--
Shakespeare 2
It was a feature peculiar to the colonial wars of North America 3
, that the toils and dangers of the wilderness 4
were to be encountered before the adverse hosts 5
could meet .
A wide and apparently an impervious boundary of forests 6
severed the possessions of the hostile provinces of
France 8
and
England 9
7 .
The hardy colonist 10
, and the trained European who fought at
his 10
side
11 , frequently expended months in struggling against the rapids of
the streams 13
12 , or in effecting the rugged passes 15
of the mountains
14 , in quest of an opportunity to exhibit their 16
courage in a more martial conflict .
But , emulating the patience and self-denial of the practiced native warriors 17
, they 16
learned to overcome every difficulty ; and it would seem that , in time , there was no recess of
the woods 19
18 so dark , nor any secret place so lovely , that it might claim exemption from the inroads of those who had pledged
their 20
blood to satiate
their 20
vengeance , or to uphold the cold and selfish policy of
the distant monarchs of
Europe 22
21 20 .
Perhaps no district throughout
the wide extent of
the intermediate frontiers 25
24 23 can furnish a livelier picture of the cruelty and fierceness of the savage warfare of those periods than the country which lies between
the head waters of
the Hudson 28
27 and
the adjacent lakes 29
26 .
The facilities which nature 30
had there 26
offered to the march of the combatants 31
were too obvious to be neglected .
The lengthened sheet of
the Champlain 33
32 stretched from the frontiers of Canada 34
, deep within the borders of
the neighboring province of
New York 37
36 35 , forming a natural passage across
half the distance that
the French 40
were compelled to master in order to strike
39 38 .
Near its 32
southern termination
42 , it 32
received the contributions of another lake , whose waters were so limpid as to have been exclusively selected by
the Jesuit missionaries 44
to perform the typical purification of baptism , and to obtain for
it 43
the title of
lake “ du Saint Sacrement . ” 43
43
The less zealous English 45
thought they 45
conferred a sufficient honor on its 43
unsullied fountains
46 , when they 45
bestowed the name of their 45
reigning prince
47 , the second of
the house of
Hanover 50
49 48 .
The two 51
united to rob the untutored possessors of
52 of their 52
native right to perpetuate its 43
original appellation of “ Horican 43
. ”
* * As each nation of
the Indians 55
54 had its 54
language or its 54
dialect , they 54
usually gave different names to the same places 56
, though nearly all of their 54
appellations were descriptive of the object .
Thus a literal translation of the name of this beautiful sheet of water 43
, used by the tribe that dwelt on
57 , would be “ The Tail of
the Lake 59
43 . ”
Lake George 43
, as it 43
is vulgarly , and now , indeed , legally , called , forms a sort of tail to
Lake Champlain 33
60 , when viewed on the map .
Hence , the name .
Winding its 43
way among countless islands 61
, and imbedded in mountains 62
, the “ holy lake 43
” extended a dozen leagues still further to the south .
With the high plain that there interposed itself to the further passage of
the water 64
63 , commenced a portage of as many miles , which conducted the adventurer 65
to the banks of
the Hudson 28
66 , at a point where , with the usual obstructions of
the rapids 68
, or
rifts , as
they 69
were then termed in the language of
the country 70
69 ,
the river 28
became navigable to the tide
67 .
While , in the pursuit of their 40
daring plans of annoyance , the restless enterprise of the French 40
even attempted the distant and difficult gorges of
the Alleghany 72
71 , it may easily be imagined that their 40
proverbial acuteness would not overlook the natural advantages of the district
we 74
have just described
73 .
It 194
became , emphatically , the bloody arena , in which most of the battles for the mastery of
the colonies 75
were contested
195 .
Forts 76
were erected at the different points that commanded the facilities of the route 77
, and were taken and retaken , razed and rebuilt , as victory alighted on the hostile banners .
While the husbandman 78
shrank back from the dangerous passes 79
, within the safer boundaries of
the more ancient settlements 81
80 , armies larger than those that had often disposed of the scepters of
the mother countries 83
82 , were seen to bury themselves 82
in these forests , whence
they 82
rarely returned but in
skeleton bands , that were haggard with care or dejected by defeat 85
84 .
Though the arts of peace were unknown to this fatal region 86
, were alive with men 87
; its 86
shades and glens rang with the sounds of martial music , and the echoes of threw back the laugh , or repeated the wanton cry , of many a gallant and reckless youth 90
, as he 90
hurried by them 91
, in the noontide of his 90
spirits , to slumber in a long night of forgetfulness .
It was in this scene of strife and bloodshed that the incidents we 74
shall attempt to relate occurred , during the third year of the war which England 9
and France 8
last waged for the possession of a country that neither was destined to retain 92
.
The imbecility of her 9
military leaders abroad
93 , and the fatal want of energy in her 9
councils at
home 95
94 , had lowered the character of Great Britain 9
from the proud elevation on which it had been placed by the talents and enterprise of and statesmen 97
.
No longer dreaded by , were fast losing the confidence of self-respect .
In this mortifying abasement , the colonists 100
, though innocent of her 9
imbecility , and too humble to be the agents of her 9
blunders , were but the natural participators 196
.
They 100
had recently seen a chosen army from
that country 9
, which , reverencing as
a mother 102
,
they 100
had blindly believed invincible
101 -- an army led by
a chief who had been selected from
a crowd of
trained warriors 105
104 , for
his 103
rare military endowments , disgracefully routed by
a handful of
French 107
and
Indians 108
106 , and only saved from annihilation by the coolness and spirit of
a Virginian boy , whose riper fame has since diffused itself , with the steady influence of moral truth , to the uttermost confines of Christendom 109
103 101 .
