sharein the ascendency which he long held over Parliament. He would blast thelabored argument of an adversary by a look of scorn or a contemptuouswave of the hand. 

The Great Commoner was not a man of the people in the popular sense ofthat hackneyed phrase. Though himself poor, being a younger son, he cameof a rich and influential family; he was patrician at heart; both hisfaults and his virtues, his proud incorruptibility and passionate, domineering patriotism, bore the patrician stamp. Yet he loved libertyand he loved the people, because they were the English people. Theeffusive humanitarianism of to-day had no part in him, and the democracyof to-day would detest him. Yet to the middle-class England of his owntime, that unenfranchised England which had little representation inParliament, he was a voice, an inspiration, and a tower of strength. Hewould not flatter the people; but, turning with contempt from the tricksand devices of official politics, he threw himself with a confidencethat never wavered on their patriotism and public spirit. They answeredhim with a boundless trust, asked but to follow his lead, gave himwithout stint their money and their blood, loved him for his domesticvirtues and his disinterestedness, believed him even in hisself-contradiction, and idolized him even in his bursts of arrogantpassion. It was he who waked England from her lethargy, shook off thespell that Newcastle and his fellow-enchanters had cast over her, andtaught her to know herself again. A heart that beat in unison with allthat was British found responsive throbs in every corner of the vastempire that through him was to become more vast. With the instinct ofhis fervid patriotism he would join all its far-extended members intoone, not by vain assertions of parliamentary supremacy, but by bonds ofsympathy and ties of a common freedom and a common cause. 

The passion for power and glory subdued in him all the sordid parts ofhumanity, and he made the power and glory of England one with his own. He could change front through resentment or through policy; but inwhatever path he moved, his objects were the same: not to curb the powerof France in America, but to annihilate it; crush her navy, cripple herforeign trade, ruin her in India, in Africa, and wherever else, east orwest, she had found foothold; gain for England the mastery of the seas, open to her the great highways of the globe, make her supreme incommerce and colonization; and while limiting the activities of herrival to the European continent, give to her the whole world for asphere. 

To this British Roman was opposed the pampered Sardanapalus ofVersailles, with the silken favorite who by calculated adultery hadbought the power to ruin France. The Marquise de Pompadour, who beganlife as Jeanne Poisson, --Jane Fish, --daughter of the head clerk of abanking house, who then became wife of a rich financier, and then, asmistress of the King, rose to a pinnacle of gilded ignominy, chose thistime to turn out of office the two ministers who had shown most abilityand force, --Argenson, head of the department of war, and Machault, headof the marine and colonies; the one because he was not subservient toher will, and the other because he had unwittingly touched the self-loveof her royal paramour. She aspired to a share in the conduct of the war, and not only made and unmade ministers and generals, but discussedcampaigns and battles with them, while they listened to her prating witha show of obsequious respect, since to lose her favor was to risk losingall. A few months later, when blows fell heavy and fast, she turned adeaf 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 aRoman matron. In fact she never wavered in her spite against Frederic, and her fortitude was perfect in bearing the sufferings of others anddefying dangers that could not touch her. 

When Pitt took office it was not over France, but over England that theclouds hung dense and black. Her prospects were of the gloomiest. "Whoever is in or whoever is out, " wrote Chesterfield, "I am sure we areundone both at home and abroad: at home by our increasing debt andexpenses; abroad by our ill-luck and incapacity. We are no longer anation. " And his despondency was shared by many at the beginning of themost triumphant Administration in British history. The shufflingweakness of his predecessors had left Pitt a heritage of tribulation. From America came news of Loudon's manifold failures; from Germany thatof the miscarriage of the Duke of Cumberland, who, at the head of anarmy of Germans in British pay, had been forced to sign the conventionof Kloster-Zeven, by which he promised to disband them. To thesedisasters was added a third, of which the new Government alone had tobear the burden. At the end of summer Pitt sent a great expedition toattack Rochefort; the military and naval commanders disagreed, and theconsequence was failure. There was no light except from far-off India, where Clive won the great victory of Plassey, avenged the Black Hole ofCalcutta, and prepared the ruin of the French power and the undisputedascendency 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 theFrench at Rossbach and of the Austrians at Leuthen spread joy throughtheir island. More than this, they felt that they had found at last aleader after their own heart; and the consciousness regenerated them. For the paltering imbecility of the old Ministry they had theunconquerable courage, the iron purpose, the unwavering faith, theinextinguishable hope, of the new one. "England has long been in labor, "said Frederic of Prussia, "and at last she has brought forth a man. " Itwas 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 NewcastleAdministration served her manfully and well under his robust impulsion. "Nobody ever entered his closet, " said Colonel Barre, "who did not comeout of it a braver man. " That inspiration was felt wherever the Britishflag waved. Zeal awakened with the assurance that conspicuous merit wassure of its reward, and that no officer who did his duty would now bemade a sacrifice, like Admiral Byng, to appease public indignation atministerial failures. As Nature, languishing in chill vapors and dullsmothering fogs, revives at the touch of the sun, so did England springinto fresh life under the kindling influence of one great man. 

With the opening of the year 1758 her course of Continental victoriesbegan. The Duke of Cumberland, the King's son, was recalled in disgrace, and a general of another stamp, Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, wasplaced in command of the Germans in British pay, with the contingent ofEnglish troops now added to them. The French, too, changed commanders. The Duke of Richelieu, a dissolute old beau, returned to Paris to spendin heartless gallantries the wealth he had gained by plunder; and ayoung soldier-churchman, the Comte de Clermont, took his place. PrinceFerdinand pushed him hard with an inferior force, drove him out ofHanover, and captured eleven thousand of his soldiers. Clermont wasrecalled, and was succeeded by Contades, another incapable. One of hissubordinates won for him the battle; of Lutterberg; but the generalshipof Ferdinand made it a barren victory, and the campaign remained asuccess for the English. They made descents on the French coasts, captured; St. -Servan, a suburb of St. -Malo, and burned three ships ofthe line, twenty-four privateers, and sixty merchantmen; then enteredCherbourg, destroyed the forts, carried off or spiked the cannon, andburned twenty-seven vessels, --a success partially offset by a failure onthe coast of Brittany, where they were repulsed with some loss. InAfrica they drove the French from the Guinea coast, and seized theirestablishment at Senegal. 

It was towards America that Pitt turned his heartiest efforts. His firstaim was to take Louisbourg, as a step towards taking Quebec; thenTiconderoga, that thorn in the side of the northern colonies; and lastlyFort Duquesne, the Key of the Great West. He recalled Loudon, for whomhe had a fierce contempt; but there were influences which he could notdisregard, and Major-General Abercromby, who was next in order of rank, an indifferent soldier, though a veteran in years, was allowed tosucceed him, and lead in person the attack on Ticonderoga. [573] Pitthoped that Brigadier Lord Howe, an admirable officer, who was joinedwith Abercromby, would be the real commander, and make amends for allshort-comings of his chief. To command the Louisbourg expedition, Colonel Jeffrey Amherst was recalled from the German war, and made atone leap a major-general. [574] He was energetic and resolute, somewhatcautious and slow, but with a bulldog tenacity of grip. Under him werethree brigadiers, Whitmore, Lawrence, and Wolfe, of whom the youngest isthe most noteworthy. In the luckless Rochefort expedition, Colonel JamesWolfe was conspicuous by a dashing gallantry that did not escape the eyeof Pitt, always on the watch for men to do his work. The young officerwas ardent, headlong, void of fear, often rash, almost fanatical in hisdevotion to military duty, and reckless of life when the glory ofEngland or his own was at stake. The third expedition, that against FortDuquesne, was given to Brigadier John Forbes, whose qualities wellfitted him for the task. 

[Footnote 573: _Order, War Office, 19 Dec. 1757. _]

[Footnote 574: _Pitt to Abercromby, 27 Jan. 1758. Instructions for ourTrusty and Well-beloved Jeffrey Amherst, Esq. , Major-General of ourForces in North America, 3 March, 1758. _]

During his first short term of office, Pitt had given a new species oftroops to the British army. These were the Scotch Highlanders, who hadrisen against the House of Hanover in 1745, and would raise against itagain should France accomplish her favorite scheme of throwing a forceinto Scotland to excite another insurrection for the Stuarts. But theywould be useful to fight the French abroad, though dangerous as theirpossible allies at home; and two regiments of them were now ordered toAmerica. 

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 wintertwo fleets had put to sea: one, under Admiral Boscawen, was destined forLouisbourg; while the other, under Admiral Osborn, sailed for theMediterranean to intercept the French fleet of Admiral La Clue, who wasabout to sail from Toulon for America. Osborn, cruising between thecoasts of Spain and Africa, barred the way to the Straits of Gibraltar, and kept his enemy imprisoned. La Clue made no attempt to force apassage; but several combats of detached ships took place, one of whichis too remarkable to pass unnoticed. Captain Gardiner of the "Monmouth, "a ship of four hundred and seventy men and sixty-four guns, engaged theFrench ship "Foudroyant, " carrying a thousand men and eighty-four gunsof heavier metal than those of the Englishman. Gardiner had lately beenreproved by Anson, First Lord of the Admiralty, for some allegedmisconduct or shortcoming, and he thought of nothing but retrieving hishonor. "We must take her, " he said to his crew as the "Foudroyant" hovein sight. "She looks more than a match for us, but I will not quit herwhile this ship can swim or I have a soul left alive;" and the sailorsanswered with cheers. The fight was long and furious. Gardiner waskilled by a musket shot, begging his first lieutenant with his dyingbreath 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. [575]

[Footnote 575: Entick, III. 56-60. ]

The typical British naval officer of that time was a rugged sea-dog, atough and stubborn fighter, though no more so than the politergenerations that followed, at home on the quarter-deck, but no ornamentto the drawing-room, by reason of what his contemporary, Entick, thestrenuous chronicler of the war, calls, not unapprovingly, "the ferocityof his manners. " While Osborn held La Clue imprisoned at Toulon, SirEdward Hawke, worthy leader of such men, sailed with seven ships of theline and three frigates to intercept a French squadron from Rochefortconvoying a fleet of transports with troops for America. The Frenchships cut their cables and ran for the shore, where most of themstranded in the mud, and some threw cannon and munitions overboard tofloat themselves. The expedition was broken up. Of the many ships fittedout this year for the succor of Canada and Louisbourg, comparatively fewreached their destination, and these for the most part singly or by twosand threes. 

Meanwhile Admiral Boscawen with his fleet bore away for Halifax, theplace of rendezvous, and Amherst, in the ship "Dublin, " followed in hiswake. 

Chapter 19

1758

Louisbourg

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 fewgrazing sheep, and intersected by rows of stone that mark more or lessdistinctly the lines of what once were streets. Green mounds andembankments of earth enclose the whole space, and beneath the highest ofthem yawn arches and caverns of ancient masonry. This grassy solitudewas once the "Dunkirk of America;" the vaulted caverns where the sheepfind shelter from the ram were casemates where terrified women soughtrefuge from storms of shot and shell, and the shapeless green moundswere citadel, bastion, rampart, and glacis. Here stood Louisbourg; andnot all the efforts of its conquerors, nor all the havoc of succeedingtimes, have availed to efface it. Men in hundreds toiled for months withlever, spade, and gunpowder in the work of destruction, and for morethan a century it has served as a stone quarry; but the remains of itsvast defences still tell their tale of human valor and human woe. 

Stand on the mounds that were once the King's Bastion. The glisteningsea spreads eastward three thousand miles, and its waves meet theirfirst rebuff against this iron coast. Lighthouse Point is white withfoam; jets of spray spout from the rocks of Goat Island; mist curls inclouds from the seething surf that lashes the crags of Black Point, andthe sea boils like a caldron among the reefs by the harbor's mouth; buton the calm water within, the small fishing vessels rest tranquil attheir moorings. Beyond lies a hamlet of fishermen by the edge of thewater, and a few scattered dwellings dot the rough hills, bristled withstunted firs, that gird the quiet basin; while close at hand, within theprecinct of the vanished fortress, stand two small farmhouses. All elseis a solitude of ocean, rock, marsh, and forest. [576]

[Footnote 576: Louisbourg is described as I saw it ten days beforewriting the above, after an easterly gale. ]

At the beginning of June, 1758, the place wore another aspect. Since thepeace of Aix-la-Chapelle vast sums had been spent in repairing andstrengthening it; and Louisbourg was the strongest fortress in French orBritish America. Nevertheless it had its weaknesses. The original planof the works had not been fully carried out; and owing, it is said, tothe bad quality of the mortar, the masonry of the ramparts was in sopoor 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, andthe town contained about four thousand inhabitants. The best buildingsin it were the convent, the hospital, the King's storehouses, and thechapel and governor's quarters, which were under the same roof. Of theprivate houses, only seven or eight were of stone, the rest being humblewooden structures, suited to a population of fishermen. The garrisonconsisted of the battalions of Artois, Bourgogne, Cambis, andVolontaires Étrangers, with two companies of artillery and twenty-fourof colony troops from Canada, --in all three thousand and eighty regulartroops, besides officers;[577] and to these were added a body of armedinhabitants and a band of Indians. In the harbor were five ships of theline and seven frigates, carrying in all five hundred and forty-fourguns and about three thousand men. [578] Two hundred and nineteen cannonand seventeen mortars were mounted on the walls and outworks. [579] Ofthese last the most important were the Grand Battery on the shore of theharbor opposite its mouth, and the Island Battery on the rocky islet atits entrance. 

[Footnote 577: _Journal du Siége de Louisbourg_. Twenty-nine hundredregulars were able to bear arms when the siege began. _Houllière, Commandant des Troupes, au Ministre, 6 Août_, 1758. ]

[Footnote 578: 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, sailedfor France on the eighth of June, and was followed by the Comète. ]

[Footnote 579: _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 ofthe peninsular triangle on which the town stood. This front, abouttwelve hundred yards in extent, reached from the sea on the left to theharbor on the right, and consisted of four bastions with then-connectingcurtains, 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 itsloped 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 anenemy, as was also the case, to a less degree, on the left, towards thesea. The best defence of Louisbourg was the craggy shore, that, forleagues on either hand, was accessible only at a few points, and eventhere with difficulty. All these points were vigilantly watched. 

There had been signs of the enemy from the first opening of spring. Inthe intervals of fog, rain, and snow-squalls, sails were seen hoveringon the distant sea; and during the latter part of May a squadron of nineships cruised off the mouth of the harbor, appearing and disappearing, sometimes driven away by gales, sometimes lost in fogs, and sometimesapproaching to within cannon-shot of the batteries. Their object was toblockade the port, --in which they failed; for French ships had come inat intervals, till, as we have seen, twelve of them lay safe anchoredin the harbor, with more than a year's supply of provisions for thegarrison. 

At length, on the first of June, the southeastern horizon was white witha cloud of canvas. The long-expected crisis was come. Drucour, thegovernor, sent two thousand regulars, with about a thousand militia andIndians, to guard the various landing-places; and the rest, aided by thesailors, remained to hold the town. [580]

[Footnote 580: _Rapport de Grucour. Journal du Siége_. ]

At the end of May Admiral Boscawen was at Halifax with twenty-threeships of the line, eighteen frigates and fireships, and a fleet oftransports, on board of which were eleven thousand and six hundredsoldiers, all regulars, except five hundred provincial rangers. [581]Amherst had not yet arrived, and on the twenty-eighth, Boscawen, inpursuance of his orders and to prevent loss of time, put to sea withouthim; but scarcely had the fleet sailed out of Halifax, when they met theship that bore the expected general. Amherst took command of the troops;and the expedition held its way till the second of June, when they sawthe rocky shore-line of Cape Breton, and descried the masts of theFrench squadron in the harbor of Louisbourg. 

[Footnote 581: Of this force, according to Mante, only 9, 900 were fitfor duty. The table printed by Knox (I. 127) shows a total of 11, 112, besides officers, artillery, and rangers. The _Authentic Account of theReduction 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 theafternoon Amherst, Lawrence, and Wolfe, with a number of naval officers, reconnoitred the shore in boats, coasting it for miles, and approachingit as near as the French batteries would permit. The rocks were whitewith surf, and every accessible point was strongly guarded. Boscawen sawlittle chance of success. He sent for his captains, and consulted themseparately. They thought, like him, that it would be rash to attempt alanding, and proposed a council of war. One of them alone, an old seaofficer named Ferguson advised his commander to take the responsibilityhimself, hold no council, and make the attempt at every risk. Boscawentook his advice, and declared that he would not leave Gabarus Bay tillhe had fulfilled his instructions and set the troops on shore. [582]

[Footnote 582: 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 werenearer, the last being within a mile of the fortifications. East of thetown there was an inlet called Lorambec, also available for landing. Inorder to distract the attention of the enemy, it was resolved tothreaten all these places, and to form the troops into three divisions, two of which, under Lawrence and Whitmore, were to advance towards FlatPoint and White Point, while a detached regiment was to make a feint atLorambec. Wolfe, with the third division, was to make the real attackand try to force a landing at Freshwater Cove, which, as it proved, wasthe most strongly defended of all. When on shore Wolfe was an habitualinvalid, and when at sea every heave of the ship made him wretched; buthis 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, thoughI know that the very passage threatens my life, and that my constitutionmust be utterly ruined and undone. "

On the next day, the third, the surf was so high that nothing could beattempted. 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 beingstranded. On the fifth there was another fog and a raging surf. On thesixth there was fog, with rain in the morning and better weather towardsnoon, 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 theseventh more fog and more surf till night, when the sea grew calmer, andorders were given for another attempt. At two in the morning of theeighth the troops were in the boats again. At daybreak the frigates ofthe squadron, anchoring before each point of real or pretended attack, opened a fierce cannonade on the French intrenchments; and, a quarter ofan hour after, the three divisions rowed towards the shore. That of theleft, under Wolfe, consisted of four companies of grenadiers, with thelight infantry and New England rangers, followed and supported byFraser's Highlanders and eight more companies of grenadiers. They pulledfor Freshwater Cove. Here there was a crescent-shaped beach, a quarterof a mile long, with rocks at each end. On the shore above, about athousand Frenchmen, under Lieutenant-Colonel de Saint-Julien, lay behindentrenchments covered in front by spruce and fir trees, felled and laidon the ground with the tops outward. [583] Eight cannon and swivels wereplanted to sweep every part of the beach and its approaches, and thesepieces were masked by young evergreens stuck in the ground before them. 

[Footnote 583: Drucour reports 985 soldiers as stationed here underSaint-Julien there were also some Indians. Freshwater Cove, otherwiseKennington Cove, was called La Cormorandière by the French. ]

The English were allowed to come within close range unmolested. Then thebatteries opened, and a deadly storm of grape and musketry was pouredupon the boats. It was clear in an instant that to advance farther wouldbe destruction; and Wolfe waved his hand as a signal to sheer off. Atsome distance on the right, and little exposed to the fire, were threeboats of light infantry under Lieutenants Hopkins and Brown and EnsignGrant; who, mistaking the signal or wilfully misinterpreting it, madedirectly for the shore before them. It was a few roads east of thebeach; a craggy coast and a strand strewn with rocks and lashed withbreakers, but sheltered from the cannon by a small projecting point. Thethree officers leaped ashore, followed by their men. Wolfe saw themovement, and hastened to support it. The boat of Major Scott, whocommanded the light infantry and rangers, next came up, and was stove inan instant; but Scott gained the shore, climbed the crags, and foundhimself with ten men in front of some seventy French and Indians. Halfhis followers were killed and wounded, and three bullets were shotthrough his clothes; but with admirable gallantry he held his groundtill others came to his aid. [584] The remaining boats now reached thelanding. Many were stove among the rocks, and others were overset; someof the men were dragged back by the surf and drowned; some lost theirmuskets, and were drenched to the skin: but the greater part got safeashore. Among the foremost was seen the tall, attenuated form ofBrigadier Wolfe, armed with nothing but a cane, as he leaped into thesurf and climbed the crags with his soldiers. As they reached the topthey formed in compact order, and attacked and carried with the bayonetthe nearest French battery, a few rods distant. The division ofLawrence soon came up; and as the attention of the enemy was nowdistracted, they made their landing with little opposition at thefarther 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 andfled into the woods. About seventy of them were captured and fiftykilled. The rest, circling among the hills and around the marshes, madetheir way to Louisbourg, and those at the intermediate posts joinedtheir flight. The English followed through a matted growth of firs tillthey reached the cleared ground; when the cannon, opening on them fromthe ramparts, stopped the pursuit. The first move of the great game wasplayed and won. [585]

[Footnote 584: Pichon, _Mémoires du Cap-Breton_, 284. ]

[Footnote 585: _Journal of Amherst_, in Mante, 117. _Amherst to Pitt, 11June, 1758_. _Authentic Account of the Reduction of Louisbourg, by aSpectator_, 11. _General Orders of Amherst, 3-7 June, 1759. Letter froman Officer_, in Knox, I. 191; Entick, III. 225. The French accountsgenerally agree in essentials with the English. The English lost onehundred and nine, killed, wounded, and drowned. ]

Amherst made his camp just beyond range of the French cannon, and FlatPoint Cove was chosen as the landing-place of guns and stores. Clearingthe 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. TheFrench had abandoned the Grand Battery after setting fire to thebuildings in it and to the houses and fish-stages along the shore of theharbor. During the following days stores were landed as fast as the surfwould permit: but the task was so difficult that from first to last morethan a hundred boats were stove in accomplishing it; and such was theviolence of the waves that none of the siege-guns could be got ashoretill the eighteenth. The camp extended two miles along a stream thatflowed down to the Cove among the low, woody hills that curved aroundthe town and harbor. Redoubts were made to protect its front, andblockhouses to guard its left and rear from the bands of Acadians knownto be hovering in the woods. 

Wolfe, with twelve hundred men, made his way six or seven miles roundthe harbor, took possession of the battery at Lighthouse Point which theFrench had abandoned, planted guns and mortars, and opened fire on theIsland Battery that guarded the entrance. Other guns were placed atdifferent points along the shore, and soon opened on the French ships. The ships and batteries replied. The artillery fight raged night andday; till on the twenty-fifth the island guns were dismounted andsilenced. 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 ofthe marsh, less than half a mile from the ramparts, as the point foropening his trenches. A road with an epaulement to protect it must firstbe made to the spot; and as the way was over a tract of deep mudcovered with water-weeds and moss, the labor was prodigious. A thousandmen worked at it day and night under the fire of the town and ships. 

When the French looked landward from their ramparts they could seescarcely a sign of the impending storm. Behind them Wolfe's cannon wereplaying busily from Lighthouse Point and the heights around the harbor;but, before them, the broad flat marsh and the low hills seemed almost asolitude. Two miles distant, they could descry some of the Englishtents; but the greater part were hidden by the inequalities of theground. On the right, a prolongation of the harbor reached nearly half amile beyond the town, ending in a small lagoon formed by a projectingsandbar, and known as the Barachois. Near this bar lay moored the littlefrigate "Aréthuse, " under a gallant officer named Vauquelin. Herposition was a perilous one; but so long as she could maintain it shecould sweep with her fire the ground before the works, and seriouslyimpede the operations of the enemy. The other naval captains were lessventurous; and when the English landed, they wanted to leave the harborand save their ships. Drucour insisted that they should stay to aid thedefence, and they complied; but soon left their moorings and anchored asclose as possible under the guns of the town, in order to escape thefire of Wolfe's batteries. Hence there was great murmuring among themilitary officers, who would have had them engage the hostile guns atshort range. The frigate "Écho, " under cover of a fog, had been sent toQuebec for aid; but she was chased and captured; and, a day or twoafter, the French saw her pass the mouth of the harbor with an Englishflag at her mast-head. 

When Wolfe had silenced the Island Battery, a new and imminent dangerthreatened Louisbourg. Boscawen might enter the harbor, overpower theFrench naval force, and cannonade the town on its weakest side. Therefore Drucour resolved to sink four large ships at the entrance; andon a dark and foggy night this was successfully accomplished. Two morevessels were afterwards sunk, and the harbor was then thought safe. 

The English had at last finished their preparations, and were urging onthe siege with determined vigor. The landward view was a solitude nolonger. They could be seen in multitudes piling earth and fascinesbeyond the hillock at the edge of the marsh. On the twenty-fifth theyoccupied the hillock itself, and fortified themselves there under ashower of bombs. Then they threw up earth on the right, and pushedtheir approaches towards the Barachois, in spite of a hot fire from thefrigate "Aréthuse. " Next they appeared on the left towards the sea abouta third of a mile from the Princess's Bastion. It was Wolfe, with astrong detachment, throwing up a redoubt and opening an entrenchment. Late on the night of the ninth of July six hundred French troops salliedto interrupt the work. The English grenadiers in the trenches foughtstubbornly with bayonet and sword, but were forced back to the secondline, where a desperate conflict in the dark took place; and aftersevere 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 moreadvanced position. 

Various courtesies were exchanged between the two commanders. Drucour, on occasion of a flag of truce, wrote to Amherst that there was asurgeon of uncommon skill in Louisbourg, whose services were at thecommand of any English officer who might need them. Amherst on his partsent to his enemy letters and messages from wounded Frenchmen in hishands, adding his compliments to Madame Drucour, with an expression ofregret for the disquiet to which she was exposed, begging her at thesame time to accept a gift of pineapples from the West Indies. Shereturned his courtesy by sending him a basket of wine; after whichamenities the cannon roared again. Madame Drucour was a woman of heroicspirit. Every day she was on the ramparts, where her presence roused thesoldiers to enthusiasm; and every day with her own hand she fired threecannon to encourage them. 

The English lines grew closer and closer, and their fire more and moredestructive. Desgouttes, the naval commander, withdrew the "Aréthuse"from her exposed position, where her fire had greatly annoyed thebesiegers. The shot-holes in her sides were plugged up, and in the darknight of the fourteenth of July she was towed through the obstructionsin the mouth of the harbor, and sent to France to report the situationof Louisbourg. More fortunate than her predecessor, she escaped theEnglish in a fog. Only five vessels now remained afloat in the harbor, and these were feebly manned, as the greater part of their officers andcrews had come ashore, to the number of two thousand, lodging undertents in the town, amid the scarcely suppressed murmurs of the armyofficers. 

On the eighth of July news came that the partisan Boishébert wasapproaching with four hundred Acadians, Canadians, and Micmacs toattack the English outposts and detachments. He did little or nothing, however, besides capturing a few stragglers. On the sixteenth, early inthe evening, a party of English, led by Wolfe, dashed forward, drove offa band of French volunteers, seized a rising ground calledHauteur-de-la-Potence, or Gallows Hill, and began to entrench themselvesscarcely three hundred yards from the Dauphin's Bastion. The town openedon them furiously with grapeshot; but in the intervals of the firing thesound of their picks and spades could plainly be heard. In the morningthey were seen throwing up earth like moles as they burrowed their wayforward; and on the twenty-first they opened another parallel, withintwo hundred yards of the rampart. Still their sappers pushed on. Everyday they had more guns in position, and on right and left their firegrew 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 onthe ship "Célèbre" and set her on fire. An explosion followed. The fewmen on board could not save her, and she drifted from her moorings. Thewind blew the flames into the rigging of the "Entreprenant, " and theninto that of the "Capricieux. " At night all three were in full blaze;for when the fire broke out the English batteries turned on them atempest of shot and shell to prevent it from being extinguished. Theglare of the triple conflagration lighted up the town, the trenches, theharbor, and the surrounding hills, while the burning ships shot offtheir guns at random as they slowly drifted westward, and grounded atlast near the Barachois. In the morning they were consumed to thewater'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 wasa large oblong stone building containing the chapel, lodgings for menand officers, and at the southern end the quarters of the Governor. Onthe morning after the burning of the ships a shell fell through the roofamong a party of soldiers in the chamber below, burst, and set the placeon fire. In half an hour the chapel and all the northern part of thebuilding were in flames; and no sooner did the smoke rise above thebastion than the English threw into it a steady shower of missiles. Yetsoldiers, sailors, and inhabitants hastened to the spot, and laboreddesperately to check the fire. They saved the end occupied by Drucourand his wife, but all the rest was destroyed. Under the adjacentrampart were the casemates, one of which was crowded with woundedofficers, and the rest with women and children seeking shelter in thesesubterranean dens. Before the entrances there was a long barrier oftimber to protect them from exploding shells; and as the wind blew theflames towards it, there was danger that it would take fire andsuffocate those within. They rushed out, crazed with fright, and ranhither and thither with outcries and shrieks amid the storm of iron. 

In the neighboring Queen's Bastion was a large range of barracks builtof wood by the New England troops after their capture of the fortress in1745. 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 greaterpart of the garrison: but such was the danger of fire, that they werenow ordered to leave it; and they accordingly lay in the streets oralong the foot of the ramparts, under shelters of timber which gave somelittle protection against bombs. The order was well timed; for on thenight after the fire in the King's Bastion, a shell filled withcombustibles set this building also in flames. A fearful scene ensued. All the English batteries opened upon it. The roar of mortars andcannon, the rushing and screaming of round-shot and grape, the hissingof fuses and the explosion of grenades and bombs mingled with a storm ofmusketry from the covered way and trenches; while, by the glare of theconflagration, 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 cheerswas heard in the distance, followed by confused cries and the noise ofmusketry, which lasted but a moment. Six hundred English sailors hadsilently rowed into the harbor and seized the two remaining ships, the"Prudent" and the "Bienfaisant. " After the first hubbub all was silentfor half an hour. Then a light glowed through the thick fog that coveredthe 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 tothe 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 theirnumber were in the hospitals; while the rest, exhausted with incessanttoil, could find no place to snatch an hour of sleep; "and yet, " says anofficer, "they still show ardor. " "To-day, " he again says, on thetwenty-fourth, "the fire of the place is so weak that it is more likefuneral guns than a defence. " On the front of the town only four cannoncould fire at all. The rest were either dismounted or silenced by themusketry from the trenches. The masonry of the ramparts had been shakenby the concussion of their own guns; and now, in the Dauphin's andKing's bastions, the English shot brought it down in masses. Thetrenches had been pushed so close on the rising grounds at the rightthat a great part of the covered way was enfiladed, while a battery on ahill across the harbor swept the whole front with a flank fire. Amhersthad ordered the gunners to spare the houses of the town; but, accordingto French accounts, the order had little effect, for shot and shell felleverywhere. "There is not a house in the place, " says the Diary justquoted, "that has not felt the effects of this formidable artillery. From yesterday morning till seven o'clock this evening we reckon that athousand or twelve hundred bombs, great and small, have been thrown intothe town, accompanied all the time by the fire of forty pieces ofcannon, served with an activity not often seen. The hospital and thehouses around it, which also serve as hospitals, are attacked withcannon and mortar. The surgeon trembles as he amputates a limb amidcries of _Gare la bombe!_ and leaves his patient in the midst of theoperation, lest he should share his fate. The sick and wounded, stretched on mattresses, utter cries of pain, which do not cease till ashot or the bursting of a shell ends them. "[586] On the twenty-sixth thelast cannon was silenced in front of the town, and the English batterieshad made a breach which seemed practicable for assault. 

[Footnote 586: Early in the siege Drucour wrote to Amherst asking thatthe hospitals should be exempt from fire. Amherst answered that shot andshell might fall on any part of so small a town, but promised to insurethe sick and wounded from molestation if Drucour would send them eitherto the island at the mouth of the harbor, or to any of the ships, ifanchored apart from the rest. The offer was declined, for reasons notstated. 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 stateof the defences. All but Franquet were for offering to capitulate. Earlyon the next morning a council of war was held, at which were presentDrucour, Franquet, Desgouttes, naval commander, Houllière, commander ofthe regulars, and the several chiefs of battalions. Franquet presented amemorial setting forth the state of the fortifications. As it was he whohad reconstructed and repaired them, he was anxious to show the qualityof his work in the best light possible; and therefore, in the view ofhis auditors, he understated the effects of the English fire. Hence analtercation arose, ending in a unanimous decision to ask for terms. Accordingly, at ten o'clock, a white flag was displayed over the breachin the Dauphin's Bastion, and an officer named Loppinot was sent outwith offers to capitulate. The answer was prompt and stern: the garrisonmust surrender as prisoners of war; a definite reply must be givenwithin an hour; in case of refusal the place will be attacked by landand sea. [587]

[Footnote 587: Mante and other English writers give the text of thisreply. ]

Great was the emotion in the council; and one of its members, D'Anthonay, lieutenant-colonel of the battalion of VolontairesÉtrangers, was sent to propose less rigorous terms. Amherst would notspeak with him; and jointly with Boscawen despatched this note to theGovernor:--

 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. [588]

 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

[Footnote 588: Translated from the Journal of Drucour. ]

In other words, he refused the English terms, and declared his purposeto abide the assault. Loppinot was sent back to the English camp withthis note of defiance. He was no sooner gone than Prévost, theintendant, an officer of functions purely civil, brought the Governor amemorial which, with or without the knowledge of the militaryauthorities, he had drawn up in anticipation of the emergency. "Theviolent resolution which the council continues to hold, " said thisdocument, "obliges me, for the good of the state, the preservation ofthe King's subjects, and the averting of horrors shocking to humanity, to lay before your eyes the consequences that may ensue. What willbecome of the four thousand souls who compose the families of this town, of the thousand or twelve hundred sick in the hospitals, and theofficers and crews of our unfortunate ships? They will be delivered overto carnage and the rage of an unbridled soldiery, eager for plunder, andimpelled to deeds of horror by pretended resentment at what has formerlyhappened in Canada. Thus they will all be destroyed, and the memory oftheir fate will live forever in our colonies. .. . It remains, Monsieur, "continues the paper, "to remind you that the councils you have held thusfar have been composed of none but military officers. I am not surprisedat their views. The glory of the King's arm and the honor of theirseveral corps have inspired them. You and I alone are charged with theadministration of the colony and the care of the King's subjects whocompose it. These gentlemen, therefore, have had no regard for them. They think only of themselves and their soldiers, whose business it isto encounter the utmost extremity of peril. It is at the prayer of anintimidated people that I lay before you the considerations specified inthis memorial. "

"In view of these considerations, " writes Drucour, "joined to theimpossibility of resisting an assault, M. Le Chevalier de Courseracundertook in my behalf to run after the bearer of my answer to theEnglish commander and bring it back. " It is evident that the bearer ofthe note had been in no hurry to deliver it, for he had scarcely gotbeyond the fortifications when Courserac overtook and stopped him. D'Anthonay, with Duvivier, major of the battalion of Artois, andLoppinot, the first messenger, was then sent to the English camp, empowered to accept the terms imposed. An English spectator thusdescribes their arrival: "A lieutenant-colonel came running out of thegarrison, making signs at a distance, and bawling out as loud as hecould, '_We accept! We accept!_' He was followed by two others; and theywere all conducted to General Amherst's headquarters. "[589] At eleveno'clock at night they returned with the articles of capitulation and thefollowing 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. 

[Footnote 589: _Authentic Account of the Siege of Louisbourg, by aSpectator_. ]

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 CapeBreton, as well as on Isle St. -Jean, now Prince Edward's Island, shouldbe given up intact; that the gate of the Dauphin's Bastion should bedelivered to the British troops at eight o'clock in the morning; andthat the garrison should lay down their arms at noon. The victors, ontheir part, promised to give the French sick and wounded the same careas their own, and to protect private property from pillage. 

Drucour signed the paper at midnight, and in the morning a body ofgrenadiers took possession of the Dauphin's Gate. The rude soldierypoured in, swarthy with wind and sun, and begrimed with smoke and dust;the garrison, drawn up on the esplanade, flung down their muskets andmarched from the ground with tears of rage; the cross of St. Georgefloated over the shattered rampart; and Louisbourg, with the two greatislands that depended on it, passed to the British Crown. Guards wereposted, a stern discipline was enforced, and perfect order maintained. The conquerors and the conquered exchanged greetings, and the Englishgeneral was lavish of courtesies to the brave lady who had aided thedefence so well. "Every favor she asked was granted, " says a Frenchmanpresent. 

Drucour and his garrison had made a gallant defence. It had been his aimto prolong the siege till it should be too late for Amherst toco-operate with Abercromby in an attack on Canada; and in this, atleast, he succeeded. 

Five thousand six hundred and thirty-seven officers, soldiers, andsailors were prisoners in the hands of the victors. Eighteen mortars andtwo hundred and twenty-one cannon were found in the town, along with agreat quantity of arms, munitions, and stores. [590] At the middle ofAugust such of the prisoners as were not disabled by wounds or sicknesswere embarked for England, and the merchants and inhabitants were sentto France. Brigadier Whitmore, as governor of Louisbourg, remained withfour regiments to hold guard over the desolation they had made. 

[Footnote 590: _Account of the Guns, Mortars, Shot, Shell, etc. , foundin the Town of Louisbourg upon its Surrender this day_, signed _JeffreyAmherst, 27 July, 1758. _]

The fall of the French stronghold was hailed in England with noisyrapture. Addresses of congratulation to the King poured in from all thecities of the kingdom, and the captured flags were hung in St. Paul'samid the roar of cannon and the shouts of the populace. The provincesshared these rejoicings. Sermons of thanksgiving resounded fromcountless New England pulpits. At Newport there were fireworks andilluminations; and, adds the pious reporter, "We have reason to believethat Christians will make wise and religious improvement of so signal afavor of Divine Providence. " At Philadelphia a like display was seen, with music and universal ringing of bells. At Boston "a stately bonfirelike a pyramid was kindled on the top of Fort Hill, which made a loftyand prodigious blaze;" though here certain jealous patriots protestedagainst celebrating a victory won by British regulars, and not by NewEngland men. At New York there was a grand official dinner at theProvince Arms in Broadway, where every loyal toast was echoed by thecannon of Fort George; and illuminations and fireworks closed theday. [591] In the camp of Abercromby at Lake George, Chaplain Cleaveland, of Bagley's Massachusetts regiment, wrote: 'The General put out ordersthat the breastwork should be lined with troops, and to fire threerounds for joy, and give thanks to God in a religious way. "[592] Butnowhere did the tidings find a warmer welcome than in the small detachedforts scattered through the solitudes of Nova Scotia, where the militaryexiles, restless from inaction, listened with greedy ears for every wordfrom the great world whence they were banished. So slow were theircommunications with it that the fall of Louisbourg was known in Englandbefore it had reached them, all. Captain John Knox, then in garrison atAnnapolis, tells how it was greeted there more than five weeks after theevent. It was the sixth of September. A sloop from Boston was seencoming up the bay. Soldiers and officers ran down to the wharf to askfor news. "Every soul, " says Knox, "was impatient, yet shy of asking; atlength, the vessel being come near enough to be spoken to, I called out, 'What news from Louisbourg?' To which the master simply replied, andwith some gravity, 'Nothing strange. ' This answer, which was so coldlydelivered, threw us all into great consternation, and we looked at eachother without being able to speak; some of us even turned away with anintent to return to the fort. At length one of our soldiers, not yetsatisfied, called out with some warmth: 'Damn you, Pumpkin, isn'tLouisbourg taken yet?' The poor New England man then answered: 'Taken, yes, above a month ago, and I have been there since; but if you havenever heard it before, I have got a good parcel of letters for you now. 'If our apprehensions were great at first, words are insufficient toexpress our transports at this speech, the latter part of which wehardly waited for; but instantly all hats flew off, and we made theneighboring woods resound with our cheers and huzzas for almost half anhour. The master of the sloop was amazed beyond expression, and declaredhe thought we had heard of the success of our arms eastward before, andhad sought to banter him. "[593] At night there was a grand bonfire anduniversal festivity in the fort and village. 

[Footnote 591: These particulars are from the provincial newspapers. ]

[Footnote 592: Cleaveland, _Journal_. ]

[Footnote 593: Knox, _Historical Journal_, I. 158. ]

Amherst proceeded to complete his conquest by the subjection of all theadjacent possessions of France. Major Dalling was sent to occupy PortEspagnol, now Sydney. Colonel Monckton was despatched to the Bay ofFundy and the River St. John with an order "to destroy the vermin whoare settled there. "[594] Lord Rollo, with the thirty-fifth regiment andtwo battalions of the sixtieth, received the submission of IsleSt. -Jean, and tried to remove the inhabitants, --with small success; forout of more than four thousand he could catch but seven hundred. [595]

[Footnote 594: _Orders of Amherst to Wolfe, 15 Aug. 1758; Ibid, toMonckton, 24 Aug. 1758; Report of Monckton, 12 Nov. 1758. _]

[Footnote 595: _Villejouin, commandant à l'Isle St. -Jean, au Ministre, 8Sept. 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 bolddash, there his lank figure was always in the front. Yet he was onlyhalf pleased with what had been done. The capture of Louisbourg, hethought, should be but the prelude of greater conquests; and he hadhoped that the fleet and army would sail up the St. Lawrence and attackQuebec. Impetuous and impatient by nature, and irritable with disease, he chafed at the delay that followed the capitulation, and wrote to hisfather a few days after it: "We are gathering strawberries and otherwild fruits of the country, with a seeming indifference about what isdoing in other parts of the world. Our army, however, on the continentwants our help. " Growing more anxious, he sent Amherst a note to ask hisintentions; and the General replied, "What I most wish to do is to goto Quebec. I have proposed it to the Admiral, and yesterday he seemed tothink it impracticable. " On which Wolfe wrote again: "If the Admiralwill not carry us to Quebec, reinforcements should certainly be sent tothe continent without losing a moment. This damned French garrison takeup our time and attention, which might be better bestowed. Thetransports are ready, and a small convoy would carry a brigade to Bostonor New York. With the rest of the troops we might make an offensive anddestructive war in the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. I begpardon for this freedom, but I cannot look coolly upon the bloodyinroads of those hell-hounds, the Canadians; and if nothing further isto be done, I must desire leave to quit the army. "

Amherst answered that though he had meant at first to go to Quebec withthe whole army, late events on the continent made it impossible; andthat he now thought it best to go with five or six regiments to the aidof Abercromby. He asked Wolfe to continue to communicate his views tohim, and would not hear for a moment of his leaving the army; adding, "Iknow nothing that can tend more to His Majesty's service than yourassisting in it. " Wolfe again wrote to his commander, with whom he wason terms of friendship: "An offensive, daring kind of war will awe theIndians and ruin the French. Blockhouses and a trembling defensiveencourage the meanest scoundrels to attack us. If you will attempt tocut up New France by the roots, I will come with pleasure to assist. "

Amherst, with such speed as his deliberate nature would permit, sailedwith six regiments for Boston to reinforce Abercromby at Lake George, while Wolfe set out on an errand but little to his liking. He had ordersto proceed to Gaspé, Miramichi, and other settlements on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, destroy them, and disperse their inhabitants; a measure ofneedless and unpardonable rigor, which, while detesting it, he executedwith characteristic thoroughness. "Sir Charles Hardy and I, " he wrote tohis father, "are preparing to rob the fishermen of their nets and burntheir huts. When that great exploit is at an end, I return toLouisbourg, and thence to England. " Having finished the work, he wroteto Amherst: "Your orders were carried into execution. We have done agreat deal of mischief, and spread the terror of His Majesty's armsthrough the Gulf, but have added nothing to the reputation of them. " Thedestruction of property was great; yet, as Knox writes, "he would notsuffer the least barbarity to be committed upon the persons of thewretched inhabitants. "[596]

[Footnote 596: "Les Anglais ont très-bien traités les prisonniers qu'ilsont faits dans cette partie" [_Gaspé_, etc]. _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 4Nov. 1758. _]

He returned to Louisbourg, and sailed for England to recruit hisshattered health for greater conflicts. 

NOTE. Four long and minute French diaries of the siege of Louisbourg arebefore me. The first, that of Drucour, covers a hundred and six foliopages, and contains his correspondence with Amherst, Boscawen, andDesgouttes. The second is that of the naval captain Tourville, commanderof the ship "Capricieux, " and covers fifty pages. The third is by anofficer of the garrison whose name does not appear. The fourth, of abouta hundred pages, is by another officer of the garrison, and is alsoanonymous. It is an excellent record of what passed each day, and of thechanging conditions, moral and physical, of the besieged. These fourJournals, though clearly independent of each other, agree in nearly allessential particulars. I have also numerous letters from the principalofficers, military, naval, and civil, engaged in the defence, --Drucour, Desgouttes, Houllière, Beaussier, Marolles, Tourville, Courserac, Franquet, Villejouin, Prévost, and Querdisien. These, with various otherdocuments relating to the siege, were copied from the originals in theArchives de la Marine. Among printed authorities on the French side maybe mentioned Pichon, _Lettres et Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire duCap-Breton, _ and the _Campaign of Louisbourg_, by the ChevalierJohnstone, a Scotch Jacobite serving under Drucour. 

The chief authorities on the English side are the official Journal ofAmherst, printed in the _London Magazine_ and in other contemporaryperiodicals, and also in Mante, _History of the Late War;_ five lettersfrom Amherst to Pitt, written during the siege (Public Record Office);an excellent private Journal called _An Authentic Account of theReduction of Louisbourg, by a Spectator_, parts of which have beencopied verbatim by Entick without acknowledgement; the admirable Journalof Captain John Knox, which contains numerous letters and ordersrelating to the siege; and the correspondence of Wolfe contained in hisLife by Wright. Before me is the Diary of a captain or subaltern in thearmy of Amherst at Louisbourg, found in the garret of an old house atWindsor, Nova Scotia, on an estate belonging in 1760 to Chief JusticeDeschamps. 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 ofFrench Dominions in North America_. 

Chapter 20

1758

Ticonderoga

In the last year London called on the colonists for four thousand men. This year Pitt asked them for twenty thousand, and promised that theKing would supply arms, ammunition, tents, and provisions, leaving tothe provinces only the raising, clothing, and pay of their soldiers; andhe added the assurance that Parliament would be asked to make somecompensation even for these. [597] Thus encouraged, cheered by theremoval of Loudon, and animated by the unwonted vigor of Britishmilitary preparation, the several provincial assemblies voted men inabundance, though the usual vexatious delays took place in raising, equipping, and sending them to the field. In this connection, an ableEnglish writer has brought against the colonies, and especially againstMassachusetts, charges which deserve attention. Viscount Bury says: "Ofall the colonies, Massachusetts was the first which discovered thedesigns of the French and remonstrated against their aggressions; of allthe colonies she most zealously promoted measures of union for thecommon defence, and made the greatest exertions in furtherance of herviews. " 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 ofrepayment by the mother country. "[598] The groundlessness of this chargeis shown by abundant proofs, one of which will be enough. The EnglishmanPownall, who had succeeded Shirley as royal governor of the province, made this year a report of its condition to Pitt. Massachusetts, hesays, "has been the frontier and advanced guard of all the coloniesagainst the enemy in Canada, " and has always taken the lead in militaryaffairs. In the three past years she has spent on the expeditions ofJohnson, Winslow, and Loudon £242, 356, besides about £45, 000 a year tosupport the provincial government, at the same time maintaining a numberof forts and garrisons, keeping up scouting-parties, and building, equipping, and manning a ship of twenty guns for the service of theKing. In the first two months of the present year, 1758, she made afurther military outlay of £172, 239. Of all these sums she has receivedfrom Parliament a reimbursement of only £70, 117, and hence she is deepin debt; yet, in addition, she has this year raised, paid, maintained, and clothed seven thousand soldiers placed under the command of GeneralAbercromby, besides above twenty-five hundred more serving the King byland or sea; amounting in all to about one in four of her able-bodiedmen. 

[Footnote 597: _Pitt to the Colonial Governors, 30 Dec. 1757. _]

[Footnote 598: 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 Britishnavigation laws. Her contributions of money and men were not ordained byan absolute king, but made by the voluntary act of a free people. Pownall goes on to say that her present war-debt, due within threeyears, is 366, 698 pounds sterling, and that to meet it she has imposedon her self taxes amounting, in the town of Boston, to thirteenshillings and twopence to every pound of income from real and personalestate; that her people are in distress, that she is anxious to continueher efforts in the public cause, but that without some furtherreimbursement she is exhausted and helpless. [599] Yet in the next yearshe incurred a new and heavy debt. In 1760 Parliament repaid her£59, 575. [600] Far from being fully reimbursed, the end of the war foundher on the brink of bankruptcy. Connecticut made equal sacrifices in thecommon cause, --highly to her honor, for she was little exposed todanger, being covered by the neighboring provinces; while impoverishedNew Hampshire put one in three of her able-bodied men into thefield. [601]

[Footnote 599: _Pownall to Pitt, 30 Sept. 1758_ (Public Record Office, _America and West Indies_, LXXI. ) "The province of Massachusetts Bay hasexerted itself with great zeal and at vast expense for the publicservice. " _Registers of Privy Council, 26 July, 1757. _]

[Footnote 600: _Bollan, Agent of Massachusetts, to Speaker of Assembly, 20 March, 1760. _ It was her share of £200, 000 granted to all thecolonies in the proportion of their respective efforts. ]

[Footnote 601: _Address to His Majesty from the Governor, Council, andAssembly of New Hampshire, Jan. 1759. _]

In June the combined British and provincial force which Abercromby wasto lead against Ticonderoga was gathered at the head of Lake George;while Montcalm lay at its outlet around the walls of the Frenchstronghold, with an army not one fourth so numerous. Vaudreuil haddevised a plan for saving Ticonderoga by a diversion into the valley ofthe Mohawk under Lévis, Rigaud, and Longueuil, with sixteen hundredmen, who were to be joined by as many Indians. The English forts of thatregion were to be attacked, Schenectady threatened, and the Five Nationscompelled to declare for France. [602] Thus, as the Governor gave out, the English would be forced to cease from aggression, leave Montcalm inpeace, and think only of defending themselves. [603] "This, " writesBougainville on the fifteenth of June, "is what M. De Vaudreuil thinkswill happen, because he never doubts anything. Ticonderoga, which is thepoint really threatened, is abandoned without support to the troops ofthe line and their general. It would even be wished that they might meeta reverse, if the consequences to the colony would not be toodisastrous. "

[Footnote 602: _Lévis au Ministre, 17 Juin, 1758. Doreil au Ministre, 16Juin, 1758. Montcalm à sa Femme, 18 Avril, 1758. _]

[Footnote 603: _Correspondance de Vaudreuil, 1758. Livre d'Ordres, Juin, 1758. _]

The proposed movement promised, no doubt, great advantages; but it wasnot destined to take effect. Some rangers taken on Lake George by apartisan officer named Langy declared with pardonable exaggeration thattwenty-five or thirty thousand men would attack Ticonderoga in less thana fortnight. Vaudreuil saw himself forced to abandon his Mohawkexpedition, and to order Lévis and his followers, who had not yet leftMontreal, to reinforce Montcalm. [604] Why they did not go at once is notclear. The Governor declares that there were not boats enough. Fromwhatever cause, there was a long delay, and Montcalm was left to defendhimself as he could. 

[Footnote 604: _Bigot au Ministre, 21 Juillet, 1758. _]

He hesitated whether he should not fall back to Crown Point. Theengineer, Lotbinière, opposed the plan, as did also Le Mercier. [605] Itwas but a choice of difficulties, and he stayed at Ticonderoga. Histroops were disposed as they had been in the summer before; onebattalion, that of Berry, being left near the fort, while the main body, under Montcalm himself, was encamped by the saw-mill at the Falls, andthe rest, under Bourlamaque, occupied the head of the portage, with asmall advanced force at the landing-place on Lake George. It remained todetermine at which of these points he should concentrate them and makehis stand against the English. Ruin threatened him in any case; eachposition had its fatal weakness or its peculiar danger, and his besthope was in the ignorance or blundering of his enemy. He seems to havebeen several days in a state of indecision. 

[Footnote 605: _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 againgone out to reconnoitre towards the head of Lake George, came back inhaste 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 onthe high ground in front of the fort. That they were not begun beforeshows that he was in doubt as to his plan of defence; and that his wholearmy was not now set to work at them shows that his doubt was stillunsolved. 

It was nearly a month since Abercromby had begun his camp at the head ofLake George. Here, on the ground where Johnson had beaten Dieskau, whereMontcalm had planted his batteries, and Monro vainly defended the woodenramparts of Fort William Henry, were now assembled more than fifteenthousand men; and the shores, the foot of the mountains, and the brokenplains between them were studded thick with tents. Of regulars therewere six thousand three hundred and sixty-seven, officers and soldiers, and of provincials nine thousand and thirty-four. [606] To the NewEngland levies, or at least to their chaplains, the expedition seemed acrusade against the abomination of Babylon; and they discoursed in theirsermons of Moses sending forth Joshua against Amalek. Abercromby, raisedto his place by political influence, was little but the nominalcommander. "A heavy man, " said Wolfe in a letter to his father; "an agedgentleman, infirm in body and mind, " wrote William Parkman, a boy ofseventeen, who carried a musket in a Massachusetts regiment, and kept inhis knapsack a dingy little notebook, in which he jotted down whatpassed each day. [607] The age of the aged gentleman was fifty-two. 

[Footnote 606: _Abercromby to Pitt, 12 July, 1758. _]

[Footnote 607: Great-uncle of the writer, and son of the Rev. EbenezerParkman, a graduate of Harvard, and minister of Westborough, Mass. ]

Pitt meant that the actual command of the army should be in the hands ofBrigadier Lord Howe, [608] and he was in fact its real chief; "thenoblest Englishman that has appeared in my time, and the best soldier inthe British army, " says Wolfe. [609] And he elsewhere speaks of him as"that great man. " Abercromby testifies to the universal respect and lovewith which officers and men regarded him, and Pitt calls him "acharacter of ancient times; a complete model of military virtue. "[610]High as this praise is, it seems to have been deserved. The youngnobleman, who was then in his thirty-fourth year, had the qualities of aleader of men. The army felt him, from general to drummer-boy. He wasits soul; and while breathing into it his own energy and ardor, andbracing it by stringent discipline, he broke through the traditions ofthe service and gave it new shapes to suit the time and place. Duringthe past year he had studied the art of forest warfare, and joinedRogers and his rangers in their scouting-parties, sharing all theirhardships and making himself one of them. Perhaps the reforms that heintroduced were fruits of this rough self-imposed schooling. He madeofficers and men throw off all useless incumbrances, cut their hairclose, wear leggings to protect them from briers, brown the barrels oftheir muskets, and carry in their knapsacks thirty pounds of meal, whichthey cooked for themselves; so that, according to an admiring Frenchman, they could live a month without their supply-trains. [611] "You wouldlaugh to see the droll figure we all make, " writes an officer. "Regularsas well as provincials have cut their coats so as scarcely to reachtheir waists. No officer or private is allowed to carry more than oneblanket and a bearskin. A small portmanteau is allowed each officer. Nowomen follow the camp to wash our linen. Lord Howe has already shown anexample by going to the brook and washing his own. "[612]

[Footnote 608: Chesterfield, _Letters_, IV. 260 (ed. Mahon). ]

[Footnote 609: _Wolfe to his Father, 7 Aug. 1758_, in Wright, 450. ]

[Footnote 610: _Pitt to Grenville, 22 Aug. 1758_, in _Grenville Papers_, I. 262. ]

[Footnote 611: Pouchot, _Dernière Guerre de l'Amérique_, I. 140. ]

[Footnote 612: _Letter from Camp, 12 June, 1758_, in _Boston EveningPost. _ Another, in _Boston News Letter_, contains similar statements. ]

Here, as in all things, he shared the lot of the soldier, and requiredhis officers to share it. A story is told of him that before the armyembarked he invited some of them to dinner in his tent, where they foundno seats but logs, and no carpet but bear-skins. A servant presentlyplaced on the ground a large dish of pork and peas, on which hislordship took from his pocket a sheath containing a knife and fork andbegan to cut the meat. The guests looked on in some embarrassment; uponwhich he said: "Is it possible, gentlemen, that you have come on thiscampaign without providing yourselves with what is necessary?" And hegave 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 describedas a man of social accomplishments rare even in his rank. He madehimself greatly beloved by the provincial officers, with many of whom hewas on terms of intimacy, and he did what he could to break down thebarriers between the colonial soldiers and the British regulars. When hewas at Alban, sharing with other high officers the kindly hospitalitiesof Mrs. Schuyler, he so won the heart of that excellent matron that sheloved him like a son; and, though not given to such effusion, embracedhim with tears on the morning when he left her to lead his division tothe lake. [613] In Westminster Abbey may be seen the tablet on whichMassachusetts pays grateful tribute to his virtues, and commemorates"the affection her officers and soldiers bore to his command. "

[Footnote 613: Mrs. Grant, _Memoirs of an American Lady_, 226 (ed. 1876). ]

On the evening of the fourth of July, baggage, stores, and ammunitionwere all on board the boats, and the whole army embarked on the morningof the fifth. The arrangements were perfect. Each corps marched withoutconfusion to its appointed station on the beach, and the sun wasscarcely above the ridge of French Mountain when all were afloat. Aspectator watching them from the shore says that when the fleet wasthree miles on its way, the surface of the lake at that distance wascompletely hidden from sight. [614] There were nine hundred bateaux, ahundred and thirty-five whaleboats, and a large number of heavyflatboats carrying the artillery. The whole advanced in three divisions, the regulars in the centre, and the provincials on the flanks. Eachcorps had its flags and its music. The day was fair and men and officerswere in the highest spirits. 

[Footnote 614: _Letter from Lake George_, in _Boston News Letter_. ]

Before ten o'clock they began to enter the Narrows; and the boats of thethree divisions extended themselves into long files as the mountainsclosed on either hand upon the contracted lake. From front to rear theline was six miles long. The spectacle was superb: the brightness of thesummer day; the romantic beauty of the scenery; the sheen and sparkle ofthose crystal waters; the countless islets, tufted with pine, birch, andfir; the bordering mountains, with their green summits and sunny crags;the flash of oars and glitter of weapons; the banners, the varieduniforms, and the notes of bugle, trumpet, bagpipe, and drum, answeredand prolonged by a hundred woodland echoes. "I never beheld sodelightful a prospect, " wrote a wounded officer at Albany a fortnightafter. 

Rogers with the rangers, and Gage with the light infantry, led the wayin whaleboats, followed by Bradstreet with his corps of boatmen, armedand drilled as soldiers. Then came the main body. The central column ofregulars 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 Highlandersof the forty-second, with their major, Duncan Campbell of Inverawe, silent and gloomy amid the general cheer, for his soul was dark withforeshadowings of death. [615] With this central column came what aredescribed as two floating castles, which were no doubt batteries tocover the landing of the troops. On the right hand and the left were theprovincials, uniformed in blue, regiment after regiment, fromMassachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. Behind them all came the bateaux, loaded with stores and baggage, andthe heavy flatboats that carried the artillery, while a rear-guard ofprovincials and regulars closed the long procession. [616]

[Footnote 615: See Appendix G. ]

[Footnote 616: _Letter from Lake George_, in _Boston News Letter_. EvenRogers, the ranger, speaks of the beauty of the scene. ]

At five in the afternoon they reached Sabbath-Day Point, twenty-fivemiles down the lake, where they stopped till late in the evening, waiting for the baggage and artillery, which had lagged behind; and hereLord 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 ofapproach. At about eleven o'clock they set out again, and at daybreakentered what was then called the Second Narrows; that is to say, thecontraction of the lake where it approaches its outlet. Close on theirleft, ruddy in the warm sunrise, rose the vast bare face of Rogers Rock, whence a French advanced party, under Langy and an officer namedTrepezec, was watching their movements. Lord Howe, with Rogers andBradstreet, went in whaleboats to reconnoitre the landing. At the placewhich the French called the Burnt Camp, where Montcalm had embarked thesummer before, they saw a detachment of the enemy too weak to opposethem. Their men landed and drove them off. At noon the whole army was onshore. Rogers, with a party of rangers, was ordered forward toreconnoitre, and the troops were formed for the march. 

From this part of the shore[617] a plain covered with forest stretchednorthwestward half a mile or more to the mountains behind which lay thevalley of Trout Brook. On this plain the army began its march in fourcolumns, with the intention of passing round the western bank of theriver 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 andheavy, and so obstructed with undergrowth that it was impossible to seemore than a few yards in any direction, while the ground was encumberedwith fallen trees in every stage of decay. The ranks were broken, andthe men struggled on as they could in dampness and shade, under a canopyof boughs that the sun could scarcely pierce. The difficulty increasedwhen, after advancing about a mile, they came upon undulating and brokenground. They were now not far from the upper rapids of the outlet. Theguides became bewildered in the maze of trunks and boughs; the marchingcolumns were confused, and fell in one upon the other. They were in thestrange situation of an army lost in the woods. 

[Footnote 617: Between the old and new steamboat-landings, and partsadjacent. ]

The advanced party of French under Langy and Trepezec, about threehundred 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 noresource but to take to the woods. They seem to have climbed the steepgorge at the side of Rogers Rock and followed the Indian path that ledto the valley of Trout Brook, thinking to descend it, and, by circlingalong the outskirts of the valley of Ticonderoga, reach Montcalm's campat the saw-mill. Langy was used to bushranging; but he too becameperplexed in the blind intricacies of the forest. Towards the close ofthe day he and his men had come out from the valley of Trout Brook, andwere near the junction of that stream with the river of the outlet, in astate of some anxiety, for they could see nothing but brown trunks andgreen boughs. Could any of them have climbed one of the great pines thathere and there reared their shaggy spires high above the surroundingforest, they would have discovered where they were, but would havegained not the faintest knowledge of the enemy. Out of the woods on theright they would have seen a smoke rising from the burning huts of theFrench camp at the head of the portage, which Bourlamaque had set onfire and abandoned. At a mile or more in front, the saw-mill at theFalls might perhaps have been descried, and, by glimpses between thetrees, the tents of the neighboring camp where Montcalm still lay withhis main force. All the rest seemed lonely as the grave; mountain andvalley lay wrapped in primeval woods, and none could have dreamed that, not far distant, an army was groping its way, buried in foliage; norumbling of wagons and artillery trains, for none were there; all silentbut the cawing of some crow flapping his black wings over the sea oftree-tops. 

Lord Howe, with Major Israel Putnam and two hundred rangers, was at thehead of the principal column, which was a little in advance of the threeothers. Suddenly the challenge, _Qui vive!_ rang sharply from thethickets in front. _Français!_ was the reply. Langy's men were notdeceived; they fired out of the bushes. The shots were returned; a hotskirmish 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, reachedthe troops behind. They could hear, but see nothing. Already harassedand perplexed, they became perturbed. For all they knew, Montcalm'swhole army was upon them. Nothing prevented a panic but the steadinessof the rangers, who maintained the fight alone till the rest came backto their senses. Rogers, with his reconnoitring party, and the regimentsof Fitch and Lyman, were at no great distance in front. They all turnedon hearing the musketry, and thus the French were caught between twofires. They fought with desperation. About fifty of them at lengthescaped; a hundred and forty-eight were captured, and the rest killed ordrowned in trying to cross the rapids. The loss of the English was smallin numbers, but immeasurable in the death of Howe. "The fall of thisnoble and brave officer, " says Rogers, "seemed to produce an almostgeneral languor and consternation through the whole army. " "In LordHowe, " writes another contemporary, Major Thomas Mante, "the soul ofGeneral Abercromby's army seemed to expire. From the unhappy moment theGeneral was deprived of his advice, neither order nor discipline wasobserved, and a strange kind of infatuation usurped the place ofresolution. " The death of one man was the ruin of fifteen thousand. 

The evil news was despatched to Albany, and in two or three days themessenger who bore it passed the house of Mrs. Schuyler on the meadowsabove the town. "In the afternoon, " says her biographer, "a man was seencoming from the north galloping violently without his hat. Pedrom, as hewas familiarly called, Colonel Schuyler's only surviving brother, waswith her, and ran instantly to inquire, well knowing that he rodeexpress. The man galloped on, crying out that Lord Howe was killed. Themind of our good aunt had been so engrossed by her anxiety and fears forthe event impending, and so impressed with the merit and magnanimity ofher favorite hero, that her wonted firmness sank under the stroke, andshe broke out into bitter lamentations. This had such an effect on herfriends and domestics that shrieks and sobs of anguish echoed throughevery part of the house. "

The effect of the loss was seen at once. The army was needlessly keptunder arms all night in the forest, and in the morning was ordered backto the landing whence it came. [618] Towards noon, however, Bradstreetwas sent with a detachment of regulars and provincials to takepossession of the saw-mill at the Falls, which Montcalm had abandonedthe evening before. Bradstreet rebuilt the bridges destroyed by theretiring enemy, and sent word to his commander that the way was open; onwhich Abercromby again put his army in motion, reached the Falls late inthe afternoon, and occupied the deserted encampment of the French. 

[Footnote 618: _Abercromby to Pitt, 12 July, 1758. _]

Montcalm with his main force had held this position at the Falls throughmost of the preceding day, doubtful, it seems, to the last whether heshould not make his final stand there. Bourlamaque was for doing so; buttwo old officers, Bernès and Montguy, pointed out the danger that theEnglish would occupy the neighboring heights;[619] whereupon Montcalm atlength 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 anda half along the forest road, passed the place where the battalion ofBerry was still at work on the breastwork begun in the morning, and madetheir bivouac a little farther on, upon the cleared ground thatsurrounded the fort. 

[Footnote 619: Pouchot, I. 145. ]

The peninsula of Ticonderoga consists of a rocky plateau, with lowgrounds on each side, bordering Lake Champlain on the one hand, and theoutlet of Lake George on the other. The fort stood near the end of thepeninsula, which points towards the southeast. Thence, as one goeswestward, the ground declines a little, and then slowly rises, till, about half a mile from the fort, it reaches its greatest elevation, andbegins still more gradually to decline again. Thus a ridge is formedacross the plateau between the steep declivities that sink to the lowgrounds on right and left. Some weeks before, a French officer namedHugues had suggested the defence of this ridge by means of anabattis. [620] Montcalm approved his plan; and now, at the eleventh hour, he resolved to make his stand here. The two engineers, Pontleroy andDesandrouin, had already traced the outline of the works, and thesoldiers of the battalion of Berry had made some progress inconstructing them. At dawn of the seventh, while Abercromby, fortunatelyfor his enemy, was drawing his troops back to the landing-place, thewhole French army fell to their task. 

