in America, declares himself charmed with the beauty of the country on the banks of the St. Lawrence. The mos

quitoes were not so much to his taste; his regiment had several men in the hospital in consequence of the bites of those insects, and three or four officers were suffering severely from tumors caused in the same way. Montreal delighted him; it was a large town; but appeared to him in great danger of being destroyed by fire, "as all the houses are of wood."

In July the whole French force was moving nearer to the threatened fort at Choueguen. On the 29th of July M. de Montcalm arrived at Frontenac. On the 6th of August he crossed the lake to Niouarè or Sandy Creek. The force under his command was about three thousand men. Among his artillery were guns taken from General Braddock, and a portion of the cannon balls were marked with the broad arrow of England.

On the 10th of August the vanguard advanced to a cove within a mile or two of Oswego. The next day Fort Ontario on the eastern bank was invested by a force of Canadians and Indians. On the 12th the military works of the enemy were carried on vigorously; batteries were erected; a park of artillery was placed in position; and the trenches were begun. The fire of the English was very brisk. The English cruisers were hovering about the mouth of the river. Suddenly about midnight, the fire from Fort Ontario ceased the garrison stationed there was ordered, by a signal from Colonel Mercer, to abandon the fort and move across the river to Fort Oswego. The movement was successfully performed, although it became necessary to abandon the guns. The French immediately took possession of this eastern fort, and turned their whole force against Forts Oswego and George on the western bank. A large battery was built for the purpose of attack

ing Fort Oswego in the rear; to complete this work twenty pieces of cannon were transported to this battery during the night by the strong arms of the men, the whole army excepting those in the trenches being engaged in this severe task. At daylight on the 14th, M. de Montcalm ordered the Canadians and Indians to ford the river and harass the enemy from the surrounding woods. Accordingly with M. de Rigaud at their head, they waded across, raising frightful yells, which the Indians called Salaquois; probably the death-whoop, said by those who have heard it in our own day to be the most fearful sound ever uttered by human beings. The fire of the English was briskly kept up until ten o'clock. At this hour they unexpectedly hoisted the white flag, and sent two officers to offer capitulation.

The French were surprised by this early surrender after a fire so brisk on the part of the besieged. But the death of Colonel Mercer, the brave commander, appears to have been the principal cause of the step-which could not under the circumstances have been long delayed. The great rapidity of the French movements in opening the trenches on ground so difficult to work, and in moving their artillery without horses, with the skillful manœuvres of M. de Montcalm, seems to have produced the impression in the fort that the besieging army was much larger than their real number. A French account declared that "Choueguen has fallen, or rather surrendered to the yells of the Canadians and Indians." "It is to be concluded," says M. de Montcalm, "that the English when transported, are no longer brave."

This was a very important success for Canada. The French appear to have lost about eighty killed and wounded. M. de Vaudreuil, however, in his official dispatches to France, says, "three killed, and two by acci

dent!" The English lost one hundred and fifty killed; prisoners, sixteen hundred and forty, among whom were eighty military men, and twelve naval officers. There were also one hundred and twenty women in the fort. Six vessels were captured, one of eighteen guns, one of sixteen, two of ten, one of eight, and two hundred barges or batteaux. The number of guns taken was large; seven pieces of bronze, forty-eight of iron, fourteen mortars, forty-four swivels. The loss of ammunition was very great. A large amount of provisions was found in the fort, including nearly fourteen hundred barrels of flour, and biscuit, nearly the same number of barrels of pork, with peas, etc., etc. There were thirty-two oxen and eleven hogs in the fort, such was the condition of things at this frontier fort. Three military chests of specie were also captured. The prisoners were to be sent to Montreal, and there exchanged.

In connection with the surrender of Oswego, rumors of a massacre of some of the prisoners, by the Indian allies of M. de Montcalm, soon spread through the colonies. These reports were generally believed by the English at the time. They have been recently contradicted. And yet there is good authority for believing that some painful violation of the articles of capitulation actually occurred. One of the reports sent to the French government has the following passage: "The Indians have massacred more than a hundred persons included in the capitulation, without our being able to prevent them." Another report says: "The enemy have had one hundred and fifty killed, including those who, wishing to escape during the capitulation, were massacred by the Indians." M. de Montcalm himself observes: "The Indians wished to violate it," i. e., the capitulation; "I put an end to that affair." Such passages as these would not have been sent to France in official

papers, if the rumors had been entirely without foundation. On the other hand there has been found among the papers of Sir William Johnson the deposition of John Vale, an eye-witness, taken in October, 1756, which declares that the threatened massacre was prevented by M. de Montcalm, who ordered his men to fire upon the Indians about to attack the prisoners. Probably some of the English were killed by the Indians, before M. de Montcalm resorted to severe measures of restraint, but the number could not have been as large as the colonists of that day believed.

The French, to gratify the Iroquois tribes, destroyed all the works at Oswego. The fort on the western bank was filled with condemned pork and set on fire. By the 21st of August the work of destruction was completed, and the army reembarked for Montreal. A large cross had been raised, however, by the Abbé Picquet, on the site of the fort, with the inscription "In hoc signo vincunt," and near it a pole with the arms of the king of France, and the words "Bring lilies with full hands." As the French

fleet sailed away towards Frontenac, they looked back upon these proofs of their prowess. The lilies of France, however, did not take root in that soil; they were a mere passing trophy of war. The standards taken at Oswego were carried in triumph through the streets of Montreal by the Indians and then taken to the doors of the cathedral; the Indians declaring that these flags were not worthy to enter the church as they were not "Christians." They were, however, hung up at a later day in the churches of Montreal and Quebec.

Oswego was soon rebuilt by the English. In 1759, General Prideaux and Sir William Johnson marched against the French fort at Niagara, which surrendered July 25.

On the 7th of August, Sir William Johnson,

left in command by the death of General Prideaux, returned to Oswego. The place had been more or less frequented by the traders and Indians during the last three years, and the new fort was now planned and the work commenced under the order of General Gage, who arrived about the middle of the month.

It was at this period, between the rebuilding of the fort and the final cession of Canada to England in 1763, that Natty is supposed to have been employed as a scout on the frontier. During those years Major Lundie was in command of the fort. Then it was that Pathfinder, and Jasper, Fresh-water, and Mabel, and the old Sergeant, and Cap, and Arrowhead, made the eventful cruise in the Scud, recorded by the author of the "Pilot."

The country between the banks of the Mohawk and the shore of Lake Ontario was still a wilderness, as described in the "Pathfinder." It was at this very period that a little girl and her mother, the daughter and wife of an officer in the garrison, made the journey between Albany and Oswego; and half a century later the little girl, then Mrs. Grant of Laggan, wrote and printed her recollections of the expedition. It is difficult for us of the present day to think of that fertile, blooming region of Western New York as one vast forest. A few extracts from Mrs. Grant's volume may amuse the reader, as they will lead him over the same track passed by Mabel and her sailor uncle.

"The first day we came to Schenectady, a little town situated in a rich and beautiful spot, and partly supported by the Indian trade. The next day we embarked, and proceeded up the river with six batteaux, and came early in the evening to one of the most charming scenes imaginable, where Fort Hendrick was built, so called in compliment to the principal sachem, or king of the Mohawks. The castle of this primitive monarch stood at a little dis