* A wide frontier 110
had been laid naked by this unexpected disaster , and more substantial evils were preceded by a thousand fanciful and imaginary dangers .
The alarmed colonists 100
believed that the yells of the savages 111
mingled with every fitful gust of wind that issued from the interminable forests of the west 112
.
The terrific character of their 100
merciless enemies
111 increased immeasurably the natural horrors of warfare .
Numberless recent massacres were still vivid in their 100
recollections ; nor was there any ear in the provinces so deaf as not to have drunk in with avidity the narrative of some fearful tale of midnight murder , in which the natives of
the forests 113
111 were the principal and barbarous actors 114
.
As the credulous and excited traveler 115
related the hazardous chances of the wilderness 116
, the blood of the timid 117
curdled with terror , and mothers 118
cast anxious glances even at those children which slumbered within the security of
the largest towns 120
119 .
In short , the magnifying influence of fear began to set at naught the calculations of reason , and to render those who should have remembered
their 121
manhood ,
the slaves of the basest passions 122
121 .
Even the most confident and the stoutest hearts began to think the issue of the contest was becoming doubtful ; and that abject class 123
was hourly increasing in numbers , who thought they 123
foresaw all the possessions of the English crown 124
in America 125
subdued by their 123
Christian foes
126 , or laid waste by the inroads of their 123
relentless allies
127 .
* Washington 109
, who , after uselessly admonishing the European general 103
of the danger into which he 103
was heedlessly running , saved the remnants of
the British army 129
128 , on this occasion , by his 109
decision and courage .
The reputation earned by Washington 109
in this battle was the principal cause of his 109
being selected to command the American armies 130
at a later day .
It is a circumstance worthy of observation , that while all America 131
rang with his 109
well-merited reputation , his 109
name does not occur in any European 132
account of the battle ; at least the author 74
has searched for it without success .
In this manner does the mother country 133
absorb even the fame , under that system of rule .
When , therefore , intelligence was received at the fort which covered
the southern termination of the portage between
the Hudson 28
and
the lakes 29
135 134 , that Montcalm 136
had been seen moving up the Champlain 33
, with an army “ numerous as the leaves on the trees , ” 137
its truth was admitted with more of the craven reluctance of fear than with the stern joy that a warrior 138
should feel , in finding an enemy within reach of
his 138
blow
139 .
The news had been brought , toward the decline of a day in midsummer , by an Indian runner , who also bore an urgent request from
Munro 141
,
the commander of a work on
the shore of
the “ holy lake , ” 43
142 198 for a speedy and powerful reinforcement
140 .
It has already been mentioned that the distance between these two posts 143
was less than five leagues .
The rude path 144
, which originally formed their 143
line of communication , had been widened for the passage of wagons ; so that the distance which had been traveled by the son of
the forest 146
145 in two hours , might easily be effected by a detachment of troops , with
their 147
necessary baggage
147 , between the rising and setting of a summer sun .
The loyal servants of
the British crown 124
148 had given to one of these forest-fastnesses 149
the name of William Henry 150
, and to the other that of Fort Edward 151
, calling each after a favorite prince of
the reigning family 153
152 .
The veteran Scotchman just named 141
held the first , with a regiment of
regulars 155
154 and a few provincials 156
; a force really by far too small to make head against
the formidable power that
Montcalm 136
was leading to
the foot of
his 136
earthen mounds
160 159 158 157 .
At the latter , however , lay General Webb , who commanded the armies of
the king 162
in the northern provinces
161 , with a body of
more than five thousand men 164
163 .
By uniting the several detachments of
his 161
command
165 , this officer 161
might have arrayed nearly double that number of combatants 166
against the enterprising Frenchman , who had ventured so far from
his 161
reinforcements
168 , with
an army but little superior in numbers 169
167 .
But under the influence of their 170
degraded fortunes , both officers 171
and men 172
appeared better disposed to await the approach of their 170
formidable antagonists
173 , within their 170
works , than to resist the progress of their 173
march , by emulating the successful example of the French 174
at Fort du Quesne 175
, and striking a blow on their 173
advance .
After the first surprise of the intelligence had a little abated , a rumor was spread through the entrenched camp , which stretched along
the margin of
the Hudson 28
176 , forming a chain of outworks to
the body of
the fort 151
itself
177 151 , that a chosen detachment of
fifteen hundred men 179
was to depart , with the dawn , for
William Henry 150
,
the post at
the northern extremity of
the portage 181
180 197 178 .
That which at first was only rumor , soon became certainty , as orders passed from the quarters of
the commander-in-chief 161
182 to the several corps
he 161
had selected for this service
183 , to prepare for their 183
speedy departure .
All doubts as to the intention of Webb 161
now vanished , and an hour or two of hurried footsteps and anxious faces succeeded .
The novice in the military art 184
flew from point to point , retarding his 184
own preparations by the excess of his 184
violent and somewhat distempered zeal ; while the more practiced veteran 185
made his 185
arrangements with a deliberation that scorned every appearance of haste ; though his 185
sober lineaments and anxious eye sufficiently betrayed that he 185
had no very strong professional relish for the , as yet , untried and dreaded warfare of the wilderness 186
.
At length the sun set in a flood of glory , behind the distant western hills 187
, and as darkness drew its veil around the secluded spot 188
the sounds of preparation diminished ; the last light finally disappeared from the log cabin of
some officer 190
189 ; the trees cast their 191
deeper shadows over the mounds and the rippling stream , and a silence soon pervaded the camp 150
, as deep as that which reigned in the vast forest 192
by which it 150
was environed .