[Footnote 620: _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, X. 708. ]

The regimental colors were planted along the line, and the officers, stripped to the shirt, took axe in hand and labored with their men. Thetrees that covered the ground were hewn down by thousands, the topslopped off, and the trunks piled one upon another to form a massivebreastwork. The line followed the top of the ridge, along which itzig-zagged in such a manner that the whole front could be swept byflank-fires of musketry and grape. Abercromby describes the wall of logsas between eight and nine feet high;[621] in which case there must havebeen a rude _banquette_, or platform to fire from, on the inner side. Itwas certainly so high that nothing could be seen over it but the crownsof the soldiers' hats. The upper tier was formed of single logs, inwhich notches were cut to serve as loopholes; and in some places sodsand bags of sand were piled along the top, with narrow spaces to firethrough. [622] From the central part of the line the ground sloped awaylike a natural glacis; while at the sides, and especially on the left, it was undulating and broken. Over this whole space, to the distance ofa musket-shot from the works, the forest was cut down, and the treesleft lying where they fell among the stumps, with tops turned outwards, forming one vast abattis, which, as a Massachusetts officer says, lookedlike a forest laid flat by a hurricane. [623] But the most formidableobstruction was immediately along the front of the breastwork, where theground was covered with heavy boughs, overlapping and interlaced, withsharpened points bristling into the face of the assailant like thequills of a porcupine. As these works were all of wood, no vestige ofthem remains. The earthworks now shown to tourists as the lines ofMontcalm are of later construction; and though on the same ground, arenot on the same plan. [624]

[Footnote 621: _Abercromby to Harrington, 12 July, 1758. _ "At leasteight feet high. " Rogers, _Journals_, 116. ]

[Footnote 622: A Swiss officer of the Royal Americans, writing on the14th, says that there were two, and in some parts three, rows ofloopholes. See the letter in _Pennsylvania Archives_, III. 472. ]

[Footnote 623: _Colonel Oliver Partridge to his Wife, 12 July, 1758. _]

[Footnote 624: A new line of works was begun four days after the battle, to replace the log breastwork. Malartic, _Journal. Travaux faits àCarillon, 1758_. ]

Here, then, was a position which, if attacked in front with musketryalone, might be called impregnable. But would Abercromby so attack it?He had several alternatives. He might attempt the flank and rear of hisenemy by way of the low grounds on the right and left of the plateau, amovement which the precautions of Montcalm had made difficult, but notimpossible. Or, instead of leaving his artillery idle on the strand ofLake George, he might bring it to the front and batter the breastwork, which, though impervious to musketry, was worthless against heavycannon. Or he might do what Burgoyne did with success a score of yearslater, and plant a battery on the heights of Rattlesnake Hill, nowcalled Mount Defiance, which commanded the position of the French, andwhence the inside of their breastwork could be scoured with round-shotfrom end to end. Or, while threatening the French front with a part ofhis army, he could march the rest a short distance through the woods onhis left to the road which led from Ticonderoga to Crown Point, andwhich would soon have brought him to the place called Five-Mile Point, where Lake Champlain narrows to the width of an easy rifle-shot, andwhere a battery of field-pieces would have cut off all Montcalm'ssupplies and closed his only way of retreat. As the French wereprovisioned for but eight days, their position would thus have beendesperate. They plainly saw the danger; and Doreil declares that had themovement been made, their whole army must have surrendered. [625]Montcalm had done what he could; but the danger of his position wasinevitable and extreme. His hope lay in Abercromby; and it was a hopewell founded. The action of the English general answered the utmostwishes of his enemy. 

[Footnote 625: _Doreil au Ministre, 28 Juillet, 1758. _ The ChevalierJohnstone thought that Montcalm was saved by Abercromby's ignorance ofthe ground. A _Dialogue in Hades_ (Quebec Historical Society). ]

Abercromby had been told by his prisoners that Montcalm had six thousandmen, and that three thousand more were expected every hour. Therefore hewas in haste to attack before these succors could arrive. As was thegeneral, so was the army. "I believe, " writes an officer, "we were oneand all infatuated by a notion of carrying every obstacle by a mere_coup de mousqueterie_. "[626] Leadership perished with Lord Howe, andnothing was left but blind, headlong valor. 

[Footnote 626: See the letter in Knox, I. 148. ]

Clerk, chief engineer, was sent to reconnoitre the French works fromMount Defiance; and came back with the report that, to judge from whathe could see, they might be carried by assault. Then, without waiting tobring up his cannon, Abercromby prepared to storm the lines. 

The French finished their breastwork and abattis on the evening of theseventh, encamped behind them, slung their kettles, and rested aftertheir heavy toil. Lévis had not yet appeared; but at twilight one of hisofficers, Captain Pouchot, arrived with three hundred regulars, andannounced that his commander would come before morning with a hundredmore. The reinforcement, though small, was welcome, and Lévis was a hostin himself. Pouchot was told that the army was half a mile off. Thitherhe repaired, made his report to Montcalm, and looked with amazement atthe prodigious amount of work accomplished in one day. [627] Lévishimself arrived in the course of the night, and approved the arrangementof the troops. They lay behind their lines till daybreak; then the drumsbeat, and they formed in order of battle. [628] The battalions of LaSarre and Languedoc were posted on the left, under Bourlamaque, thefirst 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 betweenthe breastwork and the outlet of Lake George; while, at the foot of thedeclivity on the side towards Lake Champlain, were stationed fourhundred and fifty colony regulars and Canadians, behind an abattis whichthey had made for themselves; and as they were covered by the cannon ofthe fort, there was some hope that they would check any flank movementwhich the English might attempt on that side. Their posts being thusassigned, the men fell to work again to strengthen their defences. Including those who came with Lévis, the total force of effectivesoldiers was now thirty-six hundred. [629]

[Footnote 627: Pouchot, I. 137. ]

[Footnote 628: _Livre d'Ordres, Disposition de Défense desRetranchements, 8 Juillet, 1758_. ]

[Footnote 629: 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 auMinistre, 28 Juillet, 1758_. ]

Soon after nine o'clock a distant and harmless fire of small-arms beganon the slopes of Mount Defiance. It came from a party of Indians who hadjust arrived with Sir William Johnson, and who, after amusing themselvesin this manner for a time, remained for the rest of the day safespectators of the fight. The soldiers worked undisturbed till noon, whenvolleys of musketry were heard from the forest in front. It was theEnglish light troops driving in the French pickets. A cannon was firedas a signal to drop tools and form for battle. The white uniforms linedthe breastwork in a triple row, with the grenadiers behind them as areserve, and the second battalion of Berry watching the flanks and rear. 

Meanwhile the English army had moved forward from its camp by thesaw-mill. First came the rangers, the light infantry, and Bradstreet'sarmed boatmen, who, emerging into the open space, began a spatteringfire. Some of the provincial troops followed, extending from left toright, and opening fire in turn; then the regulars, who had formed incolumns of attack under cover of the forest, advanced their solid redmasses into the sunlight, and passing through the intervals between theprovincial regiments, pushed forward to the assault. Across the roughground, with its maze of fallen trees whose leaves hung withering in theJuly sun, they could see the top of the breastwork, but not the menbehind it; when, in an instant, all the line was obscured by a gush ofsmoke, a crash of exploding firearms tore the air, and grapeshot andmusket-balls swept the whole space like a tempest; "a damnable fire, "says an officer who heard them screaming about his ears. The English hadbeen ordered to carry the works with the bayonet; but their ranks werebroken by the obstructions through which they struggled in vain to forcetheir way, and they soon began to fire in turn. The storm raged in fullfury for an hour. The assailants pushed close to the breastwork; butthere they were stopped by the bristling mass of sharpened branches, which they could not pass under the murderous cross-fires that sweptthem from front and flank. At length they fell back, exclaiming that theworks were impregnable. Abercromby, who was at the saw-mill, a mile anda half in the rear, sent order to attack again, and again they came onas before. 

The scene was frightful: masses of infuriated men who could not goforward and would not go back; straining for an enemy they could notreach, and firing on an enemy they could not see; caught in theentanglement of fallen trees; tripped by briers, stumbling over logs, tearing through boughs; shouting, yelling, cursing, and pelted all thewhile with bullets that killed them by scores, stretched them on theground, or hung them on jagged branches in strange attitudes of death. The provincials supported the regulars with spirit, and some of themforced their way to the foot of the wooden wall. 

The French fought with the intrepid gayety of their nation, and shoutsof _Vive le Roi!_ and _Vive notre General!_ mingled with the din ofmusketry. Montcalm, with his coat off, for the day was hot, directed thedefence of the centre, and repaired to any part of the line where thedanger 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 sixsuccessive times. Early in the action Abercromby tried to turn theFrench left by sending twenty bateaux, filled with troops, down theoutlet of Lake George. They were met by the fire of the volunteersstationed 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 anddrove back the rest. 

A curious incident happened during one of the attacks. De Bassignac, acaptain in the battalion of Royal Roussillon, tied his handkerchief tothe end of a musket and waved it over the breastwork in defiance. TheEnglish mistook it for a sign of surrender, and came forward with allpossible speed, holding their muskets crossed over their heads in bothhands, and crying _Quarter_. The French made the same mistake; andthinking 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 butsurrender. Whereupon he shouted with all his might: "_Tirez! Tirez! Nevoyez-vous pas que ces gens-là vont vous enlever?_" The soldiers, stillstanding on the breastwork, instantly gave the English a volley, whichkilled some of them, and sent back the rest discomfited. [630]

[Footnote 630: Pouchot, I. 153. Both Niles and Entick mention theincident. ]

This was set to the account of Gallic treachery. "Another deceit theenemy put upon us, " says a military letter-writer: "they raised theirhats above the breastwork, which our people fired at; they, havingloopholes to fire through, and being covered by the sods, we did themlittle damage, except shooting their hats to pieces. "[631] In one of thelast assaults a soldier of the Rhode Island regiment, William Smith, managed to get through all obstructions and ensconce himself close underthe breastwork, where in the confusion he remained for a time unnoticed, improving his advantages meanwhile by shooting several Frenchmen. Beingat length observed, a soldier fired vertically down upon him and woundedhim severely, but not enough to prevent his springing up, striking atone of his enemies over the top of the wall, and braining him with hishatchet. A British officer who saw the feat, and was struck by thereckless daring of the man, ordered two regulars to bring him off;which, covered by a brisk fire of musketry, they succeeded in doing. Aletter from the camp two or three weeks later reports him as in a fairway to recover, being, says the writer, much braced and invigorated byhis anger against the French, on whom he was swearing to have hisrevenge. [632]

[Footnote 631: _Letter from Saratoga, 12 July, 1758_, in _New HampshireGazette_. Compare _Pennsylvania Archives_, III. 474. ]

[Footnote 632: _Letter from Lake George, 26 July, 1758_, in _BostonGazette_. The story is given, without much variation, in several otherletters. ]

Toward five o'clock two English columns joined in a most determinedassault on the extreme right of the French, defended by the battalionsof Guienne and Béarn. The danger for a time was imminent. Montcalmhastened to the spot with the reserves. The assailants hewed their wayto the foot of the breastwork; and though again and again repulsed, theyagain and again renewed the attack. The Highlanders fought with stubbornand unconquerable fury. "Even those who were mortally wounded, " writesone of their lieutenants, "cried to their companions not to lose athought upon them, but to follow their officers and mind the honor oftheir country. Their ardor was such that it was difficult to bring themoff. "[633] 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 menfell under the deadly fire that poured from the loopholes. Captain JohnCampbell and a few followers tore their way through the abattis, climbedthe breastwork, leaped down among the French, and were bayonetedthere. [634]

[Footnote 633: _Letter of Lieutenant William Grant_, in _Maclachlan'sHighlands_, II. 340 (ed. 1875). ]

[Footnote 634: _Ibid. _, II. 339. ]

As the colony troops and Canadians on the low ground were leftundisturbed, Lévis sent them an order to make a sortie and attack theleft flank of the charging columns. They accordingly posted themselvesamong the trees along the declivity, and fired upwards at the enemy, whopresently shifted their position to the right, out of the line of shot. The assault still continued, but in vain; and at six there was anothereffort, equally fruitless. From this time till half-past seven alingering fight was kept up by the rangers and other provincials, firingfrom the edge of the woods and from behind the stumps, bushes, andfallen trees in front of the lines. Its only objects were to cover theircomrades, who were collecting and bringing off the wounded, and toprotect the retreat of the regulars, who fell back in disorder to theFalls. As twilight came on, the last combatant withdrew, and none wereleft but the dead. Abercromby had lost in killed, wounded, and missing, nineteen hundred and forty-four officers and men. [635] The loss of theFrench, not counting that of Langy's detachment, was three hundred andseventy-seven. Bourlamaque was dangerously wounded; Bougainvilleslightly; and the hat of Lévis was twice shot through. [636]

[Footnote 635: See Appendix G. ]

[Footnote 636: _Lévis au Ministre, 13 Juillet, 1758_. ]

Montcalm, with a mighty load lifted from his soul, passed along thelines, and gave the tired soldiers the thanks they nobly deserved. Beer, wine, and food were served out to them, and they bivouacked for thenight on the level ground between the breastwork and the fort. The enemyhad met a terrible rebuff; yet the danger was not over. Abercromby stillhad more than thirteen thousand men, and he might renew the attack withcannon. But, on the morning of the ninth, a band of volunteers who hadgone out to watch him brought back the report that he was in fullretreat. The saw-mill at the Falls was on fire, and the last Englishsoldier was gone. On the morning of the tenth, Lévis, with a strongdetachment, followed the road to the landing-place, and found signs thata panic had overtaken the defeated troops. They had left behind severalhundred barrels of provisions and a large quantity of baggage; while ina marshy place that they had crossed was found a considerable number oftheir shoes, which had stuck in the mud, and which they had not stoppedto recover. They had embarked on the morning after the battle, andretreated to the head of the lake in a disorder and dejection wofullycontrasted with the pomp of their advance. A gallant army was sacrificedby the blunders of its chief. 

Montcalm announced his victory to his wife in a strain of exaggerationthat marks the exaltation of his mind. "Without Indians, almost withoutCanadians or colony troops, --I had only four hundred, --alone with Lévisand Bourlamaque and the troops of the line, thirty-one hundred fightingmen, I have beaten an army of twenty-five thousand. They repassed thelake precipitately, with a loss of at least five thousand. This gloriousday does infinite honor to the valor of our battalions. I have no timeto write more. I am well, my dearest, and I embrace you. " And he wroteto his friend Doreil: "The army, the too-small army of the King, hasbeaten the enemy. What a day for France! If I had had two hundredIndians to send out at the head of a thousand picked men under theChevalier de Lévis, not many would have escaped. Ah, my dear Doreil, what soldiers are ours! I never saw the like. Why were they not atLouisbourg?"

On the morrow of his victory he caused a great cross to be planted onthe battle-field, inscribed with these lines, composed by thesoldier-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. "[637]

[Footnote 637: Along with the above paraphrase I may give that ofMontcalm 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 hesays: "Je vous envoie, pour vous amuser, deux chansons sur le combat du8 Juillet, dont l'une est en style des poissardes de Paris. " One ofthese 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, "enstyle des poissardes de Paris. " The following 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 casserla 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'luicass'rai la gueule et la mâchoire. "

This is an allusion to Vaudreuil. On the battle of Ticonderoga, seeAppendix G]

Chapter 21

1758

Fort Frontenac

The rashness of Abercromby before the fight was matched by hispoltroonery after it. Such was his terror that on the evening of hisdefeat he sent an order to Colonel Cummings, commanding at Fort WilliamHenry, to send all the sick and wounded and all the heavy artillery toNew York without delay. [638] He himself followed so closely upon thisdisgraceful missive that Cummings had no time to obey it. 

[Footnote 638: _Cunningham, aide-de-camp of Abercromby, to Cummings, 8July, 1758_. ]

The defeated and humbled troops proceeded to reoccupy the ground theyhad left a few days before in the flush of confidence and pride; andyoung Colonel Williams, of Massachusetts, lost no time in sending themiserable story to his uncle Israel. His letter, which is dated "LakeGeorge (sorrowful situation), July ye 11th, " ends thus: "I have toldfacts; you may put the epithets upon them. In one word, what withfatigue, want of sleep, exercise of mind, and leaving the place we wentto capture, the best part of the army is unhinged. I have told enough tomake 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 theretreat with a disgust that was shared by many others. "This day, " hewrites in his Diary, at the head of Lake George, two days after thebattle, "wherever I went I found people, officers and soldiers, astonished that we left the French ground, and commenting on the strangeconduct in coming off. " From this time forth the provincials calledtheir commander Mrs. Nabbycromby. [639] He thought of nothing butfortifying himself. "Towards evening, " continues the chaplain, "theGeneral, with his Rehoboam counsellors, came over to line out a fort onthe rocky hill where our breastwork was last year. Now we begin to thinkstrongly that the grand expedition against Canada is laid aside, and afoundation made totally to impoverish our country. " The whole army wassoon intrenched. The chaplain of Bagley's, with his brother Ebenezer, chaplain of another regiment, one day walked round the camp andcarefully inspected it. The tour proved satisfactory to the militantdivines, and John Cleaveland reported to his wife: "We have built anextraordinary good breastwork, sufficient to defend ourselves againsttwenty thousand of the enemy, though at present we have not above athird part of that number fit for duty. " Many of the troops had beensent to the Mohawk, and others to the Hudson. 

[Footnote 639: 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 youngsurgeon from Danvers, Dr. Caleb Rea, who also kept a copious diary, and, being of a serious turn, listened with edification to the prayers andexhortations to which the yeoman soldiery were daily summoned. In hiszeal, he made an inquest among them for singers, and chose the mostmelodious to form a regimental choir, "the better to carry on the dailyservice of singing psalms;" insomuch that the New England camp was vocalwith rustic harmony, sincere, if somewhat nasal. These seemlyobservances were not inconsistent with a certain amount of disorderamong the more turbulent spirits, who, removed from the repressiveinfluence of tight-laced village communities, sometimes indulged inconduct which grieved the conscientious surgeon. The rural New Englandof that time, with its narrowness, its prejudices, its oddities, itscombative energy, and rugged, unconquerable strength, is among thethings of the past, or lingers in remote corners where the whistle ofthe locomotive is never heard. It has spread itself in swarming millionsover half a continent, changing with changing conditions; and even thepart of it that clings to the ancestral hive has transformed andcontinues to transform itself. 

The provincials were happy in their chaplains, among whom there reigneda marvellous harmony, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, andCongregationalists meeting twice a week to hold prayer-meetingstogether. "A rare instance indeed, " says Dr. Rea, "and perhaps scarceever was an army blessed with such a set of chaplains before. " On oneoccasion, just before the fatal expedition, nine of them, after prayersand breakfast, went together to call upon the General. "He treated usvery kindly, " says the chaplain of Bagley's, "and told us that he hopedwe would teach the people to do their duty and be courageous; and toldus a story of a chaplain in Germany, where he was, who just before theaction told the soldiers he had not time to say much, and thereforeshould only say: 'Be courageous; for no cowards go to heaven. ' TheGeneral treated us to a bowl of punch and a bottle of wine, and then wetook our leave of him. "[640]

[Footnote 640: For the use of the Diary of Chaplain Cleaveland, as wellas of his letters to his wife, I am indebted to the kindness of MissAbby E. Cleaveland, his descendant. ]

When Cleaveland and the more gifted among his brethren preached of aSunday, officers and men of the regulars, no less than the provincials, came to listen; yet that pious Sabbatarian, Dr. Rea, saw much to afflicthis conscience. "Sad, sad it is to see how the Sabbath is profaned inthe camp, " above all by "the horrid custom of swearing, more especiallyamong the regulars; and I can't but charge our defeat on this sin. "

It would have been well had the harmony that prevailed among thechaplains found its counterpart among the men of the sword; but betweenthe British regular officers and those of the provinces there wasanything but an equal brotherhood. It is true that Pitt, in the spiritof conciliation which he always showed towards the colonies, hadprocured a change in the regulations concerning the relative rank ofBritish and provincial officers, thus putting them in a position muchnearer equality; but this, while appeasing the provincials, seems tohave annoyed the others. Till the campaign was nearly over, not a singleprovincial 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 asergeant, till the orders come out. " Of the British officers, thegreater part had seen but little active service. Most of them were menof family, exceedingly prejudiced and insular, whose knowledge of theworld was limited to certain classes of their own countrymen, and wholooked down on all others, whether domestic or foreign. Towards theprovincials their attitude was one of tranquil superiority, though itstranquillity was occasionally disturbed by what they regarded as absurdpretension on the part of the colony officers. One of them gave vent tohis feelings in an article in the _London Chronicle_, in which headvanced the very reasonable proposition that "a farmer is not to betaken from the plough and made an officer in a day;" and he was answeredwrathfully, at great length, in the _Boston Evening Post_, by a writersigning himself "A New England Man. " The provincial officers, on theother hand, and especially those of New England, being no less narrowand prejudiced, filled with a sensitive pride and a jealous localpatriotism, and bred up in a lofty appreciation of the merits andimportance of their country, regarded British superciliousness with aresentment which their strong love for England could not overcome. Thisfeeling was far from being confined to the officers. A provincialregiment stationed at Half-Moon, on the Hudson, thought itself affrontedby Captain Cruikshank, a regular officer; and the men were so incensedthat nearly half of them went off in a body. The deportment of Britishofficers in the Seven Years War no doubt had some part in hastening onthe Revolution. 

What with levelling Montcalm's siege works, planting palisades, andgrubbing up stumps in their bungling and laborious way, the regularsfound abundant occupation. Discipline was stiff and peremptory. Thewooden horse and the whipping-post were conspicuous objects in the camp, and often in use. Caleb Rea, being tender-hearted, never went to see thelash laid on; for, as he quaintly observes, "the cries were satisfactoryto me, without the sight of the strokes. " He and the rest of the doctorsfound active exercise for such skill as they had, since fever anddysentery were making scarcely less havoc than the bullets atTiconderoga. This came from the bad state of the camps and unwholesomefood. The provincial surgeons seem to have been very little impressedwith the importance of sanitary regulations, and to have thought ittheir business not to prevent disease, but only to cure it. The onegrand essential in their eyes was a well-stocked medicine-chest, rich inexhaustless stores of rhubarb, ipecacuanha, and calomel. Even thissometimes failed. Colonel Williams reports "the sick destitute ofeverything proper for them; medicine-chest empty; nothing but theirdirty blankets for beds; Dr. Ashley dead, Dr. Wright gone home, lowenough; Bille worn off his legs, --such is our case. I have near ahundred sick. Lost a sergeant and a private last night. "[641] ChaplainCleaveland himself, though strong of frame, did not escape; but he foundsolace 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, breakfastedwith him, and joined him in prayer. Being somewhat better, he one daythought 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 thecontrasted works of Providence and man, --the bright lake basking amidits mountains, a dream of wilderness beauty, and the swarms of harshhumanity on the shore beside him, with their passions, discords, andmiseries. But it was with the strong meat of Calvinistic theology, andnot with reveries like these, that he was accustomed to nourish hismilitary flock. 

[Footnote 641: _Colonel William Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, 4Sept. 1758_. ]

While at one end of the lake the force of Abercromby was diminished bydetachments and disease, that of Montcalm at the other was so increasedby 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 outfrequent war-parties by way of Wood Creek and South Bay, to harassAbercromby's communications with Fort Edward. These parties, some ofwhich consisted of several hundred men, were generally more or lesssuccessful; and one of them, under La Corne, surprised and destroyed alarge wagon train escorted by forty soldiers. When Abercromby heard ofit, he ordered Rogers, with a strong detachment of provincials, lightinfantry, and rangers, to go down the lake in boats, cross the mountainsto the narrow waters of Lake Champlain, and cut off the enemy. Butthough Rogers set out at two in the morning, the French retreated sofast that he arrived too late. As he was on his way back, he was met bya messenger from the General with orders to intercept other Frenchparties reported to be hovering about Fort Edward. On this he retracedhis steps, marched through the forest to where Whitehall now stands, andthence made his way up Wood Creek to old Fort Anne, a relic of formerwars, abandoned and falling to decay. Here, on the neglected "clearing"that surrounded the ruin, his followers encamped. They counted sevenhundred in all, and consisted of about eighty rangers, a body ofConnecticut men under Major Putnam, and a small regular force, chieflylight infantry, under Captain Dalzell, the brave officer who wasafterwards killed by Pontiac's warriors at Detroit. 

Up to this time Rogers had observed his usual caution, commandingsilence on the march, and forbidding fires at night; but, seeing nosigns of an enemy, he forgot himself; and on the following morning, theeighth of August, he and Lieutenant Irwin, of the light infantry, amusedthemselves by firing at a mark on a wager. The shots reached the ears offour hundred and fifty French and Indians under the famous partisanMarin, who at once took steps to reconnoitre and ambuscade his rashenemy. For nearly a mile from the old fort the forest had formerly beencut down and burned; and Nature had now begun to reassert herself, covering the open tract with a dense growth of bushes and saplingsalmost impervious to anything but a wild-cat, had it not been traversedby a narrow Indian path. Along this path the men were forced to march insingle file. At about seven o'clock, when the two marksmen had decidedtheir bet, and before the heavy dew of the night was dried upon thebushes, the party slung their packs and set out. Putnam was in the frontwith his Connecticut men; Dalzell followed with the regulars; andRogers, with his rangers, brought up the rear of the long and slenderline. Putnam himself led the way, shouldering through the bushes, gun inhand; and just as the bluff yeoman emerged from them to enter theforest-growth beyond, the air was rent with yells, the thickets beforehim 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 snapit at the breast of his assailant; but it missed fire, and he wasinstantly seized and dragged back into the forest, as were also alieutenant named Tracy and three private men. Then the firing began. TheFrench and Indians, lying across the path in a semicircle, had theadvantage of position and surprise. The Connecticut men fell back amongthe bushes in disorder; but soon rallied, and held the enemy in checkwhile Dalzell and Rogers--the latter of whom was nearly a milebehind--were struggling through briers and thickets to their aid. Soclose was the brushwood that it was full half an hour before they couldget 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 notcoming at once to the aid of the Connecticut men; but two of theircaptains declare that he came with all possible speed; while a regularofficer present highly praised him to Abercromby for cool andofficer-like conduct. [642] As a man his deserts were small; as abushfighter he was beyond reproach. 

[Footnote 642: _Letter from the Camp at Lake George, 5 Sept. 1758_, signed by Captains Maynard and Giddings, and printed in the _BostonWeekly Advertiser_. "Rogers deserves much to be commended. " _Abercrombyto Pitt, 19 Aug. 1758_. ]

Another officer recounts from hearsay the remarkable conduct of anIndian, who sprang into the midst of the English and killed two of themwith his hatchet; then mounted on a log and defied them all. One of theregulars tried to knock him down with the butt of his musket; but thoughthe blow made him bleed, he did not fall, and would have killed hisassailant if Rogers had not shot him dead. [643] The firing lasted abouttwo hours. At length some of the Canadians gave way, and the rest of theFrench and Indians followed. [644] They broke into small parties to eludepursuit, and reuniting towards evening, made their bivouac on a spotsurrounded by impervious swamps. 

[Footnote 643: _Thomas Barnsley to Bouquet, 7 Sept. 1758_. ]

[Footnote 644: _Doreil au Ministre, 31 Août, 1757_. ]

Rogers remained on the field and buried all his own dead, forty-nine innumber. Then he resumed his march to Fort Edward, carrying the woundedon litters of branches till the next day, when he met a detachmentcoming with wagons to his relief. A party sent out soon after for thepurpose reported that they had found and buried more than a hundredFrench and Indians. From this time forward the war-parties fromTiconderoga greatly relented in their activity. 

The adventures of the captured Putnam were sufficiently remarkable. TheIndians, after dragging him to the rear, lashed him fast to a tree sothat he could not move a limb, and a young savage amused himself bythrowing a hatchet at his head, striking it into the wood as close aspossible to the mark without hitting it. A French petty officer thenthrust 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 thebutt; after which dastardly proceeding he left him. The French andIndians being forced after a time to fall back, Putnam found himselfbetween the combatants and exposed to bullets from both sides; but theenemy, partially recovering the ground they had lost, unbound him, andled him to a safe distance from the fight. When the retreat began, theIndians hurried him along with them, stripped of coat, waistcoat, shoes, and stockings, his back burdened with as many packs of the wounded ascould be piled upon it, and his wrists bound so tightly together thatthe pain became intense. In his torment he begged them to kill him; onwhich a French officer who was near persuaded them to untie his handsand take off some of the packs, and the chief who had captured him gavehim a pair of moccasons to protect his lacerated feet. When theyencamped 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 suddenshower of rain interrupted their pastime; but when it was over theybegan again, and surrounded him with a circle of brushwood which theyset on fire. As they were yelling and dancing their delight at thecontortions with which he tried to avoid the rising flames, Marin, hearing what was going on forward, broke through the crowd, and with acourageous humanity not too common among Canadian officers, dashed asidethe burning brush, untied the prisoner, and angrily upbraided histormentors. He then restored him to the chief who had captured him, andwhose right of property in his prize the others had failed to respect. The Caughnawaga treated him at first with kindness; but, with the helpof his tribesmen, took effectual means to prevent his escape, by layinghim 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 ofyoung trees. This was a mode of securing prisoners in vogue amongIndians from immemorial time; but, not satisfied with it, they placedbrushwood upon his body, and then laid across it the long slender stemsof saplings, on the ends of which several warriors lay down to sleep, sothat the slightest movement on his part would rouse them. Thus he passeda night of misery, which did not prevent him from thinking of theludicrous figure he made in the hands of the tawny Philistines. 

On the next night, after a painful march, he reached Ticonderoga, wherehe was questioned by Montcalm, and afterwards sent to Montreal in chargeof a French officer, who showed him the utmost kindness. On arriving, wofully tattered, bruised, scorched, and torn, he found a friend inColonel Schuyler, himself a prisoner on parole, who helped him in hisneed, and through whose good offices the future major-general of theContinental Army was included in the next exchange of prisoners. [645]

[Footnote 645: On Putnam's adventures, Humphreys, 57 (1818). He had thestory from Putnam himself, and seems to give it with substantialcorrectness, though his account of the battle is at several pointserroneous. The "Molang" of his account is Marin. On the battle, besidesauthorities already cited, _Recollections of Thomson Maxwell_, a soldierpresent (_Essex Institute_, VII. 97). Rogers, _Journals_, 117. Letterfrom camp in _Boston Gazette_, no. 117. Another in _New HampshireGazette_, 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 adefeat, but exaggerate the force and the losses of the English, andunderrate their own. Malartic, however, says that Marin set out withfour hundred men, and was soon after joined by an additional number ofIndians; 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 thetidings that the important French post of Fort Frontenac, whichcontrolled Lake Ontario, which had baffled Shirley in his attemptagainst Niagara, and given Montcalm the means of conquering Oswego, hadfallen into British hands. "This is a glorious piece of news, and mayGod have all the glory of the same!" writes Chaplain Cleaveland in hisDiary. Lieutenant-Colonel Bradstreet had planned the stroke long before, and proposed it first to Loudon, and then to Abercromby. Loudon acceptedit; but his successor received it coldly, though Lord Howe was warm inits favor. At length, under the pressure of a council of war, Abercrombyconsented that the attempt should be made, and gave Bradstreet threethousand men, nearly all provincials. With these he made his way, up theMohawk and down the Onondaga, to the lonely and dismal spot where Oswegohad 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 theEnglish through the effects of the defeat at Ticonderoga. On thetwenty-second of August his fleet of whaleboats and bateaux pushed outon Lake Ontario; and, three days after, landed near the French fort. Onthe night of the twenty-sixth Bradstreet made a lodgment within lessthan two hundred yards of it; and early in the morning De Noyan, thecommandant, surrendered himself and his followers, numbering a hundredand ten soldiers and laborers, prisoners of war. With them were takennine armed vessels, carrying from eight to eighteen guns, and formingthe whole French naval force on Lake Ontario. The crews escaped. Anenormous quantity of provisions, naval stores, munitions, and Indiangoods intended for the supply of the western posts fell into the handsof the English, who kept what they could carry off, and burned the rest. In the fort were found sixty cannon and sixteen mortars, which thevictors used to batter down the walls; and then, reserving a few of thebest, knocked off the trunnions of the others. The Oneidas were bent onscalping some of the prisoners. Bradstreet forbade it. They begged thathe would do as the French did, --turn his back and shut his eyes; but heforced them to abstain from all violence, and consoled them by a lion'sshare of the plunder. In accordance with the orders of Abercromby, thefort was dismantled, and all the buildings in or around it burned, aswere also the vessels, except the two largest, which were reserved tocarry off some of the captured goods. Then, with boats deeply laden, thedetachment returned to Oswego; where, after unloading and burning thetwo vessels, they proceeded towards Albany, leaving a thousand of theirnumber at the new fort which Brigadier Stanwix was building at the GreatCarrying Place of the Mohawk. 

Next to Louisbourg, this was the heaviest blow that the French had yetreceived. Their command of Lake Ontario was gone. New France was cut intwo; and unless the severed parts could speedily reunite, all the postsof the interior would be in imminent jeopardy. If Bradstreet had beenfollowed by another body of men to reoccupy and rebuild Oswego, thusrecovering a harbor on Lake Ontario, all the captured French vesselscould have been brought thither, and the command of this inland seaassured at once. Even as it was, the advantages were immense. A host ofsavage warriors, thus far inclined to France or wavering between the twobelligerents, 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, tojoin Abercromby at Lake George, and the two commanders discussed thequestion of again attacking Ticonderoga. Both thought the season toolate. A fortnight after, a deserter brought news that Montcalm wasbreaking up his camp. Abercromby followed his example. The opposingarmies filed off each to its winter quarters, and only a few scoutingparties kept alive the embers of war on the waters and mountains of LakeGeorge. 

Meanwhile Brigadier Forbes was climbing the Alleghanies, hewing his waythrough the forests of western Pennsylvania, and toiling inch by inchtowards his goal of Fort Duquesne. [646]

[Footnote 646: On the capture of Fort Frontenac, _Bradstreet toAbercromby_, _31 Aug. 1758_. _Impartial Account of Lieutenant-ColonelBradstreet's Expedition, by a Volunteer in the Expedition_ (London, 1759). Letter from a New York officer to his colonel, in _BostonGazette_, 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 auMinistre_, _30 Oct. 1758_. Pouchot, I. 162. _Mémoires sur le Canada_, 1749-1760. ]

Chapter 22

1758

Fort Duquesne

During the last year Loudon, filled with vain schemes againstLouisbourg, had left the French scalping-parties to their work of havocon the western borders. In Virginia Washington still toiled at hishopeless task of defending with a single regiment a forest frontier ofmore than three hundred miles, and in Pennsylvania the Assembly thoughtmore of quarrelling with their governor than of protecting the tormentedsettlers. Fort Duquesne, the source of all the evil, was leftundisturbed. In vain Washington urged the futility of defensive war, andthe necessity of attacking the enemy in his stronghold. His position, trying at the best, was made more so by the behavior of Dinwiddie. Thatcrusty Scotchman had conceived a dislike to him, and sometimes treatedhim in a manner that must have been unspeakably galling to the proud andpassionate young man, who nevertheless, unconquerable in his sense ofpublic duty, curbed himself to patience, or the semblance of it. 

Dinwiddie was now gone, and a new governor had taken his place. Theconduct of the war, too, had changed, and in the plans of Pitt thecapture of Fort Duquesne held an important place. Brigadier John Forbeswas 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 ableand faithful soldier. Though a well-bred man of the world, his tasteswere simple; he detested ceremony, and dealt frankly and plainly withthe colonists, who both respected and liked him. In April he was inPhiladelphia waiting for his army, which as yet had no existence; forthe provincials were not enlisted, and an expected battalion ofHighlanders had not arrived. It was the end of June before they were allon the march; and meanwhile the General was attacked with a painful anddangerous 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 ofMontgomery's regiment and a detachment of Royal Americans, amounting inall, with wagoners and camp followers, to between six and seven thousandmen. The Royal American regiment was a new corps raised, in thecolonies, largely from among the Germans of Pennsylvania. Its officerswere from Europe; and conspicuous among them was Lieutenant-ColonelHenry Bouquet, a brave and accomplished Swiss, who commanded one of thefour battalions of which the regiment was composed. Early in July he wasencamped with the advance-guard at the hamlet of Raystown, now the townof Bedford, among the eastern heights of the Alleghanies. Here his tentswere pitched in an opening of the forest by the banks of a small stream;and Virginians in hunting-shirts, Highlanders in kilt and plaid, andRoyal Americans in regulation scarlet, labored at throwing upintrenchments and palisades, while around stood the silent mountains intheir mantles of green. 

Now rose the question whether the army should proceed in a direct courseto Fort Duquesne, hewing a new road through the forest, or marchthirty-four miles to Fort Cumberland, and thence follow the road made byBraddock. It was the interest of Pennsylvania that Forbes should choosethe former route, and of Virginia that he should choose the latter. TheOld Dominion did not wish to see a highway cut for her rival to thoserich lands of the Ohio which she called her own. Washington, who wasthen at Fort Cumberland with a part of his regiment, was earnest for theold road; and in an interview with Bouquet midway between that place andRaystown, he spared no effort to bring him to the same opinion. But thequartermaster-general, Sir John Sinclair, who was supposed to know thecountry, had advised the Pennsylvania route; and both Bouquet and Forbeswere resolved to take it. It was shorter, and when once made wouldfurnish readier and more abundant supplies of food and forage; but tomake it would consume a vast amount of time and labor. Washingtonforetold the ruin of the expedition unless it took Braddock's road. Ardent Virginian as he was, there is no cause to believe that hisdecision was based on any but military reasons; but Forbes thoughtotherwise, and found great fault with him. Bouquet did him more justice. "Colonel Washington, " he writes to the General, "is filled with asincere zeal to aid the expedition, and is ready to march with equalactivity by whatever way you choose. "

The fate of Braddock had impressed itself on all the army, and inspireda caution that was but too much needed; since, except Washington's menand a few others among the provincials, the whole, from general todrummer-boy, were total strangers to that insidious warfare of theforest in which their enemies, red and white, had no rival. Instead ofmarching, like Braddock, at one stretch for Fort Duquesne, burdened witha long and cumbrous baggage-train, it was the plan of Forbes to push onby slow stages, establishing fortified magazines as he went, and atlast, when within easy distance of the fort, to advance upon it with allhis force, as little impeded as possible with wagons and packhorses. Hebore no likeness to his predecessor, except in determined resolution, and he did not hesitate to embrace military heresies which would havedriven Braddock to fury. To Bouquet, in whom he placed a well-meritedtrust, he wrote, "I have been long in your opinion of equipping numbersof our men like the savages, and I fancy Colonel Burd, of Virginia, hasmost of his best people equipped in that manner. In this country we mustlearn the art of war from enemy Indians, or anybody else who has seen itcarried on here. "

His provincials displeased him, not without reason; for the greater partwere but the crudest material for an army, unruly, and recalcitrant todiscipline. Some of them came to the rendezvous at Carlisle with oldprovince muskets, the locks tied on with a string; others broughtfowling-pieces of their own, and others carried nothing butwalking-sticks; while many had never fired a gun in their lives. [647]Forbes reported to Pitt that their officers, except a few in the higherranks, were "an extremely bad collection of broken inn-keepers, horse-jockeys, and Indian traders;" nor is he more flattering towardsthe men, though as to some of them he afterwards changed his mind. [648]

[Footnote 647: _Correspondence of Forbes and Bouquet, July, August, 1758_. ]

[Footnote 648: _Forbes to Pitt, 6 Sept. 1758_. ]

While Bouquet was with the advance at Raystown, Forbes was still inPhiladelphia, trying to bring the army into shape, and collectingprovisions, horses, and wagons; much vexed meantime by the Assembly, whose tedious disputes about taxing the proprietaries greatly obstructedthe service. "No sergeant or quartermaster of a regiment, " he says, "isobliged to look into more details than I am; and if I did not see toeverything myself, we should never get out of this town. " July had begunbefore he could reach the frontier village of Carlisle, where he foundeverything in confusion. After restoring some order, he wrote toBouquet: "I have been and still am but poorly, with a cursed flux, butshall move day after to-morrow. " He was doomed to disappointment; and itwas not till the ninth of August that he sent another letter from thesame place to the same military friend. "I am now able to write afterthree weeks of a most violent and tormenting distemper, which, thankGod, seems now much abated as to pain, but has left me as weak as anew-born infant. However, I hope to have strength enough to set out fromthis place on Friday next. " The disease was an inflammation of thestomach and other vital organs; and when he should have been in bed, with complete repose of body and mind, he was racked continually withthe toils and worries of a most arduous campaign. 

He left Carlisle on the eleventh, carried on a kind of litter made of ahurdle slung between two horses; and two days later he wrote fromShippensburg: "My journey here from Carlisle raised my disorder andpains to so intolerable a degree that I was obliged to stop, and may notget away for a day or two. " Again, on the eighteenth: "I am better, andpartly free from the excruciating pain I suffered; but still so weakthat I can scarce bear motion. " He lay helpless at Shippensburg tillSeptember was well advanced. On the second he says: "I really cannotdescribe how I have suffered both in body and mind of late, and therelapses have been worse as the disappointment was greater;" and on thefourth, still writing to Bouquet, who in the camp at Raystown wasstruggling with many tribulations: "I am sorry you have met with so manycross accidents to vex you, and have such a parcel of scoundrels as theprovincials to work with; _mais le vin est tiré_, and you must drop alittle of the gentleman and treat them as they deserve. Seal and sendoff the enclosed despatch to Sir John by some sure hand. He is a veryodd man, and I am sorry it has been my fate to have any concern withhim. I am afraid our army will not admit of division, lest one half meetwith a check; therefore I would consult Colonel Washington, thoughperhaps not follow his advice, as his behavior about the roads wasnoways like a soldier. I thank my good cousin for his letter, and haveonly to say that I have all my life been subject to err; but I nowreform, 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 feelingthat the imputations of Forbes were unjust, and that here, as elsewhere, his ruling motive was the public good. [649] Forbes himself, seeing therugged and difficult nature of the country, began to doubt whether afterall he had not better have chosen the old road of Braddock. He soon hadan interview with its chief advocates, the two Virginia colonels, Washington and Burd, and reported the result to Bouquet, adding: "I toldthem that, whatever they thought, I had acted on the best information tobe had, and could safely say for myself, and believed I might answer foryou, that the good of the service was all we had at heart, not valuingprovincial interest, jealousies, or suspicions on single twopence. " Itmust be owned that, considering the slow and sure mode of advance whichhe had wisely adopted, the old soldier was probably right in his choice;since before the army could reach Fort Duquesne, the autumnal floodswould have made the Youghiogany and the Monongahela impassable. 

[Footnote 649: Besides the printed letters, there is an autographcollection of his correspondence with Bouquet in 1758 (forming vol. 21, 641, _Additional Manuscripts_, British Museum). Copies of the wholeare before me. ]

The Sir John mentioned by Forbes was the quartermaster-general, Sir JohnSinclair, who had gone forward with Virginians and other troops from thecamp 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 thenewspapers, and tell my black to send me a candlestick and half a loafof sugar. " He was extremely inefficient; and Forbes, out of all patiencewith him, wrote confidentially to Bouquet that his only talent was forthrowing everything into confusion. Yet he found fault with everybodyelse, and would discharge volleys of oaths at all who met hisdisapproval. From this cause or some other, Lieutenant-Colonel Stephen, of the Virginians, told him that he would break his sword rather than belonger under his orders. "As I had not sufficient strength, " saysSinclair, "to take him by the neck from among his own men, I was obligedto let him have his own way, that I might not be the occasion ofbloodshed. " He succeeded at last in arresting him, and Major Lewis, ofthe same regiment, took his place. 

The aid of Indians as scouts and skirmishers was of the last importanceto an army so weak in the arts of woodcraft, and efforts were made toengage the services of the friendly Cherokees and Catawbas, many of whomcame to the camp, where their caprice, insolence, and rapacity tried tothe utmost the patience of the commanders. That of Sir John Sinclair hadalready been overcome by his dealings with the provincial authorities;and he wrote in good French, at the tail of a letter to the Swisscolonel: "Adieu, my dear Bouquet. The greatest curse that our Lord canpronounce against the worst of sinners is to give them business to dowith provincial commissioners and friendly Indians. " A band of sixtywarriors told Colonel Burd that they would join the army on conditionthat it went by Braddock's road. "This, " wrote Forbes, on hearing of theproposal, "is a new system of military discipline truly, and shows thatmy good friend Burd is either made a cat's-foot of himself, or littleknows me if he imagines that sixty scoundrels are to direct me in mymeasures. "[650] Bouquet, with a pliant tact rarely seen in the bornBriton, took great pains to please these troublesome allies, and went sofar as to adopt one of them as his son. [651] A considerable numberjoined the army; but they nearly all went off when the stock of presentsprovided for them was exhausted. 

[Footnote 650: The above extracts are from the _Bouquet and HaldimandPapers_, British Museum. ]

[Footnote 651: _Bouquet to Forbes, 3 June, 1758. _]

Forbes was in total ignorance of the strength and movements of theenemy. The Indians reported their numbers to be at least equal to hisown; but nothing could be learned from them with certainty, by reason oftheir inveterate habit of lying. Several scouting-parties of whites weretherefore sent forward, of which the most successful was that of a youngVirginian officer, accompanied by a sergeant and five Indians. At alittle distance from the French fort, the Indians stopped to paintthemselves and practise incantations. The chief warrior of the partythen took certain charms from an otter-skin bag and tied them about thenecks of the other Indians. On that of the officer he hung theotter-skin itself; while to the sergeant he gave a small packet of paintfrom the same mystic receptacle. "He told us, " reports the officer, "that none of us could be shot, for those things would turn the ballsfrom us; and then shook hands with us, and told us to go and fight likemen. " Thus armed against fate, they mounted the high ground afterwardscalled Grant's Hill, where, covered by trees and bushes, they had a goodview of the fort, and saw plainly that the reports of the French forcewere greatly exaggerated. [652]

[Footnote 652: _Journal of a Reconnoitring Party, Aug. 1758. _ The writerseems to have been Ensign Chew, of Washington's regiment. ]

Meanwhile Bouquet's men pushed on the heavy work of road-making up themain range of the Alleghanies, and, what proved far worse, the parallelmountain ridge of Laurel Hill, hewing, digging, blasting, layingfascines and gabions to support the track along the sides of steepdeclivities, or worming their way like moles through the jungle of swampand forest. Forbes described the country to Pitt as an "immenseuninhabited wilderness, overgrown everywhere with trees and brushwood, so that nowhere can one see twenty yards. " In truth, as far as eye ormind could reach, a prodigious forest vegetation spread its imperviouscanopy over hill, valley, and plain, and wrapped the stern and awfulwaste in the shadows of the tomb. 

Having secured his magazines at Raystown, and built a fort there namedFort Bedford, Bouquet made a forward movement of some forty miles, crossed the main Alleghany and Laurel Hill, and, taking post on a streamcalled Loyalhannon Creek, began another depot of supplies as a base forthe final advance on Fort Duquesne, which was scarcely fifty milesdistant. 

Vaudreuil had learned from prisoners the march of Forbes, and, with hisusual egotism, announced to the Colonial Minister what he had done inconsequence. "I have provided for the safety for Fort Duquesne. " "I havesent reinforcements to M. De Ligneris, who commands there. " "I have donethe impossible to supply him with provisions, and I am now sending themin abundance, in order that the troops I may perhaps have occasion tosend to drive off the English may not be delayed. " "A stronger fort isneeded on the Ohio; but I cannot build one till after the peace; then Iwill take care to build such a one as will thenceforth keep the Englishout of that country. " Some weeks later he was less confident, and veryanxious for news from Ligneris. He says that he has sent him all thesuccors he could, and ordered troops to go to his aid from Niagara, Detroit, and Illinois, as well as the militia of Detroit, with theIndians there and elsewhere in the West, --Hurons, Ottawas, Pottawattamies, Miamis, and other tribes. What he fears is that theEnglish will not attack the fort till all these Indians have grown tiredof waiting, and have gone home again. [653] This was precisely theintention of Forbes, and the chief object of his long delays. 

[Footnote 653: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, Juillet, Août, Octobre 1758. _]

He had another good reason for making no haste. There was hope that theDelawares and Shawanoes, who lived within easy reach of Fort Duquesne, and who for the past three years had spread havoc throughout the Englishborder, might now be won over from the French alliance. Forbes wrote toBouquet from Shippensburg: "After many intrigues with Quakers, theProvincial Commissioners, the Governor, etc. , and by the downrightbullying of Sir William Johnson, I hope I have now brought about ageneral convention of the Indians. "[654] The convention was to includethe Five Nations, the Delawares, the Shawanoes, and other tribes, whohad accepted wampum belts of invitation, and promised to meet theGovernor and Commissioners of the various provinces at the town ofEaston, before the middle of September. This seeming miracle was wroughtby several causes. The Indians in the French interest, always greedy forpresents, had not of late got enough to satisfy them. Many of thosedestined for them had been taken on the way from France by Britishcruisers, and the rest had passed through the hands of official knaves, who sold the greater part for their own profit. Again, the goodssupplied by French fur-traders were few and dear; and the Indiansremembered with regret the abundance and comparative cheapness of thosethey had from the English before the war. At the same time it wasreported among them that a British army was marching to the Ohio strongenough to drive out the French from all that country; and the Delawaresand Shawanoes of the West began to waver in their attachment to thefalling cause. The eastern Delawares, living at Wyoming and elsewhere onthe upper Susquehanna, had made their peace with the English in thesummer before; and their great chief, Teedyuscung, thinking it for hisinterest that the tribes of the Ohio should follow his example, sentthem wampum belts, inviting them to lay down the hatchet. The FiveNations, with Johnson at one end of the Confederacy and Joncaire at theother, --the one cajoling them in behalf of England, and the other inbehalf of France, --were still divided in counsel; but even among theSenecas, the tribe most under Joncaire's influence, there was a party sofar inclined to England that, like the Delaware chief, they sent wampumto the Ohio, inviting peace. But the influence most potent in reclaimingthe warriors of the West was of a different kind. Christian FredericPost, a member of the Moravian brotherhood, had been sent at theinstance of Forbes as an envoy to the hostile tribes from the Governorand Council of Pennsylvania. He spoke the Delaware language, knew theIndians well, had lived among them, had married a converted squaw, and, by his simplicity of character, directness, and perfect honesty, gainedtheir full confidence. He now accepted his terrible mission, and calmlyprepared to place himself in the clutches of the tiger. He was a plainGerman, 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 splendidheroism of the early Jesuit martyrs. Yet his errand was no whit lessperilous. And here we may notice the contrast between the missionsettlements of the Moravians in Pennsylvania and those which the laterJesuits 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 fromtheir ferocious instincts and warlike habits; while the Mission Indiansof Canada retained all their native fierceness, and were systematicallyimpelled to use their tomahawks against the enemies of the Church. Theirwigwams were hung with scalps, male and female, adult and infant; andthese so-called missions were but nests of baptized savages, who worethe crucifix instead of the medicine-bag, and were encouraged by theGovernment for purposes of war. [655]

[Footnote 654: _Forbes to Bouquet, 18 Aug. 1758. _]

[Footnote 655: Of the Hurons of the mission of Lorette, Bougainvillesays: "Ils sont toujours sauvages autant que ceux qui sont les moinsapprivoisés. " And yet they had been converts under Jesuit control formore than four generations. The case was no better at the othermissions; and at St Francis it seems to have been worse. ]

The Moravian envoy made his way to the Delaware town of Kushkushkee, onBeaver Creek, northwest of Fort Duquesne, where the three chiefs knownas King Beaver, Shingas, and Delaware George received him kindly, andconducted him to another town on the same stream. Here his reception wasdifferent. A crowd of warriors, their faces distorted with rage, surrounded him, brandishing knives and threatening to kill him; butothers took his part, and, order being at last restored, he read themhis message from the Governor, which seemed to please them. Theyinsisted, however, that he should go with them to Fort Duquesne, inorder that the Indians assembled there might hear it also. Against thisdangerous proposal he protested in vain. On arriving near the fort, theFrench demanded that he should be given up to them, and, being refused, offered a great reward for his scalp; on which his friends advised himto keep close by the camp-fire, as parties were out with intent to killhim. "Accordingly, " says Post, "I stuck to the fire as if I had beenchained there. On the next day the Indians, with a great many Frenchofficers, came out to hear what I had to say. The officers brought withthem a table, pens, ink, and paper. I spoke in the midst of them with afree conscience, and perceived by their looks that they were not pleasedwith what I said. " The substance of his message was an invitation to theIndians to renew the old chain of friendship, joined with a warning thatan English army was on its way to drive off the French, and that theywould do well to stand neutral. 

He addressed an audience filled with an inordinate sense of their ownpower and importance, believing themselves greater and braver thaneither of the European nations, and yet deeply jealous of both. "We haveheard, " they said, "that the French and English mean to kill all theIndians and divide the land among themselves. " And on this string theyharped continually. If they had known their true interest, they wouldhave made no peace with the English, but would have united as one man toform a barrier of fire against their farther progress; for the West inEnglish hands meant farms, villages, cities, the ruin of the forest, theextermination of the game, and the expulsion of those who lived on it;while the West in French hands meant but scattered posts of war andtrade, with the native tribes cherished as indispensable allies. 

After waiting some days, the three tribes of the Delawares met incouncil, and made their answer to the message brought by Post. It wasworthy of a proud and warlike race, and was to the effect that sincetheir brothers of Pennsylvania wished to renew the old peace-chain, theyon their part were willing to do so, provided that the wampum beltshould be sent them in the name, not of Pennsylvania alone, but of therest of the provinces also. 

Having now accomplished his errand, Post wished to return home; but theIndians were seized with an access of distrust, and would not let himgo. 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 camesome together and examined me about what I had wrote yesterday. I toldthem I writ what was my duty. 'Brothers, I tell you I am not afraid ofyou. 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 willkeep you ever in fear. '" At last they let him go; and, eluding a partythat lay in wait for his scalp, he journeyed twelve days through theforest, and reached Fort Augusta with the report of his mission. [656]

[Footnote 656: _Journal of Christian Frederic Post, July, August, September, 1758. _]

As the result of it, a great convention of white men and red was held atEaston in October. The neighboring provinces had been asked to sendtheir delegates, and some of them did so; while belts of invitation weresent to the Indians far and near. Sir William Johnson, for reasons bestknown to himself, at first opposed the plan; but was afterwards led tofavor it and to induce tribes under his influence to join in the grandpacification. The Five Nations, with the smaller tribes lately admittedinto 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 ofsuch occasions, and the weary repetition of conventional metaphors andlong-winded speeches. At length, every difficulty being settled, theGovernor of Pennsylvania, in behalf of all the English, rose with awampum belt in his hand, and addressed the tawny congregation thus: "Bythis belt we heal your wounds; we remove your grief; we take the hatchetout of your heads; we make a hole in the earth, and bury it so deep thatnobody can dig it up again. " Then, laying the first belt before them, hetook another, very large, made of white wampum beads, in token of peace:"By this belt we renew all our treaties; we brighten the chain offriendship; we put fresh earth to the roots of the tree of peace, thatit may bear up against every storm, and live and nourish while the sunshines and the rivers run. " And he gave them the belt with the requestthat they would send it to their friends and allies, and invite them totake hold also of the chain of friendship. Accordingly all presentagreed on a joint message of peace to the tribes of the Ohio. [657]

[Footnote 657: _Minutes of Conferences at Easton, October, 1758. _]

Frederic Post, with several white and Indian companions, was chosen tobear it. A small escort of soldiers that attended him as far as theAlleghany was cut to pieces on its return by a band of the very warriorsto whom he was carrying his offers of friendship; and other tenants ofthe grim and frowning wilderness met the invaders of their domain withinhospitable greetings. "The wolves made a terrible music this night, "he writes at his first bivouac after leaving Loyalhannon. When hereached the Delaware towns his reception was ominous. The young warriorssaid: "Anybody can see with half an eye that the English only mean tocheat us. Let us knock the messengers in the head. " Some of them hadattacked an English outpost, and had been repulsed; hence, in the wordsof Post, "They were possessed with a murdering spirit, and with bloodyvengeance were thirsty and drunk. I said: 'As God has stopped the mouthsof the lions that they could not devour Daniel, so he will preserve usfrom their fury. '" The chiefs and elders were of a different mind fromtheir fierce and capricious young men. They met during the evening inthe log-house where Post and his party lodged; and here a French officerpresently arrived with a string of wampum from the commandant, invitingthem to help him drive back the army of Forbes. The string wasscornfully rejected. "They kicked it from one to another as if it were asnake. Captain Peter took a stick, and with it flung the string from oneend 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 oftenventured 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 Frenchcaptain mortified to the uttermost. He looked as pale as death. TheIndians discoursed and joked till midnight, and the French captain sentmessengers at midnight to Fort Duquesne. "

There was a grand council, at which the French officer was present; andPost delivered the peace message from the council at Easton, along withanother with which Forbes had charged him. "The messages pleased all thehearers except the French captain. He shook his head in bitter grief, and often changed countenance. Isaac Still [_an Indian_] ran him downwith great boldness, and pointed at him, saying, 'There he sits!' Theyall said: 'The French always deceived us!' pointing at the Frenchcaptain; who, bowing down his head, turned quite pale, and could look noone in the face. All the Indians began to mock and laugh at him. Hecould hold it no longer, and went out. "[658]

[Footnote 658: _Journal of Christian Frederic Post, October, November, 1758. _]

The overtures of peace were accepted, and the Delawares, Shawanoes, andMingoes were no longer enemies of the English. The loss was the moredisheartening to the French, since, some weeks before, they had gained asuccess which they hoped would confirm the adhesion of all theirwavering allies. Major Grant, of the Highlanders, had urged Bouquet tosend him to reconnoitre Fort Duquesne, capture prisoners, and strike ablow that would animate the assailants and discourage the assailed. Bouquet, forgetting his usual prudence, consented; and Grant set outfrom the camp at Loyalhannon with about eight hundred men, Highlanders, Royal Americans, and provincials. On the fourteenth of September, at twoin the morning, he reached the top of the rising ground thenceforthcalled Grant's Hill, half a mile or more from the French fort. Theforest and the darkness of the night hid him completely from the enemy. He ordered Major Lewis, of the Virginians, to take with him half thedetachment, descend to the open plain before the fort, and attack theIndians known to be encamped there; after which he was to make a feignedretreat to the hill, where the rest of the troops were to lie in ambushand receive the pursuers. Lewis set out on his errand, while Grantwaited anxiously for the result. Dawn was near, and all was silent; tillat length Lewis returned, and incensed his commander by declaring thathis men had lost their way in the dark woods, and fallen into suchconfusion that the attempt was impracticable. The morning twilight nowbegan, but the country was wrapped in thick fog. Grant abandoned hisfirst plan, and sent a few Highlanders into the cleared ground to burn awarehouse that had been seen there. He was convinced that the French andtheir Indians were too few to attack him, though their numbers in factwere far greater than his own. [659] Infatuated with this idea, and benton taking prisoners, he had the incredible rashness to divide his forcein 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 inthe rear, where a company of Virginians, under Captain Bullitt, wasalready stationed. A hundred Pennsylvanians were posted far off on theright, towards the Alleghany, while Captain Mackenzie, with a detachmentof Highlanders, was sent to the left, towards the Monongahela. Then, thefog having cleared a little, Captain Macdonald, with another company ofHighlanders, was ordered into the open plain to reconnoitre the fort andmake a plan of it, Grant himself remaining on the hill with a hundredof his own regiment and a company of Maryland men. "In order to put on agood countenance, " he says, "and convince our men they had no reason tobe afraid, I gave directions to our drums to beat the reveille. Thetroops were in an advantageous post, and I must own I thought we hadnothing to fear. " Macdonald was at this time on the plain, midwaybetween the woods and the fort, and in full sight of it. The roll of thedrums from the hill was answered by a burst of war-whoops, and theFrench came swarming out like hornets, many of them in their shirts, having just leaped from their beds. They all rushed upon Macdonald andhis men, who met them with a volley that checked their advance; on whichthey surrounded him at a distance, and tried to cut off his retreat. TheHighlanders broke through, and gained the woods, with the loss of theircommander, who was shot dead. A crowd of French followed close, and soonput them to rout, driving them and Mackenzie's party back to the hillwhere 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 Canadiansand Indians, completely overcame the Highlanders, so intrepid in theordinary situations of war. They broke away in a wild and disorderlyretreat. "Fear, " says Grant, "got the better of every other passion; andI trust I shall never again see such a panic among troops. "

[Footnote 659: _Grant to Forbes, no date. _ "Les rapports sur le nombredes Français varient de 3, 000 à 1, 200. " _Bouquet à Forbes, 17 Sept. 1758. _ Bigot says that 3, 500 daily rations were delivered at FortDuquesne throughout the summer. _Bigot au Ministre, 22 Nov. 1758. _ InOctober 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 Lewisto guard the baggage. But Lewis and his men, when they heard the firingin front, had left their post and pushed forward to help their comrades, taking a straight course through the forest; while Grant was retreatingalong the path by which he had advanced the night before. Thus theymissed each other; and when Grant reached the spot where he expected tofind Lewis, he saw to his dismay that nobody was there but CaptainBullitt 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 uponhim. Such of his men as held together were forced towards theAlleghany, and, writes Bouquet, "would probably have been cut to piecesbut for Captain Bullitt and his Virginians, who kept up the fightagainst the whole French force till two thirds of them were killed. "They were offered quarter, but refused it; and the survivors were drivenat last into the Alleghany, where some were drowned, and others swamover and escaped. Grant was surrounded and captured, and Lewis, whopresently came up, was also made prisoner, along with some of his men, after a stiff resistance. Thus ended this mismanaged affair, which costthe English two hundred and seventy three killed, wounded, and taken. The rest got back safe to Loyalhannon. [660]

[Footnote 660: On Grant's defeat, _Grant to Forbes, no date_, a long andminute 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. _Listof Killed, Wounded, and Missing in the Action of Sept. 14. Gentleman'sMagazine_, 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 diedof starvation. The returns show that 540 came back safe, out of 813. ]

The invalid General was deeply touched by this reverse, yet expressedhimself with a moderation that does him honor. He wrote to Bouquet fromRaystown: "Your letter of the seventeenth I read with no less surprisethan concern, as I could not believe that such an attempt would havebeen made without my knowledge and concurrence. The breaking in upon ourfair and flattering hopes of success touches me most sensibly. There aretwo wounded Highland officers just now arrived, who give so lame anaccount of the matter that one can draw nothing from them, only that myfriend Grant most certainly lost his wits, and by his thirst of famebrought on his own perdition, and ran great risk of ours. "[661]

[Footnote 661: _Forbes to Bouquet, 23 Sept. 1758. _]

The French pushed their advantage with spirit. Early in October a largebody of them hovered in the woods about the camp at Loyalhannon, droveback a detachment sent against them, approached under cover of thetrees, and, though beaten off, withdrew deliberately, after buryingtheir dead and killing great numbers of horses and cattle. [662] But, with all their courageous energy, their position was desperate. Themilitia of Louisiana and the Illinois left the fort in November and wenthome; the Indians of Detroit and the Wabash would stay no longer; and, worse yet, the supplies destined for Fort Duquesne had been destroyed byBradstreet at Fort Frontenac. Hence Ligneris was compelled byprospective starvation to dismiss the greater part of his force, andawait the approach of his enemy with those that remained. 

[Footnote 662: _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 themountains the torrents tore it up, and in the valleys the wheels of thewagons and cannon churned it into soft mud. The horses, overworked andunderfed, were fast breaking down. The forest had little food for them, and they were forced to drag their own oats and corn, as well assupplies for the army, through two hundred miles of wilderness. In thewretched condition of the road this was no longer possible. Themagazines of provisions formed at Raystown and Loyalhannon to supportthe army on its forward march were emptied faster than they could befilled. Early in October the elements relented; the clouds broke, thesky was bright again, and the sun shone out in splendor on mountainsradiant in the livery of autumn. A gleam of hope revisited the heart ofForbes. It was but a flattering illusion. The sullen clouds returned, and a chill, impenetrable veil of mist and rain hid the mountains andthe trees. Dejected Nature wept and would not be comforted. Above, below, around, all was trickling, oozing, pattering, gushing. In themiserable encampments the starved horses stood steaming in the rain, andthe men crouched, disgusted, under their dripping tents, while thedrenched picket-guard in the neighboring forest paced dolefully throughblack mire and spongy mosses. The rain turned to snow; the descendingflakes clung to the many-colored foliage, or melted from sight in thetrench of half-liquid clay that was called a road. The wheels of thewagons sank in it to the hub, and to advance or retreat was alikeimpossible. 

Forbes from his sick bed at Raystown wrote to Bouquet: "Your descriptionof 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 thisseason, which have rendered the clay roads absolutely impracticable. Ifthe weather does not favor, I shall be absolutely locked up in themountains. I cannot form any judgment how I am to extricate myself aseverything depends on the weather, which snows and rains frightfully. "There was no improvement. In the next week he writes to Bouquet: "Thesefour days of constant rain have completely ruined the road. The wagonswould cut it up more in an hour than we could repair in a week. I havewritten to General Abercromby, but have not had one scrape of a pen fromhim since the beginning of September; so it looks as if we were eitherforgot or left to our fate. "[663] Wasted and tortured by disease, theperplexed commander was forced to burden himself with a multitude ofdetails which would else have been neglected, and to do the work ofcommissary and quartermaster as well as general. "My time, " he writes, "is disagreeably spent between business and medicine. "

[Footnote 663: _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 thewhole army was then gathered. There was a council of officers, and theyresolved to attempt nothing more that season; but, a few days later, three prisoners were brought in who reported the defenceless conditionof the French, on which Forbes gave orders to advance again. The wagonsand all the artillery, except a few light pieces, were left behind; andon the eighteenth of November twenty-five hundred picked men marched forFort Duquesne, without tents or baggage, and burdened only withknapsacks and blankets. Washington and Colonel Armstrong, of thePennsylvanians, had opened a way for them by cutting a road to within aday's march of the French fort. On the evening of the twenty-fourth, thedetachment encamped among the hills of Turkey Creek; and the men onguard heard at midnight a dull and heavy sound booming over the westernwoods. Was it a magazine exploded by accident, or were the Frenchblowing up their works? In the morning the march was resumed, a strongadvance-guard leading the way. Forbes came next, carried in his litter;and the troops followed in three parallel columns, the Highlanders inthe centre under Montgomery, their colonel, and the Royal Americans andprovincials on the right and left, under Bouquet and Washington. [664]Thus, guided by the tap of the drum at the head of each column, theymoved slowly through the forest, over damp, fallen leaves, crisp withfrost, beneath an endless entanglement of bare gray twigs that sighedand moaned in the bleak November wind. It was dusk when they emergedupon the open plain and saw Fort Duquesne before them, with itsbackground of wintry hills beyond the Monongahela and the Alleghany. During the last three miles they had passed the scattered bodies ofthose slain two months before at the defeat of Grant; and it is saidthat, as they neared the fort, the Highlanders were goaded to fury atseeing the heads of their slaughtered comrades stuck on poles, roundwhich the kilts were hung derisively, in imitation of petticoats. Theirrage was vain; the enemy was gone. Only a few Indians lingered about theplace, who reported that the garrison, to the number of four or fivehundred, had retreated, some down the Ohio, some overland towardsPresquisle, and the rest, with their commander, up the Alleghany toVenango, called by the French, Fort Machault. They had burned thebarracks and storehouses, and blown up the fortifications. 

