violation of the treaty of Utrecht.

of his own the nature of the works.

He knew from spies
This redoubt was

in fact a very substantial stone building of rough masonry and clay, sixty feet by twenty-four, with walls four feet thick, and with galleries and loop-holes. There were at that time twenty batteaux and eight bark canoes lying in the little harbor. There were tents for the troops, and seventy cabins for Dutch and English traders. All this excited the diplomatic ire of M. de Beauharnais to the highest degree. He had sent a formal summons to surrender, to the commander of the fort at Oswego, a week before writing to Governor Burnet, which to us at the present day appears rather a singular mode of proceeding. The English officer was ordered to withdraw his garrison and demolish his redoubt "within a fortnight," failing in which the severest measures would be taken to punish his "unjust usurpation."

To the remonstrance of M. de Beauharnais, Governor Burnet sent a very good answer quoting the treaty of Utrecht, which declared the Five Nations to be subject to the dominion of Great Britain. The question was referred to London and Versailles, and, like other matters of dispute between the two Crowns, was held in abeyance to be disposed of at some future day by the sword. Meanwhile

fort and garrison were unmolested.

In 1743 the French had three sailing vessels of fifty or sixty tons on Lake Ontario. The first English vessel on the lake was a small schooner, forty feet keel, with fourteen sweeps and twelve swivels. She was launched on the 28th of June, 1755. The following year the English had three flat-bottomed gun-brigs afloat, and were preparing to build others.

The fortifications at Oswego were gradually much strengthened and enlarged. A new fort of logs, twenty

or thirty inches thick, was built on the height above the eastern bank of the river; the wall was fourteen feet high, and protected by a ditch fourteen feet wide. A third fort was also built to the westward of the older one, with a rampart of earth and stones, twenty feet thick, and twelve feet high, with a ditch in front fourteen feet wide, and ten feet deep. Cannons and mortars defended these forts. It was now resolved in the councils of Canada that Choueguen should be attacked. But the defeat of General Dieskau at Lake George in 1755 delayed the expedition. It was only delayed, however. "From the hour of its foundation, Choueguen is the rallying ground of the Indian tribes," wrote the Governor of Canada, M. de Vaudreuil. "From Choueguen come all the belts and messages that the English scatter among the far nations. It is always at Choueguen that the English hold councils with the Indians. In fine Choueguen is the direct cause of all the troubles that have befallen the colony. Choueguen must fall."

In March, 1756, as a preliminary step, the Governor of Canada sent M. de Léry with three hundred men to attack Fort Bull, where the English kept large supplies of provisions for Oswego. This party crossing the St. Lawrence on skates, and marching one hundred and twenty leagues through the forest on snow-shoes, suddenly appeared before Fort Bull with a summons to surrender. They were answered by a brisk fire of musketry. M. de Léry then forced the gate and took the fort by storm, put many of the garrison to death, and burned or destroyed a very large amount of provisions and ammunition.

As the spring opened, in April, M. de Vaudreuil sent a force of four or five hundred men to hang about Oswego, in order still farther to cut the communication between that fort and its entrepôts. The whole Colony of New

York was thrown into agitation by the intelligence of these movements. From that moment mixed parties of Canadians and Indians were constantly hovering about Oswego, and in the forests along the river. In May, M. de

Villiers, a Canadian officer with some thousand men, landed at Hungry Bay, Niaourè, as the French named it, and took up a permanent position there, some fifteen leagues from Oswego. Although France and England had been virtually in a state of warfare on the high seas and in the colonies, during the last two years, yet it was only now that a formal declaration of war took place in Europe. In June and July there were frequent skirmishes on shore, and constant cruisings on the lake.

Their two largest ves

The French naval force varied. sels were the Marquise de Vaudreuil, carrying eight 8-pounders, 8 sixes, and 8 swivels, and the Huron, with 8 sixes, 4 fours, and 8 swivels. They had also a schooner with 6 fours and 4 swivels, and several smaller craft.

The English vessels at the same period were the Ontario, the Oswego, the London, a brigantine, the Vigilant, a barque, and other smaller craft. A naval incident which occurred in June threatened a battle; two English vessels, the Ontario and the Oswego, with a small schooner, were out on a cruise, when they were met by four French vessels of greater force. The English made sail for Oswego; the enemy gave chase but without other success than taking the small schooner. The French report of this affair is amusing. "Our little fleet on Lake Ontario, in number about five vessels, having met the English fleet amounting to ten, gave them battle. We have taken the English Admiral, put the other to flight, and obliged two to run ashore with all sails set, near Fort Oswego."

On the 3d of July, Colonel Bradstreet with two hundred batteaux, and three hundred boatmen, was attacked some

miles above Oswego by a Canadian and Indian force, variously stated by the French themselves as numbering from four hundred to nine hundred men, M. de Vaudreuil giving the latter number. The defense was a gallant one, and very creditable to the boatmen. Colonel Bradstreet took possession of a small island where he defended himself against three separate attacks, and subsequently drove the French from a swamp where they had posted themselves, routed and dispersed them. The English lost forty men killed and wounded. The loss of the French was probably larger. Such was the report of Colonel Bradstreet, which would seem to have been essentially correct.

For the amusement of the reader we give the other side of the picture, which taken in all its details makes a very entertaining little bit of history: —

"M. de Villiers, who did not lose any opportunity to annoy the enemy, having learned from his scouts that the Choueguen River was covered with batteaux, designed to await the enemy at a portage, but a party of Indians did not give him time to do so. dians were ordered to fire also.

They fired, when the Cana

The enemy threw themopposite side of the river.

selves with their batteaux on the So great was the impetuosity of the Indians that eleven. flung themselves in, swimming. They were on the island surrounded by the English. M. de Villiers waded across with fifty men, and some officers, and released the Indians. We sent word to the English to surrender; they preferred to throw themselves into their batteaux. Our Indians and Frenchmen rushed into the water, and each made many prisoners. The loss of the enemy from data in our possession amounts to twenty-six scalps, and thirty pris oners. Deserters report our having put more than four hundred of their men hors de combat. This may allow of a margin. Their detachment consisted of twelve or

thirteen hundred men returning from victualling Choueguen. Our detachment amounted to four hundred, including Canadians and Indians."

Another variation follows: "Sieur de Villiers, being on the 2d of July at the head of four hundred Frenchmen and some Indians, fell in with about five hundred batteaux and thirteen hundred English, whom he attacked so vigorously that he left four hundred and fifty of them dead, and took forty prisoners. The remainder threw themselves on the opposite side of the river, and abandoned their batteaux, which were burnt. We have lost six men, and

two wounded in this affair."

A third bulletin to the Ministry at Versailles is in the same strain: "This detachment has had occasion to harass the enemy, who, at the close of June, were attacked on their way by water, though numbering nearly two thousand. They lost four hundred men, and we not more than four or five."

The veracious report of an Abbé, a private letter, must conclude these variations upon History: "In the beginning of July, while M. de Villiers, a Canadian Captain, was lying in ambush, in the river Choueguen, with a detachment of eight hundred men, our Indians fired too soon. The enemy amounted to fifteen hundred, whom we have defeated; eight hundred were killed, about five hundred batteaux and provisions were taken and burned. We lost ten men.

دو

Let us now resume a grave face, and return to the actual siege of Oswego, which fortunately for our task has been recorded with much more accuracy than the reports of the prowess of M. de Villiers, in his encounter with Colonel Bradstreet.

Regiments had been sent forward from Quebec early in the summer. One of the French officers recently arrived