[Footnote 664: _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 forthose of their number on whom the dangerous task was to fall of keepingwhat they had won. A stockade was planted around a cluster of traders'cabins and soldiers' huts, which Forbes named Pittsburg, in honor of thegreat minister. It was not till the next autumn that General Stanwixbuilt, hard by, the regular fortified work called Fort Pitt. [665]Captain West, brother of Benjamin West, the painter, led a detachment ofPennsylvanians, with Indian guides, through the forests of theMonongahela, to search for the bones of those who had fallen underBraddock. In the heart of the savage wood they found them in abundance, gnawed by wolves and foxes, and covered with the dead leaves of foursuccessive autumns. Major Halket, of Forbes' staff, had joined theparty; and, with the help of an Indian who was in the fight, hepresently found two skeletons lying under a tree. In one of them herecognized, 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 ofa brother who had fallen at his father's side. The young officer faintedat the sight. The two skeletons were buried together, covered with aHighland plaid, and the Pennsylvanian woodsmen fired a volley over thegrave. The rest of the bones were undistinguishable; and, beingcarefully gathered up, they were all interred in a deep trench dug inthe freezing ground. [666]

[Footnote 665: _Stanwix to Pitt, 20 Nov. 1759_. ]

[Footnote 666: Galt, _Life of Benjamin West_, I. 64 (ed. 1820). ]

The work of the new fort was pushed on apace, and the task of holding itfor the winter was assigned to Lieutenant-Colonel Mercer, of theVirginians, 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 westernposts, Niagara, Detroit, Presquisle, Le Boeuf, and Venango, to retakethe place; but there was no food for a larger garrison, and the riskmust be run. 

The rest of the troops, with steps quickened by hunger, began theirhomeward march early in December. "We would soon make M. De Lignerisshift his quarters at Venango, " writes Bouquet just after the fort wastaken, "if we only had provisions; but we are scarcely able to maintainourselves a few days here. After God, the success of this expedition isentirely due to the General, who, by bringing about the treaty with theIndians at Easton, struck the French a stunning blow, wisely delayed ouradvance to wait the effects of that treaty, secured all our posts andleft nothing to chance, and resisted the urgent solicitation to takeBraddock's road, which would have been our destruction. In all hismeasures he has shown the greatest prudence, firmness, andability. "[667] No sooner was his work done, than Forbes fell into astate of entire prostration, so that for a time he could neither write aletter nor dictate one. He managed, however, two days after reachingFort Duquesne, to send Amherst a brief notice of his success, adding: "Ishall leave this place as soon as I am able to stand; but God knows whenI shall reach Philadelphia, if I ever do. "[668] On the way back, a hutwith a chimney was built for him at each stopping-place, and on thetwenty-eighth of December Major Halket writes from "Tomahawk Camp:" "Howgreat was our disappointment, on coming to this ground last night, tofind that the chimney was unlaid, no fire made, nor any wood cut thatwould burn. This distressed the General to the greatest degree, byobliging him after his long journey to sit above two hours without anyfire, exposed to a snowstorm, which had very near destroyed himentirely; but with great difficulty, by the assistance of some cordials, he was brought to. "[669] At length, carried all the way in his litter, he reached Philadelphia, where, after lingering through the winter, hedied in March, and was buried with military honors in the chancel ofChrist Church. 

[Footnote 667: _Bouquet to Chief Justice Allen, 15 Nov. 1758. _]

[Footnote 668: _Forbes to Amherst, 26 Nov. 1758. _]

[Footnote 669: _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 halfher savage allies, and relieved the western borders from the scourge ofIndian war. From southern New York to North Carolina, the frontierpopulations had cause to bless the memory of the steadfast andall-enduring soldier. 

So ended the campaign of 1758. The centre of the French had held its owntriumphantly at Ticonderoga; but their left had been forced back by thecapture of Louisbourg, and their right by that of Fort Duquesne, whiletheir entire right wing had been well nigh cut off by the destruction ofFort Frontenac. The outlook was dark. Their own Indians were turningagainst them. "They have struck us, " wrote Doreil to the Minister ofWar; "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 thatword too often. "

NOTE: The _Bouquet and Haldimand Papers_ in the British Museum contain amass of curious correspondence of the principal persons engaged in theexpedition under Forbes; copies of it all are before me. The PublicRecord Office, _America and West Indies_, has also furnished muchmaterial, including the official letters of Forbes. The _Writings ofWashington_, the _Archives_ and _Colonial Records_ of Pennsylvania, andthe magazines and newspapers of the time may be mentioned among thesources of information, along with a variety of miscellaneouscontemporary letters. The Journals of Christian Frederic Post areprinted in full in the _Olden Time_ and elsewhere. 

Chapter 23

1758, 1759

The Brink of Ruin

"Never was general in a more critical position than I was: God hasdelivered me; his be the praise! He gives me health, though I am wornout with labor, fatigue, and miserable dissensions that have determinedme to ask for my recall. Heaven grant that I may get it!"

Thus wrote Montcalm to his mother after his triumph at Ticonderoga. Thatgreat exploit had entailed a train of vexations, for it stirred the envyof Vaudreuil, more especially as it was due to the troops of the line, with no help from Indians, and very little from Canadians. The Governorassured the Colonial Minister that the victory would have bad results, though he gives no hint what these might be; that Montcalm hadmismanaged the whole affair; that he would have been beaten but for themanifest interposition of Heaven;[670] and, finally, that he had failedto follow his (Vaudreuil's) directions, and had therefore enabled theEnglish to escape. The real directions of the Governor, dictated, perhaps, by dread lest his rival should reap laurels, were to avoid ageneral engagement; and it was only by setting them at nought thatAbercromby had been routed. After the battle a sharp correspondencepassed between the two chiefs. The Governor, who had left Montcalm tohis own resources before the crisis, sent him Canadians and Indians inabundance after it was over; while he cautiously refrained fromcommitting himself by positive orders, repeated again and again that ifthese reinforcements were used to harass Abercromby's communications, the whole English army would fall back to the Hudson, and leave baggageand artillery a prey to the French. These preposterous assertions andtardy succors were thought by Montcalm to be a device for giving colorto the charge that he had not only failed to deserve victory, but hadfailed also to make use of it. [671] He did what was possible, and sentstrong detachments to act in the English rear; which, though they didnot, and could not, compel the enemy to fall back, caused no slightannoyance, till Rogers checked them by the defeat of Marin. NeverthelessVaudreuil pretended on one hand that Montcalm had done nothing with theCanadians and Indians sent him, and on the other that these sameCanadians and Indians had triumphed over the enemy by their merepresence at Ticonderoga. "It was my activity in sending these succors toCarillon [_Ticonderoga_] that forced the English to retreat. The Marquisde Montcalm might have made their retreat difficult; but it was in vainthat I wrote to him, in vain that the colony troops, Canadians andIndians, begged him to pursue the enemy. "[672] The succors he speaks ofwere sent in July and August, while the English did not fall back tillthe first of November. Neither army left its position till the seasonwas over, and Abercromby did so only when he learned that the Frenchwere setting the example. Vaudreuil grew more and more bitter. "As theKing has intrusted this colony to me, I cannot help warning you of theunhappy consequences that would follow if the Marquis de Montcalm shouldremain here. I shall keep him by me till I receive your orders. It isessential that they reach me early. " "I pass over in silence all theinfamous conduct and indecent talk he has held or countenanced; but Ishould be wanting in my duty to the King if I did not beg you to ask forhis recall. "[673]

[Footnote 670: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 8 Août, 1758_. ]

[Footnote 671: Much of the voluminous correspondence on these matterswill be found in _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, X. ]

[Footnote 672: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 8 Avril, 1759. _]

[Footnote 673: _Ibid. _]

He does not say what is meant by infamous conduct and indecent talk; butthe allusion is probably to irreverent utterances touching the Governorin which the officers from France were apt to indulge, not alwayswithout the knowledge of their chief. Vaudreuil complained of this toMontcalm, adding, "I am greatly above it, and I despise it. "[674] Towhich the General replied: "You are right to despise gossip, supposingthat there has been any. For my part, though I hear that I have beentorn to pieces without mercy in your presence, I do not believeit. "[675]

[Footnote 674: _Vaudreuil à Montcalm, 1 Août, 1758. _]

[Footnote 675: _Montcalm à Vaudreuil, 6 Août, 1758. _]

In these infelicities Bigot figures as peacemaker, though with noperceptible success. Vaudreuil's cup of bitterness was full when letterscame from Versailles ordering him to defer to Montcalm on all questionsof war, or of civil administration bearing up war. [676] He had beggedhard for his rival's recall, and in reply his rival was set over hishead. 

[Footnote 676: _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 andrestless jealousy that bristled within him at the very thought of hiscolleague. Some of the by-play of the quarrel may be seen in Montcalm'sfamiliar correspondence with Bourlamaque. One day the Governor, in hisown house, brought up the old complaint that Montcalm, after taking FortWilliam Henry, did not take Fort Edward also. The General, for thetwentieth time, gave good reasons for not making the attempt. "I ended, "he tells Bourlamaque, "by saying quietly that when I went to war I didthe best I could; and that when one is not pleased with one'slieutenants, one had better take the field in person. He was very muchmoved, and muttered between his teeth that perhaps he would; at which Isaid that I should be delighted to serve under him. Madame de Vaudreuilwanted to put in her word. I said: 'Madame, saving due respect, permitme to have the honor to say that ladies ought not to talk war. ' She kepton. I said: 'Madame, saving due respect, permit me to have the honor tosay that if Madame de Montcalm were here, and heard me talking war withMonsieur le Marquis de Vaudreuil, she would remain silent. ' This scenewas in presence of eight officers, three of them belonging to the colonytroops; 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 tobe Marshal of France; but to buy the honor with the life I am leadinghere would be too much. " He recounts the last news from Fort Duquesne, just before its fall. "Mutiny among the Canadians, who want to comehome; the officers busy with making money, and stealing like mandarins. Their commander sets the example, and will come back with three or fourhundred thousand francs; the pettiest ensign, who does not gamble, willhave ten, twelve, or fifteen thousand. The Indians don't like Ligneris, who is drunk every day. Forgive the confusion of this letter; I have notslept all night with thinking of the robberies and mismanagement andfolly. _Pauvre Roi, pauvre France, cara patria!_" "Oh, when shall we getout 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 notstill some remnants of gayety; but what would seem such in anybody elseis melancholy for a Languedocian. Burn my letter, and never doubt myattachment. " "I shall always say, Happy he who is free from the proudyoke to which I am bound. When shall I see my château of Candiac, myplantations, my chestnut grove, my oil-mill, my mulberry-trees? _O bonDieu! Bon soir; brûlez ma lettre. "_[677]

[Footnote 677: The above extracts are from letters of 5 and 27 Nov. And9 Dec. 1758, and 18 and 23 March, 1759. ]

Never was dispute more untimely than that between these ill-matchedcolleagues. The position of the colony was desperate. Thus far theCanadians had never lost heart, but had obeyed with admirable alacritythe Governor's call to arms, borne with patience the burdens andprivations of the war, and submitted without revolt to the exactions andoppressions of Cadet and his crew; loyal to their native soil, loyal totheir Church, loyal to the wretched government that crushed andbelittled them. When the able-bodied were ordered to the war, where fourfifths of them were employed in the hard and tedious work oftransportation, the women, boys and old men tilled the fields and raiseda scanty harvest, which always might be, and sometimes was, taken fromthem in the name of the King. Yet the least destitute among them wereforced every winter to lodge soldiers in their houses, for each of whomthey were paid fifteen france a month, in return for substance devouredand wives and daughters debauched. [678]

[Footnote 678: _Mémoire sur le moyen d'entretenir 10, 000 Hommes deTroupes dans les Colonies, 1759. _]

No pains had been spared to keep up the courage of the people and feedthem with flattering illusions. When the partisan officer Boishébert wastried for peculation, his counsel met the charge by extolling the mannerin 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 strengthand successes of the enemy; promising succors that did not and could notcome; inventing plausible reasons why they did not come, and making newpromises to set off the failure of the old; persuading a starved peopleto forget their misery; taking from some to give to others; and doingall this continually in the face of a superior enemy, that this countrymight be snatched from England and saved to France. "[679] WhatBoishébert was doing in Acadia, Vaudreuil was doing on a larger scale inCanada. By indefatigable lying, by exaggerating every success andcovering over every reverse, he deceived the people and in some measurehimself. He had in abundance the Canadian gift of gasconade, and boastedto the Colonial Minister that one of his countrymen was a match for fromthree to ten Englishmen. It is possible that he almost believed it; forthe midnight surprise of defenceless families and the spreading ofpanics among scattered border settlements were inseparable from his ideaof war. Hence the high value he set on Indians, who in such work outdidthe Canadians themselves. Sustained by the intoxication of flatteringfalsehoods, and not doubting that the blunders and weakness of the firstyears of the war gave the measure of English efficiency, the colonistshad never suspected that they could be subdued. 

[Footnote 679: _Procès de Bigot, Cadet, et autres, Mémoire pour le Sieurde 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, wereheard to murmur that further resistance was useless. The Canadians, though brave and patient, needed, like Frenchmen, the stimulus ofsuccess. "The people are alarmed, " said the modest Governor, "and wouldlose courage if my firmness did not rekindle their zeal to serve theKing. "[680]

[Footnote 680: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 10 Avril, 1759. _]

"Rapacity, folly, intrigue, falsehood, will soon ruin this colony whichhas cost the King so dear, " wrote Doreil to the Minister of War. "Wemust not flatter ourselves with vain hope; Canada is lost if we do nothave peace this winter. " "It has been saved by miracle in these pastthree years; nothing but peace can save it now, in spite of all theefforts and the talents of M. De Montcalm. "[681] Vaudreuil himselfbecame thoroughly alarmed, and told the Court in the autumn of 1758 thatfood, arms, munitions, and everything else were fast failing, and thatwithout immediate peace or heavy reinforcements all was lost. 

[Footnote 681: _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 waswatched by British ships; the harvest was meagre; a barrel of flour costtwo hundred francs; most of the cattle and many of the horses had beenkilled for food. The people lived chiefly on a pittance of salt cod oron rations furnished by the King; all prices were inordinate; theofficers from France were starving on their pay; while a legion ofindigenous and imported scoundrels fattened on the general distress. "What a country!" exclaims Montcalm. "Here all the knaves grow rich, andthe honest men are ruined. " Yet he was resolved to stand by it to thelast, and wrote to the Minister of War that he would bury himself underits ruins. "I asked for my recall after the glorious affair of theeighth of July; but since the state of the colony is so bad, I must dowhat I can to help it and retard its fall. " The only hope was in astrong appeal to the Court; and he thought himself fortunate inpersuading Vaudreuil to consent that Bougainville should be commissionedto make it, seconded by Doreil. They were to sail in different ships, inorder that at least one of them might arrive safe. 

Vaudreuil gave Bougainville a letter introducing him to the ColonialMinister in high terms of praise: "He is in all respects better fittedthan anybody else to inform you of the state of the colony. I have givenhim my instructions, and you can trust entirely in what he tellsyou. "[682] Concerning Doreil he wrote to the Minister of War: "I havefull confidence in him, and he may be entirely trusted. Everybody herelikes him. "[683] While thus extolling the friends of his rival, theGovernor took care to provide against the effects of his politiccommendations, and wrote thus to his patron, the Colonial Minister: "Inorder to condescend to the wishes of M. De Montcalm, and leave no meansuntried to keep in harmony with him, I have given letters to MM. Doreiland Bougainville; but I have the honor to inform you, Monseigneur, thatthey do not understand the colony, and to warn you that they arecreatures of M. De Montcalm. "[684]

[Footnote 682: _Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 4 Nov. 1758. _]

[Footnote 683: _Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Guerre, 11 Oct. 1758. _]

[Footnote 684: _Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 3 Nov. 1758. _]

The two envoys had sailed for France. Winter was close at hand, and theharbor of Quebec was nearly empty. One ship still lingered, the last ofthe season, and by her Montcalm sent a letter to his mother: "You willbe glad to have me write to you up to the last moment to tell you forthe 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 ownglory, 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 peacein Europe. " Then, shut from the outer world for half a year by barriersof ice, he waited what returning spring might bright forth. 

Both Bougainville and Doreil escaped the British cruisers and safelyreached Versailles, where, in the slippery precincts of the Court, asnew to him as they were treacherous, the young aide-de-camp justifiedall the confidence of his chief. He had interviews with the ministers, the King, and, more important than all, with Madame de Pompadour, whomhe succeeded in propitiating, though not, it seems, without difficultyand delay. France, unfortunate by land and sea, with finances ruined andnavy crippled, had gained one brilliant victory, and she owed it toMontcalm. She could pay for it in honors, if in nothing else. Montcalmwas made lieutenant-general, Lévis major-general, Bourlamaque brigadier, and Bougainville colonel and chevalier of St. Louis; while Vaudreuil wassolaced with the grand cross of that order. [685] But when the two envoysasked substantial aid for the imperilled colony, the response waschilling. The Colonial Minister, Berryer, prepossessed againstBougainville by the secret warning of Vaudreuil, received him coldly, and replied to his appeal for help: "Eh, Monsieur, when the house is onfire 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. 

[Footnote 685: _Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, Janvier, Février, 1759. _]

Bougainville laid four memorials before the Court, in which he showedthe desperate state of the colony and its dire need of help. Thus far, he said, Canada has been saved by the dissensions of the Englishcolonies; but now, for the first time, they are united against her, andprepared to put forth their strength. And he begged for troops, arms, munitions, food, and a squadron to defend the mouth of the St. Lawrence. [686] The reply, couched in a letter to Montcalm, was to theeffect that it was necessary to concentrate all the strength of thekingdom for a decisive operation in Europe; that, therefore, the aidrequired could not be sent; and that the King trusted everything to hiszeal and generalship, joined with the valor of the victors ofTiconderoga. [687] All that could be obtained was between three and fourhundred recruits for the regulars, sixty engineers, sappers, andartillerymen, and gunpowder, arms, and provisions sufficient, along withthe supplies brought over by the contractor, Cadet, to carry the colonythrough the next campaign. [688]

[Footnote 686: _Mémoire remis au Ministre par M. De Bougainville, Décembre, 1758_. ]

[Footnote 687: _Le Ministre à Montcalm, 3 Fév. 1759_. ]

[Footnote 688: _Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, Février, 1759_. ]

Montcalm had intrusted Bougainville with another mission, widelydifferent. This was no less than the negotiating of suitable marriagesfor the eldest son and daughter of his commander, with whom, in theconfidence of friendship, he had had many conversations on the matter. "He and I, " Montcalm wrote to his mother, Madame de Saint-Véran, "havetwo ideas touching these marriages, --the first, romantic and chimerical;the second, good, practicable. "[689] Bougainville, invoking the aid of alady of rank, a friend of the family, acquitted himself well of hisdelicate task. Before he embarked for Canada, in early spring, a treatywas on foot for the marriage of the young Comte de Montcalm to anheiress of sixteen; while Mademoiselle de Montcalm had already becomeMadame d'Espineuse. "Her father will be delighted, " says the successfulnegotiator. [690]

[Footnote 689: _Montcalm à Madame de Saint-Véran, 24 Sept. 1758_. ]

[Footnote 690: _Lettres de Bougainville à Madame de Saint-Véran, 1758, 1759_. ]

Again he crossed the Atlantic and sailed up the St. Lawrence as theportentous spring of 1759 was lowering over the dissolving snows ofCanada. With him came a squadron bearing the supplies and the pettyreinforcement which the Court had vouchsafed. "A little is precious tothose who have nothing, " said Montcalm on receiving them. Despatchesfrom the ministers gave warning of a great armament fitted out inEnglish ports for the attack of Quebec, while a letter to the Generalfrom the Maréchal de Belleisle, minister of war, told what was expectedof him, and why he and the colony were abandoned to their fate. "If wesent a large reinforcement of troops, " said Belleisle, "there would begreat fear that the English would intercept them on the way; and as theKing could never send you forces equal to those which the English areprepared to oppose to you, the attempt would have no other effect thanto excite the Cabinet of London to increased efforts for preserving itssuperiority 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 limityour plans of defence to the most essential points and those mostclosely connected, so that, being concentrated within a smaller space, each part may be within reach of support and succor from the rest. Howsmall soever may be the space you are able to hold, it is indispensableto keep a footing in North America; for if we once lose the countryentirely, its recovery will be almost impossible. The King counts onyour zeal, courage, and persistency to accomplish this object, andrelies on you to spare no pains and no exertions. Impart thisresolution to your chief officers, and join with them to inspire yoursoldiers with it. I have answered for you to the King; I am confidentthat 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 theutmost extremity rather than submit to conditions as shameful as thoseimposed at Louisbourg, the memory of which you will wipe out. "[691] "Wewill save this unhappy colony, or perish, " was the answer of Montcalm. 

[Footnote 691: _Belleisle à Montcalm, 19 Fév_. 1759. ]

It was believed that Canada would be attacked with at least fiftythousand men. Vaudreuil had caused a census to be made of thegovernments of Montreal, Three Rivers, and Quebec. It showed a littlemore than thirteen thousand effective men. [692] To these were to beadded thirty-five hundred troops of the line, including the latereinforcement, fifteen hundred colony troops, a body of irregulars inAcadia, and the militia and _coureurs-de-bois_ of Detroit and the otherupper posts, along with from one to two thousand Indians who could stillbe counted on. Great as was the disparity of numbers, there was goodhope that the centre of the colony could be defended; for the onlyavenues by which an enemy could approach were barred by the rock ofQuebec, the rapids of the St. Lawrence, and the strong position ofIsle-aux-Noix, at the outlet of Lake Champlain. Montcalm had longinclined to the plan of concentration enjoined on him by the Minister ofWar. Vaudreuil was of another mind; he insisted on still occupyingAcadia and the forts of the upper country: matters on which he and theGeneral exchanged a correspondence that widened the breach between them. 

[Footnote 692: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 8 Avril_, 1759. The _Mémoires surle Canada, _ 1749-1760, says 15, 229 effective men. ]

Should every effort of resistance fail, and the invaders force their wayinto the heart of Canada, Montcalm proposed the desperate resort ofabandoning the valley of the St. Lawrence, descending the Mississippiwith his troops and as many as possible of the inhabitants, and making alast stand for France among the swamps of Louisiana. [693]

[Footnote 693: Mémoire sur le Canada remis au Ministre, 27 Déc. 1758. _]

In April, before Bougainville's return, he wrote to his wife: "Can wehope for another miracle to save us? I trust in God; he fought for us onthe eighth of July. Come what may, his will be done! I wait the newsfrom France with impatience and dread. We have had none for eightmonths; and who knows if much can reach us at all this year? How dearlyI have to pay for the dismal privilege of figuring two or three times inthe gazettes!" A month later, after Bougainvile had come: "Our daughteris 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 bethe brightest of my life. Adieu, my heart! I believe that I love youmore than ever. "

Bougainville had brought sad news. He had heard before sailing fromFrance that one of Montcalm's daughters was dead, but could not learnwhich 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 ifthis conjecture was true. 

To Vaudreuil came a repetition of the detested order that he shoulddefer to Montcalm on all questions of war; and moreover that he shouldnot take command in person except when the whole body of the militia wascalled out; nor, even then, without consulting his rival. [694] His ireand vexation produced an access of jealous self-assertion, and drove himinto something like revolt against the ministerial command. "If theEnglish attack Quebec, I shall always hold myself free to go thithermyself with most of the troops and all the militia and Indians I canassemble. On arriving I shall give battle to the enemy; and I shall doso again and again, till I have forced him to retire, or till he hasentirely crushed me by excessive superiority of numbers. My obstinacy inopposing his landing will be the more _à propos_, as I have not themeans of sustaining a siege. If I succeed as I wish, I shall next marchto Carillon to arrest him there. You see, Monseigneur, that theslightest change in my arrangements would have the most unfortunateconsequences. "[695]

[Footnote 694: _Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, Lettre àVaudreuil, 3 Fév. 1759. _]

[Footnote 695: _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 amass of letters and documents on the subjects treated in the abovechapter; these I have carefully read and collated. The other principalauthorities are the correspondence of Montcalm with Bourlamaque and withhis own family; the letters of Vaudreuil preserved in the ArchivesNationales; and the letters of Bougainville and Doreil to Montcalm andMadame de Saint-Véran while on their mission to France. For copies ofthese last I am indebted to the present Marquis de Montcalm. 

Chapter 24

1758, 1759

Wolfe

Captain John Knox, of the forty-third regiment, had spent the winter ingarrison at Fort Cumberland, on the hill of Beauséjour. For nearly twoyears he and his comrades had been exiles amid the wilds of Nova Scotia, and the monotonous inaction was becoming insupportable. The great marshof Tantemar on the one side, and that of Missaguash on the other, twovast flat tracts of glaring snow, bounded by dark hills of spruce andfir, were hateful to their sight. Shooting, fishing, or skating were adangerous relief; for the neighborhood was infested by "vermin, " as theycalled the Acadians and their Micmac allies. In January four soldiersand 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 ofthe garrison gave their comrades a feast, having laid in during theautumn a stock of frozen provisions, that the festival of their saintmight be duly honored. All was hilarity at Fort Cumberland, where it isrecorded that punch to the value of twelve pounds sterling, with acorresponding supply of wine and beer, was consumed on this joyousoccasion. [696]

[Footnote 696: Knox, _Historical Journal_, I. 228. ]

About the middle of April a schooner came up the bay, bringing lettersthat filled men and officers with delight. The regiment was ordered tohold itself ready to embark for Louisbourg and join an expedition to theSt. Lawrence, under command of Major-General Wolfe. All that afternoonthe soldiers were shouting and cheering in their barracks; and when theymustered for the evening roll-call, there was another burst of huzzas. They waited in expectancy nearly three weeks, and then the transportswhich were to carry them arrived, bringing the provincials who had beenhastily raised in New England to take their place. These Knox describesas a mean-looking set of fellows, of all ages and sizes, and without anykind of discipline; adding that their officers are sober, modest men, who, though of confined ideas, talk very clearly and sensibly, and makea decent appearance in blue, faced with scarlet, though the privateshave 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 longimprisonment. A gale soon began; the transports became separated; Knox'svessel sheltered herself for a time in Passamaquoddy Bay; then passedthe Grand Menan, and steered southward and eastward along the coast ofNova Scotia. A calm followed the gale; and they moved so slowly thatKnox beguiled the time by fishing over the stern, and caught a halibutso large that he was forced to call for help to pull it in. Then theysteered northeastward, now lost in fogs, and now tossed mercilessly onthose boisterous waves; till, on the twenty-fourth of May, they saw arocky and surf-lashed shore, with a forest of masts rising to allappearance out of it. It was the British fleet in the land-locked harborof 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 batteredramparts; and around in a wide semicircle rose the bristling back ofrugged hills, set thick with dismal evergreens. They passed the greatships of the fleet, and anchored among the other transports towards thehead of the harbor. It was not yet free from ice; and the floatingmasses lay so thick in some parts that the reckless sailors, returningfrom 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 overbefore he reached the place, where he was presently told of acharacteristic reply just made by Wolfe to some officers who hadapologized for not having taught their men the new exercise. "Poh, poh!--new exercise--new fiddlestick. If they are otherwise welldisciplined, and will fight, that's all I shall require of them. "

Knox does not record his impressions of his new commander, which musthave been disappointing. He called him afterwards a British Achilles;but in person at least Wolfe bore no likeness to the son of Peleus, fornever 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. Theforehead and chin receded; the nose, slightly upturned, formed with theother features the point of an obtuse triangle; the mouth was by nomeans shaped to express resolution; and nothing but the clear, bright, and piercing eye bespoke the spirit within. On his head he wore a blackthree-cornered hat; his red hair was tied in a queue behind; his narrowshoulders, slender body, and long, thin limbs were cased in a scarletfrock, with broad cuffs and ample skirts that reached the knee; while onhis left arm he wore a band of crape in mourning for his father, ofwhose death he had heard a few days before. 

James Wolfe was in his thirty-third year. His father was an officer ofdistinction, Major-General Edward Wolfe, and he himself, a delicate andsensitive child, but an impetuous and somewhat headstrong youth, hadserved the King since the age of fifteen. From childhood he had dreamedof the army and the wars. At sixteen he was in Flanders, adjutant of hisregiment, discharging the duties of the post in a way that gained himearly promotion and, along with a painstaking assiduity, showing aprecocious faculty for commanding men. He passed with credit throughseveral campaigns, took part in the victory of Dettingen, and then wentto Scotland to fight at Culloden. Next we find him at Stirling, Perth, and Glasgow, always ardent and always diligent, constant in militaryduty, and giving his spare hours to mathematics and Latin. He presentlyfell in love; and being disappointed, plunged into a variety ofdissipations, contrary to his usual habits, which were far above thestandard of that profligate time. 

At twenty-three he was a lieutenant-colonel, commanding his regiment inthe then dirty and barbarous town of Inverness, amid a disaffected andturbulent population whom it was his duty to keep in order: a difficulttask, which he accomplished so well as to gain the special commendationof the King, and even the goodwill of the Highlanders themselves. Hewas five years among these northern hills, battling with ill-health, andrestless under the intellectual barrenness of his surroundings. He felthis position to be in no way salutary, and wrote to his mother: "Thefear of becoming a mere ruffian and of imbibing the tyrannicalprinciples of an absolute commander, or giving way insensibly to thetemptations of power till I became proud, insolent, andintolerable, --these considerations will make me wish to leave theregiment before next winter; that by frequenting men above myself I mayknow my true condition, and by discoursing with the other sex may learnsome civility and mildness of carriage. " He got leave of absence, andspent six months in Paris, where he was presented at Court and saw muchof the best society. This did not prevent him from working hard toperfect himself in French, as well as in horsemanship, fencing, dancing, and other accomplishments, and from earnestly seeking an opportunity tostudy the various armies of Europe. In this he was thwarted by thestupidity and prejudice of the commander-in-chief; and he made whatamends he could by extensive reading in all that bore on militarymatters. 

His martial instincts were balanced by strong domestic inclinations. Hewas fond of children; and after his disappointment in love used to saythat they were the only true inducement to marriage. He was a mostdutiful son, and wrote continually to both his parents. Sometimes hewould philosophize on the good and ill of life; sometimes he heldquestionings with his conscience; and once he wrote to his mother in astrain of self-accusation not to be expected from a bold and determinedsoldier. His nature was a compound of tenderness and fire, which lastsometimes showed itself in sharp and unpleasant flashes. His excitabletemper was capable almost of fierceness, and he could now and then beneedlessly stern; but towards his father, mother, and friends he was amodel of steady affection. He made friends readily, and kept them, andwas usually a pleasant companion though subject to sallies of imperiousirritability which occasionally broke through his strong sense of goodbreeding. For this his susceptible constitution was largely answerable, for he was a living barometer, and his spirits rose and fell with everychange of weather. In spite of his impatient outbursts, the officerswhom he had commanded remained attached to him for life; and, in spiteof his rigorous discipline, he was beloved by his soldiers, to whosecomfort he was always attentive. Frankness, directness, essential goodfeeling, and a high integrity atoned for all his faults. 

In his own view, as expressed to his mother, he was a person of verymoderate abilities, aided by more than usual diligence; but this modestjudgment of himself by no means deprived him of self-confidence, nor, in time of need, of self-assertion. He delighted in every kind ofhardihood; and, in his contempt for effeminacy, once said to his mother:"Better be a savage of some use than a gentle, amorous puppy, obnoxiousto all the world. " He was far from despising fame; but the controllingprinciples of his life were duty to his country and his profession, loyalty to the King, and fidelity to his own ideal of the perfectsoldier. To the parent who was the confidant of his most intimatethoughts he said: "All that I wish for myself is that I may at all timesbe ready and firm to meet that fate we cannot shun, and to diegracefully and properly when the hour comes. " Never was wish moresignally fulfilled. Again he tells her: "My utmost desire and ambitionis to look steadily upon danger;" and his desire was accomplished. Hisintrepidity was complete. No form of death had power to daunt him. Onceand again, when bound on some deadly enterprise of war, he calmly countsthe chances whether or not he can compel his feeble body to bear him ontill the work is done. A frame so delicately strung could not have beeninsensible to danger; but forgetfulness of self, and the absorption ofevery faculty in the object before him, shut out the sense of fear. Heseems always to have been at his best in the thick of battle; mostcomplete in his mastery over himself and over others. 

But it is in the intimacies of domestic life that one sees him mostclosely, and especially in his letters to his mother, from whom heinherited his frail constitution, without the beauty that distinguishedher. "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 forthree weeks or a month, and play at piquet from morning till night; andyou shall laugh at my short red hair as much as you please. " The playingat piquet was a sacrifice to filial attachment; for the mother lovedcards, and the son did not. "Don't trouble yourself about my room or mybedclothes; too much care and delicacy at this time would enervate meand 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. " Atthe beginning of the war his father tried to dissuade him from offeringhis 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; thatservice is certainly the best in which we are the most useful. For mypart, I am determined never to give myself a moment's concern about thenature of the duty which His Majesty is pleased to order us upon. Itwill be a sufficient comfort to you two, as far as my person isconcerned, --at least it will be a reasonable consolation, --to reflectthat the Power which has hitherto preserved me may, if it be hispleasure, continue to do so; if not, that it is but a few days or a fewyears more or less, and that those who perish in their duty and in theservice of their country die honorably. " Then he proceeds to giveparticular directions about his numerous dogs, for the welfare of whichin his absence he provides with anxious solicitude, especially for "myfriend Caesar, who has great merit and much good-humor. "

After the unfortunate expedition against Rochefort, when the board ofgeneral officers appointed to inquire into the affair were passing thehighest encomiums upon his conduct, his parents were at Bath, and hetook possession of their house at Blackheath, whence he wrote to hismother: "I lie in your chamber, dress in the General's little parlor, and dine where you did. The most perceptible difference and change ofaffairs (exclusive of the bad table I keep) is the number of dogs in theyard; but by coaxing Ball [_his father's dog_] and rubbing his back withmy stick, I have reconciled him with the new ones, and put them in somemeasure under his protection. "

When about to sail on the expedition against Louisbourg, he was anxiousfor his parents, and wrote to his uncle, Major Wolfe, at Dublin: "Itrust you will give the best advice to my mother, and such assistance, if it should be wanted, as the distance between you will permit. Imention this because the General seems to decline apace, and narrowlyescaped being carried off in the spring. She, poor woman, is in a badstate of health, and needs the care of some friendly hand. She has longand painful fits of illness, which by succession and inheritance arelikely to devolve on me, since I feel the early symptoms of them. " Ofhis friends Guy Carleton, afterwards Lord Dorchester, and George Warde, the companion of his boyhood, he also asks help for his mother in hisabsence. 

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 tohave been here that he wooed and won Miss Katherine Lowther, daughter ofan ex-Governor of Barbadoes, and sister of the future Lord Lonsdale. Abetrothal took place, and Wolfe wore her portrait till the night beforehis death. It was a little before this engagement that he wrote to hisfriend Lieutenant-Colonel Rickson: "I have this day signified to Mr. Pitt that he may dispose of my slight carcass as he pleases, and that Iam ready for any undertaking within the compass of my skill andcunning. I am in a very bad condition both with the gravel andrheumatism; but I had much rather die than decline any kind of servicethat 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 Ishall join the army in America. "

Pitt chose him to command the expedition then fitting out againstQuebec; made him a major-general, though, to avoid giving offence toolder officers, he was to hold that rank in America alone; and permittedhim to choose his own staff. Appointments made for merit, and notthrough routine and patronage, shocked the Duke of Newcastle, to whom aman like Wolfe was a hopeless enigma; and he told George II. That Pitt'snew general was mad. "Mad is he?" returned the old King; "then I hope hewill bite some others of my generals. "

At the end of January the fleet was almost ready, and Wolfe wrote to hisuncle Walter: "I am to act a greater part in this business than Iwished. The backwardness of some of the older officers has in somemeasure 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 notthe most commanding abilities. We expect to sail in about three weeks. ALondon life and little exercise disagrees entirely with me, but the seastill more. If I have health and constitution enough for the campaign, Ishall think myself a lucky man; what happens afterwards is of no greatconsequence. " 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 wholesquadron was at sea, the transports, the frigates, and the greatline-of-battle ships, with their ponderous armament and their freight ofrude humanity armed and trained for destruction; while on the heavingdeck 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 Saundersarrived with his squadron off Louisbourg, he found the entrance blockedby ice, and was forced to seek harborage at Halifax. The squadron ofAdmiral Holmes, which had sailed a few days earlier, proceeded to NewYork to take on board troops destined for the expedition, while thesquadron of Admiral Durell steered for the St. Lawrence to intercept theexpected ships from France. In May the whole fleet, except the ten shipswith Durell, was united in the harbor of Louisbourg. Twelve thousandtroops were to have been employed for the expedition; but severalregiments expected from the West Indies were for some reasoncountermanded, while the accessions from New York and the Nova Scotiagarrisons fell far short of the looked-for numbers. Three weeks beforeleaving Louisbourg, Wolfe writes to his uncle Walter that he has an armyof nine thousand men. The actual number seems to have been somewhatless. [697] "Our troops are good, " he informs Pitt; "and if valor canmake amends for the want of numbers, we shall probably succeed. "

[Footnote 697: See _Grenville Correspondence, _ I. 305. ]

Three brigadiers, all in the early prime of life, held command underhim: Monckton, Townshend, and Murray. They were all his superiors inbirth, and one of them, Townshend, never forgot that he was so. "GeorgeTownshend, " says Walpole, "has thrust himself again into the service;and, as far as wrongheadedness will go, is very proper for a hero. "[698]The same caustic writer says further that he was of "a proud, sullen, and contemptuous temper, " and that he "saw everything in an ill-naturedand ridiculous light. "[699] Though his perverse and envious dispositionmade him a difficult colleague, Townshend had both talents and energy;as also had Monckton, the same officer who commanded at the capture ofBeauséjour in 1755. Murray, too, was well matched to the work in hand, in spite of some lingering remains of youthful rashness. 

[Footnote 698: Horace Walpole, _Letters_ III. 207 (ed. Cunningham, 1857). ]

[Footnote 699: Ibid. _George II. _, II. 345. ]

On the sixth of June the last ship of the fleet sailed out ofLouisbourg harbor, the troops cheering and the officers drinking to thetoast, "British colors on every French fort, port, and garrison inAmerica. " The ships that had gone before lay to till the whole fleet wasreunited, and then all steered together for the St. Lawrence. From theheadland of Cape Egmont, the Micmac hunter, gazing far out over theshimmering sea, saw the horizon flecked with their canvas wings, as theybore northward on their errand of havoc. 

NOTE: For the material of the foregoing sketch of Wolfe I am indebted toWright's excellent Life of him and the numerous letters contained in it. Several autograph letters which have escaped the notice of Mr. Wrightare preserved in the Public Record Office. The following is acharacteristic passage from one of these, written on board the"Neptune, " at sea, on the sixth of June, the day when the fleet sailedfrom 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 receivetwo letters from your Lordship, one of an old date, concerning my stayin this country [_after the capture of Louisbourg, _] in answer to whichI shall only say that the Marshal told me I was to return at the end ofthe campaign; and as General Amherst had no other commands than to sendme to winter at Halifax under the orders of an officer _[BrigadierLawrence]_ who was but a few months before put over my head, I thoughtit was much better to get into the way of service and out of the way ofbeing insulted; and as the style of your Lordship's letter is prettystrong, I must take the liberty to inform you that . .. Rather thanreceive orders in the Government [_of Nova Scotia_] from an officeryounger than myself (though a very worthy man), I should certainly havedesired leave to resign my commission; for as I neither ask nor expectany favour, so I never intend to submit to any ill-usage whatsoever. "

Many other papers in the Public Record Office have been consulted inpreparing the above chapter, including the secret instructions of theKing to Wolfe and to Saunders, and the letters of Amherst to Wolfe andto 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 withPitt, in which he is said to have flourished his sword and boasted ofwhat he would achieve. This anecdote was told by Lord Temple, who waspresent at the interview, to Mr. Grenville, who, many years after, toldit to Earl Stanhope, by whom it was made public. That the incidentunderwent essential changes in the course of these transmissions, --whichextended over more than half a century, for Earl Stanhope was not borntill 1805, --can never be doubted by one who considers the knowncharacter of Wolfe, who may have uttered some vehement expression, butwho can never be suspected of gasconade. 

Chapter 25

1759

Wolfe at Quebec

In early spring the chiefs of Canada met at Montreal to settle a plan ofdefence. What at first they most dreaded was an advance of the enemy byway of Lake Champlain. Bourlamaque, with three battalions, was orderedto take post at Ticonderoga, hold it if he could, or, if overborne bynumbers, fall back to Isle-aux-Noix, at the outlet of the lake. La Cornewas sent with a strong detachment to intrench himself at the head of therapids of the St. Lawrence, and oppose any hostile movement from LakeOntario. Every able-bodied man in the colony, and every boy who couldfire a gun, was to be called to the field. Vaudreuil sent a circularletter to the militia captains of all the parishes, with orders to readit to the parishioners. It exhorted them to defend their religion, theirwives, their children, and their goods from the fury of the heretics;declared that he, the Governor, would never yield up Canada on any termswhatever; and ordered them to join the army at once, leaving none behindbut the old, the sick, the women, and the children. [700] The Bishopissued a pastoral mandate: "On every side, dearest brethren, the enemyis making immense preparations. His forces, at least six times morenumerous than ours, are already in motion. Never was Canada in a stateso critical and full of peril. Never were we so destitute, or threatenedwith 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 thepowerful succor of our Lord. Then, dearest brethren, make every effortto deserve it. 'Seek first the kingdom of God; and all these thingsshall be added unto you. '" And he reproves their sins, exhorts them torepentance, and ordains processions, masses, and prayers. [701]

[Footnote 700: _Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760_. ]

[Footnote 701: I am indebted for a copy of this mandate to the kindnessof Abbé Bois. As printed by Knox, it is somewhat different, though thespirit is the same. ]

Vaudreuil bustled and boasted. In May he wrote to the Minister: "Thezeal with which I am animated for the service of the King will alwaysmake me surmount the greatest obstacles. I am taking the most propermeasures to give the enemy a good reception whenever he may attack us. Ikeep in view the defence of Quebec. I have given orders in the parishesbelow to muster the inhabitants who are able to bear arms, and placewomen, children, cattle, and even hay and grain, in places of safety. Permit me, Monseigneur, to beg you to have the goodness to assure HisMajesty that, to whatever hard extremity I may be reduced, my zeal willbe equally ardent and indefatigable, and that I shall do the impossibleto prevent our enemies from making progress in any direction, or, atleast, to make them pay extremely dear for it. "[702] Then he writesagain to say that Amherst with a great army will, as he learns, attackTiconderoga; that Bradstreet, with six thousand men, will advance toLake Ontario; and that six thousand more will march to the Ohio. "Whatever progress they may make, " he adds, "I am resolved to yield themnothing, but hold my ground even to annihilation. " He promises to do hisbest to keep on good terms with Montcalm, and ends with a warm eulogy ofBigot. [703]

[Footnote 702: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 8 Mai, 1759. _]

[Footnote 703: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 20_ [_?_] _Mai, 1759. _]

It was in the midst of all these preparations that Bougainville arrivedfrom France with news that a great fleet was on its way to attackQuebec. The town was filled with consternation mixed with surprise, forthe Canadians had believed that the dangerous navigation of the St. Lawrence would deter their enemies from the attempt. "Everybody, " writesone of them, "was stupefied at an enterprise that seemed so bold. " In afew days a crowd of sails was seen approaching. They were not enemies, but friends. It was the fleet of the contractor Cadet, commanded byofficer named Kanon, and loaded with supplies for the colony. Theyanchored in the harbor, eighteen sail in all, and their arrival spreaduniversal joy. Admiral Durell had come too late to intercept them, catching but three stragglers that had lagged behind the rest. Stillothers succeeded in eluding him, and before the first of June five moreships had come safely into port. 

When the news brought by Bougainville reached Montreal, nearly the wholeforce of the colony, except the detachments of Bourlamaque and La Corne, was ordered to Quebec. Montcalm hastened thither, and Vaudreuilfollowed. The Governor-General wrote to the Minister in his usualstrain, as if all the hope of Canada rested in him. Such, he says, washis activity, that, though very busy, he reached Quebec only a day and ahalf after Montcalm; and, on arriving, learned from his scouts thatEnglish ships-of-war had already appeared at Isle-aux-Coudres. Thesewere the squadron of Durell. "I expect, " Vaudreuil goes on, "to besharply attacked, and that our enemies will make their most powerfulefforts to conquer this colony; but there is no ruse, no resource, nomeans which my zeal does not suggest to lay snares for them, andfinally, when the exigency demands it, to fight them with an ardor, andeven a fury, which exceeds the range of their ambitious designs. Thetroops, the Canadians, and the Indians are not ignorant of theresolution I have taken, and from which I shall not recoil under anycircumstance whatever. The burghers of this city have already put theirgoods and furniture in places of safety. The old men, women, andchildren hold themselves ready to leave town. My firmness is generallyapplauded. It has penetrated every heart; and each man says aloud:'Canada, our native land, shall bury us under its ruins before wesurrender to the English!' This is decidedly my own determination, and Ishall hold to it inviolably. " He launches into high praise of thecontractor Cadet, whose zeal for the service of the King and the defenceof the colony he declares to be triumphant over every difficulty. It isnecessary, he adds, that ample supplies of all kinds should be sent outin the autumn, with the distribution of which Cadet offers to chargehimself, and to account for them at their first cost; but he does notsay what prices his disinterested friend will compel the destituteCanadians to pay for them. [704]

[Footnote 704: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 28 Mai, 1759_. ]

Five battalions from France, nearly all the colony troops, and themilitia from every part of Canada poured into Quebec, along with athousand or more Indians, who, at the call of Vaudreuil, came to lendtheir scalping-knives to the defence. Such was the ardor of the peoplethat 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 anexcited crowd on the rock of Quebec watched hourly for the approachingfleet. Days passed and weeks passed, yet it did not appear. MeanwhileVaudreuil held council after council to settle a plan of defence, Theywere strange scenes: a crowd of officers of every rank, mixed pell-mellin a small room, pushing, shouting, elbowing each other, interruptingeach other; till Montcalm in despair, took each aside after the meetingwas over, and made him give his opinion in writing. [705]

[Footnote 705: _Journal du Siége de Québec déposé à la Bibliothêque deHartwell, en Angleterre_. (Printed at Quebec, 1836. )]

He himself had at first proposed to encamp the army on the plains ofAbraham and the meadows of the St. Charles, making that river his lineof defence;[706] but he changed his plan, and, with the concurrence ofVaudreuil, resolved to post his whole force on the St. Lawrence belowthe city, with his right resting on the St. Charles, and his left on theMontmorenci. Here, accordingly, the troops and militia were stationed asthey arrived. Early in June, standing at the northeastern brink of therock of Quebec, one could have seen the whole position at a glance. Onthe curving shore from the St. Charles to the rocky gorge of theMontmorenci, a distance of seven or eight miles, the whitewasheddwellings of the parish of Beauport stretched down the road in a doublechain, and the fields on both sides were studded with tents, huts, andIndian wigwams. Along the borders of the St. Lawrence, as far as the eyecould distinguish them, gangs of men were throwing up redoubts, batteries, and lines of intrenchment. About midway between the twoextremities of the encampment ran the little river of Beauport; and onthe rising ground just beyond it stood a large stone house, round whichthe tents were thickly clustered; for here Montcalm had made hisheadquarters. 

[Footnote 706: _Livre d'Ordres, Disposition pour s'opposer à laDescente_. ]

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. Thebridge of boats that crossed the stream nearly a mile above, formed thechief communication between the city and the camp. Its head towardsBeauport was protected by a strong and extensive earthwork; and thebanks of the stream on the Quebec side were also intrenched, to form asecond line of defence in case the position at Beauport should beforced. 

In the city itself every gate, except the Palace Gate, which gave accessto the bridge, was closed and barricaded. A hundred and six cannon weremounted on the walls. [707] A floating battery of twelve heavy pieces, anumber of gunboats, eight fireships, and several firerafts formed theriver defences. The largest merchantmen of Kanon's fleet were sacrificedto make the fireships; and the rest, along with the frigates that camewith them, were sent for safety up the St. Lawrence beyond the RiverRichelieu, whence about a thousand of their sailors returned to man thebatteries and gunboats. 

[Footnote 707: 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 andThree Rivers were on the right, and those of Montreal on the left. InQuebec itself there was a garrison of between one and two thousand menunder the Chevalier de Ramesay. Thus the whole number, includingIndians, amounted to more than sixteen thousand;[708] and though theCanadians who formed the greater part of it were of little use in theopen field, they could be trusted to fight well behind intrenchments. Against this force, posted behind defensive works, on positions almostimpregnable by nature, Wolfe brought less than nine thousand menavailable for operations on land. [709] The steep and lofty heights thatlined the river made the cannon of the ships for the most part useless, while the exigencies of the naval service forbade employing the sailorson shore. In two or three instances only, throughout the siege, smallsquads of them landed to aid in moving and working cannon; and theactual fighting fell to the troops alone. 

[Footnote 708: See Appendix H. ]

[Footnote 709: Ibid. ]

Vaudreuil and Bigot took up their quarters with the army. TheGovernor-General had delegated the command of the land-forces toMontcalm, whom, in his own words, he authorized "to give orderseverywhere, provisionally. " His relations with him were more than everanomalous and critical; for while Vaudreuil, in virtue of his office, had a right to supreme command, Montcalm, now a lieutenant-general, helda military grade far above him; and the Governor, while always writinghimself down in his despatches as the head and front of every movement, had too little self-confidence not to leave the actual command in thehands of his rival. 

Days and weeks wore on, and the first excitement gave way to restlessimpatience. Why did not the English come? Many of the Canadians thoughtthat Heaven would interpose and wreck the English fleet, as it hadwrecked that of Admiral Walker half a century before. There wereprocessions, prayers, and vows towards this happy consummation. Food wasscarce. Bigot and Cadet lived in luxury; fowls by thousands werefattened with wheat for their tables, while the people were put onrations of two ounces of bread a day. [710] Durell and his ships werereported to be still at Isle-aux-Coudres. Vaudreuil sent thither a partyof Canadians, and they captured three midshipmen, who, says Montcalm, had gone ashore _pour polissonner, _ that is, on a lark. These youthswere brought to Quebec, where they increased the general anxiety bygrossly exaggerating the English force. 

[Footnote 710: _Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. _]

At length it became known that eight English vessels were anchored inthe north channel of Orleans, and on the twenty-first of June the mastsof three of them could plainly be seen. One of the fireships wasconsumed in a vain attempt to burn them, and several firerafts and asort of infernal machine were tried with no better success; theunwelcome visitors still held their posts. 

Meanwhile the whole English fleet had slowly advanced, piloted by Denisde Vitré, a Canadian of good birth, captured at sea some time before, and now compelled to serve, under a threat of being hanged if herefused. [711] Nor was he alone; for when Durell reached the place wherethe river pilots were usually taken on board, he raised a French flag tohis mast-head, causing great rejoicings among the Canadians on shore, who thought that a fleet was come to their rescue, and that theircountry was saved. The pilots launched their canoes and came out to theships, where they were all made prisoners; then the French flag waslowered, and the red cross displayed in its stead. The spectators onshore turned from joy to despair; and a priest who stood watching thesquadron with a telescope is said to have dropped dead with therevulsion of feeling. 

[Footnote 711: _Mémorial de Jean-Denis de Vitré au Très-honorableWilliam Pitt. _]

Towards the end of June the main fleet was near the mountain of CapeTourmente. The passage called the Traverse, between the Cape and thelower end of the Island of Orleans, was reputed one of the mostdangerous parts of the St. Lawrence; and as the ships successively cameup, 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 reportsthus in his Diary: "He gasconaded at a most extravagant rate, and gaveus to understand that it was much against his will that he was become anEnglish pilot. The poor fellow assumed great latitude in hisconversation, and said 'he made no doubt that some of the fleet wouldreturn to England, but they should have a dismal tale to carry withthem; for Canada should be the grave of the whole army, and he expectedin a short time to see the walls of Quebec ornamented with Englishscalps. ' Had it not been in obedience to the Admiral, who gave ordersthat he should not be ill-used, he would certainly have been thrownoverboard. " 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 incharge of a Frenchman. "He would not let the pilot speak, " continuesKnox, "but fixed his mate at the helm, charged him not to take ordersfrom any person but himself, and going forwards with his trumpet to theforecastle, gave the necessary instructions. All that could be said bythe commanding officer and the other gentlemen on board was to nopurpose; the pilot declared we should be lost, for that no French shipever presumed to pass there without a pilot. 'Ay, ay, my dear, ' repliedour son of Neptune, 'but, damn me, I'll convince you that an Englishmanshall go where a Frenchman dare not show his nose. ' The "Richmond"frigate being close astern of us, the commanding officer called out tothe captain and told him our case; he inquired who the master was, andwas answered from the forecastle by the man himself, who told him 'hewas old Killick, and that was enough. ' I went forward with thisexperienced mariner, who pointed out the channel to me as we passed;showing me by the ripple and color of the water where there was anydanger, and distinguishing the places where there were ledges of rocks(to me invisible) from banks of sand, mud, or gravel. He gave his orderswith great unconcern, joked with the sounding-boats which lay off oneach side with different colored flags for our guidance; and when any ofthem called to him and pointed to the deepest water, he answered: 'Ay, ay, my dear, chalk it down, a damned dangerous navigation, eh! If youdon't make a sputter about it you'll get no credit in England. ' After wehad cleared this remarkable place, where the channel forms a completezigzag, 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 fiftytimes more hazardous than this; I am ashamed that Englishmen should makesuch a rout about it. ' The Frenchman asked me if the captain had notbeen there before. I assured him in the negative; upon which he viewedhim with great attention, lifting at the same time his hands and eyes toheaven with astonishment and fervency. "[712]

[Footnote 712: Others, as well as the pilot, were astonished. "The enemypassed sixty ships of war where we hardly dared risk a vessel of ahundred 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 manyof them together. " _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 22 Oct. 1759_. ]

Vaudreuil was blamed for not planting cannon at a certain plateau on theside of the mountain of Cape Tourmente, where the gunners would havebeen inaccessible, and whence they could have battered every passingship with a plunging fire. As it was, the whole fleet sailed safelythrough. On the twenty-sixth they were all anchored off the south shoreof the Island of Orleans, a few miles from Quebec; and, writes Knox, "here we are entertained with a most agreeable prospect of a delightfulcountry on every side; windmills, watermills, churches, chapels, andcompact farmhouses, all built with stone, and covered, some with wood, and others with straw. The lands appear to be everywhere wellcultivated; and with the help of my glass I can discern that they aresowed with flax, wheat, barley, peas, etc. , and the grounds are enclosedwith wooden pales. The weather to-day is agreeably warm. A light fogsometimes hangs over the highlands, but in the river we have a fineclear air. In the curve of the river, while we were under sail, we had atransient view of a stupendous natural curiosity called the waterfall ofMontmorenci. "

That night Lieutenant Meech, with forty New England rangers, landed onthe Island of Orleans, and found a body of armed inhabitants, who triedto surround him. He beat them off, and took possession of a neighboringfarmhouse, where he remained till daylight; then pursued the enemy, andfound that they had crossed to the north shore. The whole army nowlanded, and were drawn up on the beach. As they were kept there for sometime, Knox and several brother officers went to visit the neighboringchurch of Saint-Laurent, where they found a letter from the parishpriest, directed to "The Worthy Officers of the British Army, " prayingthat they would protect the sacred edifice, and also his own adjoininghouse, and adding, with somewhat needless civility, that he wished theyhad come sooner, that they might have enjoyed the asparagus and radishesof his garden, now unhappily going to seed. The letter concluded withmany compliments and good wishes, in which the Britons to whom they wereaddressed 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 theextreme point of the island. 

Here he could see, in part, the desperate nature of the task he hadundertaken. Before him, three or four miles away, Quebec sat perchedupon her rock, a congregation of stone houses, churches, palaces, convents, and hospitals; the green trees of the Seminary garden and thespires of the Cathedral, the Ursulines, the Recollets, and the Jesuits. Beyond rose the loftier height of Cape Diamond, edged with palisades andcapped with redoubt and parapet. Batteries frowned everywhere; theChateau battery, the Clergy battery, the Hospital battery, on the rockabove, and the Royal, Dauphin's, and Queen's batteries on the strand, where the dwellings and warehouses of the lower town clustered beneaththe cliff. 

Full in sight lay the far-extended camp of Montcalm, stretching from theSt. Charles, beneath the city walls, to the chasm and cataract of theMontmorenci. From the cataract to the river of Beauport, its front wascovered by earthworks along the brink of abrupt and lofty heights; andfrom the river of Beauport to the St. Charles, by broad flats of mudswept by the fire of redoubts, intrenchments, a floating battery, andthe city itself. Above the city, Cape Diamond hid the view; but couldWolfe have looked beyond it, he would have beheld a prospect still moredisheartening. Here, mile after mile, the St. Lawrence was walled by arange of steeps, often inaccessible, and always so difficult that a fewmen at the top could hold an army in check; while at Cap-Rouge, abouteight miles distant, the high plateau was cleft by the channel of astream which formed a line of defence as strong as that of theMontmorenci. Quebec was a natural fortress. Bougainville had long beforeexamined the position, and reported that "by the help of intrenchments, easily and quickly made, and defended by three or four thousand men, Ithink the city would be safe. I do not believe that the English willmake any attempt against it; but they may have the madness to do so, andit is well to be prepared against surprise. "

Not four thousand men, but four times four thousand, now stood in itsdefence; and their chiefs wisely resolved not to throw away theadvantages of their position. Nothing more was heard of Vaudreuil's boldplan of attacking the invaders at their landing; and Montcalm haddeclared 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 thedefence till the resources of the enemy were exhausted, or tillapproaching winter forced them to withdraw. Success was almost certainbut for one contingency. Amherst, with a force larger than that ofWolfe, was moving against Ticonderoga. If he should capture it, andadvance into the colony, Montcalm would be forced to weaken his army bysending 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 lastresort, to stake everything on the cast of the dice. 

The elements declared for France. On the afternoon of the day whenWolfe's army landed, a violent squall swept over the St. Lawrence, dashed the ships together, drove several ashore, and destroyed many ofthe flatboats from which the troops had just disembarked. "I never sawso much distress among shipping in my whole life, " writes an officer toa friend in Boston. Fortunately the storm subsided as quickly as itrose. Vaudreuil saw that the hoped-for deliverance had failed; and asthe tempest had not destroyed the British fleet, he resolved to try thevirtue of his fireships. "I am afraid, " says Montcalm, "that they havecost us a million, and will be good for nothing after all. " Thisremained to be seen. Vaudreuil gave the chief command of them to a navalofficer named Delouche; and on the evening of the twenty-eighth, afterlong consultation and much debate among their respective captains, theyset sail together at ten o'clock. The night was moonless and dark. Inless than an hour they were at the entrance of the north channel. Delouche had been all enthusiasm; but as he neared the danger his nervesfailed, and he set fire to his ship half an hour too soon, the restfollowing his example. [713]

[Footnote 713: Foligny, _Journal mémoratif. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5Oct. 1759. Journal du Siége_ (Bibliothêque de Hartwell). ]

There was an English outpost at the Point of Orleans; and, about eleveno'clock, the sentries descried through the gloom the ghostly outlines ofthe approaching ships. As they gazed, these mysterious strangers beganto dart tongues of flame; fire ran like lightning up their masts andsails, and then they burst out like volcanoes. Filled as they were withpitch, tar, and every manner of combustible, mixed with fireworks, bombs, grenades, and old cannon, swivels, and muskets loaded to thethroat, the effect was terrific. The troops at the Point, amazed at thesudden eruption, the din of the explosions, and the showers of grapeshotthat rattled among the trees, lost their wits and fled. The blazingdragons hissed and roared, spouted sheets of fire, vomited smoke inblack, pitchy volumes and vast illumined clouds, and shed their infernalglare on the distant city, the tents of Montcalm, and the long red linesof the British army, drawn up in array of battle, lest the French shouldcross from their encampments to attack them in the confusion. Knox callsthe display "the grandest fireworks that can possibly be conceived. " Yetthe fireships did no other harm than burning alive one of their owncaptains and six or seven of his sailors who failed to escape in theirboats. Some of them ran ashore before reaching the fleet; the otherswere seized by the intrepid English sailors, who, approaching in theirboats, threw grappling-irons upon them and towed them towards land, tillthey swung round and stranded. Here, after venting their fury for awhile, they subsided into quiet conflagration, which lasted tillmorning. Vaudreuil watched the result of his experiment from the steepleof the church at Beauport; then returned, dejected, to Quebec. 

Wolfe longed to fight his enemy; but his sagacious enemy would notgratify him. From the heights of Beauport, the rock of Quebec, or thesummit of Cape Diamond, Montcalm could look down on the river and itsshores as on a map, and watch each movement of the invaders. He washopeful, perhaps confident; and for a month or more he wrote almostdaily to Bourlamaque at Ticonderoga, in a cheerful, and often a jocosevein, mingling orders and instructions with pleasantries and bits ofnews. Yet his vigilance was unceasing. "We pass every night in bivouac, or else sleep in our clothes. Perhaps you are doing as much, my dearBourlamaque. "[714]

[Footnote 714: _Montcalm à Bourlamaque, 27 Juin, 1759. _ All theseletters are before me. ]

Of the two commanders, Vaudreuil was the more sanguine, and professedfull faith that all would go well. He too corresponded with Bourlamaque, to whom he gave his opinion, founded on the reports of deserters, thatWolfe had no chance of success unless Amherst should come to his aid. This he pronounced impossible; and he expressed a strong desire that theEnglish would attack him, "so that we may rid ourselves of them atonce. "[715] He was courageous, except in the immediate presence ofdanger, and failed only when the crisis came. 

[Footnote 715: _Vaudreuil à Bourlamaque, 8 Juillet, 1759. _]

Wolfe, held in check at every other point, had one movement in hispower. He could seize the heights of Point Levi, opposite the city; andthis, along with his occupation of the Island of Orleans, would give himcommand of the Basin of Quebec. Thence also he could fire on the placeacross the St. Lawrence, which is here less than a mile wide. Themovement was begun on the afternoon of the twenty-ninth, when, shiveringin a north wind and a sharp frost, a part of Monckton's brigade wasferried over to Beaumont, on the south shore, and the rest followed inthe morning. The rangers had a brush with a party of Canadians, whomthey drove off, and the regulars then landed unopposed. Monckton ordereda proclamation, signed by Wolfe, to be posted on the door of the parishchurch. It called on the Canadians, in peremptory terms, to standneutral in the contest, promised them, if they did so, full protectionin property and religion, and threatened that, if they presumed toresist the invaders, their houses, goods, and harvests should bedestroyed, and their churches despoiled. As soon as the troops were outof sight the inhabitants took down the placard and carried it toVaudreuil. 

The brigade marched along the river road to Point Levi, drove off a bodyof French and Indians posted in the church, and took possession of thehouses and the surrounding heights. In the morning they were intrenchingthemselves, when they were greeted by a brisk fire from the edge of thewoods. It came from a party of Indians, whom the rangers presently putto 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 theheights opposite Quebec, examined it with a spy-glass, and chose aposition from which to bombard it. Cannon and mortars were broughtashore, fascines and gabions made, intrenchments thrown up, andbatteries planted. Knox came over from the main camp, and says that hehad "a most agreeable view of the city of Quebec. It is a very fairobject for our artillery, particularly the lower town. " But why didWolfe wish to bombard it? Its fortifications were but little exposed tohis fire, and to knock its houses, convents, and churches to pieceswould bring him no nearer to his object. His guns at Point Levi coulddestroy the city, but could not capture it; yet doubtless they wouldhave good moral effect, discourage the French, and cheer his ownsoldiers with the flattering belief that they were achieving something. 

The guns of Quebec showered balls and bombs upon his workmen; but theystill toiled on, and the French saw the fatal batteries fast growing tocompletion. The citizens, alarmed at the threatened destruction, beggedthe Governor for leave to cross the river and dislodge their assailants. At length he consented. A party of twelve or fifteen hundred was made upof armed burghers, Canadians from the camp, a few Indians, some pupilsof the Seminary, and about a hundred volunteers from the regulars. Dumas, an experienced officer, took command of them; and, going up toSillery, they crossed the river on the night of the twelfth of July. They had hardly climbed the heights of the south shore when they grewexceedingly nervous, though the enemy was still three miles off. TheSeminary scholars fired on some of their own party, whom they mistookfor 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. Theyturned and made for their canoes, rolling over each other as they rusheddown the heights, and reappeared at Quebec at six in the morning, overwhelmed with despair and shame. [716]

[Footnote 716: _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, _Journaldu Siége_. Foligny, _Journal mémoratif. Memoirs of the Siege of Quebec, by John Johnson, Clerk and Quartermaster-Sergeant to the Fifty-eighthRegiment_. ]

The presentiment of the unhappy burghers proved too true. The Englishbatteries fell to their work, and the families of the town fled to thecountry for safety. In a single day eighteen houses and the cathedralwere burned by exploding shells; and fiercer and fiercer the storm offire and iron hailed upon Quebec. 

Wolfe did not rest content with distressing his enemy. With an ardor anda daring that no difficulties could cool, he sought means to strike aneffective blow. It was nothing to lay Quebec in ruins if he could notdefeat the army that protected it. To land from boats and attackMontcalm in front, through the mud of the Beauport flats or up theheights along the neighboring shore, was an enterprise too rash even forhis temerity. It might, however, be possible to land below the cataractof Montmorenci, cross that stream higher up, and strike the French armyin flank or rear; and he had no sooner secured his positions at thepoints of Levi and Orleans, than he addressed himself to this attempt. 

On the eighth several frigates and a bomb-ketch took their stationsbefore the camp of the Chevalier de Lévis, who, with his division ofCanadian militia, occupied the heights along the St. Lawrence just abovethe cataract. Here they shelled and cannonaded him all day; though, fromhis elevated position, with very little effect. Towards evening thetroops on the Point of Orleans broke up their camp. Major Hardy, with adetachment of marines, was left to hold that post, while the restembarked at night in the boats of the fleet. They were the brigades ofTownshend and Murray, consisting of five battalions, with a body ofgrenadiers, light infantry, and rangers, --in all three thousand men. They landed before daybreak in front of the parish of L'Ange Gardien, alittle below the cataract. The only opposition was from a troop ofCanadians and Indians, whom they routed, after some loss, climbed theheights, gained the plateau above, and began to intrench themselves. Acompany of rangers, supported by detachments of regulars, was sent intothe 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 themovements of Wolfe from the heights across the cataract. Johnstone saysthat he asked his commander if he was sure there was no ford higher upon the Montmorenci, by which the English could cross. Lévis averred thatthere was none, and that he himself had examined the stream to itssource; on which a Canadian who stood by whispered to the aide-de-camp:"The General is mistaken; there is a ford. " Johnstone told this toLévis, who would not believe it, and so browbeat the Canadian that hedared not repeat what he had said. Johnstone, taking him aside, told himto go and find somebody who had lately crossed the ford, and bring himat once to the General's quarters; whereupon he soon reappeared with aman who affirmed that he had crossed it the night before with a sack ofwheat on his back. A detachment was immediately sent to the place, withorders to intrench itself, and Repentigny, lieutenant of Lévis, wasposted 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 commanderto tell Repentigny that there was a body of English in the forest, whomight all be destroyed if he would come over at once with his Canadians. Repentigny sent for orders to Lévis, and Lévis sent for orders toVaudreuil, whose quarters were three or four miles distant. Vaudreuilanswered that no risk should be run, and that he would come and see tothe matter himself. It was about two hours before he arrived; andmeanwhile the Indians grew impatient, rose from their hiding-place, fired on the rangers, and drove them back with heavy loss upon theregulars, who stood their ground, and at last repulsed the assailants. The Indians recrossed the ford with thirty-six scalps. If Repentigny hadadvanced, and Lévis had followed with his main body, the consequences tothe English might have been serious; for, as Johnstone remarks, "aCanadian in the woods is worth three disciplined soldiers, as a soldierin a plain is worth three Canadians. " Vaudreuil called a council of war. The question was whether an effort should be made to dislodge Wolfe'smain force. Montcalm and the Governor were this time of one mind, andboth thought it inexpedient to attack, with militia, a body of regulartroops whose numbers and position were imperfectly known. Bigot gave hisvoice for the attack. He was overruled, and Wolfe was left to fortifyhimself in peace. [717]

[Footnote 717: The above is from a comparison of the rather discordantaccounts of Johnstone, the _Journal tenu à l'Armée, _ the _Journal_ ofPanet, and that of the Hartwell Library. The last says that Léviscrossed the Montmorenci. If so, he accomplished nothing. This affairshould not be confounded with a somewhat similar one which took place onthe 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 rightwing at the cataract, and Major Hardy's detachment on the Point ofOrleans was between them, separated from each by a wide arm of the St. Lawrence. Any one of the three camps might be overpowered before theothers could support it; and Hardy with his small force was above all indanger of being cut to pieces. But the French kept persistently on thedefensive; and after the failure of Dumas to dislodge the English fromPoint Levi, Vaudreuil would not hear of another such attempt. Wolfe wassoon well intrenched; but it was easier to defend himself than to strikeat his enemy. Montcalm, when urged to attack him, is said to haveanswered: "Let him amuse himself where he is. If we drive him off he maygo 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 timebegan to desert. His batteries, too, played across the chasm ofMontmorenci upon the left wing of the French army with an effectextremely annoying. 

The position of the hostile forces was a remarkable one. They wereseparated by the vast gorge that opens upon the St. Lawrence; anamphitheatre of lofty precipices, their brows crested with forests, andtheir steep brown sides scantily feathered with stunted birch and fir. Into this abyss leaps the Montmorenci with one headlong plunge of nearlytwo hundred and fifty feet, a living column of snowy white, with itsspray, its foam, its mists, and its rainbows; then spreads itself inbroad thin sheets over a floor of rock and gravel, and creeps tamely tothe St. Lawrence. It was but a gunshot across the gulf, and thesentinels on each side watched each other over the roar and turmoil ofthe cataract. Captain Knox, coming one day from Point Levi to receiveorders 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 onthe eminence I was hastily called to by one of our sentinels, when, throwing my eyes about, I saw a Frenchman creeping under the easternextremity of their breastwork to fire at me. This obliged me to retireas fast as I could out of his reach, and, making up to the sentry tothank him for his attention, he told me the fellow had snapped his piecetwice, and the second time it flashed in the pan at the instant I turnedaway from the Fall. " Another officer, less fortunate, had a leg brokenby a shot from the opposite cliffs. 

Day after day went by, and the invaders made no progress. Flags of trucepassed often between the hostile camps. "You will demolish the town, nodoubt, " said the bearer of one of them, "but you shall never get insideof it. " To which Wolfe replied: "I will have Quebec if I stay here tillthe end of November. " Sometimes the heat was intense, and sometimesthere were floods of summer rain that inundated the tents. Along theriver, from the Montmorenci to Point Levi, there were ceaselessartillery fights between gunboats, frigates, and batteries on shore. Bands of Indians infested the outskirts of the camps, killing sentriesand patrols. The rangers chased them through the woods; there were briskskirmishes, and scalps lost and won. Sometimes the regulars took part inthese 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'scompany of grenadiers for the spirit they showed this morning in pushingthose scoundrels of Indians. " The Indians complained that the Britishsoldiers were learning how to fight, and no longer stood still in a massto 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 wascaught on the eighteenth. He was naked, daubed red and blue, and adornedwith a bunch of painted feathers dangling from the top of his head. Heand his companions used the scalping-knife as freely as the Indiansthemselves; nor were the New England rangers much behind them in thisrespect, till an order came from Wolfe forbidding "the inhuman practiceof scalping, except when the enemy are Indians, or Canadians dressedlike Indians. "

A part of the fleet worked up into the Basin, beyond the Point ofOrleans; and here, on the warm summer nights, officers and men watchedthe cannon flashing and thundering from the heights of Montmorenci onone side, and those of Pont Levi on the other, and the bombs sailingthrough the air in fiery semicircles. Often the gloom was lighted up bythe blaze of the burning houses of Quebec, kindled by incendiary shells. Both the lower and the upper town were nearly deserted by theinhabitants, some retreating into the country, and some into the suburbof St. Roch; while the Ursulines and Hospital nuns abandoned theirconvents to seek harborage beyond the range of shot. The city was a preyto robbers, who pillaged the empty houses, till an order came fromheadquarters promising the gallows to all who should be caught. Newsreached the French that Niagara was attacked, and that the army ofAmherst was moving against Ticonderoga. The Canadians deserted more andmore. They were disheartened by the defensive attitude in which bothVaudreuil and Montcalm steadily persisted; and accustomed as they wereto rapid raids, sudden strokes, and a quick return to their homes, theytired of long weeks of inaction. The English patrols caught one of themas he was passing the time in fishing. "He seemed to be a subtle oldrogue, " says Knox, "of seventy years of age, as he told us. We plied himwell with port wine, and then his heart was more open; and seeing thatwe laughed at the exaggerated accounts he had given us, he said he'wished the affair was well over, one way or the other; that hiscountrymen were all discontented, and would either surrender, ordisperse and act a neutral part, if it were not for the persuasions oftheir priests and the fear of being maltreated by the savages, with whomthey are threatened on all occasions. '" A deserter reported on thenineteenth of July that nothing but dread of the Indians kept theCanadians in the camp. 

Wolfe's proclamation, at first unavailing, was now taking effect. Alarge number of Canadian prisoners, brought in on the twenty-fifth, declared that their countrymen would gladly accept his offers but forthe threats of their commanders that if they did so the Indians shouldbe set upon them. The prisoners said further that "they had been underapprehension for several days past of having a body of four hundredbarbarians sent to rifle their parish and habitations. "[718] Suchthreats were not wholly effectual. A French chronicler of the time says:"The Canadians showed their disgust every day, and deserted at everyopportunity, in spite of the means taken to prevent them. " "The peoplewere intimidated, seeing all our army kept in one body and solely on thedefensive; while the English, though far less numerous, divided theirforces, and undertook various bold enterprises without meetingresistance. "[719]

[Footnote 718: Knox, I. 347; compare pp. 339, 341, 346. ]

[Footnote 719: _Journal du Siége_ (Bibliothêque de Hartwell). ]

On the eighteenth the English accomplished a feat which promisedimportant results. The French commanders had thought it impossible forany hostile ship to pass the batteries of Quebec; but about eleveno'clock at night, favored by the wind, and covered by a furiouscannonade from Point Levi, the ship "Sutherland, " with a frigate andseveral small vessels, sailed safely by and reached the river above thetown. Here they at once attacked and destroyed a fireship and some smallcraft that they found there, Now, for the first time, it becamenecessary for Montcalm to weaken his army at Beauport by sending sixhundred men, under Dumas, to defend the accessible points in the line ofprecipices between Quebec and Cap-Rouge. Several hundred more were senton the next day, when it became known that the English had dragged afleet of boats over Point Levi, launched them above the town, anddespatched troops to embark in them. Thus a new feature was introducedinto the siege operations, and danger had risen on a side where theFrench thought themselves safe. On the other hand, Wolfe had become morevulnerable 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 hisopportunity was apparently due to want of confidence in his militia. 

The force above the town did not lie idle. On the night of thetwentieth, Colonel Carleton, with six hundred men, rowed eighteen milesup the river, and landed at Pointe-aux-Trembles, on the north shore. Here some of the families of Quebec had sought asylum; and Wolfe hadbeen told by prisoners that not only were stores in great quantity to befound here, but also letters and papers throwing light on the Frenchplans. Carleton and his men drove off a band of Indians who fired onthem, and spent a quiet day around the parish church; but found fewpapers, and still fewer stores. They withdrew towards evening, carryingwith them nearly a hundred women, children, and old men; any they wereno sooner gone than the Indians returned to plunder the empty houses oftheir unfortunate allies. The prisoners were treated with greatkindness. The ladies among them were entertained at supper by Wolfe, whojested with them on the caution of the French generals, saying: "I havegiven good chances to attack me, and am surprised that they have notprofited by them. "[720] On the next day the prisoners were all sent toQuebec under a flag of truce. 

[Footnote 720: _Journal tenu à l'Armée que commandoit feu M. Le Marquisde Montcalm. _]

Thus far Wolfe had refrained from executing the threats he had affixedthe month before to the church of Beaumont. But now he issued anotherproclamation. It declared that the Canadians had shown themselvesunworthy of the offers he had made them, and that he had thereforeordered his light troops to ravage their country and bring themprisoners to his camp. Such of the Canadian militia as belonged to theparishes near Quebec were now in a sad dilemma; for Montcalm threatenedthem on one side, and Wolfe on the other. They might desert to theirhomes, or they might stand by their colors; in the one case their houseswere to be burned by French savages, and in the other by British lightinfantry. 

Wolfe at once gave orders in accord with his late proclamation; but hecommanded that no church should be profaned, and no woman or childinjured. The first effects of his stern policy are thus recorded byKnox: "Major Dalling's light infantry brought in this afternoon to ourcamp two hundred and fifty male and female prisoners. Among this numberwas a very respectable looking priest, and about forty men fit to beararms. There was almost an equal number of black cattle, with aboutseventy sheep and lambs, and a few horses. Brigadier Moncktonentertained the reverend father and some other fashionable personages inhis tent, and most humanely ordered refreshments to all the rest of thecaptives; which noble example was followed by the soldiery, whogenerously crowded about those unhappy people, sharing the provisions, rum, and tobacco with them. They were sent in the evening on board oftransports in the river. " Again, two days later: "Colonel Fraser'sdetachment returned this morning, and presented us with more scenes ofdistress and the dismal consequences of war, by a great number ofwretched families, whom they brought in prisoners, with some of theireffects, and near three hundred black cattle, sheep, hogs, and horses. "

On the next night the attention of the excellent journalist wasotherwise engaged. Vaudreuil tried again to burn the English fleet. "Late last night, " writes Knox, under date of the twenty-eighth, "theenemy sent down a most formidable fireraft, which consisted of a parcelof schooners, shallops, and stages chained together. It could not beless than a hundred fathoms in length, and was covered with grenades, old swivels, gun and pistol barrels loaded up to their muzzles, andvarious other inventions and combustible matters. This seemed to betheir last attempt against our fleet, which happily miscarried, asbefore; for our gallant seamen, with their usual expertness, grappledthem before they got down above a third part of the Basin, towed themsafe to shore, and left them at anchor, continually repeating, _All'swell_. A remarkable expression from some of these intrepid souls totheir comrades on this occasion I must not omit, on account of itssingular uncouthness; namely: 'Damme, Jack, didst thee ever take hell intow before?'"

According to a French account, this aquatic infernal machine consistedof seventy rafts, boats, and schooners. Its failure was due to noshortcoming on the part of its conductors; who, under a brave Canadiannamed Courval, acted with coolness and resolution. Nothing saved thefleet but the courage of the sailors, swarming out in their boats tofight the approaching conflagration. 

It was now the end of July. More than half the summer was gone, andQuebec seemed as far as ever beyond the grasp of Wolfe. Its buildingswere in ruins, and the neighboring parishes were burned and ravaged; butits living rampart, the army of Montcalm, still lay in patient defiancealong the shores of Beauport, while above the city every point where awildcat could climb the precipices was watched and guarded, and Dumaswith a thousand men held the impregnable heights of Cap-Rouge. Montcalmpersisted in doing nothing that his enemy wished him to do. He would notfight on Wolfe's terms, and Wolfe resolved at last to fight him on hisown; that is, to attack his camp in front. 

The plan was desperate; for, after leaving troops enough to hold PointLevi and the heights of Montmorenci, less than five thousand men wouldbe left to attack a position of commanding strength, where Montcalm atan hour's notice could collect twice as many to oppose them. But Wolfehad a boundless trust in the disciplined valor of his soldiers, and anutter scorn of the militia who made the greater part of his enemy'sforce. 

Towards the Montmorenci the borders of the St. Lawrence are, as we haveseen, extremely high and steep. At a mile from the gorge of the cataractthere 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 strandthe receding tide lays bare a tract of mud nearly half a mile wide. Atthe edge of the dry ground the French had built a redoubt mounted withcannon, and there were other similar works on the strand a quarter of amile nearer the cataract. Wolfe could not see from the river that theseredoubts were commanded by the musketry of the intrenchments along thebrink of the heights above. These intrenchments were so constructed thatthey swept with cross-fires the whole face of the declivity, which wascovered with grass, and was very steep. Wolfe hoped that, if he attackedone of the redoubts, the French would come down to defend it, and sobring on a general engagement; or, if they did not, that he should gainan opportunity of reconnoitring the heights to find some point wherethey could be stormed with a chance of success. 

In front of the gorge of the Montmorenci there was a ford during severalhours of low tide, so that troops from the adjoining English camp mightcross to co-operate with their comrades landing in boats from Point Leviand 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 theredoubts. Then two armed transports, each of fourteen guns, stood in asclose as possible to the first redoubt and fired upon it, stranding asthe tide went out, till in the afternoon they lay bare upon the mud. Atthe same time a battery of more than forty heavy pieces, planted on thelofty promontory beyond the Montmorenci, began a furious cannonade uponthe flank of the French intrenchments. It did no great harm, however, for the works were protected by a great number of traverses, whichstopped 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 fromPoint Levi, appeared in the river and hovered off the shore west of theparish church of Beauport, as if meaning to land there. Montcalm wasperplexed, doubting whether the real attack was to be made here, ortoward the Montmorenci. Hour after hour the boats moved to and fro, toincrease his doubts and hide the real design; but he soon becameconvinced that the camp of Lévis at the Montmorenci was the true objectof his enemy; and about two o'clock he went thither, greeted as he rodealong the lines by shouts of _Vive notre Général!_ Lévis had alreadymade preparations for defence with his usual skill. His Canadians werereinforced by the battalions of Béarn, Guienne, and Royal Roussillon;and, as the intentions of Wolfe became certain, the right of the campwas nearly abandoned, the main strength of the army being gatheredbetween the river of Beauport and the Montmorenci, where, according to aFrench writer, there were, towards the end of the afternoon, abouttwelve thousand men. [721]

[Footnote 721: Panet, _Journal_. ]

At half-past five o'clock the tide was out, and the crisis came. Thebatteries across the Montmorenci, the distant batteries of Point Levi, the cannon of the "Centurion, " and those of the two stranded ships, allopened together with redoubled fury. The French batteries replied; and, amid this deafening roar of artillery, the English boats set theirtroops ashore at the edge of the broad tract of sedgy mud that thereceding river had left bare. At the same time a column of two thousandmen was seen, a mile away, moving in perfect order across theMontmorenci ford. The first troops that landed from the boats werethirteen companies of grenadiers and a detachment of Royal Americans. They dashed swiftly forward; while at some distance behind cameMonckton's brigade, composed of the fifteenth, or Amherst's regiment, and the seventy-eighth, or Fraser's Highlanders. The day had been fairand warm; but the sky was now thick with clouds, and large rain-dropsbegan to fall, the precursors of a summer storm. 

With the utmost precipitation, without orders, and without waiting forMonckton's brigade to come up, the grenadiers in front made a rush forthe redoubt near the foot of the hill. The French abandoned it; but theassailants had no sooner gained their prize than the thronged heightsabove blazed with musketry, and a tempest of bullets fell among them. Nothing daunted, they dashed forward again, reserving their fire, andstruggling to climb the steep ascent; while, with yells and shouts of_Vive le Roi!_ the troops and Canadians at the top poured upon them ahailstorm of musket-balls and buckshot, and dead and wounded in numbersrolled together down the slope. At that instant the clouds burst, andthe 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 soslippery that was impossible to climb them. The English say that thestorm saved the French; the French, with as much reason, that it savedthe English. 

The baffled grenadiers drew back into the redoubt. Wolfe saw the madnessof persisting, and ordered a retreat. The rain ceased, and troops ofIndians came down the heights to scalp the fallen. Some of them rantowards Lieutenant Peyton, of the Royal Americans, as he lay disabled bya musket-shot. With his double-barrelled gun he brought down two of hisassailants, when a Highland sergeant snatched him in his arms, draggedhim 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, andan Indian would have scalped him but for the generous intrepidity of asoldier of the battalion of Guienne; who, seizing the enraged savage, held him back till several French officers interposed, and had the dyingman carried to a place of safety. 

The English retreated in good order, after setting fire to the twostranded vessels. Those of the grenadiers and Royal Americans who wereleft alive rowed for the Point of Orleans; the fifteenth regiment rowedfor Point Levi; and the Highlanders, led by Wolfe himself, joined thecolumn from beyond the Montmorenci, placing themselves in its rear as itslowly retired along the flats and across the ford, the Indians yellingand the French shouting from the heights, while the British waved theirhats, daring them to come down and fight. 

The grenadiers and the Royal Americans, who had borne the brunt of thefray, bore also nearly all the loss; which, in proportion to theirnumbers, 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. "Ihave no more anxiety about Quebec. M. Wolfe, I can assure you, will makeno progress. Luckily for him, his prudence saved him from theconsequences of his mad enterprise, and he contented himself with losingabout five hundred of his best soldiers. Deserters say that he will tryus again in a few days. That is what we want; he'll find somebody totalk to (_il trouvera à qui parler_). "

NOTE: Among the killed in this affair was Edward Botwood, sergeant inthe grenadiers of the forty-seventh, or Lascelles' regiment. "NedBotwood" was well known among his comrades as a poet; and the followinglines of his, written on the eve of the expedition to Quebec, continuedto be favorites with the British troops during the War of the Revolution(see _Historical Magazine_, II. , First Series, 164). It may be observedhere that the war produced a considerable quantity of indifferent verseon both sides. On that of the English it took the shape of occasionalballads, such as "Bold General Wolfe, " printed on broadsides, or ofpatriotic effusions scattered through magazines and newspapers, whilethe 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. "P/

On the repulse at Montmorenci, _Wolfe to Pitt, 2 Sept. 1759. Vaudreuilau Ministre, 5 Oct. 1759_. Panet, _Journal du Siége_. Johnstone, _Dialogue in Hades. Journal tenu à l'Armée, etc. Journal of the Siege ofQuebec, by a Gentleman in an eminent Station on the Spot. Mémoires surle Canada, 1749-1760_. Fraser, _Journal of the Siege. Journal du Siéged'après un MS. Déposé à la Bibliothêque Hartwell_. Foligny, _Journalmémoratif. Journal of Transactions at the Siege of Quebec_, in _Notesand Queries_, XX. 164. John Johnson, _Memoirs of the Siege of Quebec. Journal of an Expedition on the River St. Lawrence. An Authentic Accountof the Expedition against Quebec, by a Volunteer on that Expedition. J. Gibson to Governor Lawrence, 1 Aug. 1759_. Knox, I. 354. Mante, 244. 

Chapter 26

1759

Amherst. Niagara

Pitt had directed that, while Quebec was attacked, an attempt should bemade to penetrate into Canada by way of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. Thus the two armies might unite in the heart of the colony, or, atleast, a powerful diversion might be effected in behalf of Wolfe. At thesame time Oswego was to be re-established, and the possession of FortDuquesne, or Pittsburg, secured by reinforcements and supplies; whileAmherst, the commander-in-chief, was further directed to pursue anyother enterprise which in his opinion would weaken the enemy, withoutdetriment to the main objects of the campaign. [722] He accordinglyresolved to attempt the capture of Niagara. Brigadier Prideaux wascharged with this stroke; Brigadier Stanwix was sent to conduct theoperations for the relief of Pittsburg; and Amherst himself prepared tolead the grand central advance against Ticonderoga, Crown Point, andMontreal. [723]

[Footnote 722: _Pitt to Amherst, 23 Jan. , 10 March, 1759_. ]

[Footnote 723: _Amherst to Pitt, 19 June, 1759. Amherst to Stanwix, 6May, 1759_. ]

Towards the end of June he reached that valley by the head of LakeGeorge which for five years past had been the annual mustering-place ofarmies. Here were now gathered about eleven thousand men, half regularsand half provincials, [724] drilling every day, firing by platoons, firing at marks, practising manoeuvres in the woods; going out onscouting parties, bathing parties, fishing parties; gathering wild herbsto serve for greens, cutting brushwood and meadow hay to make hospitalbeds. The sick were ordered on certain mornings to repair to thesurgeon's tent, there, in prompt succession, to swallow such doses as hethought appropriate to their several ailments; and it was furtherordered that "every fair day they that can walk be paraded together andmarched down to the lake to wash their hands and faces. " Courts-martialwere numerous; culprits were flogged at the head of each regiment inturn, and occasionally one was shot. A frequent employment was thecutting of spruce tops to make spruce beer. This innocent beverage wasreputed sovereign against scurvy; and such was the fame of its virtuesthat a copious supply of the West Indian molasses used in concocting itwas 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 theywant at a halfpenny a quart. [725]

[Footnote 724: Mante, 210. ]

[Footnote 725: _Orderly Book of Commissary Wilson in the Expeditionagainst Ticonderoga, 1759. Journal of Samuel Warner, a MassachusettsSoldier, 1759. General and Regimental Orders, Army of Major-GeneralAmherst, 1759. Diary of Sergeant Merriman, of Ruggles's Regiment, 1759. _I owe to William L. Stone, Esq. , the use of the last two curiousdocuments. ]

The rear of the-army was well protected from insult. Fortified postswere built at intervals of three or four miles along the road to FortEdward, and especially at the station called Half-way Brook; while, forthe whole distance, a broad belt of wood on both sides was cut down andburned, to deprive a skulking enemy of cover. Amherst was never long inone place without building a fort there. He now began one, which provedwholly needless, on that flat rocky hill where the English made theirintrenched camp during the siege of Fort William Henry. Only one bastionof it was ever finished, and this is still shown to tourists under thename of Fort George. 

The army embarked on Saturday, the twenty-first of July. The ReverendBenjamin Pomeroy watched their departure in some concern, and wrote onMonday to Abigail, his wife: "I could wish for more appearance ofdependence on God than was observable among them; yet I hope God willgrant deliverance unto Israel by them. " There was another militarypageant, another long procession of boats and banners, among themountains and islands of Lake George. Night found them near the outlet;and here they lay till morning, tossed unpleasantly on waves ruffled bya summer gale. At daylight they landed, beat back a French detachment, and marched by the portage road to the saw-mill at the waterfall. Therewas little resistance. They occupied the heights, and then advanced tothe famous line of intrenchment against which the army of Abercromby hadhurled itself in vain. These works had been completely reconstructed, partly of earth, and partly of logs. Amherst's followers were lessnumerous than those of his predecessor, while the French commander, Bourlamaque, had a force nearly equal to that of Montcalm in the summerbefore; yet he made no attempt to defend the intrenchment, and theEnglish, encamping along its front, found it an excellent shelter fromthe cannon of the fort beyond. 

Amherst brought up his artillery and began approaches in form, when, onthe night of the twenty-third, it was found that Bourlamaque had retireddown Lake Champlain, leaving four hundred men under Hebecourt to defendthe place as long as possible. This was in obedience to an order fromVaudreuil, requiring him on the approach of the English to abandon bothTiconderoga and Crown Point, retreat to the outlet of Lake Champlain, take post at Isle-aux-Noix, and there defend himself to the lastextremity;[726] a course unquestionably the best that could have beentaken, since obstinacy in holding Ticonderoga might have involved thesurrender of Bourlamaque's whole force, while Isle-aux-Noix offered rareadvantages for defence. 

[Footnote 726: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 8 Nov. 1759. Instructions pour M. De Bourlamaque, 20 Mai, 1759, signé Vaudreuil. Montcalm à Bourlamaque, 4Juin, 1759_. ]

The fort fired briskly; a cannon-shot killed Colonel Townshend, and afew soldiers were killed and wounded by grape and bursting shells; when, at dusk on the evening of the twenty-sixth, an unusual movement was seenamong the garrison, and, about ten o'clock, three deserters came ingreat excitement to the English camp. They reported that Hebecourt andhis soldiers were escaping in their boats, and that a match was burningin the magazine to blow Ticonderoga to atoms. Amherst offered a hundredguineas to any one of them who would point out the match, that it mightbe cut; but they shrank from the perilous venture. All was silent tilleleven o'clock, when a broad, fierce glare burst on the night, and aroaring explosion shook the promontory; then came a few breathlessmoments, and then the fragments of Fort Ticonderoga fell with clatterand 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 littlehurt, though the barracks and other combustible parts were set on fire, and by the light the French flag was seen still waving on therampart. [727] A sergeant of the light infantry, braving the risk ofother explosions, went and brought it off. Thus did this redoubtedstronghold of France fall at last into English hands, as in alllikelihood it would have done a year sooner, if Amherst had commanded inAbercromby's place; for, with the deliberation that marked all hisproceedings, he would have sat down before Montcalm's wooden wall andknocked it to splinters with his cannon. 

[Footnote 727: _Journal of Colonel Amherst_ (brother of GeneralAmherst). _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 8 Nov. 1759. Amherst to Prideaux, 28July, 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 advanceon Crown Point; when on the first of August his scouts told him that theenemy had abandoned this place also, and retreated northward down thelake. [728] Well pleased, he took possession of the deserted fort, and, in the animation of success, thought for a moment of keeping the promisehe had given to Pitt "to make an irruption into Canada with the utmostvigor and despatch. "[729] Wolfe, his brother in arms and his friend, wasbattling with the impossible under the rocks of Quebec, and everymotive, public and private, impelled Amherst to push to his relief, notcounting costs, or balancing risks too nicely. He was ready enough tospur on others, for he wrote to Gage: "We must all be alert and activeday and night; if we all do our parts the French must fall;"[730] but, far from doing his, he set the army to building a new fort at CrownPoint, telling them that it would "give plenty, peace, and quiet to HisMajesty's subjects for ages to come. "[731] Then he began three smalladditional forts, as outworks to the first, sent two parties to explorethe sources of the Hudson; one party to explore Otter Creek; another toexplore South Bay, which was already well known; another to make a roadacross what is now the State of Vermont, from Crown Point toCharlestown, or "Number Four, " on the Connecticut; and another to widenand improve the old French road between Crown Point and Ticonderoga. Hisindustry was untiring; a great deal of useful work was done: but theessential task of making a diversion to aid the army of Wolfe wasneedlessly postponed. 

[Footnote 728: _Amherst to Pitt, 5 Aug. 1759_. ]

[Footnote 729: _Ibid. , 19 June, 1759_. ]

[Footnote 730: _Amherst to Gage, 1 Aug. 1759_. ]

[Footnote 731: _General Orders, 13 Aug. 1759_. ]

It is true that some delay was inevitable. The French had four armedvessels on the lake, and this made it necessary to provide an equal orsuperior force to protect the troops on their way to Isle-aux-Noix. Captain Loring, the English naval commander, was therefore ordered tobuild a brigantine; and, this being thought insufficient, he wasdirected to add a kind of floating battery, moved by sweeps. Three weekslater, in consequence of farther information concerning the force of theFrench vessels, Amherst ordered an armed sloop to be put on the stocks;and this involved a long delay. The saw-mill at Ticonderoga was tofurnish planks for the intended navy; but, being overtasked in sawingtimber for the new works at Crown Point, it was continually breakingdown. Hence much time was lost, and autumn was well advanced beforeLoring could launch his vessels. [732]

[Footnote 732: _Amherst to Pitt, 22 Oct. 1759_. This letter, which is inthe form of a journal, covers twenty-one folio pages. ]

Meanwhile news had come from Prideaux and the Niagara expedition. Thatofficer had been ordered to ascend the Mohawk with five thousandregulars and provincials, leave a strong garrison at Fort Stanwix, onthe Great Carrying Place, establish posts at both ends of Lake Oneida, descend the Onondaga to Oswego, leave nearly half his force there underColonel Haldimand, and proceed with the rest to attack Niagara. [733]These orders he accomplished. Haldimand remained to reoccupy the spotthat Montcalm had made desolate three years before; and, while preparingto 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 thehead of the St. Lawrence Rapids. Such an attack was probable; for if theFrench could seize Oswego, the return of Prideaux from Niagara would becut off, and when his small stock of provisions had failed, he would bereduced to extremity. Saint-Luc de la Corne left the head of the Rapidsearly in July with a thousand French and Canadians and a body ofIndians, who soon made their appearance among the stumps and bushes thatsurrounded the camp at Oswego. The priest Piquet was of the party; andfive deserters declared that he solemnly blessed them, and told them togive the English no quarter. [734] Some valuable time was lost inbestowing the benediction; yet Haldimand's men were taken by surprise. Many of them were dispersed in the woods, cutting timber for theintended fort; and it might have gone hard with them had not some of LaCorne's Canadians become alarmed and rushed back to their boats, oversetting Father Piquet on the way. [735] These being rallied, thewhole party ensconced itself in a tract of felled trees so far from theEnglish that their fire did little harm. They continued it about twohours, and resumed it the next morning; when, three cannon being broughtto bear on them, they took to their boats and disappeared, having lostabout thirty killed and wounded, including two officers and La Cornehimself, who was shot in the thigh. The English loss was slight. 

[Footnote 733: _Instructions of Amherst to Prideaux, 17 May, 1759. Prideaux to Haldimand, 30 June, 1759_. ]

[Footnote 734: _Journal of Colonel Amherst_. ]

[Footnote 735: 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 strongfort, lately rebuilt in regular form by an excellent officer, CaptainPouchot, of the battalion of Béarn, who commanded it. It stood where thepresent fort stands, in the angle formed by the junction of the RiverNiagara with Lake Ontario, and was held by about six hundred men, wellsupplied with provisions and munitions of war. [736] Higher up the river, a mile and a half above the cataract, there was another fort, calledLittle Niagara, built of wood, and commanded by the half-breed officer, Joncaire-Chabert, who with his brother, Joncaire-Clauzonne, and anumerous clan of Indian relatives, had so long thwarted the efforts ofJohnson to engage the Five Nations in the English cause. But recentEnglish successes had had their effect. Joncaire's influence was waning, and Johnson was now in Prideaux's camp with nine hundred Five Nationwarriors pledged to fight the French. Joncaire, finding his fortuntenable, burned it, and came with his garrison and his Indian friendsto reinforce Niagara. [737]

[Footnote 736: Pouchot says 515, besides 60 men from Little Niagara;Vaudreuil gives a total of 589. ]

[Footnote 737: 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. Inobedience to an order from Vaudreuil, the French population of theIllinois, Detroit, and other distant posts, joined with troops ofWestern Indians, had come down the Lakes to recover Pittsburg, undo thework of Forbes, and restore French ascendency on the Ohio. Pittsburg hadbeen in imminent danger; nor was it yet safe, though General Stanwix wassparing no effort to succor it. [738] These mixed bands of white men andred, bushrangers and savages, were now gathered, partly at Le Boeuf andVenango, but chiefly at Presquisle, under command of Aubry, Ligneris, Marin, and other partisan chiefs, the best in Canada. No sooner didPouchot learn that the English were coming to attack him than he sent amessenger to summon them all to his aid. [739]

[Footnote 738: _Letters of Colonel Hugh Mercer, commanding at Pittsburg, January-June, 1759. Letters of Stanwix, May-July, 1759. Letter fromPittsburg_, in _Boston News Letter_, No. 3, 023. _Narrative of JohnOrmsby. _]

[Footnote 739: Pouchot, II. 46. ]

The siege was begun in form, though the English engineers were soincompetent that the trenches, as first laid out, were scoured by thefire of the place, and had to be made anew. [740] At last the batteriesopened fire. A shell from a coehorn burst prematurely, just as it leftthe mouth of the piece, and a fragment striking Prideaux on the head, killed him instantly. Johnson took command in his place, and made up inenergy what he lacked in skill. In two or three weeks the fort was inextremity. The rampart was breached, more than a hundred of the garrisonwere killed or disabled, and the rest were exhausted with want of sleep. Pouchot watched anxiously for the promised succors; and on the morningof the twenty-fourth of July a distant firing told him that they were athand. 

[Footnote 740: _Rutherford to Haldimand, 14 July, 1759. _ Prideaux wasextremely disgusted. _Prideaux to Haldimand, 13 July, 1759_. AllanMacleane, 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 afew days before, to the number, according to Vaudreuil, of elevenhundred French and two hundred Indians. [741] Among them was a body ofcolony troops; but the Frenchmen of the party were chiefly traders andbushrangers from the West, connecting links between civilization andsavagery; some of them indeed were mere white Indians, imbued with theideas and morals of the wigwam, wearing hunting-shirts of smokeddeer-skin embroidered with quills of the Canada porcupine, paintingtheir faces black and red, tying eagle feathers in their long hair, orplastering it on their temples with a compound of vermilion and glue. They were excellent woodsmen, skilful hunters, and perhaps the bestbush-fighters in all Canada. 

[Footnote 741: "Il n'y avoit que 1, 100 François et 200 sauvages. "_Vaudreuil au Ministre, 30 Oct. 1759. _ Johnson says "1, 200 men, with anumber of Indians. " _Johnson to Amherst, 25 July, 1759. _ Portneuf, commanding at Presquisle, wrote to Pouchot that there were 1, 600 Frenchand 1, 200 Indians. Pouchot, II. 94. A letter from Aubry to Pouchot putthe 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 officerto the bastion next the river; and as the forest had been cut away for agreat distance, they could see more than a mile and a half along theshore. There, by glimpses among trees and bushes, they descried bodiesof men, now advancing, and now retreating; Indians in rapid movement, and the smoke of guns, the sound of which reached their ears in heavyvolleys, or a sharp and angry rattle. Meanwhile the English cannon hadceased their fire, and the silent trenches seemed deserted, as if theiroccupants were gone to meet the advancing foe. There was a call in thefort for volunteers to sally and destroy the works; but no sooner didthey show themselves along the covered way than the seemingly abandonedtrenches were thronged with men and bayonets, and the attempt was givenup. The distant firing lasted half an hour, then ceased, and Pouchotremained in suspense; till, at two in the afternoon, a friendlyOnondaga, who had passed unnoticed through the English lines, came tohim with the announcement that the French and their allies had beenrouted and cut to pieces. Pouchot would not believe him. 

Nevertheless his tale was true. Johnson, besides his Indians, had withhim about twenty-three hundred men, whom he was forced to divide intothree separate bodies, --one to guard the bateaux, one to guard thetrenches, and one to fight Aubry and his band. This last body consistedof the provincial light infantry and the pickets, two companies ofgrenadiers, and a hundred and fifty men of the forty-sixth regiment, allunder command of Colonel Massey. [742] They took post behind an abattisat a place called La Belle Famille, and the Five Nation warriors placedthemselves on their flanks. These savages had shown signs ofdisaffection; and when the enemy approached, they opened a parley withthe French Indians, which, however, soon ended, and both sides raisedthe war-whoop. The fight was brisk for a while; but at last Aubry's menbroke away in a panic. The French officers seem to have made desperateefforts to retrieve the day, for nearly all of them were killed orcaptured; while their followers, after heavy loss, fled to their canoesand boats above the cataract, hastened back to Lake Erie, burnedPresquisle, Le Boeuf, and Venango, and, joined by the garrisons of thoseforts, retreated to Detroit, leaving the whole region of the upper Ohioin undisputed possession of the English. 

[Footnote 742: _Johnson to Amherst, 25 July, 1759. _ Knox, II. 135. _Captain Delancey to----, 25 July, 1759. _ This writer commanded thelight infantry in the fight. ]

At four o'clock on the day of the battle, after a furious cannonade onboth sides, a trumpet sounded from the trenches, and an officerapproached the fort with a summons to surrender. He brought also a papercontaining the names of the captive French officers, though some of themwere spelled in a way that defied recognition. Pouchot, feigningincredulity, sent an officer of his own to the English camp, who soonsaw unanswerable proof of the disaster; for here, under a shelter ofleaves and boughs near the tent of Johnson, sat Ligneris, severelywounded, with Aubry, Villiers, Montigny, Marin, and their companions inmisfortune, --in all, sixteen officers, four cadets, and a surgeon. [743]

[Footnote 743: Johnson gives the names in his private _Diary_, printedin Stone, _Life of Johnson_, II. 394. Compare Pouchot, II. 105, 106. _Letter from Niagara_, in _Boston Evening Post_, No. 1, 250. _Vaudreuilau Ministre, 30 Oct. 1759. _]

Pouchot had now no choice but surrender. By the terms of thecapitulation, the garrison were to be sent prisoners to New York, thoughhonors of war were granted them in acknowledgment of their courageousconduct. There was a special stipulation that they should be protectedfrom the Indians, of whom they stood in the greatest terror, lest themassacre of Fort William Henry should be avenged upon them. Johnsonrestrained his dangerous allies, and, though the fort was pillaged, noblood 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 Amherstwas not yet satisfied. On hearing of Prideaux's death he sent BrigadierGage to supersede Johnson and take command on Lake Ontario, directinghim to descend the St. Lawrence, attack the French posts at the head ofthe rapids, and hold them if possible for the winter. The attempt wasdifficult; for the French force on the St. Lawrence was now greater thanthat which Gage could bring against it, after providing for the safetyof Oswego and Niagara. Nor was he by nature prone to dashing anddoubtful enterprise. He reported that the movement was impossible, muchto the disappointment of Amherst, who seemed to expect from subordinatesan activity greater than his own. [744]

[Footnote 744: _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 seasoncrept 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 areintrenched to the teeth, and armed with a hundred pieces ofcannon. "[745] Bourlamaque now had with him thirty-five hundred men, in aposition of great strength. Isle-aux-Noix, planted in mid-channel of theRichelieu soon after it issues from Lake Champlain, had been diligentlyfortified 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 frontin 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 Frenchforce in these parts had lately received accessions. After the fall ofNiagara the danger seemed so great, both in the direction of LakeOntario and that of Lake Champlain, that Lévis had been sent up fromQuebec with eight hundred men to command the whole department ofMontreal. [746] A body of troops and militia was encamped opposite thattown, ready to march towards either quarter, as need might be, whilethe abundant crops of the neighboring parishes were harvested by armedbands, ready at a word to drop the sickle for the gun. 

[Footnote 745: _Bourlamaque à_ (_Bernetz?_), _22 Sept. 1759. _]

[Footnote 746: _Montcalm à Bourlamaque, 9 Août, 1759. Rigaud àBourlamaque, 14 Août, 1759. Lévis à Bourlamaque, 25 Août, 1759. _]

Thus the promised advance of Amherst into Canada would be not withoutits difficulties, even when his navy, too tardily begun, should be readyto act its part. But if he showed no haste in succoring Wolfe, he atleast made some attempts to communicate with him. Early in August hewrote him a letter, which Ensign Hutchins, of the rangers, carried tohim 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 maydepend on my doing all I can for effectually reducing Canada. Now is thetime!"[747] Amherst soon after tried another expedient, and sentCaptains Kennedy and Hamilton with a flag of truce and a message ofpeace to the Abenakis of St. Francis, who, he thought, won over by theseadvances, might permit the two officers to pass unmolested to Quebec. But the Abenakis seized them and carried them prisoners to Montreal; onwhich Amherst sent Major Robert Rogers and a band of rangers to destroytheir town. [748]

[Footnote 747: _Amherst to Wolfe, 7 Aug. 1759. _]

[Footnote 748: _Amherst to Pitt, 22 Oct. 1759. _ Rogers, _Journals_, 144. ]

It was the eleventh of October before the miniature navy of CaptainLoring--the floating battery, the brig, and the sloop that had beenbegun three weeks too late--was ready for service. They sailed at onceto look for the enemy. The four French vessels made no resistance. Oneof them succeeded in reaching Isle-aux-Noix; one was run aground; andtwo were sunk by their crews, who escaped to the shore. Amherst, meanwhile, leaving the provincials to work at the fort, embarked withthe regulars in bateaux, and proceeded on his northern way till, on theevening of the twelfth, a head-wind began to blow, and, rising to astorm, drove him for shelter into Ligonier Bay, on the west side of thelake. [749] On the thirteenth, it blew a gale. The lake raged like anangry sea, and the frail bateaux, fit only for smooth water, could nothave lived a moment. Through all the next night the gale continued, withfloods of driving rain. "I hope it will soon change, " wrote Amherst onthe fifteenth, "for I have no time to lose. " He was right. He had waitedtill the season of autumnal storms, when nature was more dangerous thanman. On the sixteenth there was frost, and the wind did not abate. Onthe next morning it shifted to the south, but soon turned back withviolence to the north, and the ruffled lake put on a look of winter, "which determined me, " says the General, "not to lose time by strivingto get to the Isle-aux-Noix, where I should arrive too late to force theenemy from their post, but to return to Crown Point and complete theworks there. " This he did, and spent the remnant of the season in thecongenial task of finishing the fort, of which the massive remains stillbear witness to his industry. 

[Footnote 749: _Orderly Book of Commissary Wilson_. ]

When Lévis heard that the English army had fallen back, he wrote, wellpleased, to Bourlamaque: "I don't know how General Amherst will excusehimself to his Court, but I am very glad he let us alone, because theCanadians are so backward that you could count on nobody but theregulars. "[750]

[Footnote 750: _Lévis à Bourlamaque, 1 Nov. 1759. _]

Concerning this year's operations on the Lakes, it may be observed thatthe result was not what the French feared, or what the British colonistshad cause to hope. If, at the end of winter, Amherst had begun, as hemight have done, the building of armed vessels at the head of thenavigable waters of Lake Champlain, where Whitehall now stands, he wouldhave had a navy ready to his hand before August, and would have beenable to follow the retreating French without delay, and attack them atIsle-aux-Noix before they had finished their fortifications. And if, atthe 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 theplace, and ended the campaign by the reduction of all Canada. In thiscase 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. TheseIndians had been settled for about three quarters of a century on theRiver St. Francis, a few miles above its junction with the St. Lawrence. They were nominal Christians, and had been under the control of theirmissionaries for three generations; but though zealous and sometimesfanatical in their devotion to the forms of Romanism, they remainedthorough savages in dress, habits, and character. They were the scourgeof the New England borders, where they surprised and burned farmhousesand small hamlets, killed men, women, and children without distinction, carried others prisoners to their village, subjected them to the tortureof "running the gantlet, " and compelled them to witness dances oftriumph around the scalps of parents, children, and friends. 

Amherst's instructions to Rogers contained the following: "Remember thebarbarities that have been committed by the enemy's Indian scoundrels. Take your revenge, but don't forget that, though those dastardlyvillains have promiscuously murdered women and children of all ages, itis my order that no women or children be killed or hurt. "

Rogers and his men set out in whaleboats, and, eluding the French armedvessels, then in full activity, came, on the tenth day, to MissisquoiBay, at the north end of Lake Champlain. Here he hid his boats, leavingtwo friendly Indians to watch them from a distance, and inform himshould the enemy discover them. He then began his march for St. Francis, when, on the evening of the second day, the two Indians overtook himwith the startling news that a party of about four hundred French hadfound the boats, and that half of them were on his tracks in hotpursuit. It was certain that the alarm would soon be given, and otherparties sent to cut him off. He took the bold resolution of outmarchinghis pursuers, pushing straight for St. Francis, striking it beforesuccors could arrive, and then returning by Lake Memphremagog and theConnecticut. Accordingly he despatched Lieutenant McMullen by acircuitous route back to Crown Point, with a request to Amherst thatprovisions should be sent up the Connecticut to meet him on the waydown. Then he set his course for the Indian town, and for nine days moretoiled through the forest with desperate energy. Much of the way wasthrough dense spruce swamps, with no dry resting-place at night. Atlength the party reached the River St. Francis, fifteen miles above thetown, and, hooking their arms together for mutual support, forded itwith extreme difficulty. Towards evening, Rogers climbed a tree, anddescried the town three miles distant. Accidents, fatigue, and illnesshad 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 Turnerand Ensign Avery, went to reconnoitre the place; left his twocompanions, entered it disguised in an Indian dress, and saw theunconscious savages yelling and signing in the full enjoyment of a granddance. At two o'clock in the morning he rejoined his party, and at threeled them to the attack, formed them in a semicircle, and burst in uponthe 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 shotdown 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 leasttwo hundred Indians and taken twenty of their women and childrenprisoners, fifteen of whom I let go their own way, and five I broughtwith me, namely, two Indian boys and three Indian girls. I likewiseretook five English captives. "

English scalps in hundreds were dangling from poles over the doors ofthe houses. [751] The town was pillaged and burned, not excepting thechurch, where ornaments of some value were found. On the side of therangers, Captain Ogden and six men were wounded, and a Mohegan Indianfrom Stockbridge was killed. Rogers was told by his prisoners that aparty of three hundred French and Indians was encamped on the riverbelow, and that another party of two hundred and fifteen was not fardistant. They had been sent to cut off the retreat of the invaders, butwere doubtful as to their designs till after the blow was struck. Therewas no time to lose. The rangers made all haste southward, up the St. Francis, subsisting on corn from the Indian town; till, near the easternborders of Lake Memphremagog, the supply failed, and they separated intosmall parties, the better to sustain life by hunting. The enemy followedclose, attacked Ensign Avery's party, and captured five of them; thenfell upon a band of about twenty, under Lieutenants Dunbar and Turner, and killed or captured nearly all. The other bands eluded theirpursuers, turned southeastward, reached the Connecticut, some here, somethere, and, giddy with fatigue and hunger, toiled wearily down the wildand lonely stream to the appointed rendezvous at the mouth of theAmonoosuc. 

[Footnote 751: Rogers says "about six hundred. " Other accounts say sixor seven hundred. The late Abbé Maurault, missionary of the St. FrancisIndians, and their historian, adopts the latter statement, though it isprobably exaggerated. ]

This was the place to which Rogers had requested that provisions mightbe sent; and the hope of finding them there had been the breath of lifeto 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 withan abundant supply of food; but finding nobody at the Amonoosuc, he hadwaited there two days, and then returned, carrying the provisions backwith him; for which outrageous conduct he was expelled from the service. "It is hardly possible, " says Rogers, "to describe our grief andconsternation. " Some gave themselves up to despair. Few but theirindomitable chief had strength to go father. There was scarcely anygame, and the barren wilderness yielded no sustenance but a few lilybulbs and the tubers of the climbing plant called in New England theground-nut. Leaving his party to these miserable resources, andpromising to send then relief within ten days, Rogers made a raft of drypine logs, and drifted on it down the stream, with Captain Ogden, aranger, and one of the captive Indian boys. They were stopped on thesecond day by rapids, and gained the shore with difficulty. At the footof the rapids, while Ogden and the ranger went in search of squirrels, Rogers set himself to making another raft; and having no strength to usethe axe, he burned down the trees, which he then divided into logs bythe same process. Five days after leaving his party he reached the firstEnglish settlement, Charlestown, or "Number Four, " and immediately senta canoe with provisions to the relief of the sufferers, followinghimself with other canoes two days later. Most of the men were saved, though some died miserably of famine and exhaustion. Of the few who hadbeen captured, we are told by French contemporary that they "becamevictims of the fury of the Indian women, " from whose clutches theCanadians tried in vain to save them. [752]

[Footnote 752: _Événements de la Guerre en Canada, _ 1759, 1760. Compare_N. Y. Col. Docs. , _ X. 1042. ]

NOTE: On the day after he reached "Number Four, " Rogers wrote a reportof his expedition to Amherst. This letter is printed in his _Journals_, in which he gives also a supplementary account, containing furtherparticulars. The _New Hampshire Gazette, Boston Evening Post, _ and othernewspapers of the time recount the story in detail. Hoyt (_Indian Wars, _302) repeats it, with a few additions drawn from the recollections ofsurvivors, long after. There is another account, very short andunsatisfactory, by Thompson Maxwell, who says that he was of the party, which is doubtful. Mante (223) gives horrible details of the sufferingsof the rangers. An old chief of the St. Francis Indians, said to be oneof those who pursued Rogers after the town was burned, many years agotold Mr. Jesse Pennoyer, a government land surveyor, that Rogers laid anambush for the pursuers, and defeated them with great loss. This, thestory says, took place near the present town of Sherbrooke; and minutedetails are given, with high praise of the skill and conduct of thefamous partisan. If such an incident really took place, it is scarcelypossible that Rogers would not have made some mention of it. On theother hand, it is equally incredible that the Indians would haveinvented the tale of their own defeat. I am indebted for Pennoyer'spuzzling narrative to the kindness of R. A. Ramsay, Esq. , of Montreal. Itwas printed, in 1869, in the _History of the Eastern Townships, _ byMrs. C. M. Day. All things considered, it is probably groundless. 

Vaudreuil describes the destruction of the village in a letter to theMinister dated October 26, and says that Rogers had a hundred and fiftymen; that St. Francis was burned to ashes; that the head chief andothers were killed; that he (Vaudreuil), hearing of the march of therangers, sent the most active of the Canadians to oppose them, and thatLongueuil sent all the Canadians and Indians he could muster to pursuethem on their retreat; that forty-six rangers were killed, and tencaptured; 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 Rogersfrom Lake Memphremagog to the Connecticut. 

Chapter 27

1759

The Heights of Abraham

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 fortheir precipitation. "Such impetuous, irregular, and unsoldierlikeproceedings destroy all order, make it impossible for the commanders toform any disposition for an attack, and put it out of the general'spower to execute his plans. The grenadiers could not suppose that theycould beat the French alone. "

The French were elated by their success. "Everybody, " says thecommissary Berniers, "thought that the campaign was as good as ended, gloriously for us. " They had been sufficiently confident even beforetheir victory; and the bearer of a flag of truce told the Englishofficers that he had never imagined they were such fools as to attackQuebec with so small a force. Wolfe, on the other hand, had every reasonto despond. At the outset, before he had seen Quebec and learned thenature of the ground, he had meant to begin the campaign by taking poston the Plains of Abraham, and thence laying siege to the town; but hesoon discovered that the Plains of Abraham were hardly more within hisreach than was Quebec itself. Such hope as was left him lay in thecomposition of Montcalm's army. He respected the French commander, andthought his disciplined soldiers not unworthy of the British steel; buthe held his militia in high scorn, and could he but face them in theopen field, he never doubted the result. But Montcalm also distrustedthem, and persisted in refusing the coveted battle. 

Wolfe, therefore, was forced to the conviction that his chances were ofthe smallest. It is said that, despairing of any decisive stroke, heconceived the idea of fortifying Isle-aux-Coudres, and leaving a part ofhis troops there when he sailed for home, against another attempt in thespring. The more to weaken the enemy and prepare his future conquest, hebegan at the same time a course of action which for his credit one wouldgladly wipe from the record; for, though far from inhuman, he threwhimself with extraordinary intensity into whatever work he had in hand, and, to accomplish it, spared others scarcely more than he sparedhimself. About the middle of August he issued a third proclamation tothe Canadians, declaring that as they had refused his offers ofprotection and "had made such ungrateful returns in practising the mostunchristian barbarities against his troops on all occasions, he could nolonger refrain in justice to himself and his army from chastising themas they deserved. " The barbarities in question consisted in the frequentscalping and mutilating of sentinels and men on outpost duty, perpetrated no less by Canadians than by Indians. Wolfe's object wastwofold: first, to cause the militia to desert, and, secondly, toexhaust the colony. Rangers, light infantry, and Highlanders were sentto waste the settlements far and wide. Wherever resistance was offered, farmhouses and villages were laid in ashes, though churches weregenerally spared. St. Paul, far below Quebec, was sacked and burned, andthe settlements of the opposite shore were partially destroyed. Theparishes of L'Ange Gardien, Château Richer, and St. Joachim were wastedwith fire and sword. Night after night the garrison of Quebec could seethe light of burning houses as far down as the mountain of CapeTourmente. Near St. Joachim there was a severe skirmish, followed byatrocious cruelties. Captain Alexander Montgomery, of the forty-thirdregiment, who commanded the detachment, and who has been most unjustlyconfounded with the revolutionary general, Richard Montgomery, orderedthe prisoners to be shot in cold blood, to the indignation of his ownofficers. [753] Robineau de Portneuf, curé of St. Joachim, placed himselfat the head of thirty parishioners and took possession of a large stonehouse in the adjacent parish of Château Richer, where for a time he heldthe English at bay. At length he and his followers were drawn out intoambush, where they were surrounded and killed; and, being disguised asIndians, the rangers scalped them all. [754]

[Footnote 753: Fraser _Journal_. Fraser was an officer under Montgomery, of whom he speaks with anger and disgust. ]

[Footnote 754: Knox, II. 32. Most of the contemporary journals mentionthe incident. ]

Most of the French writers of the time mention these barbarities withoutmuch comment, while Vaudreuil loudly denounces them. Yet he himself wasanswerable for atrocities incomparably worse, and on a far larger scale. He had turned loose his savages, red and white, along a frontier of sixhundred miles, to waste, burn, and murder at will. "Women and children, "such were the orders of Wolfe, "are to be treated with humanity; if anyviolence is offered to a woman, the offender shall be punished withdeath. " These orders were generally obeyed. The English, with the singleexception of Montgomery, killed none but armed men in the act ofresistance or attack; Vaudreuil's war-parties spared neither age norsex. 

Montcalm let the parishes burn, and still lay fast intrenched in hislines of Beauport. He would not imperil all Canada to save a few hundredfarmhouses; and Wolfe was as far as ever from the battle that hecoveted. Hitherto, his attacks had been made chiefly below the town;but, these having failed, he now changed his plan and renewed on alarger scale the movements begun above it in July. With every fair wind, ships and transports passed the batteries of Quebec, favored by a hotfire 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, underBrigadier Murray. Admiral Holmes took command of the little fleet nowgathered above the town, and operations in that quarter weresystematically resumed. 

To oppose them, Bougainville was sent from the camp at Beauport withfifteen hundred men. His was a most arduous and exhausting duty. He mustwatch the shores for fifteen or twenty miles, divide his force intodetachments, and subject himself and his followers to the strain ofincessant vigilance and incessant marching. Murray made a descent atPointe-aux-Trembles, and was repulsed with loss. He tried a second timeat another place, was met before landing by a body of ambushedCanadians, and was again driven back, his foremost boats full of deadand wounded. A third time he succeeded, landed at Deschambault, andburned a large building filled with stores and all the spare baggage ofthe French regular officers. The blow was so alarming that Montcalmhastened from Beauport to take command in person; but when he arrivedthe English were gone. 

Vaudreuil now saw his mistake in sending the French frigates up theriver out of harm's way, and withdrawing their crews to serve thebatteries of Quebec. Had these ships been there, they might haveoverpowered those of the English in detail as they passed the town. Anattempt was made to retrieve the blunder. The sailors were sent to manthe frigates anew and attack the squadron of Holmes. It was too late. Holmes was already too strong for them, and they were recalled. Yet thedifficulties of the English still seemed insurmountable. Dysentery andfever broke out in their camps, the number of their effective men wasgreatly reduced, and the advancing season told them that their work mustbe 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 thetown filled the camp of Beauport with dismay, for troops and Canadiansalike dreaded the cutting off of their supplies. These were all drawnfrom the districts of Three Rivers and Montreal; and, at best, they werein great danger, since when brought down in boats at night they were aptto be intercepted, while the difficulty of bringing them by land wasextreme, through scarcity of cattle and horses. Discipline was relaxed, disorder and pillage were rife, and the Canadians deserted so fast, thattowards the end of August two hundred of them, it is said, wouldsometimes go off in one night. Early in the month the disheartening newscame of the loss of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, the retreat ofBourlamaque, the fall of Niagara, and the expected advance of Amherston Montreal. It was then that Levis was despatched to the scene ofdanger; and Quebec was deplorably weakened by his absence. About thistime the Lower Town was again set on fire by the English batteries, anda hundred and sixty-seven houses were burned in a night. In the front ofthe Upper Town nearly every building was a ruin. At the GeneralHospital, which was remote enough to be safe from the bombardment, everybarn, shed, and garret, and even the chapel itself, were crowded withsick and wounded, with women and children from the town, and the nuns ofthe Ursulines and the Hôtel-Dieu, driven thither for refuge. BishopPontbriand, though suffering from a mortal disease, came almost daily tovisit and console them from his lodging in the house of the curé atCharlesbourg. 

Towards the end of August the sky brightened again. It became known thatAmherst was not moving on Montreal, and Bourlamaque wrote that hisposition at Isle-aux-Noix was impregnable. On the twenty-seventh adeserter from Wolfe's army brought the welcome assurance that theinvaders despaired of success, and would soon sail for home; while therewere movements in the English camps and fleet that seemed to confirmwhat he said. Vaudreuil breathed more freely, and renewed hope andconfidence visited the army of Beauport. 

Meanwhile a deep cloud fell on the English. Since the siege began, Wolfehad passed with ceaseless energy from camp to camp, animating thetroops, observing everything, and directing everything; but now the paleface and tall lean form were seen no more, and the rumor spread that theGeneral was dangerously ill. He had in fact been seized by an access ofthe disease that had tortured him for some time past; and fever hadfollowed. His quarters were at a French farmhouse in the camp atMontmorenci; and here, as he lay in an upper chamber, helpless in bed, his singular and most unmilitary features haggard with disease and drawnwith pain, no man could less have looked the hero. But as the needle, though quivering, points always to the pole, so, through torment andlanguor and the heats of fever, the mind of Wolfe dwelt on the captureof Quebec. His illness, which began before the twentieth of August, hadso far subsided on the twenty-fifth that Knox wrote in his Diary of thatday: "His Excellency General Wolfe is on the recovery, to theinconceivable joy of the whole army. " On the twenty-ninth he was ableto write or dictate a letter to the three brigadiers, Monckton, Townshend, and Murray: "That the public service may not suffer by theGeneral's indisposition, he begs the brigadiers will meet and consulttogether for the public utility and advantage, and consider of the bestmethod to attack the enemy. " The letter then proposes three plans, allbold to audacity. The first was to send a part of the army to ford theMontmorenci eight or nine miles above its mouth, march through theforest, and fall on the rear of the French at Beauport, while the restlanded and attacked them in front. The second was to cross the ford atthe mouth of the Montmorenci and march along the strand, under theFrench intrenchments, till a place could be found where the troops mightclimb the heights. The third was to make a general attack from boats atthe Beauport flats. Wolfe had before entertained two other plans, one ofwhich was to scale the heights at St. Michel, about a league aboveQuebec; but this he had abandoned on learning that the French were therein force to receive him. The other was to storm the Lower Town; but thisalso he had abandoned, because the Upper Town, which commanded it, wouldstill remain inaccessible. 

The brigadiers met in consultation, rejected the three plans proposed inthe letter, and advised that an attempt should be made to gain a footingon the north shore above the town, place the army between Montcalm andhis base of supply, and so force him to fight or surrender. The schemewas 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 gainwas far greater than could follow any success below the town. Wolfeembraced it at once. 

Not that he saw much hope in it. He knew that every chance was againsthim. Disappointment in the past and doom in the future, the pain andexhaustion of disease, toils, and anxieties "too great, " in the words ofBurke, "to be supported by a delicate constitution, and a body unequalto the vigorous and enterprising soul that it lodged, " threw him attimes into deep dejection. By those intimate with him he was heard tosay that he would not go back defeated, "to be exposed to the censureand reproach of an ignorant populice. " In other moods he felt that heought not to sacrifice what was left of his diminished army in vainconflict with hopeless obstacles. But his final resolve once taken, hewould not swerve from it. His fear was that he might not be able tolead his troops in person. "I know perfectly well you cannot cure me, "he said to his physician; "but pray make me so that I may be withoutpain 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 Saundersconceived that he had ascribed to the fleet more than its just share inthe disaster at Montmorenci; and he sent him a letter on the subject. Major Barré kept it from the invalid till the fever had abated. Wolfethen wrote a long answer, which reveals his mixed dejection and resolve. He owns the justice of what Saunders had said, but adds: "I cannot leaveout that part of my letter to Mr. Pitt which you object to. I amsensible of my own errors in the course of the campaign, see clearlywherein I have been deficient, and think a little more or less blame toa man that must necessarily be ruined, of little or no consequences. Itake the blame of that unlucky day entirely upon my own shoulders, and Iexpect to suffer for it. " Then, speaking of the new project of an attackabove Quebec, he says despondingly: "My ill state of health prevents mefrom executing my own plan; it is of too desperate a nature to orderothers to execute. " He proceeds, however, to give directions for it. "Itwill 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 Iintend to take. My letters, I hope, will be ready to-morrow, and I hopeI shall have strength to lead these men to wherever we can find theenemy. "

On the next day, the last of August, he was able for the first time toleave the house. It was on this same day that he wrote his last letterto his mother: "My writing to you will convince you that no personalevils worse than defeats and disappointments have fallen upon me. Theenemy puts nothing to risk, and I can't in conscience put the whole armyto risk. My antagonist has wisely shut himself up in inaccessibleintrenchments, so that I can't get at him without spilling a torrent ofblood, and that perhaps to little purpose. The Marquis de Montcalm is atthe head of a great number of bad soldiers, and I am at the head of asmall number of good ones, that wish for nothing so much as to fighthim; but the wary old fellow avoids an action, doubtful of the behaviorof his army. People must be of the profession to understand thedisadvantages and difficulties we labor under, arising from the uncommonnatural strength of the country. "

On the second of September a vessel was sent to England with his lastdespatch to Pitt. It begins thus: "The obstacles we have met with in theoperations of the campaign are much greater than we had reason to expector could foresee; not so much from the number of the enemy (thoughsuperior to us) as from the natural strength of the country, which theMarquis of Montcalm seems wisely to depend upon. When I learned thatsuccors of all kinds had been thrown into Quebec; that five battalionsof regular troops, completed from the best inhabitants of the country, some of the troops of the colony, and every Canadian that was able tobear arms, besides several nations of savages, had taken the field in avery advantageous situation, --I could not flatter myself that I shouldbe able to reduce the place. I sought, however, an occasion to attacktheir army, knowing well that with these troops I was able to fight, andhoping that a victory might disperse them. " Then, after recounting theevents of the campaign with admirable clearness, he continues: "I foundmyself so ill, and am still so weak, that I begged the general officersto consult together for the general utility. They are all of opinionthat, as more ships and provisions are now got above the town, theyshould try, by conveying up a corps of four or five thousand men (whichis nearly the whole strength of the army after the Points of Levi andOrleans are left in a proper state of defence), to draw the enemy fromtheir present situation and bring them to an action. I have acquiescedin the proposal, and we are preparing to put it into execution. " Theletter ends thus: "By the list of disabled officers, many of whom are ofrank, you may perceive that the army is much weakened. By the nature ofthe river, the most formidable part of this armament is deprived of thepower 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 ownmyself at a loss how to determine. The affairs of Great Britain, I know, require the most vigorous measures; but the courage of a handful ofbrave troops should be exerted only when there is some hope of afavorable event; however, you may be assured that the small part of thecampaign which remains shall be employed, as far as I am able, for thehonor of His Majesty and the interest of the nation, in which I am sureof being well seconded by the Admiral and by the generals; happy if ourefforts here can contribute to the success of His Majesty's arms in anyother parts of America. "

Some days later, he wrote to the Earl of Holdernesse: "The Marquis ofMontcalm 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 theriver above and below the town, but can give no manner of aid in anattack upon the Canadian army. We are now here [_off Cap-Rouge_] withabout thirty-six hundred men, waiting to attack them when and whereverthey can best be got at. I am so far recovered as to do business; but myconstitution is entirely ruined, without the consolation of doing anyconsiderable service to the state, and without any prospect of it. " Hehad just learned, through the letter brought from Amherst by EnsignHutchins, that he could expect no help from that quarter. 

Perhaps he was as near despair as his undaunted nature was capable ofbeing. In his present state of body and mind he was a hero without thelight and cheer of heroism. He flattered himself with no illusions, butsaw the worst and faced it all. He seems to have been entirely withoutexcitement. The languor of disease, the desperation of the chances, andthe greatness of the stake may have wrought to tranquillize him. Hisenergy was doubly tasked: to bear up his own sinking frame, and toachieve an almost hopeless feat of arms. 

Audacious as it was, his plan cannot be called rash if we may accept thestatement of two well-informed writers on the French side. They say thaton the tenth of September the English naval commanders held a council onboard the flagship, in which it was resolved that the lateness of theseason required the fleet to leave Quebec without delay. They sayfurther that Wolfe then went to the Admiral, told him that he had founda place where the heights could be scaled, that he would send up ahundred and fifty picked men to feel the way, and that if they gained alodgment at the top, the other troops should follow; if, on the otherhand, the French were there in force to oppose them, he would notsacrifice the army in a hopeless attempt, but embark them for home, consoled by the thought that all had been done that man could do. Onthis, concludes the story, the Admiral and his officers consented towait the result. [755]

[Footnote 755: This statement is made by the Chevalier Johnstone, and, with some variation, by the author of the valuable _Journal tenu àl'Armée que commandoit feu M. Le Marquis de Montcalm. _ Bigot says that, after the battle, he was told by British officers that Wolfe meant torisk only an advance party of two hundred men, and to reimbark if theywere repulsed. ]

As Wolfe had informed Pitt, his army was greatly weakened. Since the endof June his loss in killed and wounded was more than eight hundred andfifty, including two colonels, two majors, nineteen captains, andthirty-four subalterns; and to these were to be added a greater numberdisabled by disease. 

The squadron of Admiral Holmes above Quebec had now increased totwenty-two vessels, great and small. One of the last that went up was adiminutive schooner, armed with a new swivels, and jocosely named the"Terror of France. " She sailed by the town in broad daylight, theFrench, incensed at her impudence, blazing at her from all theirbatteries; but she passed unharmed, anchored by the Admiral's ship, andsaluted him triumphantly with her swivels. 

Wolfe's first move towards executing his plan was the critical one ofevacuating the camp at Montmorenci. This was accomplished on the thirdof September. Montcalm sent a strong force to fall on the rear of theretiring English. Monckton saw the movement from Point Levi, embarkedtwo battalions in the boats of the fleet, and made a feint of landing atBeauport. Montcalm recalled his troops to repulse the threatened attack;and the English withdrew from Montmorenci unmolested, some to the Pointof Orleans, others to Point Levi. On the night of the fourth a fleet offlatboats passed above the town with the baggage and stores. On thefifth, 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 theunited force, of about thirty-six hundred men, was embarked on board theships of Holmes, where Wolfe joined them on the same evening. 

These movements of the English filled the French commanders withmingled perplexity, anxiety, and hope. A deserter told them that AdmiralSaunders was impatient to be gone. Vaudreuil grew confident. "Thebreaking up of the camp at Montmorenci, " he says, "and the abandonmentof the intrenchments there, the reimbarkation on board the vessels aboveQuebec of the troops who had encamped on the south bank, the movementsof these vessels, the removal of the heaviest pieces of artillery fromthe batteries of Point Levi, --these and the lateness of the season allcombined to announce the speedy departure of the fleet, several vesselsof which had even sailed down the river already. The prisoners and thedeserters who daily came in told us that this was the common report intheir army. "[756] He wrote to Bourlamaque on the first of September:"Everything proves that the grand design of the English has failed. "

[Footnote 756: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Oct. 1759. _]

Yet he was ceaselessly watchful. So was Montcalm; and he, too, on thenight of the second, snatched a moment to write to Bourlamaque from hisheadquarters in the stone house, by the river of Beauport: "The night isdark; it rains; our troops are in their tents, with clothes on, readyfor an alarm; I in my boots; my horses saddled. In fact, this is myusual way. I wish you were here; for I cannot be everywhere, though Imultiply myself, and have not taken off my clothes since thetwenty-third of June. " On the eleventh of September he wrote his lastletter to Bourlamaque, and probably the last that his pen ever traced. "I am overwhelmed with work, and should often lose temper, like you, ifI did not remember that I am paid by Europe for not losing it. Nothingnew since my last. I give the enemy another month, or something less, tostay here. " The more sanguine Vaudreuil would hardly give them a week. 

Meanwhile, no precaution was spared. The force under Bougainville aboveQuebec was raised to three thousand men. [757] He was ordered to watchthe shore as far as Jacques-Cartier, and follow with his main body everymovement of Holmes's squadron. There was little fear for the heightsnear the town; they were thought inaccessible. [758] Even Montcalmbelieved them safe, and had expressed himself to that effect some timebefore. "We need not suppose, " he wrote to Vaudreuil, "that the enemyhave wings;" and again, speaking of the very place where Wolfeafterwards landed, "I swear to you that a hundred men posted there wouldstop their whole army. "[759] He was right. A hundred watchful anddetermined men could have held the position long enough forreinforcements to come up. 

[Footnote 757: _Journal du Siége_ (Bibliothêque de Hartwell). _Journaltenu à l'Armée, etc. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Oct. _ 1759. ]

[Footnote 758: Pontbriand, _Jugement impartial. _]

[Footnote 759: _Montcalm à Vaudreuil, 27 Juillet. Ibid. , 29 Juillet, 1759_. ] The hundred men were there. Captain de Vergor, of the colonytroops, commanded them, and reinforcements were within his call; for thebattalion of Guienne had been ordered to encamp close at hand on thePlains of Abraham. [760] Vergor's post, called Anse du Foulon, was a mileand 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 hundredand thirty men, also with cannon. [761] These were outposts ofBougainville, whose headquarters were at Cap-Rouge, six miles aboveSillery, and whose troops were in continual movement along theintervening shore. Thus all was vigilance; for while the French werestrong in the hope of speedy delivery, they felt that there was nosafety till the tents of the invader had vanished from their shores andhis ships from their river. "What we knew, " says one of them, "of thecharacter of M. Wolfe, that impetuous, bold, and intrepid warrior, prepared us for a last attack before he left us. "

[Footnote 760: Foligny, _Journal mémoratif. Journal tenu à l'Armée_, etc. ]

[Footnote 761: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Oct. _ 1759. ]

Wolfe had been very ill on the evening of the fourth. The troops knewit, and their spirits sank; but, after a night of torment, he grewbetter, and was soon among them again, rekindling their ardor, andimparting 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, hesent them a message of warm sympathy, advised them to return to PointLevi, and offered them his own barge and an escort. They thanked him, but replied that, come what might, they would see the enterprise to anend. Another officer remarked in his hearing that one of the invalidshad a very delicate constitution. "Don't tell me of constitution, " saidWolfe; "he has good spirit, and good spirit will carry a man througheverything. "[762] An immense moral force bore up his own frail body andforced it to its work. 

[Footnote 762: Knox, II. 61, 65. ]

Major Robert Stobo, who, five years before, had been given as a hostageto the French at the capture of Fort Necessity, arrived about this timein a vessel from Halifax. He had long been a prisoner at Quebec, notalways in close custody, and had used his opportunities to acquainthimself with the neighborhood. In the spring of this year he and anofficer of rangers named Stevens had made their escape withextraordinary skill and daring; and he now returned to give hiscountrymen the benefit of his local knowledge. [763] His biographer saysthat it was he who directed Wolfe in the choice of a landing-place. [764]Be this as it may, Wolfe in person examined the river and the shores asfar as Pointe-aux-Trembles; till at length, landing on the south side alittle above Quebec, and looking across the water with a telescope, hedescried a path that ran with a long slope up the face of the woodyprecipice, and saw at the top a cluster of tents. They were those ofVergor's guard at the Anse du Foulon, now called Wolfe's Cove. As hecould see but ten or twelve of them, he thought that the guard could notbe numerous, and might be overpowered. His hope would have been strongerif he had known that Vergor had once been tried for misconduct andcowardice in the surrender of Beauséjour, and saved from meriteddisgrace by the friendship of Bigot and the protection ofVaudreuil. [765]

[Footnote 763: Letters in _Boston Post Boy, _ No. 97, and _Boston EveningPost, _ No. 1, 258. ]

[Footnote 764: _Memoirs of Major Robert Stobo. _ Curious, but ofteninexact. ]

[Footnote 765: See _supra_, p. 186. ]

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 toCap-Rouge. A lively scene awaited them; for here were the headquartersof Bougainville, and here lay his principal force, while the restwatched the banks above and below. The cove into which the little riverruns was guarded by floating batteries; the surrounding shore wasdefended by breastworks; and a large body of regulars, militia, andmounted Canadians in blue uniforms moved to and fro, with restlessactivity, on the hills behind. When the vessels came to anchor, thehorsemen dismounted and formed in line with the infantry; then, withloud shouts, the whole rushed down the heights to man their works at theshore. That true Briton, Captain Knox, looked on with a critical eyefrom the gangway of his ship, and wrote that night in his Diary thatthey had made a ridiculous noise. "How different!" he exclaims, "hownobly awful and expressive of true valor is the customary silence of theBritish troops!"

In the afternoon the ships opened fire, while the troops entered theboats and rowed up and down as if looking for a landing-place. It wasbut a feint of Wolfe to deceive Bougainville as to his real design. Aheavy easterly rain set in on the next morning, and lasted two dayswithout respite. All operations were suspended, and the men sufferedgreatly in the crowded transports. Half of them were therefore landed onthe south shore, where they made their quarters in the village of St. Nicholas, refreshed themselves, and dried their wet clothing, knapsacks, and blankets. 

For several successive days the squadron of Holmes was allowed to driftup the river with the flood tide and down with the ebb, thus passing andrepassing 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 froalong the shore, by day and by night, till his men were exhausted withceaseless forced marches. [766]

[Footnote 766: Joannès, Major de Quebec, _Mémoire sur la Campagne de_1759. ]

At last the time for action came. On Wednesday, the twelfth, the troopsat St. Nicholas were embarked again, and all were told to holdthemselves in readiness. Wolfe, from the flagship "Sutherland, " issuedhis last general orders. "The enemy's force is now divided, greatscarcity of provisions in their camp, and universal discontent among theCanadians. Our troops below are in readiness to join us; all the lightartillery and tools are embarked at the Point of Levi; and the troopswill land where the French seem least to expect it. The first body thatgets on shore is to march directly to the enemy and drive them from anylittle post they may occupy; the officers must be careful that thesucceeding bodies do not by any mistake fire on those who go beforethem. The battalions must form on the upper ground with expedition, andbe ready to charge whatever presents itself. When the artillery andtroops are landed, a corps will be left to secure the landing-place, while the rest march on and endeavor to bring the Canadians and Frenchto a battle. The officers and men will remember what their countryexpects from them, and what a determined body of soldiers inured to waris capable of doing against five weak French battalions mingled with adisorderly peasantry. "

The spirit of the army answered to that of its chief. The troops lovedand admired their general, trusted their officers, and were ready forany attempt. "Nay, how could it be otherwise, " quaintly asks honestSergeant John Johnson, of the fifty-eighth regiment, "being at the heelsof gentlemen whose whole thirst, equal with their general, was forglory? We had seen them tried, and always found them sterling. We knewthat they would stand by us to the last extremity. "

Wolfe had thirty-six hundred men and officers with him on board thevessels of Holmes; and he now sent orders to Colonel Burton at PointLevi to bring to his aid all who could be spared from that place and thePoint of Orleans. They were to march along the south bank, afternightfall, and wait further orders at a designated spot convenient forembarkation. Their number was about twelve hundred, so that the entireforced destined for the enterprise was at the utmost forty-eighthundred. [767] With these, Wolfe meant to climb the heights of Abraham inthe teeth of an enemy who, though much reduced, were still twice asnumerous as their assailants. [768]

[Footnote 767: See Note, end of chapter. ]

[Footnote 768: Including Bougainville's command. An escaped prisonertold Wolfe, a few days before, that Montcalm still had fourteen thousandmen. _Journal of an Expedition on the River St. Lawrence. _ This meantonly those in the town and the camps of Beauport. "I don't believe theirwhole army amounts to that number, " wrote Wolfe to Colonel Burton, onthe tenth. He knew, however, that if Montcalm could bring all his troopstogether, the French would outnumber him more than two to one. ]

Admiral Saunders lay with the main fleet in the Basin of Quebec. Thisexcellent officer, whatever may have been his views as to the necessityof a speedy departure, aided Wolfe to the last with unfailing energy andzeal. It was agreed between them that while the General made the realattack, the Admiral should engage Montcalm's attention by a pretendedone. As night approached, the fleet ranged itself along the Beauportshore; the boats were lowered and filled with sailors, marines, and thefew troops that had been left behind; while ship signalled to ship, cannon flashed and thundered, and shot ploughed the beach, as if toclear a way for assailants to land. In the gloom of the evening theeffect was imposing. Montcalm, who thought that the movements of theEnglish above the town were only a feint, that their main force wasstill below it, and that their real attack would be made there, wascompletely deceived, and massed his troops in front of Beauport to repelthe expected landing. But while in the fleet of Saunders all was uproarand ostentatious menace, the danger was ten miles away, where thesquadron of Holmes lay tranquil and silent at its anchorage offCap-Rouge. 

It was less tranquil than it seemed. All on board knew that a blow wouldbe struck that night, though only a few high officers knew where. Colonel Howe, of the light infantry, called for volunteers to lead theunknown and desperate venture, promising, in the words of one of them, "that if any of us survived we might depend on being recommended to theGeneral. "[769] As many as were wanted--twenty-four in all--soon cameforward. Thirty large bateaux and some boats belonging to the squadronlay moored alongside the vessels; and late in the evening the troopswere ordered into them, the twenty-four volunteers taking their place inthe foremost. They held in all about seventeen hundred men. The restremained on board. 

[Footnote 769: _Journal of the Particular Transactions during the Siegeof Quebec_. The writer, a soldier in the light infantry, says he was oneof the first eight who came forward. See _Notes and Queries_, XX. 370. ]

Bougainville could discern the movement, and misjudged it, thinking thathe himself was to be attacked. The tide was still flowing; and, thebetter to deceive him, the vessels and boats were allowed to driftupward 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 campof Bougainville with intelligence that, at ebb tide on the next night, he was to send down a convoy of provisions to Montcalm. The necessitiesof the camp at Beauport, and the difficulties of transportation by land, had before compelled the French to resort to this perilous means ofconveying supplies; and their boats, drifting in darkness under theshadows of the northern shore, had commonly passed in safety. Wolfe sawat once that, if his own boats went down in advance of the convoy, hecould turn the intelligence of the deserters to good account. 

He was still on board the "Sutherland. " Every preparation was made, andevery 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 thenext day; and taking from his bosom a miniature of Miss Lowther, hisbetrothed, he gave it to him with a request that he would return it toher if the presentiment should prove true. [770]

[Footnote 770: Tucker, _Life of Earl St. Vincent_, I. 19. (London, 1844. )]

Towards two o'clock the tide began to ebb, and a fresh wind blew downthe river. Two lanterns were raised into the maintop shrouds of the"Sutherland. " It was the appointed signal; the boats cast off and felldown with the current, those of the light infantry leading the way. Thevessels 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 godown 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;[771] fourthly, Vergor at the Anse du Foulonhad permitted most of his men, chiefly Canadians from Lorette, to gohome 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;[772]fifthly, he kept careless watch, and went quietly to bed; sixthly, thebattalion of Guienne, ordered to take post on the Plains of Abraham, had, for reasons unexplained, remained encamped by the St. Charles;[773]and lastly, when Bougainville saw Holmes's vessels drift down thestream, he did not tax his weary troops to follow them, thinking thatthey would return as usual with the flood tide. [774] But for theseconspiring circumstances New France might have lived a little longer, and the fruitless heroism of Wolfe would have passed, with countlessother heroisms, into oblivion. 

[Footnote 771: _Journal tenu à l'Armée_, etc. ]

[Footnote 772: _Mémoires sur le Canada_, 1749-1760. ]

[Footnote 773: Foligny, _Journal mémoratif. Journal à l'Armée_, etc. ]

[Footnote 774: Johnstone, _Dialogue. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5Oct. _1759. ]

For full two hours the procession of boats, borne on the current, steered silently down the St. Lawrence. The stars were visible, but thenight was moonless and sufficiently dark. The General was in one of theforemost boats, and near him was a young midshipman, John Robison, afterwards professor of natural philosophy in the University ofEdinburgh. He used to tell in his later life how Wolfe, with a lowvoice, repeated Gray's _Elegy in a Country Churchyard_ to the officersabout him. Probably it was to relieve the intense strain of histhoughts. Among the rest was the verse which his own fate was soon toillustrate, --

 "The paths of glory lead but to the grave. "P/

"Gentlemen, " he said, as his recital ended, "I would rather have writtenthose lines than take Quebec. " None were there to tell him that the herois greater than the poet. 

As they neared their destination, the tide bore them in towards theshore, and the mighty wall of rock and forest towered in darkness ontheir left. The dead stillness was suddenly broken by the sharp _Quivive!_ of a French sentry, invisible in the thick gloom. _France!_answered a Highland officer of Fraser's regiment from one of the boatsof the light infantry. He had served in Holland and spoke Frenchfluently. 

_À quel régiment?_

_De la Reine_, replied the Highlander. He knew that a part of that corpswas 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, whenanother sentry challenged them, and they could see him through thedarkness running down to the edge of the water, within range of apistol-shot. In answer to his questions, the same officer replied, inFrench: "Provision-boats. Don't make a noise; the English will hearus. "[775] In fact, the sloop-of-war "Hunter" was anchored in the streamnot far off. This time, again, the sentry let them pass. In a fewmoments they rounded the headland above the Anse du Foulon. There was nosentry there. The strong current swept the boats of the light infantry alittle below the intended landing-place. [776] They disembarked on anarrow strand at the foot of heights as steep as a hill covered withtrees can be. The twenty-four volunteers led the way, climbing with whatsilence they might, closely followed by a much larger body. When theyreached the top they saw in the dim light a cluster of tents at a shortdistance, and immediately made a dash at them. Vergor leaped from bedand 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, therest fled. 

[Footnote 775: See a note of Smollett, _History of England_, V. 56 (ed. 1805). Sergeant Johnson, Vaudreuil, Foligny, and the _Journal ofParticular Transactions_ give similar accounts. ]

[Footnote 776: _Saunders to Pitt_, 20 Sept. _Journal of SergeantJohnson_. 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 foresttrees; and in its depths ran a little brook called Ruisseau St. -Denis, which, swollen by the late rains, fell plashing in the stillness over arock. Other than this no sound could reach the strained ear of Wolfe butthe gurgle of the tide and the cautious climbing of his advance-partiesas they mounted the steeps at some little distance from where he satlistening. At length from the top came a sound of musket-shots, followedby 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 theheights, some here, some there, clutching at trees and bushes, theirmuskets slung at their backs. Tradition still points out the place, near the mouth of the ravine, where the foremost reached the top. Wolfesaid to an officer near him: "You can try it, but I don't think you'llget up. " He himself, however, found strength to drag himself up with therest. The narrow slanting path on the face of the heights had been madeimpassable by trenches and abattis; but all obstructions were sooncleared away, and then the ascent was easy. In the gray of the morningthe long file of red-coated soldiers moved quickly upward, and formed inorder on the plateau above. 

Before many of them had reached the top, cannon were heard close on theleft. It was the battery at Samos firing on the boats in the rear andthe vessels descending from Cap-Rouge. A party was sent to silence it;this was soon effected, and the more distant battery at Sillery was nextattacked and taken. As fast as the boats were emptied they returned forthe troops left on board the vessels and for those waiting on thesouthern shore under Colonel Burton. 

The day broke in clouds and threatening rain. Wolfe's battalions weredrawn up along the crest of the heights. No enemy was in sight, though abody of Canadians had sallied from the town and moved along the strandtowards the landing-place, whence they were quickly driven back. He hadachieved the most critical part of his enterprise; yet the success thathe coveted placed him in imminent danger. On one side was the garrisonof Quebec and the army of Beauport, and Bougainville was on the other. Wolfe's alternative was victory or ruin; for if he should be overwhelmedby a combined attack, retreat would be hopeless. His feelings no man canknow; but it would be safe to say that hesitation or doubt had no partin them. 

He went to reconnoitre the ground, and soon came to the Plains ofAbraham, 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. ThePlains were a tract of grass, tolerably level in most parts, patchedhere and there with cornfields, studded with clumps of bushes, andforming a part of the high plateau at the eastern end of which Quebecstood. On the south it was bounded by the declivities along the St. Lawrence; on the north, by those along the St. Charles, or rather alongthe meadows through which that lazy stream crawled like a writhingsnake. At the place that Wolfe chose for his battle-field the plateauwas less than a mile wide. 

Thither the troops advanced, marched by files till they reached theground, and then wheeled to form their line of battle, which stretchedacross the plateau and faced the city. It consisted of six battalionsand the detached grenadiers from Louisbourg, all drawn up in ranks threedeep. 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. Onthis side a wide space was perforce left open, and there was danger ofbeing outflanked. To prevent this, Brigadier Townshend was stationedhere with two battalions, drawn up at right angles with the rest, andfronting the St. Charles. The battalion of Webb's regiment, underColonel Burton, formed the reserve; the third battalion of RoyalAmericans was left to guard the landing; and Howe's light infantryoccupied a wood far in the rear. Wolfe, with Monckton and Murray, commanded the front line, on which the heavy fighting was to fall, andwhich, when all the troops had arrived, numbered less than thirty-fivehundred men. [777]

[Footnote 777: See Note, end of chapter. ]

Quebec was not a mile distant, but they could not see it; for a ridge ofbroken ground intervened, called Buttes-à-Neveu, about six hundred pacesoff. The first division of troops had scarcely come up when, about sixo'clock, this ridge was suddenly thronged with white uniforms. It wasthe battalion of Guienne, arrived at the eleventh hour from its camp bythe St. Charles. Some time after there was hot firing in the rear. Itcame from a detachment of Bougainville's command attacking a house wheresome of the light infantry were posted. The assailants were repulsed, and the firing ceased. Light showers fell at intervals, besprinkling thetroops as they stood patiently waiting the event. 

Montcalm had passed a troubled night. Through all the evening the cannonbellowed from the ships of Saunders, and the boats of the fleet hoveredin the dusk off the Beauport shore, threatening every moment to land. Troops lined intrenchments till day, while the General walked the fieldthat adjoined his headquarters till one in the morning, accompanied bythe Chevalier Johnstone and Colonel Poulariez. Johnstone says that hewas in great agitation, and took no rest all night. At daybreak he heardthe sound of cannon above the town. It was the battery at Samos firingon the English ships. He had sent an officer to the quarters ofVaudreuil, which were much nearer Quebec, with orders to bring him wordat once should anything unusual happen. But no word came, and about sixo'clock he mounted and rode thither with Johnstone. As they advanced, the country behind the town opened more and more upon their sight; tillat length, when opposite Vaudreuil's house, they saw across the St. Charles, some two miles away, the red ranks of British soldiers on theheights beyond. 

"This is a serious business, " Montcalm said; and sent off Johnstone atfull 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'sorder. Vaudreuil came out of the house. Montcalm stopped for a few wordswith him; then set spurs to his horse, and rode over the bridge of theSt. Charles to the scene of danger. [778] He rode with a fixed look, uttering not a word. [779]

[Footnote 778: Johnstone, _Dialogue_. ]

[Footnote 779: _Malartic à Bourlamaque, --Sept_. 1759. ]

The army followed in such order as it might, crossed the bridge in hothaste, passed under the northern rampart of Quebec, entered at thePalace Gate, and pressed on in headlong march along the quaint narrowstreets of the warlike town: troops of Indians in scalp-locks andwar-paint, a savage glitter in their deep-set eyes; bands of Canadianswhose all was at stake, --faith, country, and home; the colony regulars;the battalions of Old France, a torrent of white uniforms and gleamingbayonets, La Sarre, Languedoc, Roussillon, Béarn, --victors of Oswego, William Henry, and Ticonderoga. So they swept on, poured out upon theplain, some by the gate of St. Louis, and some by that of St. John, andhurried, breathless, to where the banners of Guienne still fluttered onthe ridge. 

Montcalm was amazed at what he saw. He had expected a detachment, and hefound 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 thewild array of the Highlanders, with their waving tartans, and bagpipesscreaming defiance. Vaudreuil had not come; but not the less was feltthe 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 theleft wing of the army. He waited in vain. It is said that the Governorhad detained them, lest the English should attack the Beauport shore. Even if they did so, and succeeded, the French might defy them, couldthey but put Wolfe to rout on the Plains of Abraham. Neither did thegarrison of Quebec come to the aid of Montcalm. He sent to Ramesay, itscommander, for twenty-five field-pieces which were on the Palacebattery. Ramesay would give him only three, saying that he wanted themfor 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 thathe and they alike were for immediate attack. His enemies declare that hewas afraid lest Vaudreuil should arrive and take command; but theGovernor was not a man to assume responsibility at such a crisis. Otherssay that his impetuosity overcame his better judgment; and of thischarge it is hard to acquit him. Bougainville was but a few milesdistant, and some of his troops were much nearer; a messenger sent byway 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 withhim. If, moreover, Montcalm could have come to an understanding withVaudreuil, his own force might have been strengthened by two or threethousand additional men from the town and the camp of Beauport; but hefelt that there was no time to lose, for he imagined that Wolfe wouldsoon be reinforced, which was impossible, and he believed that theEnglish were fortifying themselves, which was no less an error. He hasbeen blamed not only for fighting too soon, but for fighting at all. Inthis he could not choose. Fight he must, for Wolfe was now in a positionto cut off all his supplies. His men were full of ardor, and he resolvedto attack before their ardor cooled. He spoke a few words to them in hiskeen, vehement way. "I remember very well how he looked, " one of theCanadians, then a boy of eighteen, used to say in his old age; "he rodea black or dark bay horse along the front of our lines, brandishing hissword, as if to excite us to do our duty. He wore a coat with widesleeves, which fell back as he raised his arm, and showed the whitelinen of the wristband. "[780]

[Footnote 780: _Recollections of Joseph Trahan_, in _Revue Canadienne_, IV. ]

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 pliedthem with canister-shot, and fifteen hundred Canadians and Indiansfusilladed them in front and flank. Over all the plain, from behindbushes and knolls and the edge of cornfields, puffs of smoke sprangincessantly from the guns of these hidden marksmen. Skirmishers werethrown out before the lines to hold them in check, and the soldiers wereordered to lie on the grass to avoid the shot. The firing was livelieston the English left, where bands of sharpshooters got under the edge ofthe declivity, among thickets, and behind scattered houses, whence theykilled and wounded a considerable number of Townshend's men. The lightinfantry were called up from the rear. The houses were taken andretaken, 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. Oneof his captains was shot through the lungs; and on recoveringconsciousness he saw the General standing at his side. Wolfe pressed hishand, told him not to despair, praised his services, promised him earlypromotion, and sent an aide-de-camp to Monckton to beg that officer tokeep the promise if he himself should fall. [781]

[Footnote 781: Sir Denis Le Marchant, cited by Wright, 579. Le Marchantknew 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 ofthe line, Wolfe saw that the crisis was near. The French on the ridgehad formed themselves into three bodies, regulars in the centre, regulars and Canadians on right and left. Two field-pieces, which hadbeen dragged up the heights at Anse du Foulon, fired on them withgrapeshot, and the troops, rising from the ground, prepared to receivethem. 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 numberof Canadians who had been mixed among the regulars, and who, afterhastily firing, threw themselves on the ground to reload. [782] TheBritish advanced a few rods; then halted and stood still. When theFrench were within forty paces the word of command rang out, and a crashof musketry answered all along the line. The volley was delivered withremarkable precision. In the battalions of the centre, which hadsuffered least from the enemy's bullets, the simultaneous explosion wasafterwards said by French officers to have sounded like a cannon-shot. Another volley followed, and then a furious clattering fire that lastedbut a minute or two. When the smoke rose, a miserable sight wasrevealed: the ground cumbered with dead and wounded, the advancingmasses stopped short and turned into a frantic mob, shouting, cursing, gesticulating. The order was given to charge. Then over the field rosethe British cheer, mixed with the fierce yell of the Highland slogan. Some of the corps pushed forward with the bayonet; some advancedfiring. The clansmen drew their broadswords and dashed on, keen andswift as bloodhounds. At the English right, though the attacking columnwas broken to pieces, a fire was still kept up, chiefly, it seems, bysharpshooters from the bushes and cornfields, where they had lain for anhour or more. Here Wolfe himself led the charge, at the head of theLouisbourg grenadiers. A shot shattered his wrist. He wrapped hishandkerchief about it and kept on. Another shot struck him, and he stilladvanced, when a third lodged in his breast. He staggered, and sat onthe ground. Lieutenant Brown, of the grenadiers, one Henderson, avolunteer in the same company, and a private soldier, aided by anofficer of artillery who ran to join them, carried him in their arms tothe rear. He begged them to lay him down. They did so, and asked if hewould have a surgeon. "There's no need, " he answered; "it's all overwith me. " A moment after, one of them cried out: "They run; see how theyrun!" "Who run?" Wolfe demanded, like a man roused from sleep. "Theenemy, sir. Egad, they give way everywhere!" "Go one of you, to ColonelBurton, " returned the dying man; "tell him to march Webb's regiment downto Charles River, to cut off their retreat from the bridge. " Then, turning on his side, he murmured, "Now, God be praised, I will die inpeace!" and in a few moments his gallant soul had fled. 

[Footnote 782: "Les Canadiens, qui étaient mêlés dans les bataillons, sepassèrent de tirer et, dès qu'ils l'eussent fait, de mettre ventre aterre pour charger, ce qui rompit tout l'ordre. " _Malartic aBourlamaque, 25 Sept. _ 1759. ]

Montcalm, still on horseback, was borne with the tide of fugitivestowards the town. As he approached the walls a shot passed through hisbody. 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, byeagerness to know the result of the fight. One of them recognized him, saw the streaming blood, and shrieked, "_O mon Dieu! mon Dieu! leMarquis est tué!_" "It's nothing, it's nothing, " replied thedeath-stricken man; "don't be troubled for me, my good friends. " _("Cen'est rien, ce n'est rien; ne vous affligez pas pour moi, mes bonnesamies. ")_

NOTE: There are several contemporary versions of the dying words ofWolfe. The report of Knox, given above, is by far the best attested. Knox says that he took particular pains at the time to learn themaccurately from those who were with Wolfe when they were uttered. 

The anecdote of Montcalm is due to the late Hon. Malcolm Fraser, ofQuebec. He often heard it in his youth from an old woman, who, when agirl, was one of the group who saw the wounded general led by, and towhom the words were addressed. 

_Force of the English and French at the Battle of Quebec. _--The tabularreturn given by Knox shows the number of officers and men in each corpsengaged. According to this, the battalions as they stood on the Plainsof Abraham before the battle varied in strength from 322 (Monckton's) to683 (Webb's), making a total of 4, 828, including officers. But anotherreturn, less specific, signed _George Townshend, Brigadier, _ makes theentire number only 4, 441. Townshend succeeded Wolfe in the command; andthis return, which is preserved in the Public Record Office, was sent toLondon a few days after the battle. Some French writers present put thenumber lower, perhaps for the reason that Webb's regiment and the thirdbattalion of Royal Americans took no part in the fight, the one being inthe rear as a reserve, and the other invisible, guarding the landingplace. Wolfe's front line, which alone met and turned the French attack, was made up as follows, the figures including officers and men:--

/$Thirty-fifth Regiment . .. . 519 Twenty-eighth Regiment 421Fifty-eighth " . .. . 335 Forty-seventh " . 360Seventy-eighth " . .. . 662 Forty-third " . . 327Louisbourg Grenadiers 241 Light Infantry . .. .. .. . 400Making a total of 3, 265. $/

The French force engaged cannot be precisely given. Knox, oninformation received from "an intelligent Frenchman, " states thenumber, corps by corps, the aggregate being 7, 520. This, on examination, plainly appears exaggerated. Fraser puts it at 5, 000; Townshendat 4, 470, including militia. Bigot says, 3, 500, which mayperhaps be as many as actually advanced to the attack, sincesome of the militia held back. Including Bougainville's command, the militia and the artillerymen left in the Beauport camp, thesailors at the town batteries, and the garrison of Quebec, at leastas many of the French were out of the battle as were in it; andthe numbers engaged on each side seem to have been about equal. 

For authorities of the foregoing chapter, see Appendix I. 

Chapter 28

1759

Fall of Quebec

"Never was rout more complete than that of our army, "says a French official. [783] It was the more so because Montcalmheld no troops in reserve, but launched his whole force atonce against the English. Nevertheless there was some resistanceto the pursuit. It came chiefly from the Canadians, many of whom hadnot advanced with the regulars to the attack. Those on the right wing, instead of doing so, threw themselves into an extensive tract ofbushes that lay in front of the English left; and from this coverthey opened a fire, too distant for much effect, till the victorsadvanced in their turn, when the shot of the hidden marksmen toldseverely upon them. Two battalions, therefore, deployed before thebushes, fired volleys into them, and drove their occupants out. 

[Footnote 783: _Daine au Ministre, 9 Oct. 1759_. ]

Again, those of the Canadians who, before the main battlebegan, attacked the English left from the brink of the plateautowards the St. Charles, withdrew when the rout took place, and ran along the edge of the declivity till, at the part of itcalled Côte Ste. -Geneviève, they came to a place where itwas overgrown with thickets. Into these they threw themselves;and were no sooner under cover than they faced about to fire uponthe Highlanders, who presently came up. As many of these mountaineers, according to their old custom, threw down their muskets when theycharged, and had no weapons but their broadswords, they tried in vainto dislodge the marksmen, and suffered greatly in the attempt. Othertroops 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 toatone for the short-comings of some of them on the battle-field. 

A part of the fugitives escaped into the town by the gatesof St. Louis and St. John, while the greater number fled alongthe front of the ramparts, rushed down the declivity to thesuburb of St. Roch, and ran over the meadows to the bridge, protected by the cannon of the town and the two armed hulksin the river. The rout had but just begun when Vaudreuilcrossed the bridge from the camp of Beauport. It was fourhours since he first heard the alarm, and his quarters werenot much more than two miles from the battle-field. He doesnot explain why he did not come sooner; it is certain that hiscoming was well timed to throw the blame on Montcalm incase of defeat, or to claim some of the honor for himself incase of victory. "Monsieur the Marquis of Montcalm, " hesays, "unfortunately made his attack before I had joinedhim. "[784] His joining him could have done no good; for thoughhe had at last brought with him the rest of the militia fromthe Beauport camp, they had come no farther than the bridgeover the St. Charles, having, as he alleges, been kept there byan unauthorized order from the chief of staff, Montreuil. [785]He declares that the regulars were in such a fright that hecould not stop them; but that the Canadians listened to hisvoice, 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 wouldappear that the Canadians rallied themselves. Vaudreuil lost no timein recrossing the bridge and joining the militia in the redoubt atthe farther end, where a crowd of fugitives soon poured in after him. 

[Footnote 784: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 21 Sept. 1759_. ]

[Footnote 785: _Ibid. , 5 Oct. 1759_. ]

The aide-de-camp Johnstone, mounted on horseback, hadstopped for a moment in what is now the suburb of St. Johnto encourage some soldiers who were trying to save a cannonthat had stuck fast in a marshy hollow; when, on spurringhis horse to the higher ground, he saw within musket-shota long line of British troops, who immediately fired upon him. The bullets whistled about his ears, tore his clothes, andwounded his horse; which, however, carried him along theedge of the declivity to a windmill, near which was a roadwayto a bakehouse on the meadow below. He descended, crossed themeadow, reached the bridge, and rode over it to the great redoubtor 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 disorderand confusion I found in the hornwork. Consternation wasgeneral. M. De Vaudreuil listened to everybody, and was alwaysof the opinion of him who spoke last. On the appearanceof the English troops on the plain by the bakehouse, Montguet and La Motte, two old captains in the regiment ofBéarn, cried out with vehemence to M. De Vaudreuil 'thatthe hornwork would be taken in an instant by assault, swordin hand; that we all should be cut to pieces without quarter;and that nothing would save us but an immediate and generalcapitulation of Canada, giving it up to the English. '"[786] Yetthe river was wide and deep, and the hornwork was protectedon the water side by strong palisades, with cannon. Neverthelessthere rose a general cry to cut the bridge of boats. Bydoing 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 losttheir wits. 

[Footnote 786: Confirmed by _Journal tenu à l'Armée, _ etc. "Diversofficiers des troupes de terre n'hésitèrent point à dire, tout hauten présence du soldat, qu'il ne nous restoit d'autre ressource quecelle de capituler promptement pour toute la colonie, " etc. ]

"M. De Vaudreuil, " pursues Johnstone, "was closeted in ahouse in the inside of the hornwork with the Intendant andsome other persons. I suspected they were busy drafting thearticles for a general capitulation, and I entered the house, where I had only time to see the Intendant, with a pen in hishand, writing upon a sheet of paper, when M. De Vaudreuiltold me I had no business there. Having answered him thatwhat he had said was true, I retired immediately, in wrathto see them intent on giving up so scandalously a dependencyfor the preservation of which so much blood and treasure hadbeen expended. " On going out he met Lieutenant-colonelsDalquier and Poulariez, whom he begged to prevent the apprehendeddisgrace; and, in fact, if Vaudreuil really meant to capitulate forthe colony, he was presently dissuaded by firmer spirits than his own. 

Johnstone, whose horse could carry him no farther, set outon foot for Beauport, and, in his own words, "continuedsorrowfully jogging on, with a very heavy heart for the lossof my dear friend M. De Montcalm, sinking with weariness, and lost in reflection upon the changes which Providence hadbrought about in the space of three or four hours. "

Great indeed were these changes. Montcalm was dying;his second in command, the Brigadier Senezergues, wasmortally wounded; the army, routed and demoralized, wasvirtually without a head; and the colony, yesterday cheered ason the eve of deliverance, was plunged into sudden despair. "Ah, what a cruel day!" cries Bougainville; "how fatal to allthat was dearest to us! My heart is torn in its most tenderparts. We shall be fortunate if the approach of winter savesthe country from total ruin. "[787]

[Footnote 787: _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 commandhad fallen upon Townshend at the moment when the enemy were in fullflight. He had recalled the pursuers, and formed them again in lineof battle, knowing that another foe was at hand. Bougainville, infact, 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 thePlains of Abraham; and the delay of his arrival was no doubtdue to his endeavors to collect as many as possible of hisdetachments posted along the St. Lawrence for many milestowards Jacques-Cartier. 

Before midnight the English had made good progress intheir redoubts and intrenchments, had brought cannon upthe heights to defend them, planted a battery on the CôteSte. -Geneviève, descended into the meadows of the St. Charles, and taken possession of the General Hospital, with its crowdsof sick and wounded. Their victory had cost them six hundredand sixty-four of all ranks, killed, wounded, and missing. TheFrench 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 aheavy skirmish; measured by results, it was one of the great battlesof the world. 

Vaudreuil went from the hornwork to his quarters on theBeauport road and called a council of war. It was a tumultuousscene. A letter was despatched to Quebec to ask for advice of Montcalm. The dying General sent a brief message to the effect that there was athreefold choice, --to fight again, retreat to Jacques-Cartier, or giveup the colony. There was much in favor of fighting. When Bougainvillehad gathered all his force from the river above, he would have threethousand men; and these, joined to the garrison of Quebec, thesailors at the batteries, and the militia and artillerymen of theBeauport camp, would form a body of fresh soldiers morethan equal to the English then on the Plains of Abraham. Add to these the defeated troops, and the victors would begreatly outnumbered. [788] Bigot gave his voice for fighting. Vaudreuilexpressed himself to the same effect; but he says that allthe officers were against him. "In vain I remarked to thesegentlemen that we were superior to the enemy, and shouldbeat them if we managed well. I could not at all change theiropinion, and my love for the service and for the colony mademe subscribe to the views of the council. In fact, if I hadattacked the English against the advice of all the principalofficers, their ill-will would have exposed me to the risk oflosing the battle and the colony also. "[789]

[Footnote 788: Bigot, as well as Vaudreuil, sets Bougainville's forceat three thousand. "En réunissant le corps M. De Bougainville, lesbataillons de Montréal _[laissés au camp de Beauport]_ et la garrisonde la ville, il nous restoit encore près de 5, 000 hommes de troupesfraîches. " _Journal tenu à l'Armée. _ Vaudreuil says that there werefifteen hundred men in garrison at Quebec who did not take partin the battle. If this is correct, the number of fresh troops afterit was not five thousand, but more than six thousand; to whomthe defeated force is to be added, making, after deducting killedand wounded, some ten thousand in all. ]

[Footnote 789: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Oct. _ 1759. ]

It was said at the time that the officers voted for retreatbecause they thought Vaudreuil unfit to command an army, and, still more, to fight a battle. [790] There was no need, however, to fight at once. The object of the English was to takeQuebec, 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 wouldhave placed a greatly superior force in the English rear, wherehis position might have been made impregnable. Here he might beeasily furnished with provisions, and from hence he could readilythrow men and supplies into Quebec, which the English were too fewto invest. He could harass the besiegers, or attack them, shouldopportunity offer, and either raise the siege or so protract itthat they would be forced by approaching winter to sail homeward, robbed of the fruit of their victory. 

[Footnote 790: _Memoires sur le Canada, _ 1749-1760. ]

At least he might have taken a night for reflection. He wassafe 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 nightwould have brought refreshment, and the morning might have broughtwise counsel. Vaudreuil would not wait, and orders were given atonce for retreat. [791] It began at nine o'clock that evening. Quebecwas abandoned to its fate. The cannon were left in the lines ofBeauport, the tents in the encampments, and provisions enough inthe storehouses to supply the army for a week. "The loss of theMarquis de Montcalm, " says a French officer then on the spot, "robbedhis successors of their senses, and they thought of nothing but flight;such was their fear that the enemy would attack the intrenchmentsthe next day. The army abandoned the camp in such disorderthat the like was never known. "[792] "It was not a retreat, " saysJohnstone, who himself a part of it, "but an abominableflight, with such disorder and confusion that, had the Englishknown it, three hundred men sent after us would have beensufficient to cut all our army to pieces. The soldiers were allmixed, and scattered, dispersed, and running as hard as theycould, as if the English army were at their heels. " Theypassed Charlesbourg, Lorette, and St. Augustin, till, on thefifteenth, they found rest on the impregnable hill of Jacques-Cartier, by the brink of the St. Lawrence, thirty miles from danger. 

[Footnote 791: _Livre d'Ordres, Ordre du 13 Sept_. 1759. ]

[Footnote 792: Foligny, _Journal mémoratif. _]

In the night of humiliation when Vaudreuil abandonedQuebec, Montcalm was breathing his last within its walls. When he was brought wounded from the field, he was placedin the house of the Surgeon Arnoux, who was then with Bourlamaqueat 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 surrenderof Quebec. " He is reported to have said that since he had lost the battleit 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 expressedhigh esteem. When Vaudreuil sent to ask his opinion, he gaveit; but when Ramesay, commandant of the garrison, came toreceive his orders, he replied: "I will neither give orders norinterfere any further. I have much business that must beattended to, of greater moment than your ruined garrisonand this wretched country. My time is very short; thereforepray leave me. I wish you all comfort, and to be happily extricatedfrom your present perplexities. " Nevertheless he thought to the lastof those who had been under his command, and sent the following noteto Brigadier Townshend: "Monsieur, the humanity of the English setsmy mind at peace concerning the fate of the French prisoners and theCanadians. Feel towards them as they have caused me to feel. Do notlet them perceive that they have changed masters. Be their protectoras I have been their father. "[793]

[Footnote 793: I am indebted to Abbé Bois for a copy of this note. Thelast words of Montcalm, as above, are reported partly by Johnstone, and partly by Knox. ]

Bishop Pontbriand, himself fast sinking with mortal disease, attended his deathbed and administered the last sacraments. He died peacefully at four o'clock on the morning of thefourteenth. He was in his forty-eighth year. 

In the confusion of the time no workman could be foundto make a coffin, and an old servant of the Ursulines, knownas Bonhomme Michel, gathered a few boards and nailed them togetherso as to form a rough box. In it was laid the body of the deadsoldier; and late in the evening of the same day he was carriedto his rest. There was no tolling of bells or firing of cannon. The officers of the garrison followed the bier, and some of thepopulace, including women and children, joined the procession asit moved in dreary silence along the dusky street, shattered withcannon-ball and bomb, to the chapel of the Ursuline convent. Herea shell, bursting under the floor, had made a cavity which had beenhollowed into a grave. Three priests of the Cathedral, several nuns, Ramesay with his officers, and a throng of townspeople werepresent at the rite. After the service and the chant, thebody was lowered into the grave by the light of torches; andthen, says the chronicle, "the tears and sobs burst forth. Itseemed as if the last hope of the colony were buried with theremains of the General. "[794] In truth, the funeral of Montcalmwas the funeral of New France. [795]

[Footnote 794: _Ursulines de Québec, _ III. 10. ]

[Footnote 795: See Appendix J. ]

It was no time for grief. The demands of the hour weretoo exigent and stern. When, on the morning after the battle, the people of Quebec saw the tents standing in the camp ofBeauport, they thought the army still there to defend them. [796]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 strongerevery instant; and this, with other reasons, obliges me to retreat. ""I have received all your letters. As I set out this moment, I prayyou not to write again. You shall hear from me to-morrow. I wishyou good evening. " With these notes came the following order:"M. De Ramesay is not to wait till the enemy carries the town byassault. As soon as provisions fail, he will raise the white flag. "This order was accompanied by a memorandum of terms which Ramesaywas to ask of the victors. [797]

[Footnote 796: _Mémoire du Sieur de Ramesay. _]

[Footnote 797: _Mémoire pour servir d'Instruction à M. De Ramesay, 13 Sept. _ 1759. Appended, with the foregoing notes, to the _Mémoire deRamesay. _]

"What a blow for me, " says the unfortunate commandant, "to find myself abandoned so soon by the army, which alonecould defend the town!" His garrison consisted of betweenone and two hundred troops of the line, some four or fivehundred colony troops, a considerable number of sailors, andthe local militia. [798] These last were in a state of despair. Theinhabitants who, during the siege, had sought refuge in thesuburb of St. Roch, had returned after the battle, and therewere now twenty-six hundred women and children, with about ahousand invalids and other non-combatants to be supported, thoughthe provisions in the town, even at half rations, would hardly lasta week. Ramesay had not been informed that a good supply was left inthe 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 thefamished country people had carried it off. 

[Footnote 798: The English returns give a total of 615 French regulars inthe place besides sailors and militia. ]

"Despondency, " he says again, "was complete; discouragementextreme and universal. Murmurs and complaints against the army thathad abandoned us rose to a general outcry. I could not prevent themerchants, all of whom were officers of the town militia, from meetingat the house of M. Daine, the mayor. There they declared for capitulating, and presented me a petition to that effect, signed by M. Daine andall the principal citizens. "

Ramesay called a council of war. One officer alone, Piedmont, captain of artillery, was for reducing the rations stillmore, and holding out to the last. All the others gave theirvoices for capitulation. [799] Ramesay might have yielded withoutdishonor; but he still held out till an event fraught withnew hope took place at Jacques-Cartier. 

[Footnote 799: _Copie du Conseil de Guerre term par M. De Ramesay à Québec, 15 Sept_. 1759. ]

This event was the arrival of Lévis. On the afternoon ofthe battle Vaudreuil took one rational step; he sent a courierto Montreal to summon that able officer to his aid. [800] Lévisset out at once, reached Jacques-Cartier, and found his worstfears realized. "The great number of fugitives that I beganto meet at Three Rivers prepared me for the disorder inwhich I found the army. I never in my life knew the like ofit. They left everything behind in the camp at Beauport; tents, baggage, and kettles. "

[Footnote 800: _Lévis à Bourlamaque, 15 Sept_. 1759. Lévis, _Guerre du Canada. _]

He spoke his mind freely; loudly blamed the retreat, andurged Vaudreuil to march back with all speed to whence hecame. [801] The Governor, stiff at ordinary times, but pliant ata crisis, welcomed the firmer mind that decided for him, consentedthat the troops should return, and wrote afterwards in his despatchto the Minister: "I was much charmed to find M. De Lévis disposedto march with the army towards Quebec. "[802]

[Footnote 801: _Bigot au Ministre, 15 Oct. 1759. Malartic à Bourlamaque, 28Sept_. 1759. ]

[Footnote 802: "Je fus bien charmé, " etc. _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Oct. _ 1759. ]

Lévis, on his part, wrote: "The condition in which I foundthe army, bereft of everything, did not discourage me, becauseM. De Vaudreuil told me that Quebec was not taken, and that he hadleft there a sufficiently numerous garrison; I therefore resolved, in order to repair the fault that had been committed, to engageM. 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 completedefection of the Canadians and Indians; that our knowledge of the countrywould enable us to approach very near the enemy, whom weknew to be intrenching themselves on the heights of Quebecand constructing batteries to breach the walls; that if wefound their army ill posted, we could attack them, or, at anyrate, could prolong the siege by throwing men and suppliesinto the town; and that if we could not save it, we couldevacuate and burn it, so that the enemy could not possiblywinter there. "[803]

[Footnote 803: _Lévis au Ministre, 10 Nov_. 1759. ]

Lévis quickly made his presence felt in the military chaosabout him. Bigot bestirred himself with his usual vigor to collectprovisions; and before the next morning all was ready. [804]Bougainville had taken no part in the retreat, but sturdilyheld his ground at Cap-Rouge while the fugitive mob sweptby him. A hundred of the mounted Canadians who formed part of hiscommand were now sent to Quebec, each with a bag of biscuit acrosshis saddle. They were to circle round to the Beauport side, wherethere was no enemy, and whence they could cross the St. Charles incanoes to the town. Bougainville followed close with a larger supply. Vaudreuil sent Ramesay a message, revoking his order to surrender ifthreatened with assault, telling him to hold out to the last, andassuring him that the whole army was coming to his relief. Lévis hastened to be gone; but first he found time to write afew lines to Bourlamaque. "We have had a very great loss, for we have lost M. De Montcalm. I regret him as my generaland my friend. I found our army here. It is now on the march toretrieve our fortunes. I can trust you to hold your position; as Ihave not M. De Montcalm's talents, I look to you to second me andadvise me. Put a good face on it. Hide this business as long as youcan. I am mounting my horse this moment. Write me all the news. "[805]

[Footnote 804: _Livre d'Ordres, Ordre du 17-18 Sept_. 1759. ]

[Footnote 805: _Lévis a Bourlamaque, 18 Sept_. 1759. ]

The army marched that morning, the eighteenth. In theevening it reached St. Augustin; and here it was stopped bythe chilling news that Quebec had surrendered. Utter confusion hadreigned in the disheartened garrison. Men deserted hourly, some tothe country, and some to the English camp; while Townshend pushedhis trenches nearer and nearer to the walls, in spite of the cannonadewith which Piedmont and his artillerymen tried to check them. On theevening of the seventeenth, the English ships of war movedtowards the Lower Town, and a column of troops was seenapproaching over the meadows of the St. Charles, as if tostorm the Palace Gate. The drums beat the alarm; but themilitia refused to fight. Their officers came to Ramesay ina body; declared that they had no mind to sustain an assault;that they knew he had orders against it; that they would carrytheir guns back to the arsenal; that they were no longersoldiers, but citizens; that if the army had not abandonedthem they would fight with as much spirit as ever; but thatthey 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 andget what terms he could. He went, through driving rain, to thequarters of Townshend, and, in hope of the promised succor, spunout the negotiation to the utmost, pretended that he had no powerto yield certain points demanded, and was at last sent back to conferwith Ramesay, under a promise from the English commander that, if Quebecwere not given up before eleven o'clock, he would take it bystorm. On this Ramesay signed the articles, and Joannescarried them back within the time prescribed. Scarcely hadhe left the town, when the Canadian horsemen appeared withtheir sacks of biscuit and a renewed assurance that help wasnear; but it was too late. Ramesay had surrendered, andwould not break his word. He dreaded an assault, which heknew he could not withstand, and he but half believed in thepromised succor. "How could I trust it"? he asks. "The armyhad not dared to face the enemy before he had fortified himself;and could I hope that it would come to attack him in an intrenchedcamp, defended by a formidable artillery?" Whatever may be thoughtof his conduct, it was to Vaudreuil, and not to him, that the lossof Quebec was due. 

The conditions granted were favorable, for Townshendknew the danger of his position, and was glad to have Quebecon any terms. The troops and sailors of the garrison wereto march out of the place with the honors of war, and to becarried to France. The inhabitants were to have protectionin person and property, and free exercise of religion. [806]

[Footnote 806: _Articles de Capitulation, 18 Sept_. 1759. ]

In the afternoon a company of artillerymen with a field-pieceentered the town, and marched to the place of arms, followed by abody of infantry. Detachments took post at all the gates. TheBritish flag was raised on the heights near the top of MountainStreet, and the capital of New France passed into the hands of itshereditary foes. The question remained, should they keep, or destroyit? It was resolved to keep it at every risk. The marines, thegrenadiers from Louisbourg, and some of the rangers were to reimbarkin the fleet; while the ten battalions, with the artillery and one companyof 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 laurelsand claim more than his share of the honors of victory. [807] The command, therefore, rested with Murray. 

[Footnote 807: _Letter to an Honourable Brigadier-General_ [Townshend], printed in 1760. A _Refutation_ soon after appeared, angry, butnot 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 sentashore 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 tocome. Admiral Saunders put off his departure longer than hehad once thought possible; and it was past the middle ofOctober when he fired a parting salute, and sailed down theriver with his fleet. In it was the ship "Royal William, " carryingthe embalmed remains of Wolfe. 

Montcalm lay in his soldier's grave before the humblealtar of the Ursulines, never more to see the home for whichhe 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 respectedhis memory, though they hardly knew his resting-place. Itwas left for a fellow-countryman--a colleague and a brother-in-arms--tobelittle his achievements and blacken his name. The jealous spiteof Vaudreuil pursued him even in death. Leaving Lévis to commandat Jacques-Cartier, whither the army had again withdrawn, theGovernor retired to Montreal, whence he wrote a series of despatchesto justify himself at the expense of others, and above all of theslain 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. Thenhe addressed himself to his chief task, the defamation of his unconsciousrival. "The letter that you wrote in cipher, on the tenth of February, to Monsieur the Marquis of Montcalm and me, in common, [808] flattered hisself-love to such a degree that, far from seeking conciliation, he did nothing but try to persuade the public that his authoritysurpassed mine. From the moment of Monsieur de Montcalm's arrival in thiscolony, down to that of his death, he did not cease to sacrifice everythingto his boundless ambition. He sowed dissension among the troops, toleratedthe most indecent talk against the government, attached to himselfthe most disreputable persons, used means to corrupt themost virtuous, and, when he could not succeed, became theircruel enemy. He wanted to be Governor-General. He privatelyflattered with favors and promises of patronage every officer of thecolony troops who adopted his ideas. He spared no pains to gain overthe people of whatever calling, and persuade them of his attachment;while, either by himself or by means of the troops of the line, hemade them bear the most frightful yoke _(le joug le plus affreux). _He defamed honest people, encouraged insubordination, and closed hiseyes to the rapine of his soldiers. "

[Footnote 808: See _Supra_, p. 462. ]

This letter was written to Vaudreuil's official superior andconfidant, the Minister of the Marine and Colonies. In anotherletter, written about the same time to the Minister of War, who heldsimilar relations to his rival, he declares that he "greatly regrettedMonsieur de Montcalm. "[809]

[Footnote 809: _Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Guerre, 1 Nov_. 1759. ]

His charges are strange ones from a man who was by turnsthe patron, advocate, and tool of the official villains whocheated the King and plundered the people. Bigot, Cadet, andthe rest of the harpies that preyed on Canada looked to Vaudreuilfor support, and found it. It was but three or four weeks since hehad written to the Court in high eulogy of Bigot and effusive praiseof Cadet, coupled with the request that a patent of nobility shouldbe given to that notorious public thief. [810] The corruptions whichdisgraced his government were rife, not only in the civiladministration, but also among the officers of the colony troops, over whom he had complete control. They did not, as has been seenalready, extend to the officers of the line, who were outside the circleof peculation. It was these who were the habitual associatesof Montcalm; and when Vaudreuil charges him with "attachingto himself the most disreputable persons, and using meansto corrupt the most virtuous, " the true interpretation of hiswords is that the former were disreputable because they dislikedhim (the Governor), and the latter virtuous because they were hispartisans. 

[Footnote 810: See _Supra_, p. 374. ]

Vaudreuil continues thus: "I am in despair, Monseigneur, to be under the necessity of painting you such a portrait afterdeath of Monsieur the Marquis of Montcalm. Though it containsthe exact truth, I would have deferred it if his personalhatred to me were alone to be considered; but I feel toodeeply the loss of the colony to hide from you the cause ofit. I can assure you that if I had been the sole master, Quebecwould still belong to the King, and that nothing is so disadvantageousin a colony as a division of authority and the mingling of troopsof the line with marine _[colony]_ troops. Thoroughly knowingMonsieur de Montcalm, I did not doubt in the least that unless Icondescended to all his wishes, he would succeed in ruining Canadaand wrecking all my plans. "

He then charges the dead man with losing the battle ofQuebec by attacking before he, the Governor, arrived to takecommand; and this, he says, was due to Montcalm's absolutedetermination to exercise independent authority, withoutcaring whether the colony was saved or lost. "I cannot hidefrom you, Monseigneur, that if he had had his way in pastyears Oswego and Fort George _[William Henry]_ would neverhave been attacked or taken; and he owed the success at Ticonderogato the orders I had given him. "[811] Montcalm, on the other hand, declared at the time that Vaudreuil had ordered him not to risk abattle, and that it was only through his disobedience thatTiconderoga was saved. 

[Footnote 811: _Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, _ 30 _Oct. 1759. _]

Ten days later Vaudreuil wrote again: "I have already hadthe honor, by my letter written in cipher on the thirteenth oflast month, to give you a sketch of the character of Monsieurthe Marquis of Montcalm; but I have just been informed ofa stroke so black that I think, Monseigneur, that I shouldfail in my duty to you if I did not tell you of it. " He goeson to say that, a little before his death, and "no doubt infear of the fate that befell him, " Montcalm placed in thehands of Father Roubaud, missionary at St. Francis, twopackets of papers containing remarks on the administrationof the colony, and especially on the manner in which themilitary posts were furnished with supplies; that these observationswere accompanied by certificates; and that they involvedcharges against him, the Governor, of complicity inpeculation. Roubaud, he continues, was to send these papersto 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 themwithout acquainting himself with their truth or falsity. "

Vaudreuil's anxiety was natural; and so was the action ofMontcalm in making known to the Court the outrageous abuses thatthreatened the King's service with ruin. His doing so was necessaryboth for his own justification and for the public good; and afterwards, when Vaudreuil and others were brought to trial at Paris, and whenone of the counselfor the defence charged the late general withslanderously accusing his clients, the Court ordered the charge tobe struck from the record. [812] The papers the existence of which, if theydid exist, so terrified Vaudreuil, have thus far escaped research. But the correspondence of the two rivals with the chiefs of thedepartments on which they severally depended is in large measurepreserved; and while that of the Governor is filled with defamationof Montcalm and praise of himself, that of the General is neitheregotistic nor abusive. The faults of Montcalm have sufficiently appeared. They were those of an impetuous, excitable, and impatient nature, byno means free from either ambition or vanity; but they werenever inconsistent with the character of a man of honor. Hisimpulsive utterances, reported by retainers and sycophants, kept Vaudreuil in a state of chronic rage; and, void as hewas of all magnanimity, gnawed with undying jealousy, andmortally in dread of being compromised by the knaveries towhich he had lent his countenance, he could not containhimself within the bounds of decency or sense. In anotherletter he had the baseness to say that Montcalm met his deathin trying to escape from the English. 

[Footnote 812: _Procès de Bigot, Cadet, et autres. _]

Among the Governor's charges are some which cannot beflatly denied. When he accuses his rival of haste and precipitationin attacking the English army, he touches a fair subjectof criticism; but, as a whole, he is as false in his detractionof Montcalm as in his praises of Bigot and Cadet. 

The letter which Wolfe sent to Pitt a few days before hisdeath, written in what may be called a spirit of resolutedespair, and representing success as almost hopeless, filledEngland with a dejection that found utterance in loud grumblingsagainst the Ministry. Horace Walpole wrote the bad news to his friendMann, 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 defendit. We have lost many men by the enemy, and some by ourfriends; that is, we now call our nine thousand only seventhousand. How this little army will get away from a muchlarger, and in this season, in that country, I don't guess: yes, I do. "

Hardly were these lines written when tidings came thatMontcalm was defeated, Quebec taken, and Wolfe killed. Aflood of mixed emotions swept over England. Even Walpolegrew half serious as he sent a packet of newspapers to hisfriend 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, alwaysinsulted their neighbors when they took Quebec. Think how pert theFrench would have been on such an occasion! What a scene! An army inthe night dragging itself up a precipice by stumps of treesto assault a town and attack an enemy strongly intrenchedand double in numbers! The King is overwhelmed with addresseson our victories; he will have enough to paper his palace. "[813]

[Footnote 813: _Letters of Horace Walpole_, III. 254, 257 (ed. Cunningham1857). ]

When, in soberer mood, he wrote the annals of his time, and turned, not for the better, from the epistolary style tothe historical, he thus described the impression made on theEnglish public by the touching and inspiring story of Wolfe'sheroism and death: "The incidents of dramatic fiction couldnot be conducted with more address to lead an audience fromdespondency to sudden exaltation than accident prepared toexcite the passions of a whole people. They despaired, theytriumphed, and they wept; for Wolfe had fallen in the hourof victory. Joy, curiosity, astonishment, was painted on everycountenance. The more they inquired, the more their admirationrose. Not an incident but was heroic and affecting. "[814]England blazed with bonfires. In one spot alone all was dark andsilent; for here a widowed mother mourned for a loving and devotedson, and the people forbore to profane her grief with the clamorof their rejoicings. 

[Footnote 814: Walpole, _Memoirs of George II. _, II. 384. ]

New England had still more cause of joy than Old, andshe filled the land with jubilation. The pulpits resounded withsermons of thanksgiving, some of which were worthy of theoccasion that called them forth. Among the rest, JonathanMayhew, a young but justly celebrated minister of Boston, pictured with enthusiasm the future greatness of the British-Americancolonies, with the continent thrown open before them, and foretold that, "with the continued blessing of Heaven, they will become, in anothercentury 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, thesame as those of the preceding, with some additions, the principalof which is the _Mémoire du Sieur de Ramezay, Chevalier del'Ordre royal et militaire de St. -Louis, cy-devant Lieutenant pourle Roy commandant à Québec, au sujet de la Reddition de cetteVille, qui a été suivie de la Capitulation du 18 7bre 1759_ (Archivesde la Marine). To this document are appended a number of important"pièces justificatives. " These, with the _Mémoire_, have beenprinted by the Quebec Historical Society. The letters of Vaudreuilcited in this chapter are chiefly from the Archives Nationales. 

If Montcalm, as Vaudreuil says, really intrusted papers to thecare of the Jesuit missionary Roubaud, he was not fortunate inhis choice of a depositary. After the war Roubaud renounced hisOrder, adjured his faith, and went over to the English. He gavevarious and contradictory accounts of the documents said to bein his hands. On one occasion he declared that Montcalm's effectsleft with him at his mission of St. Francis had been burned toprevent their falling into the hands of the enemy (see Verreau, _Report on Canadian Archives_, 1874, p. 183). Again, he says thathe had placed in the hands of the King of England certain lettersof Montcalm (see _Mr. Roubaud's Deplorable Case, humbly submittedto Lord North's Consideration_, in _Historical Magazine_, Second Series, VIII. 283). Yet again, he speaks of these sameletters as "pretended" (Verreau, _as above_). He complains thatsome of them had been published, without his consent, "by aLord belonging to His Majesty's household" (_Mr. Roubaud'sDeplorable Case_). 

The allusion here is evidently to a pamphlet printed in London, in 1777, in French and English, and entitled, _Lettres de Monsieurle Marquis de Montcalm, Gouverneur-Général en Canada, àMessieurs de Berryer et de la Molé, écrites dans les Années 1757, 1758, et 1759, avec une Version Angloise_. They profess to beobservations by Montcalm on the English colonies, their politicalcharacter, their trade, and their tendency to independence. Theybear the strongest marks of being fabricated to suit the times, the colonies being then in revolt. The principal letter is oneaddressed to Molé, and bearing date Quebec, Aug. 24, 1759. Itforetells the loss of her colonies as a consequence to Englandof her probable conquest of Canada. I laid before the MassachusettsHistorical Society my reasons for believing this letter, likethe rest, an imposture (see the _Proceedings_ of that Society for1869-1870, pp. 112-128). To these reasons it may be added thatat the date assigned to the letter all correspondence was stoppedbetween Canada and France. From the arrival of the English fleet, at the end of spring, till its departure, late in autumn, communicationwas completely cut off. It was not till towards the end ofNovember, when the river was clear of English ships, that thenaval commander Kanon ran by the batteries of Quebec andcarried to France the first news from Canada. Some of the lettersthus sent were dated a month before, and had waited in Canadatill Kanon's departure. 

Abbé Verreau--a high authority on questions of Canadian history--tellsme a comparison of the handwriting has convinced him that these pretendedletters of Montcalm are the work of Roubaud. 

On the burial of Montcalm, see Appendix J. 

Chapter 29

1759, 1760

Sainte-Foy

The fleet was gone; the great river was left a solitude; andthe chill days of a fitful November passed over Quebec inalternations of rain and frost, sunshine and snow. The troops, driven by cold from their encampment on the Plains, were allgathered within the walls. Their own artillery had so batteredthe place that it was not easy to find shelter. The Lower Townwas a wilderness of scorched and crumbling walls. As youascend Mountain Street, the Bishop's Palace, on the right, wasa skeleton of tottering masonry, and the buildings on the leftwere a mass of ruin, where ragged boys were playing at seesawamong the fallen planks and timbers. [815] Even in the UpperTown few of the churches and public buildings had escaped. The Cathedral was burned to a shell. The solid front of theCollege 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 bombshellsthat fell through the roof had broken into the pavement, and asthey burst had thrown up the bones and skulls of the dead fromthe graves beneath. [816] Even the more distant Hôtel-Dieu waspierced by fifteen projectiles, some of which had exploded in thehalls and chambers. [817]

[Footnote 815: Drawings made on the spot by Richard Short. These drawings, twelve in number, were engraved and published in 1761. ]

[Footnote 816: Short's _Views in Quebec_, 1759. Compare Pontbriand, in _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, X. 1, 057. ]

[Footnote 817: Casgrain, _Hôtel-Dieu de Québec_, 445. ]

The Commissary-General, Berniers, thus describes toBourlamaque the state of the town: "Quebec is nothing buta shapeless mass of ruins. Confusion, disorder, pillage reigneven among the inhabitants, for the English make examples ofseverity every day. Everybody rushes hither and thither, withoutknowing why. Each searches for his possessions, and, notfinding his own, seizes those of other people. English andFrench, all is chaos alike. The inhabitants, famished anddestitute, escape to the country. Never was there seen such asight. "[818]

[Footnote 818: _Berniers à Bourlamaque, 27 Sept. 1759_. ]

Quebec swarmed with troops. There were guardhouses attwenty different points; sentinels paced the ramparts, squadsof men went the rounds, soldiers off duty strolled the streets, some in mitre caps and some black three-cornered hats; whilea ceaseless rolling of drums and a rigid observance of militaryforms betrayed the sense of a still imminent danger. Whilesome of the inhabitants left town, others remained, having norefuge elsewhere. They were civil to the victors, but severetowards their late ruler. "The citizens, " says Knox, "particularlythe females, reproach M. Vaudreuil upon every occasion, and give full scope to bitter invectives. " He praises the agreeablemanners and cheerful spirit of the Canadian ladies, concerningwhom another officer also writes: "It is very surprisingwith what ease the gayety of their tempers enables them tobear misfortunes which to us would be insupportable. Familieswhom the calamities of war have reduced from the height ofluxury to the want of common necessaries laugh, dance, andsing, comforting themselves with this reflection--_Fortune deguerre_. Their young ladies take the utmost pains to teach ourofficers French; with what view I know not, if it is not thatthey may hear themselves praised, flattered, and courted withoutloss of time. "[819]

[Footnote 819: _Alexander Campbell to John Floyd, 22 Oct. 1759_. Campbellwas a lieutenant of the Highlanders; Lloyd was a Connecticutmerchant. ]

Knox was quartered in a small stable, with a hayloft aboveand a rack and manger at one end: a lodging better than fellto the lot of many of his brother officers; and, by means of astove and some help from a carpenter, he says that he madehimself tolerably comfortable. The change, however, was anagreeable one when he was ordered for a week to the GeneralHospital, a mile out of the town, where he was to commandthe guard stationed to protect the inmates and watch theenemy. Here were gathered the sick and wounded of both armies, nursed with equal care by the nuns, of whom Knox speaks with gratitudeand respect. "When our poor fellows were ill and ordered to be removedfrom their odious regimental hospital to this general receptacle, theywere indeed rendered inexpressibly happy. Each patient has his bed, withcurtains, allotted to him, and a nurse to attend him. Every sickor wounded officer has an apartment to himself, and is attendedby 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 opportunitiesof taking great latitudes if they are so disposed; but Inever heard any of them charged with the least levity. " Thenuns, on their part, were well pleased with the conduct oftheir new masters, whom one of them describes as the "mostmoderate 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 theircompany. They were generally cheerful, except when we discoursed onthe late revolution and the affairs of the campaign; then they seeminglygave way to grief, uttered by profound sighs, followed by an _O monDieu!_" He walked in the garden with the French officers, played at cards with them, and passed the time so pleasantlythat his short stay at the hospital seemed an oasis in his hardlife of camp and garrison. 

Mère de Sainte-Claude, the Superior, a sister of Ramesay, late commandant of Quebec, one morning sent him a note ofinvitation to what she called an English breakfast; and thoughthe repast answered to nothing within his experience, he saysthat he "fared exceedingly well, and passed near two hoursmost agreeably in the society of this ancient lady and hervirgin sisters. "

The excellent nuns of the General Hospital are to-day whattheir predecessors were, and the scene of their useful laborsstill answers at many points to that described by the carefulpen of their military guest. Throughout the war they and thenuns of the Hôtel-Dieu had been above praise in their assiduousdevotion to the sick and wounded. 

Brigadier Murray, now in command of Quebec, was a gallantsoldier, 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, andseverely punished others for slighter offences of the same sort. In general the soldiers themselves showed kindness towards theconquered people; during harvest they were seen helping themto reap their fields, without compensation, and sharing withthem their tobacco and rations. The inhabitants were disarmed, and required to take the oath of allegiance. Murray reportedin the spring that the whole country, from Cap-Rouge downward, was in subjection to the British Crown. [820]

[Footnote 820: _Murray to Pitt, 25 May, 1760_. Murray, _Journal, 1759, 1760_. ]

Late in October it was rumored that some of the Frenchships in the river above Quebec were preparing to run by thebatteries. This was the squadron which had arrived in thespring with supplies, and had lain all summer at Batiscan, inthe 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 triedto pass the town on the dark night of the twenty-fourth. Sevenor eight of them succeeded; four others ran aground and wereset on fire by their crews, excepting one which was strandedon the south shore and abandoned. Captain Miller, with a lieutenantand above forty men, boarded her; when, apparently through theirown carelessness, she blew up. [821] Most of the party were killedby the explosion, and the rest, including the two officers, wereleft in a horrible condition between life and death. Thus theyremained till a Canadian, venturing on board in search of plunder, found them, called his neighbors to his aid, carried them to hisown house, and after applying, with the utmost kindness, what simpleremedies he knew, went over to Quebec and told of the disaster. Fortunately for themselves, the sufferers soon died. 

[Footnote 821: _Murray to Amherst, 25 Jan. 1760_. Not, as some believed, bya train laid by the French. ]

December came, and brought the Canadian winter, withits fierce light and cold, glaring snowfields, and piercing blaststhat scorch the cheek like a firebrand. The men were frost-bittenas they dug away the dry, powdery drifts that the wind had piledagainst the rampart. The sentries were relieved every hour; yet feetand fingers were continually frozen. The clothing of the troops wasill-suited to the climate, and, though stoves had been placed in theguard and barrack rooms, the supply of fuel constantly fell short. The cutting and dragging of wood was the chief task of the garrisonfor many weeks. Parties of axemen, strongly guarded, were always at work inthe forest of Ste. -Foy, four or five miles from Quebec, and thelogs were brought to town on sledges dragged by the soldiers. Eight of them were harnessed in pairs to each sledge; and asthere was always danger from Indians and bushrangers, everyman carried his musket slung at his back. The labor was prodigious;for frequent snowstorms made it necessary again and again to beat afresh track through the drifts. The men bore their hardships withadmirable good humor; and once a party of them on their return, draggingtheir 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. Theyaccosted them as yoke-fellows, comrades, and brothers; askedthem what allowance of pork and rum they got; and invitedthem and their owner to mess at the regimental barracks. 

The appearance of the troops on duty within the town, asdescribed by Knox, was scarcely less eccentric. "Our guardson the grand parade make a most grotesque appearance intheir different dresses; and our inventions to guard us againstthe extreme rigor of this climate are various beyond imagination. The uniformity as well as nicety of the clean, methodicalsoldier is buried in the rough, fur-wrought garb of the frozenLaplander; and we rather resemble a masquerade than a bodyof regular troops, insomuch that I have frequently been accostedby my acquaintances, whom, though their voices were familiar to me, I could not discover, or conceive who they were. Besides, every manseems to be in a continual hurry; for instead of walking soberlythrough the streets, we are obliged to observe a running or trotting pace. "

Early in January there was a storm of sleet, followed bysevere frost, which glazed the streets with ice. Knox, beingordered to mount guard in the Lower Town, found the descentof Mountain Street so slippery that it was impossible to walkdown with safety, especially as the muskets of the men wereloaded; 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 coldthan the other troops, as their national costume was but asorry defence against the Canadian winter. A detachment ofthese breechless warriors being on guard at the GeneralHospital, the nuns spent their scanty leisure in knitting forthem long woollen hose, which they gratefully accepted, thoughat 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 attackand recover it. Early in November there was a rumor that he was aboutto march upon it with fifteen thousand men. In December word camethat 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 preparedscaling-ladders, and was training his men to use them by assaultson mock ramparts of snow. There was more tangible evidencethat the enemy was astir. Murray had established two fortified outposts, one at Ste. -Foy, and the other farther on, at Old Lorette. War-partieshovered round both, and kept the occupants in alarm. A large body ofFrench grenadiers appearedat the latter place in February, and droveoff a herd of cattle; when a detachment of rangers, much inferior innumber, set upon them, put them to flight, and recovered the plunder. At the same time a party of regulars, Canadians, andIndians took up astrong position near the church at Point Levi, and sent a message to theEnglish officers that a large company of expert hairdressers were readyto wait upon them whenever they required their services. The allusionwas of course to the scalp-lifting practices of the Indians andbushrangers. 

The river being now hard frozen, Murray sent over a detachmentof light infantry under Major Dalling. A sharp fight ensued on the snow, around the church, and in the neighboringforest, where the Englishsoldiers, taught to use snow-shoes by the rangers, routed the enemy, andkilled or captured a considerable number. A third post was then establishedat the church and the priest's house adjacent. Some days after, theFrench came back in large numbers, fortified themselves withfelled trees, and then attacked the English position. The firingbeing heard at Quebec, the light infantry went over to thescene of action, and Murray himself followed on the ice, withthe Highlanders and other troops. Before he came up, theFrench drew off and retreated to their breastwork, where theywere attacked and put to flight, the nimble Highlanders capturinga few, while the greater part made their escape. 

As it became known that the French held a strong post atLe Calvaire, near St. Augustin, two days' march from Quebec, Captain Donald MacDonald was sent with five hundred mento attack it. He found the enemy behind a breastwork of logsprotected by an abattis. The light infantry advanced andpoured in a brisk fire; on which the French threw down theirarms and fled. About eighty of them were captured; but theircommander, Herbin, escaped, leaving to the victors his watch, hat and feather, wine, liquor-case, and mistress. The Englishhad six men wounded and nearly a hundred frost-bitten. [822]

[Footnote 822: 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 notableskirmish. They were posted in a house not far from the stationat Lorette. A scout came in with news that a large party ofthe enemy was coming to attack them; on which Hazen left asergeant and fourteen men in the house, and set out for Lorettewith the rest to ask a reinforcement. On the way he met theFrench, who tried to surround him; and he told his men tofall back to the house. They remonstrated, saying that they"felt spry, " and wanted to show the regulars that provincialscould fight as well as red-coats. Thereupon they charged theenemy, gave them a close volley of buckshot and bullets, andput them to flight; but scarcely had they reloaded their gunswhen they were fired upon from behind. Another body of assailants hadgot into their rear, in order to cut them off. Theyfaced about, attacked them, and drove them back like the first. The two Frenchparties then joined forces, left Hazen topursue his march, andattacked the fourteen rangers in the house, who met them with abrisk fire. Hazen and his men heard the noise; and, hastening back, fell upon the rear of the French, while those in the house salliedand attacked them infront. They were again routed; and the rangerschased them two miles, killing six of them and capturing seven. Knox, in whose eyes provincials usually find no favor, launches thistime into warm commendation of "our simply honest New England men. "

Fresh reports came in from time to time that the Frenchwere gathering all their strength to recover Quebec; and latein February these stories took a definite shape. A deserter fromMontreal brought Murray a letter from an officer of rangers, who was a prisoner at that place, warning him that eleventhousand men were on the point of marching to attack him. Three other deserters soon after confirmed the news, butadded that the scheme had met with a check; for as it was intendedto carry the town by storm, a grand rehearsal had takenplace, with the help of scaling-ladders planted against the wallof a church; whereupon the Canadians rushed with such zealto the assault that numerous broken legs, arms, and headsensued, along with ruptures, sprains, bruises, and dislocations;insomuch, said the story, that they became disgusted with theattempt. All remained quiet till after the middle of April, whenthe garrison was startled by repeated assurances that at the firstbreaking-up of the ice all Canada would be upon them. Murrayaccordingly ordered the French inhabitants to leave the townwithin three days. [823]

[Footnote 823: _Ordonnance faite à Québec le 21 Avril, 1760, par sonExcellence, Jacques Murray_. ]

In some respects the temper of the troops was excellent. Inthe petty warfare of the past winter they had generally beensuccessful, proving themselves a match for the bushrangersand Indians on their own ground; so that, as Sergeant Johnsonremarks, in his odd way, "Very often a small number of ourmen would put to flight a considerable party of those Cannibals. "They began to think themselves invincible; yet they hadthe deepest cause for anxiety. The effective strength of the garrisonwas reduced to less than half, and of those that remainedfit for duty, hardly a man was entirely free from scurvy. Therank and file had no fresh provisions; and, in spite of everyprecaution, this malignant disease, aided by fever and dysentery, made no less havoc among them than among the crews of Jacques Cartierat this same place two centuries before. Of about seven thousand menleft at Quebec in the autumn, scarcely more than three thousand werefit for duty on the twenty-fourth of April. [824] About seven hundredhad found temporary burial in the snowdrifts, as the frozen ground wasimpenetrable as a rock. 

[Footnote 824: _Return of the present State of His Majesty's Forcesin Garrison at Quebec, 24 April, 1760_ (Public Record Office). ]

Meanwhile Vaudreuil was still at Montreal, where he saysthat he "arrived just in time to take the most judicious measuresand prevent General Amherst from penetrating into thecolony. "[825]During the winter some of the French regulars were kept in garrisonat the outposts, and the rest quartered on the inhabitants; while theCanadians were dismissed to theirhomes, subject to be mustered againat the call of the Governor. Both he and Lévis were full of the hopeof 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. Vaudreuilhad constant information of the state of the garrison. He knew thatthe scurvy was his active and powerful ally, and that the hospitalsand houses of Quebec were crowded withthe sick. At the end of Marchhe was informed that more than half the British were on the sick-list;and it was presentlyrumored that Murray had only two thousand men ableto bear arms. [826] With every allowance for exaggeration in these reports, it was plain that the French could attack their invaders inoverwhelming force. 

[Footnote 825: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 30 Oct. 1759_. ]

[Footnote 826: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 15 Avril, 1760_. ]

The difficulty was to find means of transportation. The depthof the snow and the want of draught animals made it necessaryto wait till the river should become navigable; but preparationwas begun at once. Lévis was the soul of the enterprise. Provisionswere gathered from far and near; cannon, mortars, and munitions ofwar were brought from the frontier posts, and butcher-knives werefitted to the muzzles of guns to servethe Canadians in place ofbayonets. All the workmen aboutMontreal were busied in making toolsand gun-carriages. Stores were impressed from the merchants; andcertain articles, which could not otherwise be had, were smuggled, with extraordinary address, out of Quebec itself. [827] Early inspring the militia received orders to muster for the march. Therewere doubts and discontent; but, says a contemporary, "sensiblepeople dared not speak, for if they did they were set down asEnglish. " 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, undercommand of Vauquelin, the brave officer who haddistinguished himselfat the siege of Louisbourg. The storesand cannon were placed onboard these vessels, the army embarkedin a fleet of bateaux, and onthe twentieth of April thewhole set out together for the scene ofaction. They comprised eight battalions of troops of the line andtwo of colony troops; with the colonial artillery, three thousandCanadians, and four hundred Indians. When they left Montreal, theireffective strength, besides Indians, is said by Lévis to have been sixthousand nine hundred and ten, a number which was increasedas he advanced by the garrisons of Jacques-Cartier, Déschambault, and Pointe-aux-Trembles, as well as by the Canadians on both sideof the St. Lawrence below Three Rivers; forVaudreuil had orderedthe militia captains to join his standard, with all their followers, armed and equipped, on pain of death. [828] These accessions appearto have raised his force to between eight and nine thousand. 

[Footnote 827: __Vaudreuil au Ministre, 23 Avril, 1760_. ]

[Footnote 828: _Vaudreuil aux Capitaines de Milice, 16 Avril, 1760_. I amindebted 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 armylanded at St. Augustin, crossed the river of Cap-Rouge onbridges of their own making, and moved upon the English outpostat Old Lorette. The English abandoned it and fell backto Ste. -Foy. Lévis followed. Night came on, with a gale from the southeast, adriving rain, and violent thunder, unusual at that season. The road, a bad and broken one, led through themarsh called La Suède. Causewaysand bridges broke down under the weight of the marching columns andplunged the men into water, mud, and half-thawed ice. "It was afrightful night, " says Lévis; "so dark that but for the flashes oflightning we should have been forced to stop. " The break of day foundthe vanguard at the edge of the woods bordering the fartherside of the marsh. The storm had abated; and they saw beforethem, a few hundred yards distant, through the misty air, aridge of rising ground on which stood the parish church ofSte. -Foy, with a row of Canadian houses stretching far toright and left. This ridge was the declivity of the plateau ofQuebec; the same which as it approaches the town, some fiveor six miles towards the left, takes the names of Côte d'Abrahamand Côte Ste. -Geneviève. The church and the houses were occupied byBritish troops, who, as the French debouchedfrom the woods, openedon them with cannon, and compelledthem to fall back. Though the ridgeat this point is not steep, the position was a strong one; but hadLévis known how fewwere as yet there to oppose him, he might havecarried it byan assault in front. As it was, he resolved to waittill night, and then flank the enemy by a march to the right alongthe border of the wood. 

It was the morning of Sunday, the twenty-seventh. Till latein the night before, Murray and the garrison of Quebec wereunaware of the immediate danger; and they learned it at lastthrough a singular stroke of fortune. Some time after midnightthe watch on board the frigate "Racehorse, " which hadwintered inthe dock at the Lower Town, heard a feeble cryof distress from themidst of the darkness that covered the St. Lawrence. Captain Macartneywas at once informed of it; and, through an impulse of humanity, he ordered a boat to put outamid the drifting ice that was sweepingup the river with thetide. Guided by the faint cries, the sailorsfound a man lying on a large cake of ice, drenched, and half deadwith cold; and, taking him with difficulty into their boat, theycarried him to the ship. It was long before he was able to speakintelligibly; but at last, being revived by cordials and other remedies, he found strength to tell his benefactors that he was a sergeant ofartillery in the army that had come to retake Quebec; that intrying to land a little above Cap-Rouge, his boat had beenoverset, his companions drowned, and he himself saved byclimbing upon the cake of ice where they had discovered him;that he had been borne by the ebb tide down to the Island ofOrleans, and then brought up to Quebec by the flow; and, finally, that Lévis was marching on the town with twelvethousand men at his back. 

He was placed in a hammock and carried up MountainStreet to the quarters of the General, who was roused fromsleep at three o'clock in the morning to hear his story. Thetroops were ordered under arms; and soon after daybreakMurray marched out with ten pieces of cannon and more thanhalf the garrison. His principal object was to withdraw theadvanced posts at Ste. -Foy, Cap-Rouge, Sillery, and Anse duFoulon. The storm had turned to a cold, drizzling rain, and themen, as they dragged their cannon through snow and mud, were soon drenched to the skin. On reaching Ste. -Foy, theyopened a brisk fire from the heights upon the woods which nowcovered the whole army of Lévis; and being rejoined by thevarious outposts, returned to Quebec in the afternoon, afterblowing up the church, which contained a store of munitionsthat they had no means of bringing off. When they enteredQuebec a gill of rum was served out to each man; severalhouses in the suburb of St. Roch were torn down to supplythem with firewood for drying their clothes; and they were leftto take what rest they could against the morrow. The French, meanwhile, took possession of the abandoned heights; andwhile some filled the houses, barns, and sheds of Ste. -Foy andits neighborhood, others, chiefly Canadians, crossed theplateau 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 withstanda cannonade, and he had long intended to intrench his army on theButtes, as a better position of defence; but the ground, frozen likea rock, had thus far made the plan impracticable. Even now, thoughhe surface was thawed, the soil beneath was still frost-bound, makingthe task of fortificationextremely difficult, if indeed the Frenchwould give him time for it. Murray was young in years, and youngerstill in impulse. He was ardent, fearless, ambitious, and emulousof the fame of Wolfe. "The enemy, " he soon after wrote to Pitt, "wasgreatly superior in number, it is true; but when I consideredthat our little army was in the habit of beating the enemy, andhad a very fine train of field artillery; that shutting ourselvesat once within the walls was putting all upon the single chanceof holding out for a considerable time a wretched fortification, I resolved to give them battle; and, half an hour after six inthe morning, we marched with all the force I could muster, namely, three thousand men. "[829] Some of these had left thehospitals of their own accord in their eagerness to take part inthe fray. 

[Footnote 829: _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 yetthere was no sign of spring. Each leafless bush and tree wasdark with clammy moisture; patches of bare earth lay oozy andblack on the southern slopes: but elsewhere the ground wasstill covered with snow, in some places piled in drifts, andeverywhere sodden with rain; while each hollow and depressionwas full of that half-liquid, lead-colored mixture of snow andwater which new England schoolboys call "slush, " for alldrainage was stopped by the frozen subsoil. The troops hadwith them two howitzers and twenty field-pieces, which hadbeen captured when Quebec surrendered, and had formed apart of that very battery which Ramesay refused to Montcalmat the battle of the autumn before. As there were no horses, thecannon were dragged by some of the soldiers, while otherscarried picks and spades; for as yet Murray seems not to havemade up his mind whether to fortify or fight. Thus they advancednearly half a mile; till reaching the Buttes-à-Neveu, they formedin order of battle along their farther slopes, on thesame groundthat Montcalm had occupied on the morning of his death. 

Murray went forward to reconnoitre. Immediately beforehim was a rising ground, and, beyond it, a tract of forest calledSillery Wood, a mile or more distant. Nearer, on the left, hecould see two blockhouses built by the English in the lastautumn, not far from the brink of the plateau above the Ansedu Foulon where Wolfe climbed the heights. On the right, atthe opposite brink of the plateau, was a house and a fortifiedwind mill belonging to one Dumont. The blockhouses, the mill, and the rising ground between them were occupied by thevanguard of Lévis' army; while, behind, he could descry themain body moving along the road from Ste. -Foy, then turning, battalion after battalion, and rapidly marching across theplateau along the edge of Sillery Wood. The two brigades ofthe leading column had already reached the blockhouses bythe Anse du Foulon, and formed themselves as the right wingof the French line of battle; but those behind were not yet inposition. 

Murray, kindling at the sight, thought that so favorable amoment was not to be lost, and ordered an advance. His lineconsisted of eight battalions, numbering a little above twothousand. In the intervals between them the cannon weredragged through slush and mud by five hundred men; and, ata little distance behind, the remaining two battalions followedas a reserve. The right flank was covered by Dalling's lightinfantry; the left by Hazen's company of rangers and a hundredvolunteers under Major MacDonald. They all moved forwardtill they were on nearly the same ground where Wolfe's army hadbeen drawn up. Then the cannon unlimbered, andopened on the Frenchwith such effect that Lévis, who was on horseback in the middleof the field, sent orders to the corpsof his left to fall backto 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, pushedeagerly forward: in doing which it lost the advantage of thefavorable position it had occupied; and the battalions of theright soon found themselves on low grounds, wading in half-meltedsnow, which in some parts was knee deep. Here the cannon could nolonger be worked with effect. Just in front, a small brook ran alongthe hollow, through soft mud and saturated snowdrifts, thengurgled down the slope on the right, to lose itself in themeadows of the St. Charles. A few rods before this brookstood the house and windmill of Dumont, occupied by fivecompanies of French grenadiers. The light infantry at onceattacked them. A furious struggle ensued, till at length theFrench gave way, and the victors dashed forward to followup their advantage. Their ardor cost them dear. The corps onthe French left, which had fallen back into the woods, nowadvanced again as the cannon ceased to play, rushing on withoutorder but with the utmost impetuosity, led by a gallant oldofficer, Colonel Dalquier, of the battalion of Béarn. A bullet inthe body could not stop him. The light infantry were overwhelmed;and such of them as were left alive were driven back in confusionupon the battalions behind them, along the front of which theyremained dispersed for some minutes, preventing the troops fromfiring on the advancing French, whothus had time to reform theirranks. At length the light infantrygot themselves out of the wayand retired to the rear, where, having lost nearly all their officers, they remained during the rest of the fight. Another struggle followedfor the house and mill of Dumont, of which the French again gotpossession, to be again driven out; and it remained, as if by mutualconsent, unoccupied for some time by either party. For above an hourmore the fight was hot and fierce. "We drove them back aslong as we had ammunition for our cannon, " says SergeantJohnson; but now it failed, and no more was to be had, because, in the eccentric phrase of the sergeant, the tumbrils were "boggedin deep pits of snow. "

While this was passing on the English right, it fared stillworse with them on the left. The advance of the line was noless disastrous here than there. It brought the troops close tothe woods which circled round to this point from the Frenchrear, and from which the Canadians, covered by the trees, nowpoured on them a deadly fire. Here, as on the right, Lévis hadordered his troops to fall back for a time; but when the fire ofthe English cannon ceased, they advanced again, and theirartillery, though consisting of only three pieces, played its partwith good effect. Hazen's rangers and MacDonald's volunteersattacked and took the two adjacent blockhouses, but could nothold them. Hazen was wounded, MacDonald killed, and theirparty overpowered. The British battalions held their groundtill the French, whose superior numbers enabled them to extendthemselves on both sides beyond the English line, made afurious attack on the left wing, in front and flank. The reserveswere ordered up, and the troops stood for a time in sullendesperation under the storm of bullets; but they were droppingfast in the blood-stained snow, and the order came at lengthto fall back. They obeyed with curses: "Damn it, what is fallingback but retreating?"[830] The right wing, also outflanked, followed the example of the left. Some of the corps tried todrag off their cannon; but being prevented by the deep mudand snow they spiked the pieces and abandoned them. TheFrench followed close, hoping to cut off the fugitives fromthe gates of Quebec; till Lévis, seeing that the retreat, thoughprecipitate, was not entirely without order, thought best tostop the pursuit. 

[Footnote 830: Knox, II. 295. ]

The fight lasted about two hours, and did credit to bothsides. The Canadians not only showed their usual address andcourage when under cover of woods, but they also fought wellin the open field; and the conduct of the whole French forceproved how completely they had recovered from the panic ofthe last autumn. From the first they were greatly superior innumber, and at the middle and end of the affair, when theyhad all reached the field, they were more than two againstone. [831] The English, on the other hand, besides the opportunityof attacking before their enemies had completely formed, hada vastly superior artillery and a favorable position, both whichadvantages they lost after their second advance. 

[Footnote 831: See Appendix K. ]

Some curious anecdotes are told of the retreat. ColonelFraser, of the Highlanders, received a bullet which was nodoubt half spent, and which, with excellent precision, hit thebase of his queue, so deadening the shock that it gave him noother inconvenience than a stiff neck. Captain Hazen, of therangers, badly wounded, was making his way towards the gate, supported by his servant, when he saw at a great distancea French officer leading a file of men across a rising ground;whereupon he stopped and told the servant to give him hisgun. A volunteer named Thompson, who was near by and whotells the story, thought that he was out of his senses; but Hazenpersisted, seated himself on the ground, took a long aim, fired, and brought down his man. Thompson congratulated him. "Achance shot may kill the devil, " replied Hazen; and resigninghimself again to the arms of his attendant, he reached thetown, recovered from his wound, and lived to be a general ofthe Revolution. [832]

[Footnote 832: 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 Hazengenealogy in _Historic-Genealogical Register_, XXXIII. ]

The English lost above a thousand, or more than a thirdof their whole number, killed, wounded, and missing. [833] Theycarried off some of their wounded, but left others behind;and the greater part of these were murdered, scalped, andmangled by the Indians, all of whom were converts from themission villages. English writers put the French loss at twothousand 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 andthirty-three. 

[Footnote 833: _Return of Killed, Wounded, and Missing_, signed J. Murray. ]

Murray had left three or four hundred men to guard Quebecwhen the rest marched out; and adding them to those who had returnedscathless from the fight, he now had about twenty-four hundred rankand file fit for duty. Yet even the troops that were rated as effectivewere in so bad a condition that the hyperbolical Sergeant Johnsoncalls them "half-starved, scorbutic skeletons. " That worthy soldier, commonly a model of dutiful respect to those above him, this time sofar forgets himself as to criticise his general for the "mad, enthusiastic zeal" by which he nearly lost the fruits of Wolfe'svictory. In fact, the fate of Quebec trembled in the balance. "We were too few and weak to stand an assault, " continuesJohnson, "and we were almost in as deep a distress as wecould be. " At first there was some drunkenness and someplundering of private houses; but Murray stopped the one bystaving the rum-barrels of the sutlers, and the other by hangingthe chief offender. Within three days order, subordination, hope, and almost confidence were completely restored. Nota man was idle. The troops left their barracks and lay in tentsclose to their respective alarm posts. On the open space bySt. Louis Gate a crowd of convalescents were busy in fillingsand-bags to strengthen the defences, while the sick andwounded in the hospitals made wadding for the cannon. Theramparts were faced with fascines, of which a large stockhad been provided in the autumn; _chevaux-de-frise_ wereplanted in exposed places; an outwork was built to protectSt. Louis Gate; embrasures were cut along the whole lengthof the walls; and the French cannon captured when the townwas taken were planted against their late owners. Every manwas tasked to the utmost of his strength; and the garrison, gaunt, worn, besmirched with mud, looked less like soldiersthan like overworked laborers. 

The conduct of the officers troubled the spirit of SergeantJohnson. It shocked his sense of the fitness of things to seethem sharing the hard work of the private men, and he thusgives utterance to his feelings: "None but those who werepresent on the spot can imagine the grief of heart the soldiersfelt to see their officers yoked in the harness, dragging upcannon from the Lower Town; to see gentlemen, who were set over themby His Majesty to command and keep them to their duty, working atthe 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 ifhe had fallen into a fatal error, he atoned for it now by unconquerableresolution and exhaustless fertility of resource. Deserters said thatLévis 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 trenchesalong the stony back of the Buttes-à-Neveu. Every day theEnglish fire grew hotter; till at last nearly a hundred and fiftycannon vomited iron upon them from the walls of Quebec, and May was well advanced before they could plant a singlegun to reply. Their vessels had landed artillery at the Ansedu Foulon; but their best hope lay in the succors they dailyexpected from the river below. In the autumn Lévis, with aview to his intended enterprise, had sent a request to Versaillesthat a ship laden with munitions and heavy siege-guns should be sentfrom France in time to meet him at Quebec in April; while he lookedalso for another ship, which had wintered at Gaspé, and which thereforemight reach him as soon as navigation opened. The arrival of thesevessels 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 sidewatched the river with an anxiety that grew constantly moreintense; and the English presently descried signals along theshore which seemed to say that French ships were movingup the St. Lawrence. Meantime, while doing their best tocompass each other's destruction, neither side forgot thecourtesies of war. Lévis heard that Murray liked spruce-beerfor his table, and sent him a flag of truce with a quantity ofspruce-boughs and a message of compliment; Murray respondedwith a Cheshire cheese, and Lévis rejoined with a present ofpartridges. 

Bad and scanty fare, excessive toil, and broken sleep weretelling ominously on the strength of the garrison when, on theninth of May, Murray, as he sat pondering over the fire athis quarters in St. Louis Street, was interrupted by an officerwho came to tell him that there was a ship-of-war in theBasin beating up towards the town. Murray started from hisrevery, and directed that British colors should be raised immediatelyon Cape Diamond. [834] The halyards being out of order, a sailorclimbed the staff and drew up the flag to its place. The news hadspread; men and officers, divided between hope and fear, crowdedto the rampart by the Château, where Durham Terrace now overlooksthe St. Lawrence, and every eye was strained on the approaching ship, eager to see whether she would show the red flag of England or thewhite one of France. Slowly her colors rose to the mast-head andunfurled to the wind the red cross of St. George. It was theBritish frigate "Lowestoffe. " She anchored before the LowerTown, and saluted the garrison with twenty-one guns. "Thegladness of the troops, " says Knox, "is not to be expressed. Both officers and soldiers mounted the parapet in the faceof the enemy and huzzaed with their hats in the air for almostan hour. The garrison, the enemy's camp, the bay, and circumjacentcountry resounded with our shouts and the thunder of our artillery;for the gunners were so elated that they did nothing but load andfire for a considerable time. In short, the general satisfactionis not to be conceived, except by a person who had suffered theextremities of a siege, and been destined, with his brave friendsand countrymen, to the scalping-knives of a faithless conquerorand his barbarious allies. " The "Lowestoffe" brought news that aBritish squadron was at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and wouldreach Quebec in a few days. 

[Footnote 834: Thompson in _Revue Canadienne_, IV. 866. ]

Lévis, in ignorance of this, still clung to the hope thatFrench ships would arrive strong enough to overpower theunwelcome stranger. His guns, being at last in position, presently opened fire upon a wall that was not built to bearthe brunt of heavy shot; but an artillery better and morenumerous than his own almost silenced them, and his gunnerswere harassed by repeated sallies. The besiegers had now noreal chance of success unless they could carry the place bystorm, to which end they had provided abundant scaling-laddersas well as petards to burst in the gates. They made, however, noattempt to use them. A week passed, when, on the evening of thefifteenth, the ship of the line "Vanguard" and the frigate "Diana"sailed into the harbor; and on the next morning the "Diana" andthe "Lowestoffe" passed the town to attack the French vesselsin the river above. These were six in all, --two frigates, twosmaller armed ships, and two schooners; the whole under commandof the gallant Vauquelin. He did not belie his reputation; foughthis 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. Theother vessels made little or no resistance. One of them threwher guns overboard and escaped; the rest ran ashore andwere burned. 

The destruction of his vessels was a death-blow to thehopes of Lévis, for they contained his stores of food andammunition. He had passed the preceding night in great agitation;and when the cannonade on the river ceased, he hastened to raise thesiege. In the evening deserters from hiscamp told Murray that theFrench were in full retreat; on which all the English batteriesopened, firing at random through the darkness, and sending cannon-balls_en ricochet_, bowling by scores together, over the Plains ofAbraham on the heels of the retiring enemy. Murray marched out atdawn of day to fall upon their rear; but, with a hundred andfifty cannon bellowing behind them, they had made such speed that, though he pushed over the marsh to Old Lorette, he could not overtakethem; they had already crossed the river of Cap-Rouge. Why, withnumbers still superior, they went off in such haste, it is hard tosay. They left behind them thirty-four cannon and six mortars, withpetards, scaling-ladders, tents, ammunition, baggage, intrenchingtools, many of their muskets, and all their sick and wounded. 

The effort to recover Quebec did great honor to the enterpriseof the French; but it availed them nothing, served onlyto 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 sentto England. The British public were taken by surprise. "Who thedeuce was thinking of Quebec?" says Horace Walpole. "America waslike a book one has read and done with; but here we are on asudden reading our book backwards. " Ten days passed, and thencame word that the siege was raised and that the French were gone;upon which Walpole wrote to General Conway: "Well, Quebec iscome 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. Milbankwas walking by himself in ovation after the car, and theywere going to see the bonfire at the alehouse at the corner. The whole procession returned with me; and from the Countess'sdressing-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 thesiege. My Lord would have showed me the journal; but we amused ourselvesmuch better in going to eat peaches from the new Dutch stoves[_hothouses_]. "

NOTE: On the battle of Ste. -Foy and the subsequent siege, Lévis, _Guerre du Canada. Relation de la seconde Bataille deQuébec et du Siége de cette Ville_ (there are several copies of thispaper, 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 andWest Indies_, XCIX. ). _Murray to Pitt, 25 May, 1760_. _Letter froman 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 of1760_ (Ibid. ). _Relation de ce qui s'est passé au Siége de Québec, par une Religieuse de l'Hôpital Général_ (Ibid. ). _Memoirs of theSiege of Quebec_, by Sergeant John Johnson. _Mémoires sur leCanada, 1749-1760_. Letters of Lévis, Bourlamaque, and Vaudreuil, May, June, 1760. Several letters from officers at Quebecin provincial newspapers. Knox, II. 292-322. _Plan of the Battleand Situation of the British and French on the Heights of Abraham, the 28th of April, 1760_, --an admirable plan, attached tothe great plan of operations at Quebec before mentioned, andnecessary to an understanding of the position and movements ofthe two armies (British Museum, King's Maps). 

The narratives of Mante, Entick, Wynne, Smith, and othersecondary writers give no additional light. On the force engagedon each side, see Appendix K. 

Chapter 30

1760

Fall of Canada

The retreat of Lévis left Canada little hope but in a speedypeace. This hope was strong, for a belief widely prevailedthat, even if the colony should be subdued, it would be restoredto France by treaty. Its available force did not exceedeight or ten thousand men, as most of the Canadians belowthe district of Three Rivers had sworn allegiance to KingGeorge; and though many of them had disregarded the oathto join the standard of Lévis, they could venture to do so nolonger. The French had lost the best of their artillery, theirgunpowder was falling short, their provisions would barelycarry them to harvest time, and no more was to be hopedfor, since a convoy of ships which had sailed from Franceat the end of winter, laden with supplies of all kinds, hadbeen captured by the English. The blockade of the St. Lawrencewas complete. The Western Indians would not fight, and even thoseof the mission villages were wavering and insolent. 

Yet Vaudreuil and Lévis exerted themselves for defencewith an energy that does honor to them both. "Far fromshowing the least timidity, " says the ever-modest Governor, "I have taken positions such as may hide our weakness fromthe enemy. "[835] He stationed Rochbeaucourt with three hundredmen at Pointe-aux-Trembles; Repentigny with two hundredat Jacques-Cartier; and Dumas with twelve hundred atDeschambault to watch the St. Lawrence and, if possible, prevent Murray from moving up the river. Bougainville wasstationed at Isle-aux-Noix to bar the approach from LakeChamplain, and a force under La Corne was held ready todefend the rapids above Montreal, should the English attemptthat dangerous passage. Prisoners taken by war parties nearCrown Point gave exaggerated reports of hostile preparation, and doubled and trebled the forces that were mustering againstCanada. 

[Footnote 835: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 22 Juin, 1760_. ]

These forces were nevertheless considerable. Amherst hadresolved to enter the colony by all its three gates at once, and, advancing from east, west, and south, unite at Montrealand crush it as in the jaws of a vice. Murray was to ascendthe St. Lawrence from Quebec, while Brigadier Haviland forced anentrance by way of Lake Champlain, and Amherst himself led themain army down the St. Lawrence from Lake Ontario. This lastroute was long, circuitous, difficult, andfull of danger fromthe rapids that obstructed the river. His choice of it for hischief line of operation, instead of the shorter and easier wayof Lake Champlain, was meant, no doubt, to prevent the Frencharmy from escaping up the Lakes to Detroit and the other wildernessposts, where it might have protracted the war for an indefinitetime; while the plan adopted, if successful, would make its capturecertain. The plan was a critical one. Three armies advancingfrom three different points, hundreds of miles apart, by routesfull of difficulty, and with no possibility of intercommunication, were to meet at the same place at the same time, or, failing to doso, run the risk of being destroyed in detail. If the French troopscould be kept together, and if the small army of Murray or ofHaviland should reach Montreal a few days before the co-operatingforces appeared, it might be separately attacked and overpowered. In this lay the hope of Vaudreuil and Lévis. [836]

[Footnote 836: _Lévis à Bourlamaque, Juillet, Août, 1760_. ]

After the siege of Quebec was raised, Murray had aneffective force of about twenty-five hundred rank and file. [837]As the spring opened the invalids were encamped on the Island ofOrleans, where fresh air, fresh provisions, and the change fromthe pestiferous town hospitals wrought such wonders on the scorbuticpatients, that in a few weeks a considerable number of them wereagain fit for garrison duty, if not for the field. Thus it happenedthat on the second of July twenty-four hundred and fifty men andofficers received orders to embark for Montreal; and on the fifteenththey set sail, in thirty-two vessels, with a number of boats andbateaux. [838] 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 withdetachments of the enemy who followed them along the shore, ormore frequently trading with the farmers who brought them vegetables, poultry, eggs, and fresh meat. They passed the fortified hill ofJacques-Cartier, whence they were saluted with shot and shell, stopped at various parishes, disarmed the inhabitants, administeredoaths of neutrality, which were taken without much apparent reluctance, and on the fourth of August came within sight of Three Rivers, thenoccupied by a body of troops expecting an attack. "But, " says Knox, "a delay here would be absurd, as that wretched place must share thefate of Montreal. Our fleet sailed this morning. The Frenchtroops, apparently about two thousand, lined their differentworks, and were in general clothed as regulars, except a veryfew Canadians and about fifty naked Picts or savages, theirbodies being painted of a reddish color and their faces ofdifferent colors, which I plainly discerned with my glass. Their light cavalry, who paraded along shore, seemed to bewell appointed, clothed in blue, faced with scarlet; but theirofficers had white uniforms. In fine, their troops, batteries, fair-looking houses; their situation on the banks of a delightfulriver; our fleet sailing triumphantly before them, with ourfloating batteries drawn up in line of battle; the country onboth sides interspersed with neat settlements, together withthe verdure of the fields and trees and the clear, pleasantweather, afforded as agreeable a prospect as the most livelyimagination can conceive. "

[Footnote 837: _Return of the Present State of His Majesty's Forcesin Garrison at Quebec, 21 May, 1760_. ]

[Footnote 838: Knox, II. 344, 348. ]

This excellent lover of the picturesque was still more delightedas the fleet sailed among the islands of St. Peter. "I think nothingcould equal the beauties of our navigation this morning: the meanderingcourse of the narrow channel; the awfulness and solemnity of the darkforests with which these islands are covered; the fragrancy of thespontaneous fruits, shrubs, and flowers; the verdure of the water bythe reflection of the neighboring woods; the wild chirping notes of thefeathered inhabitants; the masts and sails of ships appearingas if among the trees, both ahead and astern: formed altogetheran enchanting diversity. "

The evening recalled him from dreams to realities; fortowards seven o'clock they reached the village of Sorel, wherethey found a large body of troops and militia intrenchedalong the strand. Bourlamaque was in command here with two or threethousand men, and Dumas, with another body, was on the northern shore. Both had orders to keep abreast of the fleet as it advanced; and thusFrench and English alike drew slowly towards Montreal, where lay themain French force under Lévis, ready to unite with Bourlamaqueand Dumas, and fall upon Murray at the first opportunity. Montreal was now but a few leagues distant, and the situationwas becoming delicate. Murray sent five rangers towardsLake Champlain to get news of Haviland, and took measuresat the same time to cause the desertion of the Canadians, who formed the largest part of the opposing force. He senta proclamation among the parishes, advising the inhabitantsto remain peacefully at home, promising that those who didso should be safe in person and property, and threatening toburn every house from which the men of the family were absent. These were not idle words. A detachment sent for the purpose destroyeda settlement near Sorel, the owners of which were in arms underBourlamaque. "I was under the cruel necessity of burning the greatestpart of these poor unhappy people's houses, " wrote Murray. "I pray Godthis example may suffice, for my nature revolts when this becomesa necessary part of my duty. "[839] On the other hand, he treatedwith great kindness all who left the army and returned totheir families. The effect was soon felt. The Canadians camein by scores and by hundreds to give up their arms and takethe oath of neutrality, till, before the end of August, halfBourlamaque's force had disappeared. Murray encamped onIsle Ste. -Thérèse, just below Montreal, and watched andwaited for Haviland and Amherst to appear. [840]

[Footnote 839: _Murray to Pitt, 24 Aug. 1760_. ]

[Footnote 840: Knox, II. 382, 384. Mante, 340. ]

Vaudreuil on his part was not idle. He sent a counter-proclamationthrough the parishes as an antidote to that of Murray. "I have beencompelled, " he writes to the Minister, "to decree the pain ofdeath to the Canadians who are so dastardly as to desert or giveup their arms to the enemy, and to order that the houses of thosewho do not join our army shall be burned. "[841] Execution was to besummary, without court-martial. [842] Yet desertion increased daily. The Canadians felt themselves doubly ruined, for it became known thatthe Court had refused to redeem the paper that formed the wholecurrency of the colony; and, in their desperation, they preferredto trust the tried clemency of the enemy rather than exasperate himby persisting in a vain defence. Vaudreuil writes in his usual strain:"I am taking the most just measures to unite our forces, and, if oursituation permits, fight a battle, or several battles. It is to befeared 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'sarms. I have the honor to repeat to you, Monseigneur, thatif any resource were left me, whatever the progress the Englishmight make, I would maintain myself in some part of the colony with myremaining troops, after having fought with the greatest obstinacy; butI am absolutely without the least remnant of the necessary means. Inthese unhappy circumstances I shall continue to use every manoeuvre anddevice to keep the enemy in check; but if we succumb in thebattles we shall fight, I shall apply myself to obtaining a capitulationwhich 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 beingrestored by the treaty of peace to the rule of His Most ChristianMajesty. It is with this view that I shall remain in this town, theChevalier de Lévis having represented to me that it would be an evilto the colonists past remedy if any accident should happen to me. "Lévis was willing to go very far in soothing the susceptibilitiesof the Governor; but it may be suspected this time that hethought him more useful within four walls than in the openfield. 

[Footnote 841: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 29 Août, 1760_. ]

[Footnote 842: _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-Noixwith seventeen hundred men, and Roquemaure at St. John, a fewmiles distant, with twelve or fifteen hundred more, besides allthe Indians. [843] Haviland embarked at Crown Point with thirty-fourhundred regulars, provincials, and Indians. [844] Four days broughthim to Isle-aux-Noix; he landed, planted cannon in the swamp, andopened fire. Major Darby with the light infantry, and Rogers withthe rangers, dragged three light pieces through the forest, andplanted them on the river-bank in the rear of Bougainville's position, where lay the French naval force, consisting of three armedvessels and several gunboats. The cannon were turned uponthe principal ship; a shot cut her cable, and a strong westwind drove her ashore into the hands of her enemies. Theother vessels and gunboats made all sail for St. John, butstranded in a bend of the river, where the rangers, swimmingout 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 accordancewith instructions from Vaudreuil, he abandoned the island on thenight of the twenty-seventh of August, and, making his way withinfinite difficulty through the dark forest, joined Roquemaureat St. John, twelve miles below. Haviland followed, the rangersleading the way. Bougainville and Roquemaure fell back, abandonedSt. John and Chambly, and joined Bourlamaque on the banks of theSt. Lawrence, where the united force at first outnumbered that ofHaviland, though fast melted away by discouragement and desertion. Haviland opened communication with Murray, and they bothlooked daily for the arrival of Amherst, whose approach wasrumored by prisoners and deserters. [845]

[Footnote 843: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 29 Août, 1760_. ]

[Footnote 844: _A List of the Forces employed in the Expedition againstCanada, 1760_. Compare Mante, 340, Knox, II. 392, and Rogers, 188. Chevalier Johnstone, who was with Bougainville, says "aboutfour thousand, " which Vaudreuil multiplies to twelve thousand. ]

[Footnote 845: Rogers, _Journals. Diary of a Sergeant in the Army ofHaviland_. Johnstone, _Campaign of 1760. Bigot au Ministre, 29 Août, 1760_. ]

The army of Amherst had gathered at Oswego in July. Onthe tenth of August it was all afloat on Lake Ontario, to thenumber of ten thousand one hundred and forty-two men, besides aboutseven hundred Indians under Sir William Johnson. [846]Before thefifteenth the whole had reached La Présentation, otherwise calledOswegatchie or La Galette, the seat of Father Piquet's mission. Nearby was a French armed brig, the "Ottawa, " with ten cannon and a hundredmen, 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 hadlingered behind, bewildered among the channels of the Thousand Islands. 

[Footnote 846: _A List of the Forces employed in the Expedition againstCanada_. 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, continuinghis voyage without paying it the honor of a siege; and this was whatthe French commanders feared that he would do. "We shall be fortunate, "Lévis wrote to Bourlamaque, "if the enemy amuse themselves with capturingit. My chief anxiety is lest Amherst should reach Montrealso soon that we may not have time to unite our forces to attack Havilandor Murray. " If he had better known the English commander, Lévis wouldhave seen that he was not the man to leave a post of the enemy in hisrear under any circumstances; and Amherst had also another reason forwishing to get the garrison into his hands, for he expected tofind among them the pilots whom he needed to guide his boats down therapids. He therefore invested the fort, and, on the twenty-third, cannonaded it from his vessels, the mainland, and the neighboringislands. It was commanded by Pouchot, the late commandant of Niagara, made prisoner in the last campaign, and since exchanged. As the rockyislet had but little earth, the defences, though thick andstrong, were chiefly of logs, which flew in splinters under thebombardment. The French, however, made a brave resistance. The firing lasted all day, was resumed in the morning, andcontinued two days more; when Pouchot, whose works werein ruins, surrendered himself and his garrison. On this, Johnson'sIndians prepared to kill the prisoners; and, being compelledto desist, three fourths of them went home in a rage. [847]

[Footnote 847: 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 theEnglish_ (Boston, 1760). _Journal of Colonel Nathaniel Woodhull_. ]

Now began the critical part of the expedition, the descentof 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-fourmen were drowned. [848] La Corne was watching the rapids with aconsiderable body of Canadians; and it is difficult to see why thisbold and enterprising chief allowed the army to descend undisturbedthrough passes so dangerous. At length the last rapid was left behind;and the flotilla, gliding in peace over the smooth breast of LakeSt. Louis, landed at Isle Perrot, a few leagues from Montreal. Inthe morning, September sixth, the troops embarked again, landedunopposed at La Chine, nine miles from the city, marched onwithout delay, and encamped before its walls. 

[Footnote 848: _Amherst to Pitt, 8 Sept. 1760_. ]

The Montreal of that time was a long, narrow assemblageof wooden or stone houses, one or two stories high, abovewhich rose the peaked towers of the Seminary, the spires ofthree churches, the walls of four convents, with the trees oftheir adjacent gardens, and, conspicuous at the lower end, a high mound of earth, crowned by a redoubt, where a fewcannon were mounted. The whole was surrounded by a shallowmoat and a bastioned stone wall, made for defenceagainst Indians, and incapable of resisting cannon. [849]

[Footnote 849: _An East View of Montreal, drawn on the Spot by ThomasPatten_ (King's Maps, British Museum), _Plan of Montreal, 1759. A Description of Montreal_, in several magazines of the time. Therecent Canadian publication called _Le Vieux Montréal_, is exceedinglyincorrect as to the numbers of the British troops and theposition of their camps. ]

On the morning after Amherst encamped above the place, Murray landed to encamp below it; and Vaudreuil, lookingacross the St. Lawrence, could see the tents of Haviland'slittle army on the southern shore. Bourlamaque, Bougainville, and Roquemaure, abandoned by all their militia, had crossedto 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, consistingof twenty-two hundred troops of the line and some two hundredcolony troops; for all the Canadians had by this time gone home. Many of the regulars, especially of the colony troops, had alsodeserted; and the rest were so broken in discipline that theirofficers were forced to use entreaties instead of commands. Thethree armies encamped around the city amounted to seventeenthousand men;[850] Amherst was bringing up his cannon from LaChine, and the town wall would have crumbled before them in an hour. 

[Footnote 850: _A List of the Forces employed in the Expeditionagainst Canada_. See Smith, _History of Canada_, I. Appendix xix. Vaudreuil writes to Charles Langlade, on the ninth, that the threearmies amount to twenty thousand, and raises the number to thirty-twothousand in a letter to the Minister on the next day. Berniers saystwenty thousand; Lévis, for obvious reasons, exaggerates thenumber to forty thousand. ]

On the night when Amherst arrived, the Governor calleda council of war. [851] It was resolved that since all the militiaand many of the regulars had abandoned the army, and theIndian allies of France had gone over to the enemy, furtherresistance was impossible. Vaudreuil laid before the assembledofficers a long paper that he had drawn up, containing fifty-fivearticles of capitulation to be proposed to the English;and these were unanimously approved. [852] In the morningBougainville carried them to the tent of Amherst. He grantedthe greater part, modified some, and flatly refused others. That which the French officers thought more important thanall the rest was the provision that the troops should marchout with arms, cannon, and the honors of war; to which itwas replied: "The whole garrison of Montreal and all otherFrench troops in Canada must lay down their arms, and shall notserve during the present war. " This demand was felt to be intolerable. The Governor sent Bougainville back to remonstrate; but Amherst wasinflexible. Then Lévis tried to shake his resolution, and sent him anofficer with the following note: "I send your Excellency M. De laPause, Assistant Quartermaster-General of the Army, on the subject ofthe too rigorous article which you dictate to the troops by thecapitulation, to which it would not be possible for us to subscribe. "Amherst answered the envoy: "I am fully resolved, for the infamous partthe troops of France have acted in exciting the savages to perpetrate themost horrid and unheard of barbarities in the whole progress of the war, and for other open treacheries and flagrant breaches of faith, to manifestto all the world by this capitulation my detestation of such practices;"and he dismissed La Pause with a short note, refusing to change theconditions. 

[Footnote 851: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 10 Sept. 1760_. ]

[Footnote 852: _Procès-verbal de la Déliberation du Conseil de Guerre tenuà Montréal, 6 Sept. 1760_. ]

On the next morning, September eighth, Vaudreuil yielded, and signed the capitulation. By it Canada and all its dependenciespassed to the British Crown. French officers, civil andmilitary, with French troops and sailors, were to be sent toFrance in British ships. Free exercise of religion was assuredto the people of the colony, and the religious communitieswere to retain their possessions, rights, and privileges. Allpersons who might wish to retire to France were allowed todo so, and the Canadians were to remain in full enjoymentof feudal and other property, including negro and Indianslaves. [853]

[Footnote 853: _Articles of Capitulation, 8 Sept. 1760. Amherst to Pitt, same date_. ]

The greatest alarm had prevailed among the inhabitantslest they should suffer violence from the English Indians, andVaudreuil had endeavored to provide that these dangerousenemies should be sent back at once to their villages. Thiswas refused, with the remark: "There never have been anycruelties committed by the Indians of our army. " Strict precautionswere taken at the same time, not only against the few savages whom thefirm conduct of Johnson at Fort Lévis had not driven away, but alsoagainst the late allies of the French, now become a peril to them. Inconsequence, not a man, woman, or child was hurt. Amherst, in generalorders, expressed his confidence "that the troops will not disgracethemselves by the least appearance of inhumanity, or by anyunsoldierlike behavior in seeking for plunder; and that as theCanadians are now become British subjects, they will feel thegood effects of His Majesty's protection. " They were in facttreated with a kindness that seemed to surprise them. 

Lévis was so incensed at the demand that the troops shouldlay down their arms and serve no longer during the war that, before the capitulation was signed, he made a formal protest[854]in his own name and that of the officers from France, andinsisted that the negotiation should be broken off. "If, " headded, "the Marquis de Vaudreuil, through political motives, thinks himself obliged to surrender the colony at once, weask his permission to withdraw with the troops of the line tothe Island of St. Helen, in order to uphold there, on our ownbehalf, the honor of the King's arms. " The proposal was ofcourse rejected, as Lévis knew that it would be, and he andhis officers were ordered to conform to the capitulation. WhenVaudreuil reached France, three months after, he had themortification to receive from the Colonial Minister a lettercontaining these words: "Though His Majesty was perfectlyaware of the state of Canada, nevertheless, after the assurancesyou had given to make the utmost efforts to sustain thehonor of his arms, he did not expect to hear so soon of thesurrender of Montreal and the whole colony. But, grantingthat capitulation was a necessity, his Majesty was not the lesssurprised and ill pleased at the conditions, so little honorable, to which you submitted, especially after the representationsmade you by the Chevalier de Lévis. "[855] The brother ofVaudreuil complained to the Minister of the terms of thisletter, and the Minister replied: "I see with regret, Monsieur, that you are pained by the letter I wrote your brother; butI could not help telling him what the King did me the honorto say to me; and it would have been unpleasant for him tohear it from anybody else. "[856]

[Footnote 854: _Protêt de M. De Lévis à M. De Vaudreuil contre la Clausedans les Articles de Capitulation qui exige que les Troupes mettrontbas les Armes, avec l'Ordre de M. De Vaudreuil au Chevalierde Lévis de se conformer à la Capitulation proposée. Vaudreuilau Ministre de la Marine, 10 Sept. 1760. Lévis au Ministre de laGuerre, 27 Nov. 1760_. ]

[Footnote 855: _Le Ministre à Vaudreuil, 5 Déc. 1760_. ]

[Footnote 856: _Le Ministre au Vicomte de Vaudreuil, Frère du Gouverneur, 21 Déc. 1760_. ]

It is true that Vaudreuil had in some measure drawn thisreproach upon himself by his boastings about the battles hewould fight; yet the royal displeasure was undeserved. TheGovernor had no choice but to give up the colony; for Amherst hadhim in his power, and knew that he could exact what terms he pleased. Further resistance could only have ended in surrender at the discretionof the victor, and the protest of Lévis was nothing but a device to savehis own reputation and that of his brother officers from France. Vaudreuil had served the King and the colony in some respectswith ability, always with an unflagging zeal; and he lovedthe land of his birth with a jealous devotion that goes fartowards redeeming his miserable defects. The King himself, and not the servants whom he abandoned to their fate, wasanswerable for the loss of New France. 

Half the continent had changed hands at the scratch of apen. Governor Bernard, of Massachusetts, proclaimed a dayof thanksgiving for the great event, and the Boston newspapersrecount how the occasion was celebrated with a parade of the cadetsand other volunteer corps, a grand dinner in Faneuil Hall, music, bonfires, illuminations, firing of cannon, and, above all, by sermonsin every church of the province; for the heart of early New Englandalways found voice through her pulpits. Before me lies a bundle ofthese sermons, rescued from sixscore years of dust, scrawled on theirtitle-pages with names of owners dead long ago, worm-eaten, dingy, stained with the damps of time, and uttering in quaintold letterpress the emotions of a buried and forgotten past. Triumph, gratulation, hope, breathe in every line, but noill-will against a fallen enemy. Thomas Foxcroft, pastor ofthe "Old Church in Boston, " preaches from the text, "TheLord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad. ""Long, " he says, "had it been the common opinion, _Delendaest Carthago_, Canada must be conquered, or we could hopefor no lasting quiet in these parts; and now, through the goodhand of our God upon us, we see the happy day of its accomplishment. We behold His Majesty's victorious troops treading upon the highplaces of the enemy, their last fortress delivered up, and theirwhole country surrendered to the King of Britain in the person ofhis general, the intrepid, the serene, the successful Amherst. "

The loyal John Mellen, pastor of the Second Church inLancaster, exclaims, boding nothing of the tempest to come:"Let us fear God and honor the King, and be peaceable subjectsof an easy and happy government. And may the blessing of Heaven beever upon those enemies of our country that have now submitted tothe English Crown, and according to the oath they have taken leadquiet lives in all godliness and honesty. " Then he ventures topredict that America, now thrown open to British colonists, willbe peopled in a century and a half with sixty million souls: aprophecy likely to be more than fulfilled. 

"God has given us to sing this day the downfall of NewFrance, the North American Babylon, New England's rival, "cries Eli Forbes to his congregation of sober farmers andstaid matrons at the rustic village of Brookfield. Like many ofhis flock, he had been to the war, having served two yearsas chaplain of Ruggles's Massachusetts regiment; and somethingof a martial spirit breathes through his discourse. He passes inreview the events of each campaign down to their triumphant close. "Thus God was our salvation and our strength; yet he who directsthe 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 everyProtestant heart. Is he dead? I recall myself. Such heroes are immortal;he lives on every loyal tongue; he lives in every gratefulbreast; and charity bids me give him a place among the princesof heaven. " Nor does he forget the praises of Amherst, "therenowned general, worthy of that most honorable of all titles, the Christian hero; for he loves his enemies, and while hesubdues them he makes them happy. He transplants Britishliberty to where till now it was unknown. He acts the General, the Briton, the Conqueror, and the Christian. What fair hopesarise from the peaceful and undisturbed enjoyment of thisgood land, and the blessing of our gracious God with it! MethinksI see towns enlarged, settlements increased, and this howlingwilderness become a fruitful field which the Lord hath blessed;and, to complete the scene, I see churches rise and flourish inevery Christian grace where has been the seat of Satan and Indianidolatry. "

Nathaniel Appleton, of Cambridge, hails the dawning of anew era. "Who can tell what great and glorious things Godis about to bring forward in the world, and in this world ofAmerica in particular? Oh, may the time come when thesedeserts, which for ages unknown have been regions of darknessand habitations of cruelty, shall be illuminated with thelight of the glorious Gospel, and when this part of the world, which till the later ages was utterly unknown, shall be theglory and joy of the whole earth!"

On the American continent the war was ended, and theBritish colonists breathed for a space, as they drifted unwittinglytowards a deadlier strife. They had learned hard and useful lessons. Their mutual jealousies and disputes, the quarrels of their governorsand assemblies, the want of any general military organization, andthe absence, in most of them, of military habits, joined to narrowviews of their own interest, had unfitted them to the last degree forcarrying on offensive war. Nor were the British troops sent for theirsupport remarkable in the beginning for good discipline orefficient command. When hostilities broke out, the army ofGreat Britain was so small as to be hardly worth the name. A new one had to be created; and thus the inexperiencedShirley and the incompetent Loudon, with the futile Newcastlebehind them, had, besides their own incapacity, the disadvantage ofraw troops and half-formed officers; while against them stood anenemy who, though weak in numbers, was strong in a centralized militaryorganization, skilful leaders armed with untrammelled and absoluteauthority, practised soldiers, and a population not only brave, but ingood part inured to war. 

The nature of the country was another cause that helpedto protract the contest. "Geography, " says Von Moltke, "isthree fourths of military science;" and never was the truthof his words more fully exemplified. Canada was fortified withvast outworks of defence in the savage forests, marshes, andmountains that encompassed her, where the thoroughfareswere streams choked with fallen trees and obstructed bycataracts. Never was the problem of moving troops, encumberedwith baggage and artillery, a more difficult one. The question wasless how to fight the enemy than how to get at him. If a fewpracticable roads had crossed this broad tract of wilderness, thewar would have been shortened and its character changed. 

From these and other reasons, the numerical superiorityof the English was to some extent made unavailing. Thissuperiority, though exaggerated by French writers, was neverthelessimmense if estimated by the number of men called to arms; but onlya part of these could be employed in offensive operations. The restgarrisoned forts and blockhouses and guarded the far reach of frontierfrom Nova Scotia to South Carolina, where a wily enemy, silent andsecret as fate, choosing their own time and place of attack, and striking unawares at every unguarded spot, compelled thousandsof men, scattered at countless points of defence, to keep unceasingwatch against a few hundred savage marauders. Full half thelevies of the colonies, and many of the regulars, were usedin service of this kind. 

In actual encounters the advantage of numbers was oftenwith the French, through the comparative ease with whichthey could concentrate their forces at a given point. Of theten considerable sieges or battles of the war, five, besides thegreat bushfight in which the Indians defeated Braddock, werevictories for France; and in four of these--Oswego, FortWilliam Henry, Montmorenci, and Ste. -Foy--the odds weregreatly on her side. 

Yet in this the most picturesque and dramatic of Americanwars, there is nothing more noteworthy than the skill withwhich the French and Canadian leaders used their advantages;the indomitable spirit with which, slighted and abandoned asthey were, they grappled with prodigious difficulties, and thecourage with which they were seconded by regulars and militia alike. In spite of occasional lapses, the defence of Canada deserves a tributeof admiration. 

Chapter 31

1758-1763

The Peace of Paris

In accordance with the terms of the capitulation of Montreal, the French military officers, with such of the soldiers as couldbe kept together, as well as all the chief civil officers of thecolony, sailed for France in vessels provided by the conquerors. They were voluntarily followed by the principal members of theCanadian _noblesse_, and by many of the merchants who hadno mind to swear allegiance to King George. The peasants and poorercolonists remained at home to begin a new life under a new flag. 

Though this exodus of the natural leaders of Canada wasin good part deferred till the next year, and though the numberof persons to be immediately embarked was reduced by the desertionof many French soldiers who had married Canadian wives, yet theEnglish authorities were sorely perplexed to find vessels enoughfor the motley crowd of passengers. When at last they were all ontheir way, a succession of furious autumnal storms fell upon them. The ship that carried Lévis barely escaped wreck, and that which boreVaudreuil and his wife fared little better. [857] Worst of all was thefate of the "Auguste, " on board of which was the bold butruthless 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 chroniclerpaints the unhappy vessel as a floating Babylon, and sees inher fate the stern judgment of Heaven. [858] It is true that NewFrance ran riot in the last years of her existence; but beforethe "Auguste" was well out of the St. Lawrence she was sotossed 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 passengerssubdued the flames after desperate efforts; but their only foodthenceforth was dry biscuit. Off the coast of Cape Breton another galerose. 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 overon her side. La Corne with six others gained the beach; andtowards night they saw the ship break asunder, and counteda hundred and fourteen corpses strewn along the sand. Aidedby Indians and by English officers, La Corne made his wayon snow-shoes up the St. John, and by a miracle of enduringhardihood reached Quebec before the end of winter. [859]

[Footnote 857: _Lévis à Belleisle, 27 Nov. 1760_. ]

[Footnote 858: Faillon, _Vie de Mademoiselle Le Ber_, 363-370. ]

[Footnote 859: _Journal du Voyage de M. Saint-Luc de la Corne_. This is hisown narrative. ]

The other ships weathered the November gales, and landedtheir passengers on the shores of France, where some of themfound a dismal welcome, being seized and thrown into theBastille. These were Vaudreuil, Bigot, Cadet, Péan, Bréard, Varin, Le Mercier, Penisseault, Maurin, Corpron, and othersaccused of the frauds and peculations that had helped to ruinCanada. In the next year they were all put on trial, whetheras an act of pure justice or as a device to turn public indignationfrom the Government. In December, 1761, judges commissionedfor the purpose began their sessions at the Châtelet, and aprodigious mass of evidence was laid before them. Cadet, withbrazen effrontery, at first declared himself innocent, but endedwith full and unblushing confession. Bigot denied everything tillsilenced point by point with papers bearing his own signature. The prisoners defended themselves by accusing each other. Bigotand Vaudreuil brought mutual charges, while all agreed in denouncingCadet. Vaudreuil, as before mentioned, was acquitted. Bigot was banishedfrom France for life, his property was confiscated, and he was condemnedto pay fifteen hundred thousand francs by way of restitution. Cadet wasbanished for nine years from Paris and required to refund six millions;while others were sentenced in sums varying from thirty thousand toeight hundred thousand francs, and were ordered to be held in prisontill the money was paid. Of twenty-one persons brought to trial tenwere 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 inthe case of the rest. [860] Even those who escaped from justice profitedlittle by their gains, for unless they had turned them betimes into landor other substantial values, they lost them in a discredited papercurrency and dishonored bills of exchange. 

[Footnote 860: _Jugement rendu souverainement et en dernier Ressort dansl'Affaire du Canada_. Papers at the Châtelet of Paris, cited byDussieux. ]

While on the American continent the last scenes of the warwere drawing to their close, the contest raged in Europe withunabated violence. England was in the full career of success;but her great ally, Frederic of Prussia, seemed tottering to hisruin. In the summer of 1758 his glory was at its height. French, Austrians, and Russians had all fled before him. Butthe autumn brought reverses; and the Austrian general, Daun, at the head of an overwhelming force, gained over him apartial victory, which his masterly strategy robbed of itsfruits. It was but a momentary respite. His kingdom was exhaustedby its own triumphs. His best generals were dead, his best soldierskilled or disabled, his resources almost spent, the very chandeliersof his palace melted into coin; and all Europe was in arms against him. The disciplined valor of the Prussian troops and the supreme leadershipof 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, whomhe 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 eightycannon, forced their centre to give ground, and after hours offurious fighting was overwhelmed at last. In vain he tried tostop the rout. The bullets killed two horses under him, tore hisclothes, and crushed a gold snuff-box in his waistcoat pocket. "Is there no b---- of a shot that can hit me, then?" he criedin his bitterness, as his aides-de-camp forced him from thefield. For a few days he despaired; then rallied to his forlorntask, and with smiles on his lip and anguish at his heartwatched, manoeuvred, and fought with cool and stubborn desperation. To his friend D'Argens he wrote soon after his defeat: "Death is sweetin comparison to such a life as mine. Have pity on me and it; believethat I still keep to myself a great many evil things, not wishing toafflict or disgust anybody with them, and that I would not counselyou 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 inthe dissensions and delays of his enemies. But his cup was notyet full. Dresden was taken from him, eight of his remaininggenerals and twelve thousand men were defeated and capturedat Maxen, and "this infernal campaign, " as he calls it, closedin thick darkness. 

"I wrap myself in my stoicism as best I can, " he writes toVoltaire. "If you saw me you would hardly know me: I amold, broken, gray-headed, wrinkled. If this goes on there willbe nothing left of me but the mania of making verses and aninviolable attachment to my duties and to the few virtuousmen I know. But you will not get a peace signed by my handexcept 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, thesame intrepid resolution, the same subtle strategy, the sameskill in eluding the blow and lightning-like quickness in retortingit, marked Frederic's campaign of 1760. At Liegnitz threearmies, each equal to his own, closed round him, and he putthem all to flight. While he was fighting in Silesia, the Alliesmarched upon Berlin, took it, and held it three days, butwithdrew on his approach. For him there was no peace. "Whyweary you with the details of my labors and my sorrows?"he wrote again to his faithful D'Argens. "My spirits haveforsaken me; all gayety is buried with the loved noble ones towhom my heart was bound. " He had lost his mother and hisdevoted sister Wilhelmina. "You as a follower of Epicurusput a value upon life; as for me, I regard death from the Stoicpoint of view. I have told you, and I repeat it, never shall myhand sign a humiliating peace. Finish this campaign I will, resolved to dare all, to succeed, or find a glorious end. " Thencame the victory of Torgau, the last and one of the mostdesperate of his battles: a success dearly bought, and bringingneither rest nor safety. Once more he wrote to D'Argens:"Adieu, dear Marquis; write to me sometimes. Don't forget apoor devil who curses his fatal existence ten times a day. ""I live like a military monk. Endless business, and a little consolationfrom my books. I don't know if I shall outlive this war, but if I doI am firmly resolved to pass the rest of my life in solitude in thebosom of philosophy and friendship. Your nation, you see, is blinderthan you thought. These fools will lose their Canada and Pondicherryto please the Queen of Hungary and the Czarina. "

The campaign of 1761 was mainly defensive on the part ofFrederic. In the exhaustion of his resources he could see nomeans of continuing the struggle. "It is only Fortune, " saysthe royal sceptic, "that can extricate me from the situationI am in. I escape out of it by looking at the universe on thegreat scale like an observer from some distant planet. All thenseems to be so infinitely small that I could almost pity myenemies for giving themselves so much trouble about so verylittle. I read a great deal, I devour my books. But for themI think hypochondria would have had me in Bedlam beforenow. In fine, dear Marquis, we live in troublous times anddesperate situations. I have all the properties of a stage hero;always in danger, always on the point of perishing. "[861] And inanother mood: "I begin to feel that, as the Italians say, revengeis a pleasure for the gods. My philosophy is worn out bysuffering. I am no saint, and I will own that I should die contentif only I could first inflict a part of the misery that Iendure. "

[Footnote 861: 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 eventtook place in England that was to have great influence on thewar. Walpole recounts it thus, writing to George Montagu onthe twenty-fifth of October, 1760: "My man Harry tells meall the amusing news. He first told me of the late Prince ofWales's death, and to-day of the King's; so I must tell you allI know of departed majesty. He went to bed well last night, rose at six this morning as usual, looked, I suppose, if all hismoney was in his purse, and called for his chocolate. A littleafter seven he went into the closet; the German _valet-de-chambre_heard a noise, listened, heard something like a groan, ran in, andfound the hero of Oudenarde and Dettingen on the floor with a gashon his right temple by falling against the corner of a bureau. Hetried to speak, could not, and expired. The great ventricle of theheart 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 preparingfor some time. His grandfather was German at heart, loved hisContinental kingdom of Hanover, and was eager for all measures thatlooked to its defence and preservation. Pitt, too, had of latevigorously supported the Continental war, saying that he would conquerAmerica in Germany. Thus with different views the King and the Ministerhad concurred in the same measures. But George III. Was English bybirth, language, and inclination. His ruling passion was theestablishment and increase of his own authority. He disliked Pitt, therepresentative 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 givefree scope to his schemes for strengthening the prerogative. He wasnot alone in his pacific inclinations. The enemies of the haughtyMinister, who had ridden roughshod over men far above him in rank, were tired of his ascendency, and saw no hope of ending it but by endingthe war. Thus a peace party grew up, and the young King becameits 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 ofthe hated line of Hanover, could recognize and admire thesame spirit of arbitrary domination that had marked theirfallen idols, the Stuarts; and they now joined hands with thediscontented Whigs in opposition to Pitt. The horrors of war, the blessings of peace, the weight of taxation, the growth ofthe national debt, were the rallying cries of the new party; butthe 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; andthe King had begun to hate him as a lion in his path. Pitt heldto 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 shecould no more be a danger to her rival. In this he had the sympathyof the great body of the nation. 

Early in 1761 the King, a fanatic for prerogative, set hisenginery in motion. The elections for the new Parliament weremanipulated in his interest. If he disliked Pitt as the representativeof the popular will, he also disliked his colleague, theshuffling and uncertain Newcastle, as the representative of atoo powerful nobility. Elements hostile to both were introduced intothe Cabinet and the great offices. The King'sfavorite, 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 wassure for the King; while a place in the Cabinet was also given to the Dukeof 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 andRussia at her expense, and conclude a separate peace with France. 

France was in sore need of peace. The infatuation that hadturned her from her own true interest to serve the passionsof Maria Theresa and the Czarina Elizabeth had brought militaryhumiliation and financial ruin. Abbé de Bernis, Minister of ForeignAffairs, had lost the favor of Madame de Pompadour, and had beensupplanted by the Duc de Choiseul. The new Minister had gained hisplace by pleasing the favorite; but he kept it through his own abilityand the necessities of the time. The Englishman Stanley, whom Pittsent to negotiate with him, drew this sketch of his character: "Thoughhe may have his superiors, not only in experience of business, but in depth and refinement as a statesman, he is a personof as bold and daring a spirit as any man whatever in ourcountry or in his own. Madame Pompadour has ever been looked upon byall preceding courtiers and ministers as their tutelary deity, underwhose auspices only they could exist, and who was as much out oftheir reach as if she were of a superior class of beings; but thisMinister is so far from being in subordination to her influence thathe seized the first opportunity of depriving her not of an equality, but of any share of power, reducing her to the necessity of applyingto him even for those favors that she wants for herself and her dependents. He has effected this great change, which every other manwould 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. "[862]

[Footnote 862: _Stanley to Pitt, 6 Aug. 1761_, in _GrenvilleCorrespondence_, I. 367, _note_. ]

Choiseul was vivacious, brilliant, keen, penetrating; believingnothing, fearing nothing; an easy moralist, an uncertainally, a hater of priests; light-minded, inconstant; yet a kind ofpatriot, eager to serve France and retrieve her fortunes. 

He flattered himself with no illusions. "Since we do notknow how to make war, " he said, "we must make peace;"[863]and he proposed a congress of all the belligerent Powers atAugsburg. At the same time, since the war in Germany wasdistinct from the maritime and colonial war of France andEngland, he proposed a separate negotiation with the BritishCourt in order to settle the questions between them as apreliminary to the general pacification. Pitt consented, andStanley went as envoy to Versailles; while M. De Bussy cameas envoy to London and, in behalf of Choiseul, offered termsof peace, the first of which was the entire abandonment ofCanada to England. [864] But the offers were accompanied by thedemand that Spain, which had complaints of its own againstEngland, should be admitted as a party to the negotiation, andeven hold in some measure the attitude of a mediator. Pittspurned the idea with fierce contempt. "Time enough to treatof all that, sir, when the Tower of London is taken sword inhand. "[865] He bore his part with the ability that never failed him, and with a supreme arrogance that rose to a climax in hisdemand that the fortress of Dunkirk should be demolished, notbecause it was any longer dangerous to England, but becausethe nation would regard its destruction "as an eternal monumentof the yoke imposed on France. "[866]

[Footnote 863:Flassan, _Diplomatie Française_, V. 376 (Paris, 1809). ]

[Footnote 864: See the proposals in Entick, V. 161. ]

[Footnote 865:Beatson, _Military Memoirs_, II. 434. _The Count de Fuentesto the Earl of Egremont, 25 Dec. 1761_, in Entick, V. 264. ]

[Footnote 866:On this negotiation, see _Mémoire historique sur la Négociationde la France et de l'Angleterre_ (Paris, 1761), a French Governmentpublication containing papers on both sides. The BritishMinistry also published such documents as they saw fit, under thetitle of _Papers relating to the Rupture with Spain_. CompareAdolphus, _George III. _, I. 31-39. ]

Choiseul replied with counter-propositions less humiliatingto his nation. When the question of accepting or rejectingthem came before the Ministry, the views of Pitt prevailedby a majority of one, and, to the disappointment of Bute andthe King, the conferences were broken off. Choiseul, launchedagain on the billows of a disastrous war, had seen and providedagainst the event. Ferdinand VI. Of Spain had died, andCarlos III. Had succeeded to his throne. Here, as in England, change of kings brought change of policy. While negotiatingvainly with Pitt, the French Minister had negotiated secretlyand successfully with Carlos; and the result was the treatyknown as the Family Compact, having for its object the unionof the various members of the House of Bourbon in commonresistance to the growing power of England. It provided thatin any future war the Kings of France and Spain should actas one towards foreign Powers, insomuch that the enemy ofeither should be the enemy of both; and the Bourbon princesof Italy were invited to join in the covenant. [867] What was moreto the present purpose, a special agreement was concluded onthe same day, by which Spain bound herself to declare waragainst England unless that Power should make peace withFrance before the first of May, 1762. For the safety of hercolonies and her trade Spain felt it her interest to join hersister nation in putting a check on the vast expansion ofBritish maritime power. She could bring a hundred ships of warto aid the dilapidated navy of France, and the wealth of theIndies to aid her ruined treasury. 

[Footnote 867:Flassan, _Diplomatie Française_, V. 317 (Paris, 1809). ]

Pitt divined the secret treaty, and soon found evidence ofit. He resolved to demand at once full explanation fromSpain; and, failing to receive a satisfactory reply, attack herat home and abroad before she was prepared. On the secondof October he laid his plan before a Cabinet Council held ata house in St. James Street. There were present the Earl ofBute, the Duke of Newcastle, Earl Granville, Earl Temple, and others of the Ministry. Pitt urged his views with greatwarmth. "This, " he exclaimed, "is the time for humbling thewhole House of Bourbon!"[868] His brother-in-law, Temple, supportedhim. 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 wascalled 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 responsiblefor measures I am no longer allowed to guide. " Nothing could be moreoffensive to George III. And his adherents. 

[Footnote 868: Beatson, II. 438. ]

The veteran Carteret, Earl Granville, replied angrily: "Ifind the gentleman is determined to leave us; nor can I say Iam sorry for it, since otherwise he would certainly have compelledus to leave him. But if he is resolved to assume the office ofexclusively advising His Majesty and directing the operations of thewar, to what purpose are we called to this council? When he talks ofbeing responsible to the people, he talks the language of the Houseof Commons, and forgets that at this board he is responsible onlyto the King. However, though he may possibly have convinced himselfof his infallibility, still it remains that we should be equallyconvinced before we can resign our understandings to his direction, or join with him in the measure he proposes. "[869]

[Footnote 869: _Annual Register, 1761_, p. 44. Adolphus, _George III. _, I. 40. Thackeray, _Life of Chatham_, I. 592. ]

Pitt resigned, and his colleagues rejoiced. [870] Power fell toBute and the Tories; and great was the fall. The mass of thenation was with the defeated Minister. On Lord Mayor's DayBute and Barrington were passing St. Paul's in a coach, whichthe crowd mistook for that of Pitt, and cheered lustily; tillone man, looking in at the window, shouted to the rest: "Thisisn't Pitt; it's Bute, and be damned to him!" The cheersturned forthwith to hisses, mixed with cries of "No Bute!""No Newcastle salmon!" "Pitt forever!" Handfuls of mud were showeredagainst the coach, and Barrington's ruffles were besmirched withit. [871]

[Footnote 870: Walpole, _George III. _, I. 80, and note by Sir Denis LeMarchant, 80-82. ]

[Footnote 871: _Nuthall to Lady Chatham, 12 Nov. 1761_, in _ChathamCorrespondence_, II. 166. ]

The fall of Pitt was like the knell of doom to Frederic ofPrussia. It meant abandonment by his only ally, and the lossof the subsidy which was his chief resource. The darknessaround him grew darker yet, and not a hope seemed left;when as by miracle the clouds broke, and light streamed outof the blackness. The bitterest of his foes, the Czarina Elizabeth, she whom he had called _infâme catin du Nord_, died, and wassucceeded by her nephew, Peter III. Here again, as in England andSpain, a new sovereign brought new measures. The young Czar, simpleand enthusiastic, admired the King of Prussia, thought him theparagon of heroes, and proclaimed himself his friend. No soonerwas he on the throne than Russia changed front. From the foe ofFrederic she became his ally; and in the opening campaign of 1762the army that was to have aided in crushing him was ranged on hisside. It was a turn of fortune too sharp and sudden to endure. Ill-balanced and extreme in all things, Peter plunged intoheadlong reforms, exasperated the clergy and the army, andalienated his wife, Catherine, who had hoped to rule in hisname, 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, reignedin his stead, conspicuous by the unbridled disorders of herlife, and by powers of mind that mark her as the ablest offemale sovereigns. If she did not share her husband's enthusiasmfor Frederic, neither did she share Elizabeth's hatred of him. He, on his part, taught by hard experience, conciliated instead ofinsulting her, and she let him alone. 

Peace with Russia brought peace with Sweden, and Austriawith the Germanic Empire stood alone against him. Franceneeded all her strength to hold her own against the mixedEnglish and German force under Ferdinand of Brunswick inthe Rhine countries. She made spasmodic efforts to seize uponHanover, but the result was humiliating defeat. 

In England George III. Pursued his policy of strengtheningthe prerogative, and, jealous of the Whig aristocracy, attackedit in the person of Newcastle. In vain the old politicianhad played false with Pitt, and trimmed to please his youngmaster. He was worried into resigning his place in the Cabinet, and Bute, the obsequious agent of the royal will, succeededhim as First Lord of the Treasury. Into his weak and unwilling handsnow fell the task of carrying on the war; for the nation, elatedwith triumphs and full of fight, still called on its rulers forfresh efforts and fresh victories. Pitt had proved a true prophet, and his enemies were put to shame; for the attitude of Spain forcedBute and his colleagues to the open rupture with her which the greatMinister had vainly urged upon them; and a new and formidable war wasnow added to the old. [872] Their counsels were weak and half-hearted;but the armies and navies of England still felt the impulsion thatthe imperial hand of Pitt had given and the unconquerable spirit thathe had roused. 

[Footnote 872:_Declaration of War against the King of Spain, 4 Jan. 1762. _]

This spirit had borne them from victory to victory. In Asiathey had driven the French from Pondicherry and all theirIndian possessions; in Africa they had wrested from themGorée and the Senegal country; in the West Indies they hadtaken Guadeloupe and Dominica; in the European seas theyhad captured ship after ship, routed and crippled the greatfleet of Admiral Conflans, seized Belleisle, and defeated a boldattempt to invade Ireland. The navy of France was reducedto helplessness. Pitt, before his resignation, had planned aseries of new operations, including an attack on Martinique, with other West Indian islands still left to France, and thenin turn on the Spanish possessions of Havana, Panama, Manila, andthe Philippines. Now, more than ever before, the war appeared inits true character. It was a contest for maritime and colonialascendency; and England saw herself confronted by both her greatrivals at once. 

Admiral Rodney sailed for Martinique, and BrigadierMonckton joined him with troops from America. Before themiddle of February the whole island was in their hands; andGrenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent soon shared its fate. TheEarl of Albemarle and Admiral Sir George Pococke sailed inearly spring on a more important errand, landed in June nearHavana with eleven thousand soldiers, and attacked Moro Castle, the key of the city. The pitiless sun of the tropic midsummerpoured its fierce light and heat on the parched rocks where the mentoiled at the trenches. Earth was so scarce that hardly enough couldbe had to keep the fascines in place. The siege works were littleelse than a mass of dry faggots; and when, after exhausting toil, the grand battery opened on the Spanish defences, it presently tookfire, was consumed, and had to be made anew. Fresh water failed, and the troops died by scores from thirst; fevers set in, killedmany, and disabled nearly half the army. The sea was strewn withfloating corpses, and carrion-birds in clouds hovered over the populousgraveyards and infected camps. Yet the siege went on: a formidablesally was repulsed; Moro Castle was carried by storm; till at length, two months and eight days after the troops landed, Havana fell intotheir hands. [873] At the same time Spain was attacked at the antipodes, and the loss of Manila and the Philippines gave her fresh cause torepent her rash compact with France. She was hardly more fortunatenear home; for having sent an army to invade Portugal, whichwas inthe interest of England, a small British force, under BrigadierBurgoyne, foiled it, and forced it to retire. 

[Footnote 873: _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 inNewfoundland, where a French squadron attacked St. John'sand took it, with its garrison of sixty men. The news reachedAmherst at New York; his brother, Lieutenant-Colonel Amherst, was sent to the scene of the mishap. St. John's was retaken, andits late conquerers were made prisoners of war. 

The financial condition of France was desperate. Her peoplewere crushed with taxation; her debt grew apace; and heryearly expenditure was nearly double her revenue. Choiseulfelt the need of immediate peace; and George III. And Butewere hardly less eager for it, to avert the danger of Pitt's returnto power and give free scope to their schemes for strengthening theprerogative. 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. Thepopulace were still for war. Bedford was hissed as he passed throughthe streets of London, and a mob hooted at the puny figure of Nivernoisas he landed at Dover. 

The great question was, Should Canada be restored? ShouldFrance still be permitted to keep a foothold on the NorthAmerican continent? Ever since the capitulation of Montreala swarm of pamphlets had discussed the momentous subject. Some maintained that the acquisition of Canada was not anoriginal object of the war; that the colony was of little valueand ought to be given back to its old masters; that Guadeloupeshould be kept instead, the sugar trade of that island being worth farmore than the Canadian fur trade; and, lastly, that the British colonists, if no longer held in check by France, would spread themselves overthe 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 adhesionof her colonies to Great Britain would be jeopardized by the extinctionof French power in America. Choiseul warned Stanley that they "wouldnot fail to shake off their dependence the moment Canada should beceded;" while thirteen years before, the Swedish traveller Kalm declaredthat the presence of the French in America gave the best assurance toGreat Britain that its own colonies would remain in due subjection. [874]

[Footnote 874: Kalm, _Travels in North America_, I. 207. ]

The most noteworthy argument on the other side was thatof Franklin, whose words find a strange commentary in theevents of the next few years. He affirmed that the colonieswere so jealous of each other that they would never uniteagainst England. "If they could not agree to unite againstthe French and Indians, can it reasonably be supposed thatthere is any danger of their uniting against their own nation, which it is well known they all love much more than theylove one another? I will venture to say union amongst themfor such a purpose is not merely improbable, it is impossible;"that is, he prudently adds, without "the most grievous tyrannyand oppression, " like the bloody rule of "Alva in the Netherlands. "[875]

[Footnote 875: _Interest of Great Britain in regard to her Colonies_(London, 1760)

Lord Bath argues for retaining Canada in _A Letter addressedto Two Great Men on the Prospect of Peace_ (1759). He is answeredby another pamphlet called _Remarks on the Letter to Two GreatMen_ (1760). The _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1759 has an ironicalarticle styled _Reasons for restoring Canada to the French_; andin 1761 a pamphlet against the restitution appeared under thetitle, _Importance of Canada considered in Two Letters to a NobleLord_. These are but a part of the writings on the question. ]

If Pitt had been in office he would have demanded termsthat must ruin past redemption the maritime and colonialpower of France; but Bute was less exacting. In Novemberthe plenipotentiaries of England, France, and Spain agreedon preliminaries of peace, in which the following were theessential points. France ceded to Great Britain Canada andall her possessions on the North American continent east ofthe River Mississippi, except the city of New Orleans and a smalladjacent district. She renounced her claims to Acadia, and gave upto the conqueror the Island of Cape Breton, with all other islandsin the Gulf and River of St. Lawrence. Spain received back Havana, and paid for it by the cession of Florida, with all her otherpossessions east of the Mississippi. France, subject to certainrestrictions, was left free to fish in the Gulf of St. Lawrence andoff a part of the coast of Newfoundland; and the two little islandsof St. Pierre and Miquelon were given her as fishing stations oncondition that she should not fortify or garrison them. In the WestIndies, 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 theGerman war. France restored Minorca, and England restored Belleisle;France gave up such parts of Hanoverian territory as she hadoccupied, and evacuated certain fortresses belonging to Prussia, pledging herself at the same time to demolish, under theinspection of English engineers, her own maritime fortressof Dunkirk. In Africa France ceded Senegal, and receivedback the small Island of Gorée. In India she lost everythingshe had gained since the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle; recoveredcertain trading stations, but renounced the right of buildingforts or maintaining troops in Bengal. 

On the day when the preliminaries were signed, Francemade a secret agreement with Spain, by which she divestedherself of the last shred of her possessions on the NorthAmerican continent. As compensation for Florida, which herluckless ally had lost in her quarrel, she made over to theSpanish Crown the city of New Orleans, and under the nameof Louisiana gave her the vast region spreading westwardfrom the Mississippi towards the Pacific. 

On the ninth of December the question of approving thepreliminaries 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 theHouse was startled by repeated cheers from the outside. Thedoors opened, and the fallen Minister entered, carried in thearms of his servants, and followed by an applauding crowd. His bearers set him down within the bar, and by the help ofa crutch he made his way with difficulty to his seat. "Therewas a mixture of the very solemn and the theatric in this apparition, "says Walpole, who was present. "The moment was so well timed, theimportance of the man and his services, the languor of his emaciatedcountenance, and the study bestowed on his dress were circumstancesthat struck solemnity into a patriot mind, and did a little furnishridicule to the hardened and insensible. He was dressed in blackvelvet, his legs and thighs wrapped in flannel, his feet covered withbuskins of black cloth, and his hands with thick gloves. " Notfor the first time, he was utilizing his maladies for purposesof stage effect. He spoke for about three hours, sometimesstanding, and sometimes seated; sometimes with a brief burstof power, more often with the accents of pain and exhaustion. He highly commended the retention of Canada, but denouncedthe leaving to France a share in the fisheries, as well as otheradvantages tending to a possible revival of her maritimepower. But the Commons listened coldly, and by a great majority approvedthe preliminaries of peace. 

These preliminaries were embodied in the definitive treatyconcluded at Paris on the tenth of February, 1763. Peace betweenFrance and England brought peace between the warring nations of theContinent. Austria, bereft of her allies, and exhausted by vain effortsto crush Frederic, gave up the attempt in despair, and signed the treatyof Hubertsburg. The Seven Years War was ended. 

Chapter 32

1763-1884

Conclusion

"This, " said Earl Granville on his deathbed, "has been themost glorious war and the most triumphant peace that Englandever knew. " Not all were so well pleased, and many heldwith Pitt that the House of Bourbon should have been forcedto drain the cup of humiliation to the dregs. Yet the factremains that the Peace of Paris marks an epoch than whichnone in modern history is more fruitful of grand results. Withit began a new chapter in the annals of the world. To borrowthe words of a late eminent writer, "It is no exaggeration tosay that three of the many victories of the Seven Years Wardetermined for ages to come the destinies of mankind. Withthat of Rossbach began the re-creation of Germany, with thatof Plassey the influence of Europe told for the first time sincethe days of Alexander on the nations of the East; with thetriumph of Wolfe on the Heights of Abraham began the history ofthe United States. "[876]

[Footnote 876: Green, _History of the English People_, IV. 193(London, 1880). ]

So far, however, as concerns the war in the Germaniccountries, it was to outward seeming but a mad debauch ofblood and rapine, ending in nothing but the exhaustion of thecombatants. The havoc had been frightful. According to theKing of Prussia's reckoning, 853, 000 soldiers of the variousnations had lost their lives, besides hundreds of thousands ofnon-combatants who had perished from famine, exposure, disease, orviolence. And with all this waste of life not a boundary line had beenchanged. The rage of the two empresses and the vanity and spite of theconcubine had been completely foiled. Frederic had defied them all, and had come out of the strife intact in his own hereditary dominionsand master of all that he had snatched from the Empress-Queen;while Prussia, portioned out by her enemies as their spoil, lay depletedindeed, and faint with deadly striving, but crowned with glory, and withthe career before her which, through tribulation and adversity, was tolead her at last to the headship of a united Germany. 

Through centuries of strife and vicissitude the Frenchmonarchy had triumphed over nobles, parliaments, and people, gathered to itself all the forces of the State, beamed withillusive splendors under Louis the Great, and shone with thephosphorescence of decay under his contemptible successor;till now, robbed of prestige, burdened with debt, and minedwith corruption, it was moving swiftly and more swiftly towardsthe abyss of ruin. 

While the war hastened the inevitable downfall of theFrench monarchy, it produced still more notable effects. France under Colbert had embarked on a grand course of maritimeand colonial enterprise, and followed it with an activity and vigorthat promised to make her a great and formidable ocean power. It wasshe who led the way in the East, first trained the natives to fighther battles, and began that system of mixed diplomacy and war which, imitated by her rival, enabled a handful of Europeans to master allIndia. In North America her vast possessions dwarfed those of everyother nation. She had built up a powerful navy and created an extensiveforeign trade. All this was now changed. In India she was reduced tohelpless inferiority, with total ruin in the future; and of all herboundless territories in North America nothing was left but the twoisland rocks on the coast of Newfoundland that the victors had givenher for drying her codfish. Of her navy scarcely forty ships remained;all the rest were captured or destroyed. She was still great on thecontinent of Europe, but as a world power her grand opportunitieswere gone. 

In England as in France the several members of the Statehad battled together since the national life began, and theresult 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 andtheir share of power. Thus in the war just ended two greatconditions of success had been supplied: a people instinctwith the energies of ordered freedom, and a masterly leadershipto inspire and direct them. 

All, and more than all, that France had lost England hadwon. Now, for the first time, she was beyond dispute thegreatest of maritime and colonial Powers. Portugal and Holland, her precursors in ocean enterprise, had long ago fallenhopelessly behind. Two great rivals remained, and she hadhumbled the one and swept the other from her path. Spain, with vast American possessions, was sinking into the decaywhich is one of the phenomena of modern history; while France, oflate a most formidable competitor, had abandoned the contest indespair. England was mistress of the seas, and the world was thrownopen to her merchants, explorers, and colonists. A few years afterthe Peace the navigator Cook began his memorable series of voyages, and surveyed the strange and barbarous lands which after times wereto transform into other Englands, vigorous children of this greatmother of nations. It is true that a heavy blow was soon to fallupon her; her own folly was to alienate the eldest and greatestof her offspring. But nothing could rob her of the glory ofgiving birth to the United States; and, though politicallysevered, this gigantic progeny were to be not the less a sourceof growth and prosperity to the parent that bore them, joinedwith her in a triple kinship of laws, language, and blood. Thewar or series of wars that ended with the Peace of Parissecured the opportunities and set in action the forces that haveplanted English homes in every clime, and dotted the earthwith English garrisons and posts of trade. 

With the Peace of Paris ended the checkered story of NewFrance; a story which would have been a history if faults ofconstitution and the bigotry and folly of rulers had not dwarfedit to an episode. Yet it is a noteworthy one in both its lightsand its shadows: in the disinterested zeal of the founder ofQuebec, the self-devotion of the early missionary martyrs, andthe daring enterprise of explorers; in the spiritual and temporalvassalage from which the only escape was to the savageryof the wilderness; and in the swarming corruptions which werethe natural result of an attempt to rule, by the absolute handof a master beyond the Atlantic, a people bereft of everyvestige of civil liberty. Civil liberty was given them by theBritish sword; but the conqueror left their religious system untouched, and through it they have imposed upon themselves a weight ofecclesiastical tutelage that finds few equals in the most Catholiccountries of Europe. Such guardianship is not without certainadvantages. When faithfully exercised it aids to uphold some of thetamer virtues, if that can be called a virtue which needs the constantpresence of a sentinel to keep it from escaping: but it is fatal tomental robustness and moral courage; and if French Canada would fulfilits aspirations it must cease to be one of the most priest-riddencommunities of the modern world. 

Scarcely were they free from the incubus of France whenthe British provinces showed symptoms of revolt. The measureson the part of the mother-country which roused their resentment, far from being oppressive, were less burdensome than the navigationlaws to which they had long submitted; and they resisted taxation byParliament simply because it was in principle opposed to their rightsas freemen. They did not, like the American provinces of Spain at alater day, sunder themselves from a parent fallen into decrepitude; butwith astonishing audacity they affronted the wrath of Englandin the hour of her triumph, forgot their jealousies and quarrels, joined hands in the common cause, fought, endured, and won. The disunitedcolonies became the United States. The string of discordant communitiesalong the Atlantic coast has grown to a mighty people, joined in a unionwhich the earthquake of civil war served only to compact and consolidate. Those who in the weakness of their dissensions needed helpfrom England against the savage on their borders have becomea nation that may defy every foe but that most dangerousof all foes, herself, destined to a majestic future if she willshun the excess and perversion of the principles that made hergreat, prate less about the enemies of the past and strive moreagainst the enemies of the present, resist the mob and thedemagogue as she resisted Parliament and King, rally herpowers from the race for gold and the delirium of prosperityto make firm the foundations on which that prosperity rests, and turn some fair proportion of her vast mental forces toother objects than material progress and the game of partypolitics. She has tamed the savage continent, peopled thesolitude, gathered wealth untold, waxed potent, imposing, redoubtable;and now it remains for her to prove, if she can, that the rule of themasses is consistent with the highest growth of the individual; thatdemocracy can give the world a civilization as mature and pregnant, ideas as energetic and vitalizing, and types of manhood as lofty andstrong, as any of the systems which it boasts to supplant. 

Appendix A

Chapter 3. Conflict for the West

_Piquet and his War-Party_. --"Ce parti [_de guerre_] pour lequelM. Le Général a donné son consentement, sera de plus de 3, 800hommes. .. . 500 hommes de nos domicilies, 700 des Cinq nationsà l'exclusion des Agniers [_Mohawks_] qui ne sont plus regardésque comme des anglais, 600 tant Iroquois que d'autres nations lelong de la Belle Rivière d'où ils espèrent chasser les anglais quiy formentù des Établissemens contraires au bien des guerriers, 2, 000hommes qu'ils doivent prendre aux têtes plates [_Choctaws_] oùils s'arresteront, c'est la où les deux chefs de guerre doivent proposera l'armée l'expédition des Miamis au retour de celle contrela Nation du Chien [_Cherokees_]. Un vieux levain, quelques anciennesquerelles leur feront tout entreprendre contre les anglaisde la Virginie s'ils donnent encore quelques secours à cettedernière 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'ayeformé en moins de 3 ans une des plus florissantes missions duCanada. .. . Je me trouve donc, Messieurs, dans l'occasion depouvoir étendre l'empire de Jésus Christ et du Roy mes bonsmaîtres jusqu'aux extrémités de ce nouveau monde, et de plusfaire avec quelques secours que vous me procurerez que la Franceet l'angleterre ne pourraient faire avec plusieurs millions et toutesleur 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 stillin existence, in which the cross, the emblems of the Virgin andthe Saviour, the fleur-de-lis, and the Iroquois totems are all embroideredand linked together by strings of wampum beads wrought into the silk. 

_Directions of the French Colonial Minister for the Destructionof Oswego_. --"La seule voye dont on puisse faire usage en tempsde paix pour une pareille operation est celle des Iroquois des cinqnations. Les terres sur lesquelles le poste à été établi leur appartiennentet ce n'est qu'avec leur consentement que les anglois s'ysont placés. Si en faisant regarder à ces sauvages un pareil établissementcomme contraire à leur liberté et comme une usurpation dont les angloisprétendent faire usage pour acquérir la propriété de leur terre on pourraitles déterminer à entreprendre de les détruire, une pareille opération neseroit pas à négliger; mais M. Le Marquis de la Jonquière doit sentir avecquelle circonspection une affaire de cette espèce doit être conduite etil 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 4. Acadia

_English Treatment of Acadians. _--"Les Anglois dans la vue dela Conquête du Canada ont voulu donner aux peuples françois deces Colonies un exemple frappant de la douceur de leur gouvernementdans 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 nécessairesouvent à crédit, avec un excès de confiance, sans fatiguer lesdébiteurs, sans les presser, sans vouloir les forcer au payement. "

"Ils leur ont laissé une apparence de liberté si excessive qu'ilsn'ont voulu prendre aucune différence [_sic_] de leur différents, pasmême pour les crimes. .. . Ils ont souffert que les accadiens leurrefusassent insolemment certains rentes de grains, modiques &très-légitimement dues. "

"Ils ont dissimulé le refus méprisant que les accadiens ont faitde prendre d'eux des concessions pour les nouveaux terreinsqu'ils voulaient occuper. "

"Les fruits que cette conduite a produit dans la dernière guerrenous le savons [_sic_] et les anglois n'en ignorent rien. Qu'on jugelà-dessus de leur ressentiment et des vues de vengeance de cettenation cruelle. .. . Je prévois notamment la dispersion des jeunesaccadiens sur les vaisseaux de guerre anglois, oú la seule règlepour 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 Timeof Peace. _--"La lettre de M. L'Abbé Le Loutre me paroit si intéressanteque j'ay l'honneur de vous en envoyer Copie. .. . Les trois sauvages quim'ont porté ces dépêches m'ont parlé relativement à ce que M. L'AbbéLe Loutre marque dans sa lettre; je n'ay eu garde de leur donner aucunConseil là-dessus et je me suis borné à leur promettre que je ne lesabandonnerai 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 pussentparvenir à traverser les anglois dans leurs entreprises, même danscelle de Chibouctou [_Halifax_], ils sont dans cette résolution ets'ils peuvent mettre à execution ce qu'ils ont projetté il est assuréqu'ils seront fort incommodes aux Anglois et que les vexationsqu'ils exerceront sur eux leur seront un très grand obstacle. Ces sauvages doívent agir seuls, il n'y aura ny soldat ny habitant, tout se fera de leur pur mouvement, et sans qu'il paraisseque j'en eusse connoissance. "

"Cela est très essentiel, aussy ai-je écrit au Sr. De Boishébertd'observer beaucoup de prudence dans ses démarches et de lesfaire très secrètement pour que les Anglois ne puissent pas s'apercevoirque nous pourvoyons aux besoins des dits sauvages. "

"Ce seront les missionnaires qui feront toutes les négociationset qui dirigeront les pas des dits sauvages, ils sont en très bonnesmains, le R. P. Germain et M. L'Abbé Le Loutre étant fort aufait d'en tirer tout le party possible et le plus avantageux pour nosintérêts, ils ménageront leur intrigue de façon à n'y pas paroitre. .. . "

"Je sens, Monseigneur, toute la délicatesse de cette negociation, soyez persuadé que je la conduirai avec tant de précautions queles anglois ne pourront pas dire que mes ordres y ont eu part. "_La Jonquière au Minístre, 9 Oct. 1749_. 

_Missionaries to be encouraged in their Efforts to make the Indiansattack 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 quelquesdétails avec le Sieur de Raymond. .. . "

"Sa Majesté luy a déjà observé que les sauvages ont été jusqu'àprésent dans les dispositions les plus favorables. Il est de la plusgrande importance, et pour le présent et pour l'avenir, de ne riennégliger pour les y maintenir. Les missionnaires qui sont auprèsd'eux sont plus à portés d'y contribuer que personne, et Sa Majestéa lieu d'être satisfaite des soins qu'ils y donnent. Le Sr. DeRaymond doit exciter ces missionnaires à ne point se relachersur cela; mais en même temps il doit les avertir de contenir leurzèle de manière qu'ils ne se compromettent pas mal à propos avecles 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. _--"Pourque ces Sauvages agissent avec beaucoup de Courage, quelquesaccadiens habillés et matachés comme les Sauvages pourront sejoindre à eux pour faire coup sur les Anglois. Je ne puis éviterde consentir à ce que ces Sauvages feront puisque nous avons lesbras liés et que nous ne pouvons rien faire par nous-mêmes, ausurplus je ne crois pas qu'il y ait de l'inconvenient de laissermêler les accadiens parmi les Sauvages, parceque s'ils sont pris, nous dirons qu'ils ont agi de leur propre mouvement. " _La Jonquièreau Minístre, 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. Pouracquitter les dépenses qu'il fait journellement et je ne cesse deluy recommander de s'en tenir aux indispensables en evitant toujoursde rien compromettre avec le gouvernement anglois. " _Prévostau Ministre, 22 Juillet, 1750_. 

_Payment for English Scalps in Time of Peace. _--"Les Sauvagesont pris, il y a un mois, 18 chevelures angloises [_English scalps_, ]et M. Le Loutre a été obligé de les payer 1800 l. , argent del'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 4, aretaken from the Archives de la Marine et des Colonies. 

Appendix C

Chapter 5. Washington

_Washington and the Capitulation at Fort Necessity_. --Villiers, in his Journal, boasts that he made Washington sign a virtualadmission that he had assassinated Jumonville. In regard to thispoint, a letter, of which the following is an extract, is printed inthe provincial papers of the time. It is from Captain AdamStephen, an officer in the action, writing to a friend five weeksafter. 

"When Mr. Vanbraam returned with the French proposals, wewere obliged to take the sense of them from his mouth; it rainedso heavy that he could not give us a written translation of them;we could scarcely keep the candle lighted to read them by; theywere written in a bad hand, on wet and blotted paper, so thatno person could read them but Vanbraam, who had heard themfrom the mouth of the French officer. Every officer there isready to declare that there was no such word as _assassination_mentioned. The terms expressed were, _the death of Jumonville_. Ifit had been mentioned we would by all means have had it altered, as the French, during the course of the interview, seemed verycondescending, and desirous to bring things to an issue. " He thengives several other points in which Vanbraam had misled them. 

Dinwiddie, recounting the affair to Lord Albemarle, says thatWashington, being ignorant of French, was deceived by theinterpreter, who, through poltroonery, suppressed the word assassination. 

Captain Mackay, writing to Washington in September, after avisit to Philadelphia, says: "I had several disputes about ourcapitulation; but I satisfied every person that mentioned the subjectas to the articles in question, that they were owing to a badinterpreter, and contrary to the translation made to us when wesigned them. "

At the next meeting of the burgesses they passed a vote of thanksfor gallant conduct to Washington and all his officers by name, except Vanbraam and the major of the regiment, the latter beingcharged with cowardice, and the former with treacherous misinterpretationof the articles. 

Sometime after, Washington wrote to a correspondent who hadquestioned him on the subject: "That we were wilfully or ignorantlydeceived by our interpreter in regard to the word _assassination_I do aver, and will to my dying moment; so will every officerthat was present. The interpreter was a Dutchman little acquaintedwith the English tongue, therefore might not advert to the tone andmeaning of the word in English; but, whatever his motives for so doing, certain it is that he called it the _death_ or the _loss_ ofthe Sieur Jumonville. So we received and so we understood it, until, toour great surprise and mortification, we found it otherwise in aliteral translation. " Sparks, _Writings of Washington_, II. 464, 465. 

Appendix D

Chapter 7. Braddock

It has been said that Beaujeu, and not Contrecoeur, commandedat Fort Duquesne at the time of Braddock's expedition. Somecontemporaries, and notably the chaplain of the fort, do, in fact, speak of him as in this position; but their evidence is overborneby more numerous and conclusive authorities, among them Vaudreuil, governor of Canada, and Contrecoeur himself, in an officialreport. Vaudreuil says of him: "Ce commandant s'occupa le 8[_Juillet_] à former un parti pour aller au devant des Anglois;" andadds that this party was commanded by Beaujeu and consisted of250 French and 650 Indians (_Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Août, 1755_). In the autumn of 1756 Vaudreuil asked the Colonial Ministerto procure a pension for Contrecoeur and Ligneris. He says:"Le premier de ces Messieurs a commandé longtemps au fortDuquesne; c'est luy qui a ordonné et dirigé tous les mouvementsqui se sont faits dans cette partie, soit pour faire abandonner lepremier établissement des Anglois, soit pour les forcer à seretirer du fort Nécessité, et soit enfin pour aller au devant del'armée du Général Braddock qui a été entièrement défaite" (_Vaudreuilau Ministre, 8 Nov. 1756_. ) Beaujeu, who had lately arrived with areinforcement, had been named to relieve Contrecoeur (_Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1756_), but had not yet done so. 

As the report of Contrecoeur has never been printed, I give anextract from it (_Contrecceur à Vaudreuil, 14 Juillet, 1755_, inArchives de la Marine):--

"Le meme jour [_8 Juillet_] je formai un party de tout ce queje pouvois mettre hors du fort pour aller à leur rencontre. Il étoitcomposé de 250 François et de 650 sauvages, ce qui faisoit 900hommes. M. De Beaujeu, capitaine, le commandoit. Il y avoit deuxcapitaines qui estoient Mrs. Dumas et Ligneris et plusieurs autresofficiers subalternes. Ce parti se mit en marche le 9 à 8 heuresdu matin, et se trouva à midi et demie en présence des Angloisà environ 3 lieues du fort. On commença à faire feu de part etd'autre. Le feu de l'artillerie ennemie fit reculer un peu par deuxfois notre parti. M. De Beaujeu fut tué à la troisième décharge. M. Dumas prit le commandement et s'en acquitta au mieux. NosFrançois, pleins de courage, soutenus par les sauvages, quoiqu'ilsn'eussent point d'artillerie, firent à leur tour plier les Anglois quise battirent en ordre de bataille et en bonne contenance. Et cesderniers voyant l'ardeur de nos gens qui fonçoient avec une vigeurinfinie furent enfin obligés de plier tout à fait après 4 heures d'ungrand feu. Mrs. Dumas et Ligneris qui n'avoient plus avec euxq'une vingtaine de François ne s'engagerent point dans la poursuite. Ils rentrerent dans le fort, parceq'une grande partie desCanadiens qui n'estoient malheureusement que des enfants s'estoientretirés 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 attentionof the minister to services which the writer thought had not beenduly 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 Ligneriset moi. Il attaqua avec beaucoup d'audace mais sans nulle disposition;notre première décharge fut faite hors de portée; l'ennemifit la sienne de plus près, et dans le premier instant du combat, cent miliciens, qui faisaient la moitié de nos Françaislâchèrent honteusement le pied en criant 'Sauve qui peut. ' Deuxcadets qui depuis ont été faits officiers autorisaient cette fuite parleur exemple. Ce mouvement en arrière ayant encouragé l'ennemi, il fit retentir ses cris de Vive le Roi et avança sur nous à grandpas. Son artillerie s'étant preparée pendant ce temps là commençaà faire feu ce qui épouvanta tellement les Sauvages que tout pritla fuite; l'ennemi faísait sa troisième décharge de mousqueteriequand M. De Beaujeu fut tué. "

"Notre déroute se présenta a mes yeux sous le plus désagréablepoint de vue, et pour n'être point chargé de la mauvaise manoeuvred'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 soldatsqui restait, je m'avançai avec la contenance qui donne le désespoir. Mon peloton fit un feu si vif que l'ennemi en parut étonné; ilgrossit insensiblement et les Sauvages voyant que mon attaquefaisait cesser les crís de l'ennemi revinrent à moi. Dans ce momentj'envoyai M. Le Chev'r. Le Borgne et M. De Rocheblave direaux officiers qui étaient à la tête des Sauvages de prendre l'ennemien flanc. Le canon qui battit en tête donna faveur à mes ordres. L'ennemi, pris de tous cotés, combattit avec la fermeté la plusopiniâtre. Des rangs entiers tombaient à la fois; presque tousles officiers périrent; et le désordre s'étant mis par là dans cettecolonne, tout prit la fuite. "

Whatever may have been the conduct of the Canadian militia, the French officers behaved with the utmost courage, and sharedwith the Indians the honors of the victory. The partisan chiefCharles Langlade seems also to have been especially prominent. His grandson, the aged Pierre Grignon, declared that it was hewho 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 thetraveller Anbury and General John Burgoyne, writing many yearsafter the event, speak of Langlade, who was then alive, as theauthor of Braddock's defeat. Hence there can be little doubt thathe took an important part in it, though the contemporary writersdo not mention his name. Compare Tassé, _Notice sur CharlesLanglade_. The honors fell to Contrecoeur, Dumas, and Ligneris, all of whom received the cross of the Order of St Louis (_Ordresdu Roy et Dépêches des Ministres_, 1755). 

Appendix E

Chapter 14. Montcalm

To show the style of Montcalm's familiar letters, I give a fewexamples. Literal translation is often impossible. 

À MADAME DE MONTCALM, À MONTRÉAL, 16 AVRIL, 1757. 

(_Extrait. _)

"Ma santé assez bonne, malgré beaucoup de travail, surtoutd'ecriture. Estève, mon secretaire, se marie. Beau caractère. Bonautographe, écrivant vite. Je lui procure un emploi et le moyende faire fortune s'il veut. Il fait un meilleur mariage que ne luiappartient; malgré cela je crains qu'il ne la fasse pas comme unautre; fat, frivole, joueur, glorieux, petit-maître, dépensier. J'aitoujours Marcel, des soldats copistes dans le besoin. .. . Tous lessoldats de Montpellier se portants bien, hors le fils de Pierremort chez moi. Tout est hors de prix. Il faut vivre honorablementet je le fais, tous les jours seize personnes. Une fois tous lesquinze jours chez M. Le Gouverneur général et Mr. Le Chev. DeLévis qui vit aussi très bien. Il a donné trois beaux grands bals. Pour moi jusqu'au carême, outre les dîners, de grands soupers dedames trois fois la semaine. Le jour des devotes prudes, des concerts. Les jours des jeûnes des violons d'hazard, parcequ'on me lesdemandait, cela ne menait que jusqu'à deux heures du matin etil 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 mamaison, je l'ai augmentée d'un cocher, d'un frotteur, un garçonde cuisine, et j'ai marié mon aide de cuisine; car je travaille àpeupler la colonie: 80 mariages de soldats cet hiver et deuxd'officiers. Germain a perdu sa fille. Il a épousé 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 pasune heure dans la journée que je ne songe à vous, à elle, et à mesenfants. J'embrasse ma fille; je vous adore, ma très chère, ainsi quema mère. Mille choses à mes soeurs. Je n'ai pas le temps de leurécrire, ni à Naujac, ni aux abbesses. .. . Des compliments auchâteau d'Arbois, aux Du Cayla, et aux Givard. P. S. N'oubliezpas d'envoyer une douzaine de bouteilles d'Angleterre de pinted'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 jourset en la voyant je me suis apperçu que l'amour avait des traits depuissance dont on ne pouvait pas rendre raison, non pas par l'impressionqu'elle a faite sur mon coeur, mais bien par celle qu'ellea faite sur celui de son époux. Mercredi une assemblée chez Mad. Varin. Jeudi un bal chez le Chev. De Lévis qui avait prié 65Dames ou demoiselles; Il n'y en avait que trente--autantd'hommes qu'à la guerre. Sa salle bien éclairée, aussi grand quecelle de l'Intendance, beaucoup d'ordre, beaucoup d'attention, desrafraîchissements en abondance toute la nuit de tout genre et detoute espèce et on ne se retira qu'à sept heures du matin. Pourmoi qui ay quitté le séjour de Québec, Je me couchai de bonneheure. J'avais eu ce jour-là huit dames à souper et ce souper étaitdédié à Mad. Varin. Demain j'en aurai une demi douzaine. Je nesais encore a qui il est dedié, Je suis tenté de croire que c'est à LaRoche Beaucourt Le galant Chev'r. Nous donne encore un bal. "

Appendix F

Chapter 15. Fort William Henry

WEBB TO LOUDON, FORT EDWARD, 11 AUG. 1757. 

_Public Record Office. _ (_Extract. _)

"On leaving the Camp Yesterday Morning they [_the Englishsoldiers_] were stript by the Indians of everything they had bothOfficers and Men the Women and Children drag'd from amongthem and most inhumanly butchered before their faces, the partyof about three hundred Men which were given them as an escortwere during this time quietly looking on, from this and other circumstanceswe are too well convinced these barbarities must have been connived at bythe French. After having destroyed the women and children they fell uponthe rear of our Men who running in upon the Front soon put the wholeto a most precipitate flight in which confusion part of them came intothis Camp about two o'Clock yesterday morning in a most distressingsituation, and have continued dropping in ever since, a great many men andwe are afraid several Officers were massacred. "

The above is independent of the testimony of Frye, who didnot reach Fort Edward till the day after Webb's letter was written. 

FRYE TO THOMAS HUBBARD, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESOF MASSACHUSETTS, ALBANY, 16 AUG. 1757. 

_Public Record Office. _ (_Extract. _)

"We did not march till ye 10th at which time the Savages werelet loose upon us, Strips, Kills, & Scalps our people drove theminto Disorder Rendered it impossible to Rally, the French Gaurdswe were promised shou'd Escort us to Fort Edward Could orwould not protect us so that there Opened the most horrid Sceneof 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 &cthreatening Death I flew to the Officers of the French Gaurds forProtection but they would afford me none, therefore was Oblig'dto fly and was in the woods till the 12th in the Morning of whichI arriv'd at Fort Edward almost Famished . .. With what ofFatigue Starving &c I am obliged to break off but as soon as Ican 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 orderedto prepare for our march, but found the Indians in a worsetemper (if possible) than last night, every one having a tomahawk, hatchett or some other instrument of death, and Constantlyplundering from the officers their arms &ca this Col'o. Monro Complained of, as a breach of the Articles of Capitulationbut to no effect, the french officers however told us that ifwe would give up the baggage of the officers and men, to theIndians, they thought it would make them easy, which at lastCol'o. Monro Consented to but this was no sooner done, thenthey began to take the Officers Hatts, Swords, guns & Cloaths, stripping them all to their Shirts, and on some officers, left noshirt at all, while this was doing they killed and scalp'd all thesick and wounded before our faces and then took out from ourtroops, all the Indians and negroes, and Carried them off, one ofthe 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 therear, killing & scalping, which Occasioned an order for a halt, which at last was done in great Confusion but as soon as thosein the front knew what was doing in the rear they again pressedforward, and thus the Confusion continued & encreased till wecame to the Advanc'd guard of the French, the savages still carryingaway Officers, privates, Women and Children, some of whichlatter they kill'd & scalpt in the road. This horrid scene of bloodand slaughter obliged our officers to apply to the Officers of theFrench Guard for protection, which they refus'd & told them theymust take to the woods and shift for themselves which many did, and in all probability many perish't in the woods, many got intoFort Edward that day and others daily Continued coming in, butvastly fatigued with their former hardships added to this last, which threw several of them into Deliriums. "

AFFIDAVIT OF MILES WHITWORTH, SURGEON OF THEMASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT, TAKEN BEFORE GOVERNORPOWNALL 17 OCT. 1757. 

_Public Record Office. (Extract. )_

"Being duly sworn on the Holy Evangelists doth declare . .. Thatthere were also seventeen Men of the Massachusetts Regimentwounded unable to March under his immediate Care in theIntrenched Camp, that according to the Capitulation he did deliverthem over to the French Surgeon on the ninth of August at two in theAfternoon . .. That the French Surgeon received them into his Custodyand placed Centinals of the French Troops upon the said seventeenwounded. That the French Surgeon going away to the French Camp, thesaid Miles Whitworth continued with the said wounded Men till fiveo'clock on the Morn of the tenth of August, That the Centinals weretaken off and that he the said Whitworth saw the French Indians about5 O'clock in the Morn of the 10th of August dragg the said seventeenwounded men out of their Hutts, Murder them with their Tomohawks andscalp them, That the French Troops posted round the lines were not furtherthan forty feet from the Hutts where the said wounded Men lay, that severalCanadian 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 20. Ticonderoga

The French accounts of the battle at Ticonderoga are verynumerous, and consist of letters and despatches of Montcalm, Lévis, Bougainville, Doreil, and other officers, besides severalanonymous narratives, one of which was printed in pamphletform at the time. Translations of many of them may be found in_N. Y. Colonial Documents, _ X. There are, however, various otherspreserved in the archives of the War and Marine Departments atParis which have not seen the light. I have carefully examinedand collated them all. The English accounts are by no means sonumerous or so minute. Among those not already cited, may bementioned a letter of Colonel Woolsey of the New York provincials, and two letters from British officers written just after thebattle and enclosed in a letter from Alexander Colden to MajorHalkett, 17 July. (_Bouquet and Haldimand Papers. _)

The French greatly exaggerated the force of the English andtheir losses in the battle. They place the former at from twentythousand to thirty-one thousand, and the latter at from fourthousand to six thousand. Prisoners taken at the end of the battletold them that the English had lost four thousand, --a statementwhich they readily accepted, though the prisoners could haveknown little more about the matter than they themselves. Andthese figures were easily magnified. The number of dead lyingbefore the lines is variously given at from eight hundred to threethousand. Montcalm himself, who was somewhat elated by hisvictory, gives this last number in one of his letters, though heelsewhere says two thousand; while Lévis, in his _Journal de laGuerre, _ says "about eight hundred. " The truth is that no painswere taken to ascertain the exact number, which, by the Englishreturns, was a little above five hundred, the total of killed, wounded, and missing being nineteen hundred and forty-four. Afriend of Knox, writing to him from Fort Edward three weeksafter the battle, gives a tabular statement which shows nineteenhundred and fifty in all, or six more than the official report. Asthe name of every officer killed or wounded, with the corps towhich he belonged, was published at the time (_London Magazine_, 1758), it is extremely unlikely that the official return wasfalsified. Abercromby's letter to Pitt, of July 12, says that heretreated "with the loss of four hundred and sixty-four regularskilled, twenty-nine missing eleven hundred and seventeen wounded;and eighty-seven provincials killed, eight missing, and two hundredand thirty-nine wounded, officers of both included. " In aletter to Viscount Barrington, of the same date (Public RecordOffice), Abercromby encloses a full detail of losses, regiment byregiment and company by company, being a total of nineteenhundred and forty-five. Several of the French writers state correctlythat about fourteen thousand men (including reserves) were engaged inthe attacks; but they add erroneously that there were thirteen thousandmore at the Falls. In fact there was only a small provincial regimentleft there, and a battalion of the New York regiment, under ColonelWoolsey, at the landing. 

A LEGEND OF TICONDEROGA. --Mention has been made of thedeath of Major Duncan Campbell of Inverawe. The followingfamily tradition relating to it was told me in 1878 by the lateDean Stanley, to whom I am also indebted for various papers onthe subject, including a letter from James Campbell, Esq. , thepresent laird of Inverawe, and great-nephew of the hero of thetale. The same story is told, in an amplified form and with somevariations, in the _Legendary Tales of the Highlands_ of Sir ThomasDick 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 westernHighlands. 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 sawa stranger, with torn clothing and kilt besmeared with blood, whoin a breathless voice begged for asylum. He went on to say thathe had killed a man in a fray, and that the pursuers were at hisheels. Campbell promised to shelter him. "Swear on your dirk!"said the stranger; and Campbell swore. He then led him to a secretrecess in the depths of the castle. Scarcely was he hidden whenagain there was a loud knocking at the gate, and two armed menappeared. "Your cousin Donald has been murdered, and we arelooking for the murderer!" Campbell, remembering his oath, professed to have no knowledge of the fugitive; and the men wenton their way. The laird, in great agitation, lay down to rest ina large dark room, where at length he feel asleep. Waking suddenlyin bewilderment and terror, he saw the ghost of the murderedDonald standing by his bedside, and heard a hollow voicepronounce the words: _"Inverawe! Inverawe! blood has been shed. Shield not the murderer!"_ In the morning Campbell went to thehiding-place of the guilty man and told him that he could harborhim no longer. "You have sworn on your dirk!" he replied; andthe laird of Inverawe, greatly perplexed and troubled, made acompromise between conflicting duties, promised not to betrayhis guest, led him to the neighboring mountain, and hid him ina cave. 

In the next night, as he lay tossing in feverish slumbers, thesame stern voice awoke him, the ghost of his cousin Donald stoodagain 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 thecave; but it was empty, the stranger was gone. At night, as hestrove in vain to sleep, the vision appeared once more, ghastlypale, 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 joinedthe Black Watch, or Forty-second Regiment, then employedin keeping order in the turbulent Highlands. In time he becameits major; and, a year or two after the war broke out, he wentwith it to America. Here, to his horror, he learned that it wasordered to the attack of Ticonderoga. His story was well knownamong his brother officers. They combined among themselves todisarm his fears; and when they reached the fatal spot they toldhim on the eve of the battle, "This is not Ticonderoga; we are notthere yet; this is Fort George. " But in the morning he came tothem with haggard looks. "I have seen him! You have deceivedme! He came to my tent last night! This is Ticonderoga! I shalldie to-day!" and his prediction was fulfilled. 

Such is the tradition. The indisputable facts are that MajorDuncan Campbell of Inverawe, his arm shattered by a bullet, was carried to Fort Edward, where, after amputation, he died andwas buried. (_Abercromby to Pitt_, 19 _August_, 1758. ) The stonethat marks his grave may still be seen, with this inscription: _"Herelyes the Body of Duncan Campbell of Inverawe, Esq, Major tothe old Highland Regiment, aged 55 Years, who died on the 17thJuly, 1758, of the Wounds he received in the Attack of the Retrenchmentof Ticonderoga or Carrillon, on the 8th July, 1758. "_

His son, Lieutenant Alexander Campbell, was severely woundedat the same time, but reached Scotland alive, and died in Glasgow. Mr. Campbell, the present Inverawe, in the letter mentionedabove, says that forty-five years ago he knew an old man whosegrandfather was foster-brother to the slain major of the forty-second, and who told him the following story while carrying a salmon for himto an inn near Inverawe. The old man's grandfather was sleeping with hisson, then a lad, in the same room, but in another bed. This son, father of the narrator, "was awakened, " to borrow the words ofMr. Campbell, "by some unaccustomed sound, and behold there was abright light in the room, and he saw a figure, in full Highlandregimentals, cross over the room and stoop down over his father'sbed and give him a kiss. He was too frightened to speak, but put hishead under his coverlet and went to sleep. Once more he was roused inlike manner, and saw the same sight. In the morning he spoke to hisfather about it, who told him that it was Macdonnochie _[the Gaelicpatronymic of the laird of Inverawe]_ whom he had seen, and who came totell him that he had been killed in a great battle in America. Sure enough, said my informant, it was on the very day that thebattle of Ticonderoga was fought and the laird was killed. "

It is also said that two ladies of the family of Inverawe saw abattle in the clouds, in which the shadowy forms of Highlandwarriors were plainly to be described; and that when the fatalnews came from America, it was found that the time of thevision answered exactly to that of the battle in which the headof the family fell. 

The legend of Inverawe has within a few years found its wayinto an English magazine, and it has also been excellently toldin the _Atlantic Monthly_ of September of this year, 1884, by MissC. F. Gordon Cumming. Her version differs a little from thatgiven above from the recital of Dean Stanley and the present lairdof Inverawe, but the essential points are the same. Miss GordonCumming, however, is in error when she says that Duncan Campbellwas wounded in the breast, and that he was first buried atTiconderoga. His burial-place was near Fort Edward, where hedied, 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 25. 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 de14, 000 hommes, 200 cavaliers dont je formai un corps aux ordresde M. De la Rochebeaucour, environ 1, 000 sauvages Abenakis etdes différentes nations du nord des pays d'en haut. M. De Boishébertarriva ensuite avec les Acadiens et sauvages qu'il avoit rassemblés. Je réglai la garnison de Québec à 2, 000 hommes. " _Vaudreuilau Ministre, 5 Oct. 1759. _

The commissary Berniers says that the whole force was aboutfifteen thousand men, besides Indians, which is less than the numbergiven 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 nelaisseroit dans la place que 1, 200 hommes, et que tout le restemarcheroit au camp, où l'on comptoit se trouver plus de 15, 000hommes, y compris les sauvages. "

Rigaud, Vaudreuil's brother, writing from Montreal to Bourlamaqueon the 23d of June, says: "Je compte que l'armée campéesous 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 hundredeffective soldiers. Of these the ten battalions, commonly mentionedas regiments, supplied six thousand four hundred; detachedgrenadiers 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 casesseven hundred and in others one thousand (Knox, II. 25); buttheir actual strength varied from five hundred to eight hundred, except the Highlanders, who mustered eleven hundred, their ranksbeing more than full. Fraser, in his _Journal of the Siege_, gives atabular view of the whole. At the end of the campaign Lévisreckons the remaining English troops at about six thousand (_Lévisau Ministre, 10 Nov. 1759_), which answers to the report of GeneralMurray: "The troops will amount to six thousand" (_Murrayto Pitt, 12 Oct. 1759_). The precise number is given in the _Returnof the State of His Majesty's Forces left in Garrison at Québec_, dated 12 Oct. 1759, and signed, Robert Monckton (Public RecordOffice, _America and West Indies_, XCIX. ). This shows the totalof rank and file to have been 6, 214, which the addition of officers, sergeants, and drummers raises to about seven thousand, besides171 artillerymen. 

Appendix I

Chapter 27. The Heights of Abraham

One of the most important unpublished documents on Wolfe'soperations against Quebec is the long and elaborate _Journalmémoratif de ce qui s'est passé de plus remarquable pendant qu'aduré le Siége de la Ville de Québec_ (Archives de la Marine). Thewriter, M. De Foligny, was a naval officer who during the siegecommanded one of the principal batteries of the town. The officialcorrespondence of Vaudreuil for 1759 (Archives Nationales)gives the events of the time from his point of view; and variousmanuscript letters of Bigot, Lévis, Montreuil, and others (Archivesde la Marine, Archives de la Guerre) give additional particulars. The letters, generally private and confidential, written to Bourlamaqueby Montcalm, Lévis, Vaudreuil, Malartic, Berniers, and others duringthe siege contain much that is curious and interesting. 

_Siége de Québec en 1759, d'après un Manuscrit déposé à laBibliothêque de Hartwell en Angleterre. _ A very valuable diary, by a citizen of Quebec; it was brought from England in 1834 bythe Hon. D. B. Viger, and a few copies were printed at Quebec in1836. _Journal tenu a l'Armee que commandoit feu M. Le Marquisde Montcalm. _ A minute diary of an officer under Montcalm(printed by the Quebec Historical Society). _Memoire sur la Campagnede 1759, par M. De Joannès, Major de Québec_ (Archives de la Guerre). _Lettres et Depeches de Montcalm_ (Ibid. ). These touch brieflythe antecedents of the Siege. _Mémoires sur le Canada depuis 1749jusqu'à_ 1760 (Quebec Historical Society). _Journal du Siege deQuébec en 1759, par M. Jean Claude Panet, notaire_ (Ibid. ). Thewriter of this diary was in Quebec at the time. Several other journalsand letters of persons present at the siege have been printed by theQuebec Historical Society, under the title _Événements de la Guerreen Canada durant les Années 1759 et 1760. Relation de ce qui s'estpassé au Siége de Québec, par une Réligieuse de l'Hôpital Généralde Québec_ (Quebec Historical Society). _Jugement impartialsur les Opérations militaires de la Campagne, par M'gr. De Pontbriand, Évêque de Québec_ (Ibid. ). _Memoirs of the Siege of Quebec, fromthe Journal of a French Officer on board the Chezine Frigate, takenby His Majesty's Ship Rippon, by Richard Gardiner, Esq. , Captain ofMarines in the Rippon, _ London, 1761. 

_General Wolfe's Instructions to Young Officers, _ Philadelphia, 1778. This title is misleading, the book being a collection of militaryorders. _General Orders in Wolfe's Army_ (Quebec HistoricalSociety). This collection is much more full than the foregoing, so far as concerns the campaign of 1759. _Letters of Wolfe_ (inWright's _Wolfe_), _Despatches of Wolfe, Saunders, Monckton, andTownshend_ (in contemporary magazines). _A Short AuthenticAccount of the Expedition against Quebec, by a Volunteer uponthat Expedition, _ Quebec, 1872. This valuable diary is ascribed toJames Thompson, a volunteer under Wolfe, who died at Quebecin 1830 at the age of ninety-eight, after holding for many yearsthe position of overseer of works in the Engineer Department. Another manuscript, for the most part identical with this, wasfound a few years ago among old papers in the office of theRoyal Engineers at Quebec. _Journal of the Expedition on theRiver 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, secretaryto Sir Guy Carleton, who served under Wolfe (Quebec HistoricalSociety). Johnstone, _A Dialogue in Hades_ (Ibid. ). The ScotchJacobite, Chevalier Johnstone, as aide-de-camp to Lévis, and afterwardsto Montcalm, had great opportunities of acquiring information duringthe campaign; and the results, though produced in the fanciful formof a dialogue between the ghosts of Wolfe and Montcalm, are ofsubstantial historical value. The _Dialogue_ is followed by aplain 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 Stationon the Spot, Dublin, 1759_. _Journal of the Particular Transactionsduring the Siege of Quebec_ (_Notes and Queries_, XX. ). The writerwas a soldier or noncommissioned 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 theFifty-eighth Regiment_. A manuscript of 176 pages, written whenJohnson was a pensioner at Chelsea (England). The handwritingis exceedingly neat and clear; and the style, though often grandiloquent, is creditable to a writer in his station. This curious productionwas found among the papers of Thomas McDonough, Esq. , formerly BritishConsul 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 operationsof the siege may be mentioned one entitled, _Plan of theTown and Basin of Quebec and Part of the Adjacent Country, shewing the principal Encampments and Works of the BritishArmy commanded by Major Gen'l. Wolfe, and those of the FrenchArmy by Lieut. Gen'l. The Marquis of Montcalm_. It is the workof three engineers of Wolfe's army, and is on a scale of eighthundred feet to an inch. A facsimile from the original in possessionof the Royal Engineers is before me. 

Among the "King's Maps, " British Museum (CXIX. 27), is avery large colored plan of operations at Quebec in 1759, 1760, superbly executed in minute detail. 

Appendix J

Chapter 28. Fall of Quebec

_Death and Burial of Montcalm_. --Johnstone, who had everymeans of knowing the facts, says that Montcalm was carried afterhis wound to the house of the surgeon Arnoux. Yet it is not quitecertain that he died there. According to Knox, his death tookplace at the General Hospital; according to the modern authorof the _Ursulines de Québec_, at the Château St. -Louis. But theGeneral Hospital was a mile out of the town, and in momentarydanger of capture by the English; while the Château had beenmade untenable by the batteries of Point Levi, being immediatelyexposed to their fire. Neither of these places was one to which thedying general was likely to be removed, and it is probable that hewas suffered to die in peace at the house of the surgeon. 

It has been said that the story of the burial of Montcalm in agrave partially formed by the explosion of a bomb, rests onlyon the assertion in his epitaph, composed in 1761 by the Academyof Inscriptions at the instance of Bougainville. There is, however, other evidence of the fact. The naval captain Foligny, writingon the spot at the time of the burial, says in his Diary, under thedate of September 14: "A huit heures du soir, dans l'église desUrsulines, fut enterré dans une fosse faite sous la chaire _par letravail de la Bombe_, M. Le Marquis de Montcalm, décédé du matinà 4 heures après avoir reçu tous les Sacrements. Jamais Généraln'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 confiancede toute la Colonie: _requiescat in pace_. "

The author of _Les Ursulines de Québec_ says: "Un des projectilesayant 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 Quebecto Messrs. Green and Russell, proprietors of the newspaper. Thisletter contains the following words: "He [_Montcalm_] died thenext day; and, with a little Improvement, one of our 13-inch Shell-Holesserved him for a Grave. "

The particulars of his burial are from the _Acte Mortuaire duMarquis de Montcalm_ in the registers of the Church of NotreDame de Québec, and from that valuable chronicle, _Les Ursulinesde Québec_, composed by the Superior of the convent. A nun ofthe sisterhood, Mère Aimable Dubé de Saint-Ignace, was, when achild, a witness of the scene, and preserved a vivid memory ofit to the age of eighty-one. 

Appendix K

Chapter 29. Sainte-Foy>

STRENGTH OF THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH AT THE BATTLE OFSTE-FOY

In the Public Record Office (_America and West Indies_, XCIX)are preserved the tabular returns of the garrison of Quebec for1759, 1760, sent by Murray to the War Office. They show theexact condition of each regiment, in all ranks, for every monthof the autumn, winter, and spring. The return made out on the24th of April, four days before the battle, shows that the totalnumber of rank and file, exclusive of non commissioned officersand drummers, was 6, 808, of whom 2, 612 were fit for duty inQuebec, and 654 at other places in Canada, that is, at Ste Foy, Old Lorette, and the other outposts. This gives a total of 3, 266rank and file fit for duty at or near Quebec, besides which therewere between one hundred and two hundred artillerymen, anda company of rangers. This was Murray's whole available forceat 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 wereon service in Halifax and New York, and 36 were absent on furlough. These figures nearly answer to the condensed statement ofFraser, and confirm the various English statements of the numbersthat 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 orfour hundred were left in Quebec to guard the walls when therest 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 toutela garnison, dont les seules troupes de la ligne comptaient encore7, 714 combattants, non compris les officiers. " To prove this, hecites the pay-roll of the garrison, which, in fact, corresponds tothe returns of the same date, if noncommissioned officers, drummers, and artillerymen are counted with the rank and file. ButGarneau falls into a double error. He assumes, first, that therewere no men on the sick list, and secondly, that there were noneabsent from Quebec, when in reality, as the returns show, considerablymore than half were in one or the other of these categories. The pay-rolls were made out at the headquarters of eachcorps, and always included the entire number of men enlisted init, whether sick or well, present or absent. On the same fallaciouspremises Garneau affirms that Wolfe, at the battle on the Plainsof Abraham, had eight thousand soldiers, or a little less thandouble his actual force. 

Having stated, as above, that Murray marched out of Quebecwith at least 1, 714 effective troops, Garneau, not very consistently, goes on to say that he advanced against Levis with six thousandor seven thousand men, and he adds that the two armies wereabout equal, because Levis had left some detachments behind toguard his boats and artillery. The number of the French, afterthey had all reached the field, was, in truth, about seven thousand;at the beginning of the fight it seems not to have exceeded fivethousand. The _Relation de la seconde Bataille de Quebec_ says:"Notre petite armée consistoit _au moment de l'action_ en 3, 000hommes de troupes reglées et 2, 000 Canadiens ou sauvages. " Alarge number of Canadians came up from Sillery while the affairwent on, and as the whole French army, except the detachmentsmentioned by Garneau, had passed the night at no greater distancefrom the field than Ste-Foy and Sillery, the last man musthave reached it before the firing was half over. 

Index

 A Abenaki Indians, 50, 122, 157, 262, 335 destruction of their town, 520

 Abercromby, James, British general, 270, 409, 410, 432, 434, 460 arrives in Albany, 280 praises Robert Rogers, 309, 310n. Joy at fall of Louisbourg, 404 Wolfe's comments on, 411 his blunders, 418, 428 attacks Ticonderoga (1758), 422-424 his defeat, 425 his retreat, 426

 Abraham, heights of, 523 (_See also_ Quebec) Wolfe's plan to climb, 521-532, 537 guarded by Captain de Vergor, 533, 535 surprised and captured, 540

 Abraham, Plains of, 542 (_See also_ Quebec) Wolfe's army forms on, 542 battle for Quebec on, 544-550 rout of French forces, . 546-550 behavior of Canadians, 549-550 French and English losses, 547n. -548, 552, 637-638 report of battle on, 638-639

 Acadia (Nova Scotia), Conflict for, 82-106 conquered by Nicholson, 82 ceded to England (1713), 82 guaranteed religious freedom, 82, 87 hostility of French-Canadian authorities, 82, 84, 174-175 English patience and moderation, 83, 85, 94-96, 175 Halifax founded, 84 treachery of French clergy, 86-102 British seize ship in, 97 British-French disputes over boundaries, 102-105 failure to settle boundary disputes, 105 life in, 189-190 emigration under French pressure (1748-1755), 17n. Its value to France, 175-176 British remove settlers, 186-205 delay in finding British settlers, 205

 Acadian, oath of allegiance to George II, 83, 87 urged to leave by French, 87, 89, 93ff. Threats of Le Loutre, missionary priest, 93ff. , 102, 174 forced from Beaubassin by Le Loutre, 98ff. , 174 misery of refugees, 100-102 removal by British, 186-205 reasons for removal, 175, 177, 188-189, 191-193 their misery at Beauséjour, 179-180 heartless treatment from French authorities, 180-181 life of, 189-190 powers of church over, 190 refuse pledge of allegiance to George II, 191-193 English treatment of, 625 ordered by priests to join Indian attacks, 626

 Adams, Captain, 194, 198

 Africa, French driven from, 615 English power in, 615 Senegal ceded to England, 618 Aix-la-Chapelle, treaty of, 31, 38, 102

 Albemarle, Lord, British Minister to France (1752), 91n. , 139 Lord Chesterfield's comment on, 139 dies in Paris, 142

 Albany, New York, in the 1750's, 228-229

 Albemarle, Earl of (1761), takes Havana, 615

 Alembert, D', 35

 Alequippa, Iroquois Chieftoness, 54 joins Washington's men, 120

 Algonquin, or Algonkin Indians, 72, 122, 262, 335 divination practices of, 305n. 

 Allen, Ensign, 152

 Amherst, Major-General Jeffry, 516, 526, 527, 531 commands Louisbourg expedition, 385 sails for Halifax, 387 reaches Louisbourg, 390 his siege of Louisbourg, 394-399 Louisbourg surrenders, 401-402 his courtesy to French, 403 takes French posts around Louisbourg, 405 his relations with Wolfe, 406 joins Abercromby, 406, 437 discusses attack on Ticonderoga, 438 prepare for advance on Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and Montreal, 507 marches on Ticonderoga, 509 French retreat and fort falls, 510 rebuilds fort, 510, 516 postpones going to Wolfe's aid, 511 finally embarks, 517 turned back by storms, 518 winters at Crown Point, 518 his blunders, 518 his plan to capture Montreal, 590 sails from Oswego, 594 takes Fort Lévis, 595 arrives at Montreal, 596 Montreal surrenders, 597-598

 Annapolis, Fort (Acadia), 83ff. 

 Anson, First Lord of the Admiralty (England 1754), 139

 Anthonay D', Lieutenant-Colonel, 400

 "Apostle of the Iroquois" (_see_ Piquet, Abbé)

 Appleton, Nathaniel, 601

 Apthorp, Boston merchant, 181

 Argens, D', 607 Frederick the Great, letters to, 607-608

 Argenson, D', French Minister of War (1743), 35, 252 appoints Montcalm to Canadian Command, 255

 Armstrong, Colonel John, destroys Indian stronghold, 296-297

 Arnoux, surgeon, Montcalm dies at his house, 556

 Ashley, John, 272

 Aubry, French officer, 513ff. 

 Augustus, Elector of Saxony, 32

 Austria (_See also_ Maria Theresa) her defeat at Rossbach, 380 signs treaty of Hubertsburg, 619

 Avery, Ensign, 520

 B

 Bagley, Colonel Jonathon, Fort William Henry commander, 273-274

 Barré, Major-General, 528

 Barrington, Viscount, 610

 Beaubassin (Acadia), occupied by British, 98 Le Loutre forces Acadians to leave, 98ff. 

 Beaujieu, Captain at Fort Duquesne, 157 plans to ambush Braddock, 158-160

 Beauséjour, Fort, 100, 177-186 Lawrence authorizes attack on, 177 corruption in, 178-181 siege of, 182-185 its surrender, 185-186 name changed to Fort Cumberland, 186

 Bedford, Duke of, 610

 Belcher, Governor of New York, 276

 Belleisle, Maréchalde, French war minister (1758), 376 forced to abandon Canada, 468

 Berkeley, Sir William, Governor of Virginia, 44

 Bernès, officer with Montcalm, 418

 Berniers, Commissary-General, Quebec, 523, 567

 Berry, with Montcalm at Ticonderoga, 411 defends fort, 422

 Berryer, French Colonial Minister (1758), 375 accuses Bigot of fraud, 375-376 orders him to report to Montcalm, 378 refuses help to Canada, 466

 Biddle, Edward, reports on Indian attacks, 244

 Bienville, Celeron de (_See_ Céleron de Bienville)

 Bigot, Francois, Intendant of Canada, 265, 322, 356, 535 his corruption, 76, 80, 178-179, 320, 366-377 reports on Le Loutre's work, 88 helps Le Loutre incite Indians, 89 appearance and personality, 365 investigation of his frauds, 377 at siege of Quebec, 485 votes to fight, 553 collects provisions, 558 returns to France, 604 jailed and tried for fraud, 605

 Blanchard, Colonel, on Crown Point expedition, 212, 214

 Blodget, Samuel, 220

 Boishébert, Sieurde, French officer in Acadia, 87 sets Indians on British, 88 attributes misery of Acadians to priests, 193 attacks British in Acadia, 200 at siege of Louisbourg, 396 tried for fraud, 463-464, 605

 Bonnecamp, Father, 49-50, 53, 58

 Boscawen, British Admiral, 142 sails for Halifax with troops, 386-387 lands troops at Louisbourg, 390-391 takes part in siege, 400-401

 Bougainville, aide-de-campe to Montcalm, 255ff. , 263, 265, 304-305, 316ff. , 589, 593 joins Indian war party, 299-300 his horror at Indian cruelties, 300, 356, 360 comments on Vaudreuil's treatment of Montcalm, 322 attends Indian feast, 329, 329n. Comments on Indians, 330, 331, 333-334, 345 carries terms to Monro at Fort William Henry, 346 sent to Montreal, 349 comments on official corruption, 371-372 comments on Vaudreuil's plans, 410 sent to France for help to Canada, 465-467 arranges marriage for Montcalm's son and daughter, 467 returns to Canada, 468 guards Quebec shores, 525, 533-534 is deceived by Wolfe's feint, 535-536, 538 despair at army's retreat, 552 sends troops to Quebec, 558 help arrives too late, 559

 Bouquet, Colonel Henry, at Fort Duquesne, 440ff. His difficulties on the march, 442, 445 his tact with Indian allies, 444

 Bourlamaque, Chevalier de, third in command to Montcalm, 255, 315ff. Tries to stop Fort William Henry massacre, 350 Montcalm's letters to, 358-359 at Ticonderoga, 411, 416, 418, 426, 481 retires from Ticonderoga, 509, 516 hears from Montcalm, 532-533 Lévis asks him to hold on, 558 at defense of Montreal, 592 half his force deserts, 592 forced to retreat, 594 negotiates Montreal surrender, 597

 Braddock, Major-General, 140-173, 174, 207 secret orders, 141 Shirley's opinion of, 144 Walpole's comments on, 144-148 Benjamin Franklin's opinion of, 144 anecdotes about, 145-146 meets with Colonial governors, 146-147 plans attacks on Fort Duquesne, 148-149 his fury at Colonial apathy, 150-151 Benjamin Franklin helps, 151-152 march on Fort Duquesne, 152-160 his ability, 152 George Washington's comments on, 152-153 his opinion and treatment of Indians, 154 hardships of march, 155-156 ambushed and defeated, 161-164, 165n. Horrors of massacre, 163 casualties of his forces, 164 and n. His personal courage, 164 fatally wounded, 164 his retreat, 164-168 his death, 168 reports of massacre, 168-170 disastrous results of defeat to settlers, 230, 234-248 bones of his men found, 457 Contrecoeur's report on rout, 628-630

 Bradstreet, Lieutenant Colonel John, 276-279 convoys stores to Oswego, 277 repels French attack, 278-279 some of his boatmen sent to Oswego, 284 in Ticonderoga campaign, 415, 417-418, 422 his plan to take Fort Frontenac, 436 his success, 437 prevents massacre of prisoners, 437 destroys Fort Duquesne supplies, 454

 Bréard, naval comptroller at Quebec, 368 jailed and tried for fraud, 605

 British Colonial troops, organization and pay, 271-272 discipline of, 272

 British Colonies (_See_ English Colonies)

 Brown, Lieutenant, carries mortally wounded Wolfe to rear, 546

 Bull, Fort, destroyed by French, 264

 Bullitt, Captain, 452-453

 Burd, Colonel, in Duquesne expedition, 441, 443ff. 

 Burke, Captain, escapes Fort William Henry massacre, 351

 Burney, Thomas, fur trader, escapes from French, 79

 Burton, Lieutenant-Colonel, with Braddock, 163 reports on Winslow's camp, 281-282 with Wolfe at Quebec, 537, 541, 542 receives Wolfe's last order, 546

 Bury, Viscount, comments on Massachusetts, 408

 Bussy, M. De, French envoy to London, 611

 Bute, Earl of, Secretary of State (1761), 610

 Byng, Admiral, 384 defeat at Minorca, 48 death of, 48

 Cadet, Joseph, Commissary-General of Canada, frauds of, 368-374 famine caused by, 370 sends supplies to Quebec, 482 jailed and tried for fraud, 605

 Campbell, Major Duncan, at Ticonderoga, 414, 424 legend about his death, 635-637

 Campbell, Captain John, killed at Ticonderoga, 424

 Canada, 25 census of 1754, 38 census of 1755 and 1760, 38n. Catholic influence in, 38-39 her military position, 40-41, 47 Indian tribes of, 40 power of Church (_See_ Acadia _and_ Acadians) officials incite Indians to raid, 137 military life in, 267-268 social life in, 366-368 official corruption in, 365-374 Church fails to check corruption, 373 financial straits of, 374 loyalty of her people, 463 treatment of her people by officials, 463-464 dark days of 1758-1759, 460-470 France cannot help, 467-468 warned of attack on Quebec, 468 mobilizes for defense, 481 passes to British Crown, 598 people assured religious freedom, 598 people protected from Indians, 598

 Captain Jacobs, Delaware Indian Chief, 296 killed, 297

 Carleton, Sir Guy, Wolfe's friend, 476, 500

 Carlos III of Spain, 612

 Carter, Landon, 236

 Carver, Jonathan, escapes Fort William Henry massacre, 351

 Catawba Indians, 112, 444

 Catherine of Russia, 614

 Catholicism, influence on growth of New France, 38-39

 Caughnawaga's Indians, 157

 Cayuga Indians, 275

 Chandler, Chaplain, 225

 Céloron de Bienville, expedition to the Ohio (1749), 48-64 travel difficulties, 49-50, 57-58 hostility of Indians, 52-58 claims the Ohio for France, 52-55 warns English traders, 53-56, 58 sent to command Fort Detroit, 73 refuses to attack Pickawillany, 76

 Charles VI of Austria, 37

 Chesterfield, Lord, comment on Lord Albemarle, 139 reconciles Pitt and Newcastle, 380-381 his worry over England's future, 383

 Cherokee Indians, 112, 323, 444

 Chickasaw Indians, 112

 Choiseul, Duc de, French minister (1761), 610 his character, 610-611 proposes European peace conference, 611 proposes negotiations with England on colonies, 611-612 negotiates secretly with Spain, 612

 Choctaw Indians, 323 William Henry, 428, 430, 432, 436

 Clerk, British engineer, 420-421

 Clermont, Comte de, 384

 Clinton, George, New York governor (1752), 63-64 complains French violate peace treaty, 75

 Clive, victory at Plassey, 383

 Connecticut, votes troops for Crown Point, 207 her sacrifices for Canadian campaigns, 409

 Connor, James, scout, 290

 Contrecoeur, Commandant at Fort Duquesne, 115, 118, 122, 157 awaits success of Braddock ambush, 159 his report on Braddock's rout, 628-630

 Cope, Jean-Baptiste, Indian chief, treachery of, 90-91, 100

 Corflans, French Admiral, his fleet crippled by British, 615

 Cornwallis, Edward, Governor of Acadia (1749), 83 Wolfe's opinion of, 83 Walpole's comments on, 83 his patience and moderation, 83, 85, 94-96 asks pledge of allegiance from Acadians, 86 discovers treachery of French clergy, 92-93 sends troops to Beaubassin, 98

 Corpron, accomplice of Cadet, 368, 373 jailed and tried for fraud, 605

 Courserac, Chevalier de, 401

 Crawford, Rev. William, comments on conditions in British camp, 283-284

 Croghan, George, trader, 52, 59-60, 62-63 French offer reward for his scalp, 75-76 brings Indians to help Braddock, 154

 Crown Point Expedition, 207-226 William Johnson named commander, 207 French prepare defense, 209 Johnson marches, 210ff. Battle at Lake George, 217-226 French routed, 221 British losses, 223 expedition a failure, 224 fort abandoned by French, 510 occupied and rebuilt by British, 511

 Cumberland, Duke of, 30, 139, 294, 380, 383, 384

 Cumberland, Fort, prepared for Braddock's expedition, 152

 Cummings, Colonel, at site of Fort William Henry, 428

 D

 Dalling, Major, 573

 Dalquier, Colonel, 551, 581

 Dalzel, Captain, killed at Detroit, 433

 De Cosne, British embassy secretary, 142

 Delancey, New York Governor (1754), 132n. , 226 asked for help against French in the Ohio, 114 attends Braddock's conference, 146 sides with William Johnson, 234 his cabal against Shirley, 270

 Delancey, Oliver, British soldiers quartered on, 306

 Delaware Indians, 50, 53, 54, 62-63, 101, 122, 154, 234, 275, 276, 296-298

 Delouche, sends fire ships against Wolfe, 491

 Demoiselle, Miami Chief, 57, 60-61, 78 killed by French Indians, 79

 Desandrouin, French engineer, 418

 Desauniers, Demoiselles, Canadian traders, 66

 Desgouttes, naval commander at Louisbourg siege, 396, 400

 Desherbes, harasses British in Acadia, 88ff. Detroit, early days as French fort, 72 French try to build it up, 73 small-pox in, 77

 Diderot, 35

 Dieskau, Baron, commander of French regulars, 209 reaches Crown Point, 214 sends expedition toward Fort Lyman, 215-216 attacks William Johnson's forces, 218-220 wounded and captured, 220-221 his expedition routed, 221 Johnson protects him from Mohawks, 222 sent as prisoner to England, 222 returns to France and dies, 223

 Dinwiddie, Robert, Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia his opinion of Indian traders, 51 comments on Ohio Valley boundary dispute with Pennsylvania, 63 protests French invasion of the Ohio, 108-110 warns England, 111 ordered to drive French out, 112 difficulties with his Assembly, 112-114 failure of first expedition 115-116 his letter to Colonel Innes, 128 Assembly votes funds for Ohio defense, 130 his opinion of colonists' good sense, 131 advises war levies on colonies 133, 148 letter to Granville on number of French in the Ohio, 137 makes difficulties for George Washington defending Virginia borders, 236-237 his dislike of Washington, 439

 Dobbs, North Carolina governor, 144 attends Braddock's conference, 146

 Doreil, French Commissary of War, reports on official corruption, 464-465 sent to ask France for help, 465

 Douville, French officer, 295

 Drucour, Louisbourg governor, prepares defense, 390 his brave defense of Louisbourg, 395ff. , 403 negotiates for surrender, 400-402 well-treated by Amherst, 403

 Drucour, Mme. , bravery of, 396, 403

 Duchat, French, Captain, describes life at Ticonderoga, 267-268

 Duchesnaye, 367

 Dumas, French Captain at Fort Duquesne, 157, 158n. , 161-162, 165, 235, 589 sets Indians on English settlers, 235ff. Reports destruction of Indiantown, 298 at defense of Quebec, 496, 499, 502 at defense of Montreal, 592

 Dumas, M. , tutor to Montcalm, 252-253

 Dunbar, Colonel Thomas, with Braddock, 152 destroys supplies after ambush, 168 starts retreat, 168 reaches Fort Cumberland, 169 abandons frontier to its fate, 172-173 Dinwiddie calls conduct "monstrous, " 173 and n. Disastrous results of retreat to settlers, 234-248

 Duquesne, Fort, established, 115 garrison reinforced, 121 site of, 156 strength of, 156-157 Braddock ambushed from, 161 Washington urges capture of, 439 Forbes marches on, 439-459 its supplies cut off, 454-455 garrison destroys it and retires, 457 British occupy site, 457 its name changed to Pittsburg, 457 its conquest opens the West, 459

 Duquesne, Marquis, Governor of Canada (1753), 51n. Sends expedition to occupy the Ohio, 79-80, 106ff. Recalled to France, 209

 Durell, Admiral in Wolfe's Quebec fleet, 478 fails to intercept French ships, 482 arrives in Canada, 483, 486

 E

 Edwards, Jonathan, 42

 Elder, John, reports Indian attacks, 244

 Elizabeth of Russia, 36 her hatred of Frederic the Great, 250 her death, 614

 England in the mid 1700's, 29-31 effect of Seven Years War, 26 political aspects, 29, 31 social aspects, 30 her military status, 31 her American colonies, 25, 38-47 her rule in Nova Scotia (_See_ Acadia) her difficulties in Acadia, 82-102 extent of her claims in Acadia, 104n. Urges colonies to make joint treaties with Indians, 134 her naval strength, 139 her military strength, 139 her leadership weakness, 139 her bad faith toward France, 139-143 and n. Her policy of attack, 140 sends Braddock and troops to Virginia, 140 attacks French troop ships, 142-143 declares war on France (1756), 250 makes treaty with Frederic the Great, 250 loses Minorca, 380 William Pitt takes power, 380-381 her gloomy prospects in 1757, 383 Clive's victory in India, 383 fresh power under Pitt, 384-387 her joy at the fall of Louisbourg, 403 her celebrations on Quebec's surrender, 565 regains Minorca, 618

 English colonies in the mid-1700's, 41-47 confined to Atlantic coast, 38 their population, 38 political differences, 41, 43-46 racial strains, 41, 44-45 Puritanism in New England, 42 religious differences, 42, 44 slavery in, 44, 236 jealousy between, 47

 Estève, Montcalm's secretary, 255, 257

 Europe in the mid 1700's, 31-38, 379-380, 619 the Seven Years War, 25-26 the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, 31, 38, 102 France, 31-36 Germany, 36 Prussia, 36 Russia, 36 Austria, 37 the treaty of Utrecht, 75, 102 political aspects, 250-252 the Peace of Paris, 620-623

 Eyre, Captain, 219 winters at Fort William Henry, 305-307 repulses French attack, 311-313

 F

 Ferdinand Prince of Brunswick, English commander, 384 his successes in Europe and Africa, 384-385

 Ferdinand VI of Spain, death of, 612

 Fitch, at Ticonderoga, 417

 Five Nations (_See_ Iroquois)

 Folsom, Captain at Fort Lyman, 221

 Forbes, John, brigadier in charge of Fort Duquesne expedition, 385 his slow advance, 438-441 445 his character, 439-440 refuses Washington's advice, 441 his opinion of provincials, 441 his illness, 442-443, 455-456, 458 his ignorance of French strength, 444-445 builds Fort Bedford, 445 arranges Indian convention, 446-450 his peace overtures accepted, 451 occupies Fort Duquesne, 458 his death, 459

 Forbes, Eli, 600-601

 Foxcroft, Thomas, 600

 France, in the mid 1700's, 31-36 her power, 31-32 signs of decay, 31, 34-35 Louis XV and Mme. Pompadour, 25, 34-35 her philosophers, 35 American colonies claimed, 25-26, 38-40, 50 Commission on Acadia boundaries fails, 102 threatens growth of English colonies, 133 her naval strength, 139 her military strength, 139 her leadership weakness, 139 need for time, 139 her policy of diplomacy, 139-140 bad faith toward England, 139-143 sends troops and ships to Canada, 140 ships intercepted by British, 142-143 French losses, 143 incites Indians to massacre British, 141-142, 234-248 (_See_ Piquet, Le Loutre, _and_ Acadia) declares war on England, 250 war in colonies subordinated, 252 Montcalm sent to Canada, 255 few troops allowed him, 257 victory at Oswego, 289-290 defeat at Rosbach, 380 Pompadour's role in ruin of, 383 Fort Frontenac falls, 437 importance of its loss, 437 her finances ruined, 466 her navy crippled, 466 she abandons Canada, 468 her need for peace, 610 the Peace of Paris, 620-623

 Franklin, Benjamin, 42, 617 his project of colonial union, 136 his opinion of Braddock, 144 helps Braddock get supplies, 150-152 leader in Pennsylvania Assembly, 240, 247n. , 248-249 defends Shirley on loss of Oswego, 294 comments on General Loudon, 325

 Franquet, engineer, 365 at siege of Louisbourg, 359-360 his stories of Bigot, 366-368

 Fraser, trader, 109n. , 111

 Frederic the Great of Prussia, 36, 606-609 begins Seven Years War, 379 his defeats and victories, 379-380 his letter to Voltaire, 607 his letters to D'Argen, 607-608 Pitt's resignation a blow, 613 signs a peace with Russia and Sweden, 614 French army in Canada, camp conditions, 282

 Frontiersmen, life of, 238 frequent fate of, 235-248

 Frontenac, Fort, Piquet's reception at, 72 Bradstreet attacks, 436 fort surrenders, 437 prisoners protected from Indians, 437 fort leveled, 437 importance of loss to France, 437

 Fry, Colonel Joshua, 114 illness and death of, 120 with Winslow in Acadia, 200 survives Fort William Henry massacre, 349-351 his reports on Fort William Henry massacre, 632-633

 G

 Gage, Lieutenant-Colonel, with Braddock, 159, 160-161 wounded in ambush, 164 takes over command from William Johnson at Niagara, 516

 Galissonière, Marquis de la, Governor of Canada (1749), 103-104 asks for colonists from France, 38-39, 48 his character and appearance, 48 his plans to link Canada and Louisiana, 48 his recall to France, 74

 Gardiner, Captain of the _Monmouth_, his historic fight, 386

 Gates, officer wounded in Braddock ambush, 164

 George II of England, 29 Acadians refuse oath of allegiance to, 83, 86 his comment on Wolfe, 477 his death, 609

 George III of England, 609, 615, 616

 Germain, French missionary in Acadia, 88 (_See also_ Piquet, _and_ Le Loutre) incites Indians to attack British, 90

 Germany in the mid 1700's, 36

 German Flats, massacre at, 357

 Girard, Acadian priest, 92

 Gist, Christopher, trader, 52 explores land for the Ohio Company, 58-60 guides Washington in the Ohio. 109ff. His settlement, 117 brings news of Fry's death, 120

 Gladwin, defends Fort Detroit, 164 wounded in Braddock ambush, 164

 Glen, South Carolina governor, his correspondence with Dinwiddie, 177

 Gorham, Captain, reconnoitres Louisbourg, 325

 Graham, Rev. John, describes conditions in British camp, 282-284

 Grant, Major reconnoitres Fort Duquesne, 451-452 his blunders, 452-453 captured by French, 453, 454n. Forbes upset by reverse, 454

 Granville Stockade, burned by French, 295

 Gray, Sergeant James, 229

 Great Meadows, Washington's camp at, 116-117 French victory at, 125 French and British losses, 125 and n. Named Fort Necessity, 120 significance of British defeat, 127

 Gridley, Colonel, 282

 H

 Haldimand, Colonel, rebuilds Oswego, 511-512

 Half-King, Indian Chief, 107 friend of Washington, 109, 116, 117, 120, 121 French try to win, 110 his comments on English and French, 126 his comments on Washington, 126n. 

 Halifax, Lord, 139 Halifax, Nova Scotia, founding of, 84 harassed by Indians, 87

 Halket, Sir Peter, 152, 162 killed with his son in Braddock ambush, 164

 Halket, Major, finds father's and brother's skeletons, 457

 Hamilton, James, Pennsylvania Governor (1753) opinion of traders, 51 tries to strengthen Indian friendship, 62-63 his battles with Assembly for defense funds, 114, 130-131

 Hanbury, John, 58, 150n. Dinwiddie's letter to, 115-116

 Hancock, Boston merchant, 181

 Handfield, Major, 194, 200

 Hardy, Sir Charles, New York Governor (1756), 270, 325

 Harris, John, reports on Indian raids, 244

 Harris, Mary, 60

 Harris, Thomas, British scout, 290

 Haviland, Colonel, at Fort Edward, 361 sets out for Montreal, 590 captures Canadian naval force, 594 makes contact with Murray, 594

 Hawke, Sir Edward, intercepts French troop ships, 386-387

 Hawley, Captain Elisha, 217

 Hazan, Moses, British Captain at Beauséjour, 183, 299 routs French raiding party, 574 wounded at Sainte-Foy, 582

 Hebecourt, French Captain at Ticonderoga, 360 Roger's Rangers plague him, 360 his revenge, 360-362 blows up the fort, 509-510 escapes with his men, 509

 Heights of Abraham (_See_ Abraham, heights of)

 Henderson, British volunteer, helps carry mortally wounded Wolfe to rear, 546

 Hendrick, Mohawk Chief, complains of wrongs, 134 conference at Onondaga, 134-136 speech on joint treaty with Britain, 135 advises William Johnson, 217 killed in battle, 217

 Hensey, Florence, French spy, 324

 Hobbs, Captain, 196, 198

 Hocquart, Captain, 142-143 and n. 

 Hodges, Captain, ambushed by French, 299

 Holbourne, Admiral, 142, 324-325 gale shatters his fleet, 326

 Holdernesse, Earl of, 130 letter from Wolfe, 530

 Holland, Lieutenant, 81

 Holmes, Admiral of Wolfe's Quebec fleet, 478, 525, 526, 531, 532, 535, 536

 Hopson, Governor of Acadia, 96

 Houlière, French officer, 400

 Howe, Captain Edward, 99 murder of, 100

 Howe, Captain of H. M. S. _Dunkirk_, 143 and n. 

 Howe, Colonel, with Wolfe at Quebec, 537-538, 542

 Howe, Lord, 358 assigned to Ticonderoga campaign, 385, 415 Abercromby's praise of, 412 Pitt's opinion of, 412 Wolfe's praise of, 412 his character, 412-413 stories about, 413 his death a great blow, 420 approves plan to take Fort Frontenac, 436

 Huguenots, persecution in France, 34, 39

 Hugues, officer with Montcalm, 418

 Huron Indians, 51, 104, 122, 157, 262, 335

 Hutchins, Ensign, 531

 I

 Indian tribes: Abenakis, 50, 122, 157, 262 Algonquins or Algonkins, 72, 122, 262 Catawbas, 112 Cherokees, 112, 323, 444 Chickasaws, 112 Choctaws, 323 Caughnawagas, 157 Delawares, 50, 53-54, 62-63, 107, 122, 154, 234, 296-298, 446-447, 451 Hurons, 51, 104, 122, 157, 262, 335 Illinois, 50, 77, 104 Iowas, 300, 335 Iroquois, 53, 54, 59, 112, 122, 154, 217, 262, 335 Miamis, 50, 57, 61, 63, 77, 107, 157, 335 Michillimackinacas, 328 Micmacs, 98, 100, 335 Mingoes, 50, 54, 63, 157, 235, 451 Mohawks, 81, 134-136, 208-209, 217, 220, 276, 323 Mohecans, 275, 276 Nipissings, 50, 72, 122, 335 Ojibwas, 78, 107, 157, 335 Oneidas, 276, 357 Onondagas, 134, 276 Osages, 77 Ottawas, 50, 61, 78, 122, 157, 333, 335 Piankishaws, 77 Pottawattamies, 107, 157, 305, 335 Senacas, 53, 134, 447 Shawanoes, 50, 55-56, 60, 62, 107, 157, 234, 275, 276, 446-447, 451 Wabash, 77 Winnebagoes, 335 Wyandot, 59

 Indians, atrocities of, 79, 155, 158, 166, 214, 235-248, 267, 300, 333-334, 348-352, 353n. , 356, 362, 434-435, 471, 519, 521

 Innes, Colonel James, 236 Dinwiddie's letter to, 128 notifies Lord Fairfax of Braddock's defeat, 168-169

 J

 James II of England, 46

 Jefferson, Thomas, 128

 Jervis, John, Wolfe's friend, 538

 Joannes, mayor of Quebec, negotiates terms of surrender, 559

 Johnson, Sergeant John, 575 comments on men's love for Wolfe, 536 reports on battle of Sainte-Foy, 581, 583-584

 Johnson, Sir William, his influence with the Five Nations, 63-64, 134-136, 208-209, 446-447 protests French violations, 75 in command of Crown Point expedition, 207-226 his appearance and character, 208 advances on Crown Point, 210 manners and morale of his troops, 211 his Mohawks report French near, 212 names Lake George for King, 213 wounded, 219 routs French attack, 220-221 saves Dieskau from Mohawks, 222 gives up attack on Crown Point, 224 his men disperse, 225 he is knighted by King, 226 his dispute with Shirley, 233-234 fails to save Fort Bull, 264 effects of Crown Point failure, 269 persuades the Five Nations to fight for British, 274-275 fails to gain other tribes, 276 joins Webb at Fort Edward, 354 takes command at Siege of Niagara, 513 defeats reinforcements, 514 captures Niagara, 515 protects prisoners from Indians, 516 Brigadier Gage sent to take his command, 516

 Johnstone, Chevalier de, Aide-de-camp to Lévis, 495, 496, 504, 543 his report on rout of French forces at Quebec, 550-551 his comments on Vaudreuil's behavior, 551 his grief over Montcalm's loss, 551

 Joncaire-Chabert, 52, 54, 56, 62, 64, 69, 109 reports on Ohio Indians with British, 77 wins to France, 134 his influence with Indians, 447

 Jonquière, Marquis de la, Governor of Canada (1749), 74ff. His intrigues against British, 75-76, 85, 87, 90 his death, 77

 Jumonville, Ensign Coulon de, killed in the Ohio, 118-119, 121

 K

 Kanon, 482, 485

 Kaunitz, Austrian Minister, 251

 Kennedy, Adjutant, 197

 Kennedy, Lieutenant, on scouting party, 298-299 killed, 308

 Keppel, English Commodore, 144 lends Braddock men, 152

 Kikensick, Nipissing Chief, 336

 Killick, in Wolfe's Quebec fleet, 487-488

 Kittanning, Delaware Indian stronghold, 296 burned by Armstrong, 297

 Knox, Captain John, 404 winters in Fort Cumberland, 471 describes New England troops, 472 sails to join Wolfe, 472 describes ascent of British fleet up the St. Lawrence to Quebec, 487-489 reports on Siege of Quebec, 492, 493, 497, 498-499, 501, 505, 527, 535 describes Quebec under British rule, 568-569, 572, 574 reports on defence of Quebec, 585-586 voyage to Montreal, 591-592

 L

 La Clue, French Admiral, 386

 La Corne, Saint Luc de, French officer in Acadia, 90, 335-336, 343, 589 destroys British wagon train, 432 attacks camp at Oswego, 512 repulsed and wounded, 512 sails for France, 604 shipwrecked, 605 gets back to Quebec, 605

 Lake George, battle of, 217-226

 La Motte, French Admiral, 140ff. , 551 helps defend Louisbourg, 326, 327n. 

 Langlade, Charles, 157, 336 leads French against Pickawillany, 78-79 at defense of Quebec, 495

 Langly, French officer, 415ff. 

 La Perade, Chevalier de, 158

 Lawrence, Major, lands British troops at Beaubassin, 98

 Lawrence, Governor of Nova Scotia, proposes attack on Beauséjour, 177 serves in Louisbourg expedition, 391-393

 Le Boeuf, Fort, 108

 Le Guerne, French priest describes removal of Acadians, 204

 Le Loutre, Abbé Louis Joseph, French missionary in Acadia, 174 sets Indians on British, 87ff. Receives pension, 91 his Indian mission, 96 his character, 97 terrorizes Acadians, 179-180 authority at Beauséjour, 179 escapes after fort surrenders, 185 captured and imprisoned, 185 cost of his intrigues, 626-627

 Le Mercier, Chevalier, 122, 312, 367 his frauds, 377 at Ticonderoga, 410

 Léry, destroys Fort Bull, 264

 Lévis, Chevalier de, Montcalm's second in command, 265, 322, 330, 526 his opinion on Jumonville killing, 120 pleases Montcalm, 267 describes social life of Montreal, 315-317 marches on Fort William Henry, 338-340 tries to stop massacres at fort, 350 Vaudreuil praises him, 359 quells Montreal riots, 360 his report of Roger's defeat, 364n. At Ticonderoga defense, 410, 421, 426 he defends Quebec, 495-496, 503 is sent to reinforce Montreal, 517 profits from Amherst's blunders, 518 his horror at army's retreat from Quebec, 557 urges Vaudreuil to march back, 558 hopes to retake Quebec, 576 attacks outposts, 577-578 battle joined at Sainte-Foy, 580-582 his losses, 583 besieges Quebec, 584-585 British fleet forces his retreat, 586-587 prepares to defend Montreal, 589-590 tries for better surrender terms, 597-598 returns to France, 604

 Lewis, Major, 452-453

 Ligneris, French commander at Fort Duquesne, 157, 162, 165, 445ff. , 513 dismisses troops for lack of food, 455 severely wounded, 515

 Livingstone, William, 293

 Longueil, Baron de, Governor of Canada (1752), 77-78, 122, 329 encourages hostility to British, 92 defends Ticonderoga, 410

 Loudon, Earl of, Commander of British forces in America, 270 his difficulties with Colonial troops, 272, 281 his character, 280 gets poor reports of Colonial camps, 281-282 blames Shirley for loss of Oswego, 293 at Fort Edward, 294 his orders to Winslow, 305 demands quarters for British regulars, 306 plans attack on Louisbourg, 324-325 abandons attempt, 326 threatens reprisals for Fort William Henry, 354 is recalled by Pitt, 385 Massachusetts shares cost of his campaign, 408 his blunders, 439

 Louis XIII of France, 34

 Louis XIV of France, orders dispersal of New York Colony population, 206n. 

 Louis XV of France, 25, 34 Céloron de Bienville declares him lord of the Ohio, 52 his government's policy toward Acadians, 206 joins Austria against Prussians, 251-252

 Louisbourg, Fortress of, 388-407 (_See also_ Drucour) conquered by Nicholson (1710), 82 restored to France, 83

 Loudon plans to attack, 324 plans abandoned, 326 its geography, 388 its strengths and weaknesses, 389-390 British fleet arrives, 390-391 British succeed in landing troops, 392-393 siege and defense of, 394-400 its surrender, 401-403 its garrison sent to England, 403 its civilians sent to France, 403 effect of its fall, 403-405 leveled by order of George II, 591

 Loppinot, French officer at Louisbourg, 400

 Loring, British naval commander, 511, 517

 Lotbinière, engineer, strengthens Ticonderoga defenses, 263-266, 410

 Lowendal, Marshal of France, 32

 Lowther, Katherine, Wolfe's fiancée, 476, 477 Wolfe's last message to, 538

 Lusignan, Commandant at Ticonderoga, 309

 Lydius, Dutch trader, 303 suspected French spy, 303n. 

 Lyman, General Phineas, with Crown Point expedition, 210, 281, 282 builds Fort Lyman, 212 takes command after Johnson is wounded, 219 Johnson's jealousy of, 224, 226 at Fort Ticonderoga campaign, 417

 Lyman, Fort, name changed to Fort Edward, 226

 M

 Machault, d'Arnouville, Comptroller-General of France (1750), taxes clergy, 33 becomes Minister of Marine, 35 Pompadour has him dismissed, 383

 Macnamara, French Admiral, 141

 Macdonald, Captain Donald, 452 captures French post, 574 death of, 453, 582

 Mackellar, engineer with Wolfe, 294n. , 489 reports weakness of Oswego, 279

 Mackay, Captain, with Washington, 121, 125

 Mackenzie, Captain, 452-453

 MacVicar, Anne, life in Albany, 228-229

 Maillard, French missionary, 91, 100

 Maria Theresa of Austria, 37 her hatred of Frederick the Great, 251 sides with Russia and France, 251

 Marin, French officer, 229-300, 367, 515 commander of Ohio expedition, 80, 106ff. His successful raid on Fort Edward, 334-335 ambushes Roger's Rangers, 433 his defeat, 434, 436n. Rescues Israel Putnam from Indians, 435

 Martel, King's Store-keeper, 367

 Martin, Ranger Sergeant Joshua, 309

 Martin, Abraham, heights and plains of Abraham named for, 541

 Maryland, votes defense funds, 132 Indian massacres in, 295

 Maurin, François, 367-368

 Massachusetts in 1750's, 42 votes funds for Ohio Valley expedition, 132 sends volunteers to fight French, 207 her war debts, 408 her economy, 409 celebrates Montreal victory, 600

 Massey, British Colonel, 515

 Mathevet, French missionary, 336

 Mayhew, Rev. Jonathan, predicts growth of Colonies, 565

 McBryer, Andrew, trader, 79 McGinnis, Captain, death of, 221

 McCartney, Captain, 578

 McMullen, Ranger Lieutenant, 519

 Meech, Lieutenant with Wolfe, 489

 Mellen, John, 600

 Mercer, Lieutenant Colonel, left to hold Fort Duquesne, 458

 Miami Indians, 50, 57, 61, 63, 77, 107, 157, 335

 Micmac Indians, 98, 100, 335

 Michillimackinaca Indians, 328

 Mingoes (English traders' name for Iroquois Indians), 50, 54, 63, 157, 235, 451

 Mirepoix, French Ambassador to London (1754), 139

 Mohawk Indians, 43, 81, 134-136, 208-209, 212-213, 217, 220, 276, 323

 Moltke, von, 602

 Monckton, British Lieutenant Colonel, in Acadia, 177ff. , 527 besieges Beauséjour, 182-184 declares Acadians rebels, 186-187 ordered to remove Acadians, 194 his insolence to Colonials, 195 as Brigadier with Wolfe, 478, 493, 504, 532, 542 takes Martinique, 615

 Monro, Lieutenant Colonel commanding Fort William Henry, 341 (_See_ also William Henry, Fort) attacked by French, 341 asks for reinforcements, 342 Webb fails to support him, 343 his brave defense, 343-347 his surrender, 347

 Montcalm, Marquis de, Commander of French Army in Canada, 252, 255 his childhood, youth, and marriage, 252-254 letters to his family, 255-256, 257-258, 262-263, 315-317, 359, 460, 466, 469, 630-632 embarks for Canada, 257 reaches Quebec, 258 meets Governor, Marquis de Vaudreuil, 258-259 his dealings with Indians, 262-263, 316, 321 his opinions on Vaudreuil, 265-266, 321, 359 his social life in Montreal, 314-318, 358-359 decorated by the King, 315 his difficulties with Vaudreuil, 318, 321, 460-470 plans attack on Lake George forts, 328-329 calls council of Indian allies, 335-337 marches on Fort William Henry, 338 tries to stop massacres at fort, 350-351 saves some prisoners, 352 exposes corruption in Canada, 376-377 prepares to defend Ticonderoga, 410, 418-421 his letters on Ticonderoga victory, 426 plans defense of Quebec, 484-486 his tactics of defense, 490-498, 502, 525 his last letter, 533 deceived by Wolfe's strategy, 535-540 finds Wolfe's army on plains of Abraham, 543 help from Quebec fails to arrive, 544 attacks British too soon, 544, 549-550 French beaten, 545-546 mortally wounded, 547, 552 his last moments, 554-555 his death and burial, 555, 641 his character, 564

 Montgomery, Captain Alexander, murders prisoners, 524

 Montesquieu, 35

 Montguet, Captain, 551

 Montguy, French officer, 418

 Montigny, French officer, 515 Montmorenci, battle at, 504-505, 506n. 

 Montreal, Social life, 314-318 food shortage in, 359-360 riots in, 359 Lévis quells riots, 360 besieged by British, 596 surrenders, 597-598

 Montreuil, General, 220 advises Montcalm, 265

 Montour, Catherine, 59

 Montour, Andrew, interpreter, 59-60

 Moore, Colonel William, 246

 Moravians, their Indian missions, 447 contrast with Catholic missions, 447-448

 Morris, Robert Hunter, Pennsylvania Governor (1755), 131, 243ff. Difficulties with his assembly, 131 attends Braddock's conference, 146 declares war on Delawares, 276

 Morris, Captain Roger, aide-de-camp to Braddock, 153 wounded in ambush, 164

 Murray, Captain Alexander, in charge of Fort Edward, 190-191, 195 helps Winslow in removal of Acadians, 195-200, 202

 Murray, Brigadier James, with Wolfe, 478, 527 raids Deschambault, 525 in front lines with Wolfe, 542 his qualities, 579 in command of occupied Quebec, 570-571 his outposts threatened, 573 rumors of French attack on Quebec, 574 spies among his men, 576 learns of French attack plan, 578 meets French forces outside Quebec, 580-582 retreats into city, 582 stops disorders among troops, 584 defends city against French, 584 saved by English fleet, 585 pursues retreating French, 586-587 ordered to Montreal, 590 takes measures to ensure Canadian neutrality, 592

 N

 New Brunswick (_See_ Acadia)

 Newcastle, Duke of, 30, 477 named Prime Minister of England, 137 Walpole's opinion of, 137-138 Smollett's opinion of, 138 his political character, 138 his opposition to Pitt, 380 reconciled by Lord Chesterfield, 381 named First Lord of the Treasury, 381

 New England, in 1750's, 41-43 (_See also_ individual states) Puritanism in, 42 politics of, 41, 43 its method of raising and equipping troops, 271-272 celebrates fall of Louisbourg, 403 joy at Quebec surrender, 565

 New France, ends with Quebec surrender, 556 (_See also_ Canada)

 New Hampshire, votes men for Crown Point expedition, 207 raises men for Canadian war, 409

 New Jersey, refuses funds for Ohio Valley defense, 132 Indian massacres in, 295

 New York in 1750's, 45-46 refuses funds for Ohio Valley defense, 131 votes funds after Fort Necessity defeat, 132 votes troops to fight French, 207 conflict between Governor and Assembly, 248 Indian massacres in, 295 celebrates fall of Louisbourg, 403-404

 Necessity, Fort (_See_ Great Meadows)

 Niagara expedition, 228-234 march to Oswego, 229-230 difficulties of, 230-233 expeditions abandoned, 234 disastrous results to settlers, 234-248

 Niagara, Fort, British besiege, 511 reinforcements fail, 513-514 fort surrenders, 515-516 garrison saved from Indians, 516 importance of its capture, 516

 Nicholson, General, conquers Acadia, 82

 Nipissing Indians, 50, 72, 122, 235 burial customs of, 340

 Nova Scotia (_See_ Acadia)

 Nuns at Quebec (_See_ Ursulines)

 O

 Ochterlony, Captain, with Wolfe, rescued by French from scalping, 505

 Ogden, Captain, 520, 521

 Ohio Company, the, 58-59 trading posts of, 115, 116 its posts destroyed by French, 127

 Ohio Valley (_See also_ Céloron de Bienville) French claims in, 48-58 Indians of, 50, 107, 112, 119, 122 English claims in, 58-64 Virginia and Pennsylvania disputes over, 63 importance as key to West, 64

 Ohio Valley battles, 106-127 France establishes forts, 106-108 illness among French, 107-108 Virginia protests invasion, 108-111 English colonies refuse help, 113-114, 129ff. French detachment defeated, 116-118 Indians join French, 122 French victory at Great Meadows, 125-127 French and British losses, 125 and n. 

 Ojibwa Indians, 78, 107, 157, 335

 Oneida Indians, 276, 357, 436-437

 Onondaga Indians, 134-276

 Orme, Captain Robert, Aide-de-Camp to Braddock, 146, 153 wounded in ambush, 164 describes the ambush, 170-171

 Osage Indians, 77

 Osborn, Admiral, intercepts French fleet, 386

 Osgood, Captain, in Acadia, 196, 198

 Oswego, English fur trading post, 49 its attraction to Indians, 68-69

 Oswego, Fort, battle for, 285-291 sickness and hunger of troops, 279 weakness of defenses, 280 camp conditions, 286 surrender to French, 289 losses at, 289-290 burned, 290 Loudon blames Shirley for loss, 293

 Ottawa Indians, 50, 61, 78, 122, 157, 333, 335

 P

 Paris, treaty of, (1763), 619

 Parkman, William, comments on Abercromby, 411

 Parker, Colonel of Fort William Henry, 334

 Patton, John, English trader, 75

 Péan, Chevalier, 80, 106-107, 359, 367, 368 his frauds, 372 jailed and tried, 605

 Péan, Mme. , 80, 372

 Penn, Thomas and Richard, 240-241

 Penn, William, 46

 Pennahouel, Ottawa Chief, 336, 337

 Peniseault, Antoine, accomplice of Bigot, 367-368 jailed and tried for fraud, 605

 Peniseault, Mme. , 372-373

 Pennsylvania in 1750's, 44-45 refuses funds for Ohio Valley defense, 130-131, 240ff. Indian massacres in, 235-248, 295 conflict between Governor and Assembly, 240-247

 Pepperell, regiment of, 229, 270

 Perière, leads Indian war party, 299-300

 Peter the Great of Russia, 36

 Peter the III of Russia, 614

 Petrie, John lost, Indian prisoner, 357

 Peyton, Lieutenant, escapes scalping, 504-505

 Philadelphia, celebrates Louisbourg victory, 403

 Phillips, Lieutenant of Rogers' Rangers, 360 massacred, 362

 Piankishaws, 77

 Pichon, Thomas, British spy, 179 and n. 

 Pickawillany, Miami Indian town, 57 destroyed by French, 78-79

 Piquet, Abbé, French missionary, 49, 58, 71, 336, 624 his appearance and character, 65 his success as missionary to Indians, 66-72, 134 schemes to drive English from Ohio, 68, 70 plants cross in Oswego ruins, 290 joins Indian attack on British, 512

 Pitt, William, 29, 430 his fierce patriotism, 31, 138, 324, 382 made Secretary of State, 381 his character and abilities, 381-382, 384 turns efforts towards America, 385-387 recalls General Loudon, 385 asks and gets men from Colonies, 408 names Wolfe commander of Quebec expedition, 477 disliked by George III, 609-610 breaks off peace conference with French, 611-612 proposes to attack Spain, 612 opposed and resigns, 613 denounces treaty of Paris, 619

 Pitt, Fort, 457

 Pittsburg, new name for Fort Duquesne, 457

 Pococke, Admiral Sir George, takes Havana, 615-616

 Pomeroy, Rev. Benjamin, watches army leave for Niagara, 508

 Pomeroy, Daniel, with Crown Point expedition, 210, 219

 Pomeroy, Seth, comments on Crown Point march, 213

 Pompadour, Mme. De, 25, 35, 139, 610 her hatred of Frederic the Great, 251-252 her power in France, 382-383

 Pontiac, Indian Chief, 157, 164

 Pontleroy, French engineer, 418

 Pontbriand, Bishop at Quebec, 526 administers last rites to Montcalm, 555

 Portneuf, French officer, 69

 Portneuf, Cure, killed and scalped, 524

 Post, Frederic, Moravian envoy to Indians, 447-451 dangers of his mission, 448-449 his success, 451

 Pottawattamie Indians, 107, 157, 305, 335

 Pouchout, Captain, Commandant at Niagara, 360, 421 besieged by British, 512 reinforcements fail him, 513-514 surrenders, 515 made commandant of Fort Levis, 595 surrenders to Amherst, 595

 Poulariez, Lieutenant-Colonel, 551, 553

 Pownall, Massachusetts Governor (1758), 408-409

 Preble, Major Jedediah, 200

 Présentation, la, French mission, 65-66, 69, 72n. (_See also_ Piquet, Abbé)

 Prévost, Intendant at Louisbourg, 90-91

 Prideaux, British Brigadier, sent to take Niagara, 507 begins siege, 511 killed in action, 513

 Pringle, Captain, British volunteer with Rogers' Rangers, 360-361 lost in forest, 362-363 saved from Indians by French officers, 363

 Prussia (_See_ Frederick the Great)

 Puritanism in New England, 42

 Putnam, Israel, 210 his expert scouting praised, 299 at Ticonderoga, 416 captured by Indians, 433 his tortures, 434-435 rescued by Marin, 435 prisoner in Montreal, 436 exchanged, 436

 Puysieux, Marquis de, 35

 Pynchon, Dr. , 220

 Q

 Quakers, characteristics of, 239 cause of military paralysis, 240-248 their quarrel with Presbyterians, 239 attitude toward Indians, 239 influence in Pennsylvania, 240-248 oppose defense of borders against Indians, 295

 Quebec, (_See also_ Montcalm _and_ Vaudreuil) Montcalm's praise of, 316 suspense over threat to, 324 Montcalm prefers to Montreal, 358, 360

 Quebec, Siege of, 481-505, 523-548 threatened with attack, 468, 482 Montcalm and Vaudreuil arrive, 483 troops and Indians pour in, 483 patriotism of its people, 484 English fleet starts up the St. Lawrence, 486 nature of the countryside, 488-489 city's strength as natural fortress, 489 British army lands below, 489 fire ships fail to harm British, 491-492, 501 steady bombardment of, 494-498, 526 British treatment of prisoners, 498-501 French victory at Montmorenci, 523 sickness in Wolfe's army, 526 short rations of French, 526 Wolfe plans new attack, 531-532 heights of Abraham scaled, 540-542 British army forms on plains of Abraham, 543 French forces attack, 544 defeat and rout of French, 546-549 death of Wolfe, 546 death of Montcalm, 547, 555 French and British losses, 547n. , 548, 552, 637-638

 Quebec, fall of, 549-567 Vaudreuil's behavior after defeat, 550-551, 553, 558 army flees the city, 554 New France ends with, 556 Vaudreuil's responsibility for, 559 garrison refuses to fight, 559 city surrenders, 559 ruin and chaos from bombardment, 567-568

 Quebec, under British rule, 571-588 troops suffer from cold and sickness, 571-572, 575 rumors of French attack, 573-574 French try to retake, 580-586 British ships arrive and French retire, 587

 R

 Ramesay, Chevalier de, commandant at Quebec, 485 refuses Montcalm artillery, 544 left without supplies after battle, 556 forced to surrender, 559

 Raymond, Comte de, 57, 77 harasses British in Acadia, 89

 Raymal, Abbé, 189

 Rea, Dr. Caleb, 429, 430

 Repentigny, Lieutenant, 495-496, 589

 Rhode Island, votes to fight French, 207

 Richelieu, Cardinal, 34

 Richelieu, Duc de, 384

 Rigaud (brother of Vaudreuil), 317, 319, 320, 329, 410 commands William Henry attack, 311-313 attack fails, 313

 Robinson, John, his Story of Wolfe, 539

 Robinson, Sir Thomas, Secretary to Duke of Newcastle, 138 William Pitt's opinion of, 138-139 gives Braddock secret orders, 141 authorizes attack on Beauséjour, 177-178

 Roche, Lieutenant, British volunteer with Rogers Rangers, 360-361 lost in forest, 362-363 saved from Indians by French officers, 363

 Rochbeau court, 589

 Rodney, British Admiral, takes Martinique, 615

 Rogers, Lieutenant Richard, 301

 Rogers, Major Robert, Commander of Rogers Rangers, 274, 300 his raids into Canada, 301-302 reconnoitres Ticonderoga, 303-304 raids outskirts of fort, 307-309, 360 his group cut to pieces, 361-362 his report of fight, 363n. -364 activities in Ticonderoga Campaign, 412-415 ambushed near Fort Edward, 433-434 sent to destroy Abenaki town, 517 instructed to spare women and children, 519 takes and burns town, 520 miseries of return trip, 520-521 at Quebec siege, 524

 Rollo, Lord, 591

 Roma, French officer, comments on British rule in Acadia, 85-86

 Roquemaure, 215, 593, 594

 Roubaud, French missionary, 331ff. Goes over to the English, 566n. 

 Rouillé, De, French Colonial Minister, 91n. 

 Rous, British Navy Captain, 97 convoys troops to Nova Scotia, 182 watches attacks on Beauséjour, 183 occupies Beauséjour, 185

 Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 35

 Russia, 36

 Ryswick, treaty of, 52

 S

 St. -Florentin, Comte de, 35

 Saint-Julien, Lieutenant-Colonel, 392

 St. Paul, sacked and burned by British, 524

 Saint-Pierre, Legardeur de, French Commander of Ohio expedition, 107, 108, 110, 214 killed, 218

 Sainte-Foy, battle of, 580-588 French and British losses, 583 near disaster for British, 584 strength of both forces, 642-643

 Saunders, Admiral of Wolfe's Quebec fleet, 477, 478, 528 his feint to deceive Montcalm, 537 takes Wolfe's remains to England, 560

 Saxe, Marshal of France, 32 comment on Mirepoix, 139 death of, 139

 Saxony, joins league against Prussia, 251

 Scarroyaddy, Indian Chief, 154

 Schuyler, Colonel, prisoner in Montreal, 435

 Schuyler, Mrs. Of Albany, 413 her affection for Lord Howe, 413 her grief at his death, 417

 Scotch regiments, 414, 424, 452ff. 

 Scott, Lieutenant Colonel George, 181, 183

 Séjur, Comte de, 36

 Seneca Indians, 53, 134

 Senezerques, French Brigadier, 552

 Seven Years War in Europe, 25 effect on world history, 26

 Sewell, Colonel Matthew, 222

 Sharpe, Maryland Governor, 146

 Shawanoe Indians, 50, 55-56, 60, 62, 107, 157, 234, 275, 276

 Shepherd, Captain, 303

 Shirley, Captain John, son of Governor William Shirley, 230-232 death of, 23 In. 

 Shirley, William, son of Governor William Shirley, Secretary to Braddock, 144, 146 his opinion of Braddock, 144, 153 his comments on Robert Orme, 153 killed in ambush, 164

 Shirley, William, Massachusetts Governor, 241ff. At Versailles Conference, 102 asked to help Virginia against French, 114 gets grant for expedition, 132 attends Braddocks' Conference, 146 his marriage in Paris, 147 advocates taxation of colonies, 148 takes command after Braddock's death, 173 orders renewed attack on Fort Duquesne, 173 his plan for removal of Acadians, 175, 188 his plan to capture Beausejour, 177-178, 181-182 names William Johnson as commander of Crown Point expedition, 207 his Niagara Campaign, 228-234 his plans to master Lake Ontario, 269 superseded in command, 270 reasons for failure of his plans, 292-293 blamed by General Loudon for Oswego loss, 293 his defense, 294 recalled to England, 294 made Governor of Bahamas, 294

 Sinclair, Sir John, opens road for Braddock, 161 wounded in ambush, 164 advises on route to Fort Duquesne, 440 his inefficiency, 443 his annoyance with Indians, 444

 Smith, James, treatment as Indian captive, 158 and n. Sees ambush of Braddock, 165 sees prisoners burned to death, 166

 Smith, William, his feat at Ticonderoga, 424

 Spain, secret negotiations with Choiseul, 612 loses Havana, Manila, and the Philippines, 616 gets Cuba back and cedes Florida, 618

 Speakman, Captain, 200

 Spikeman, Captain of Rogers Rangers, 307 killed, 308

 Stanwix, General, builds Fort Pitt, 457 goes to reinforce Pittsburg, 507

 Stark, Lieutenant John, 210, 301, 307-308, 310, 313, 415

 Stephen, Adam, reports on Great Meadows, 125n. 

 Stephen, Lieutenant-Colonel, 444, 521

 Stevens, his escape from Quebec, 534

 Stewart, Captain, with Braddock, 164

 Stobo, Major Robert, hostage to French at Fort Necessity, 125 his letters, 157n. His escape from Quebec, 534

 Stuarts, the, defeat at Culloden, 29

 Sweden, joins league against Prussia, 251

 T

 Teedyuscung, Delaware Chief, 447

 Titcomb, Moses, 210 killed, 220

 Toronto, early days of, 69

 Ticonderoga, Fort, 408-427 defenses strengthened, 263 description of first fort, 266 center for French-Indian raiding parties, 298, 300 troops withdrawn, 305 Montcalm's forces at, 329-335 provisioning problems, 331 British forces gather for attack, 410 British advance, 413-416 difficulties of the advance, 415-417 Lord Howe's death, 416-417 French defense and victory, 418-426 French and British losses, 425 Colonial report on defeat, 428-429 finally falls to Amherst, 510 French accounts of battle, 634-635

 Townshend, Captain, fails in attempt to halt German Flats Massacre, 357 killed at Ticonderoga, 509

 Townshend, Charles, Secretary of War (1761), 610

 Townshend, George Brigadier with Wolfe, 478, 527, 532, 542 commands after Wolfe's death, 552 Quebec surrenders to him, 559

 Trent, William, English trader, 52, 112, 115 reports on Indian massacres, 243

 Trepezec, French officer, 415ff. 

 Turner, Lieutenant of Rogers Rangers, 520

 Turnois, Father, 66

 U

 Ursulines, hospital of, 569-570

 Utrecht, treaty of, 52, 75, 157 gives Acadia to England, 82, 84, 102

 V

 Valtry, M. De, 72

 Vanbraam, Captain, French interpreter, 109 negotiates surrender of Fort Necessity, 125 kept as hostage, 125

 Vannes, French officer at Beauséjour, 183, 184

 Varin, Naval Commissary in Canada, 367 his frauds, 367 jailed and tried, 373

 Vaudreuil, Marquis de, appointed Governor of Canada in 1754, 140, 298, 323, 525 557, 561 sends Dieskau to defend Crown Point, 209 meets Montcalm, 258-259 strengthens posts on Lake Ontario, 265 Montcalm's opinion of, 265-266 sends Indians to Ticonderoga, 305 exaggerates British losses, 309, 310n. , 358n. Resents and disparages Montcalm, 318, 320-321, 355 460-470, 561-563 takes credit for all success, 318-319, 356 dislike of French Regulars, 319-320, 322-323 character traits of, 322 encourages Indian massacres, 355-356, 358, 525 intrigues to replace Montcalm, 359, 461 fails to save Ticonderoga, 410 his boasts and exaggerations, 445-446, 464, 482, 483, 532-533 Montcalm placed over him, 462 his defense of Quebec, 481-505 his blunders and indecision, 526, 544, 551-553, 556 responsibility for loss of Quebec, 559 blames Ramesay for surrender, 561 corruption of his government (_See also_ Bigot) 373-374, 562, 563 retires to Montreal, 576 prepares Montreal defense, 589-590, 593 forced to surrender, 597-598 rebuked by Louis XV, 599 sails for France, 604 jailed and tried for fraud, 605

 Vaudreuil, Rigaudde, (_See_ Rigaud)

 Vauquelin, bravery of, 395 captured by British, 586

 Verchires, M. De, 72

 Vergor, Duchambon de, Commandant of Beauséjour, 177 his appearance and character, 178-179 Le Loutre and, 179 besieged by British, 182-184 surrenders the fort, 185 his trial for cowardice and acquittal, 186, 535 guards heights of Abraham, 533, 535 captured by Wolfe's men, 540

 Vicars, Captain John, 279-280

 Villeray, Commandant at Fort Gaspereau, surrenders to British, 186 tried for cowardice, 186

 Villiers, Coulon de, French officer, 121-122 marches on Fort Necessity, 123ff. Defeats Washington's forces, 125-127 marches on Oswego and repulsed, 277 taken prisoner, 515

 Virginia in 1750's, 43-44 refuses funds for Ohio Valley defense, 112 social life in Williamsburg, 128-129 votes funds after Fort Necessity defeat, 129-130 Indian massacres in, 235 238-239, 267 fear of slave uprisings, 236

 Vitré, Denis de, forced to pilot British fleet, 486

 Voltaire, 25, 35 letter from Frederick the Great, 607

 W

 Waggoner, Captain, 163, 236

 Walpole, Horace, 29 opinion of Edward Cornwallis, 83 of Braddock, 144-148 of Duke of Newcastle, 137-138 comments on George Townshend, 478 on Wolfe and Quebec victory, 564-565 on French siege of Quebec, 587 on death of George II, 609 on Pitt, 619

 Ward, Ensign, surrenders to French, 115

 Warde, George, Wolfe's boyhood friend, 476

 Washington, George, 25, 58, 106-127, 167 as envoy to French at Fort le Boeuf, 108-111 adventure at Murdering Town, 110-111 defeats French detachment, 116-118 his character at 22 years, 119, 126n. , 237-238 defense of Fort Necessity, 120-125 defeat at Fort Necessity, 126-127, 627-628 named Braddock's Aide-de-Camp, 153 describes Braddock's march 159-160 his courage at ambush, 164 describes ambush, 170-171 commands Virginia troops guarding border, 235-237 his difficulties with Governor Dinwiddie, 439 urges capture of Fort Duquesne, 439-440 criticized by Forbes, 441, 443

 Waterbury, provincial officer, 299

 Webb, Colonel Daniel, 270, 280 sent to relieve Oswego, 284 arrives too late, 290 at Fort Edward, 341, 354 fails to support Fort William Henry, 342-346 his explanation, 343n. His report to Loudon, 632

 Wedell, General, defeat by Russians, 606

 Weld, Chaplain, 284 and n. 

 Weiser, Conrad, Indian interpreter, 67, 71, 126, 246

 Wesley, John, 29

 West, Captain Benjamin, finds bones of Braddock's men, 457

 Whiting, Lieutenant-Colonel, ambushed, 218

 Whitmore, brigadier, in Louisbourg expedition, 385, 391-393 becomes Governor after its fall, 403

 Whitworth, Dr. Miles, in Acadia, 197 at Fort William Henry Massacre, 350 his report on massacre, 633-634

 William Henry, Fort, established, 226 first attack on fort fails, 310-313 threatened by new attack, 329 under siege, 339-347 description of fort, 341 Monro's brave defense of, 343-347 its surrender to Montcalm, 347 Indians break pledge to Montcalm, 348 massacre and atrocities at, 348-352, 353n. Survivors reach Fort Edward, 351-352 fort burned, 352 camp life and health in, 429-432

 William of Orange, 29

 William III of England, 29

 Williams, Ephraim, 210 comments on Crown Point army, 211-212 killed at Lake George, 218

 Williams, Stephen, Chaplain with Crown Point expedition, 210, 213

 Williams, Thomas, surgeon at Crown Point, 210, 212 at Lake George battle, 219-220 his anxiety for Oswego, 284 report on fall of Oswego, 285

 Williams, Colonel William, comment on Oswego loss, 285 his letters on Ticonderoga defeat, 428 his reports of illness at Fort William Henry, 431-432

 Williamsburg, Virginia, social life in (1754), 128-129

 Winnebago Indians, 335

 Winslow, John, 132 raises Massachusetts regiment, 181 leads Colonials at Beauséjour, 183 and n. Oversees removal of Acadians, 194-204 his appearance and character, 198 his treatment of Acadians, 199-203 named Commander of Ticonderoga Campaign, 269-270 prepares attack on Ticonderoga, 273-274 confers with General Loudon, 281 at Lake George, 294-295 his praise of Israel Putnam, 299 comments on Crown Point failure, 305 Massachusetts shares cost of his expeditions, 408

 Wolfe, Major-General Edward, father of James, 473, 475

 Wolfe, Major General James, 83 named head of Louisbourg expedition, 385 his ill health, 391, 406, 475, 527, 529, 534 lands at Louisbourg, 391-393 his siege of Louisbourg, 394 ff. Letters to his family, 405-406, 474-478, 529 his desire to attack Quebec, 405 ordered to destroy French settlements, 406 returns to England, 406 comments on Abercomby, 411 praise of Lord Howe, 412 his appearance and character, 471 ff. , 534 his childhood and youth, 473 his early military service, 473-474 named commander of Quebec expedition, 477 lands with British army, 489 difficulties of siege, 489-490, 492 driven back at Montmorenci, 504, 523 retaliates for French barbarities, 524-525 sickness in his troops, 526 his last dispatch to Pitt, 529-530 losses among his men, 531 plans new attack, 531-532 his last general orders, 536 his prestiment of death, 538 his plan of attack, 539 heights taken, 540-541 army forms on plains of Abraham, 542 battle for Quebec, 544-545 his last words after mortal wound, 546 his body returned to England, 560 reports on his siege of Quebec, 638-640

 Wolfe, Major Water, Uncle of James, 476 James's letters to, 476, 477, 478

 Wooster, Colonel David, at Fort Edward, 274

 Wraxall, William Johnson's Secretary, 216n. , 226

 Wyandot Indians, 59

 Z

 Zingendorf, Count, 59 and n.