pieces of battering cannon, ten field pieces, six mortars, their tents, baggage, stores, and the whole camp equipage, fell into the hands of the English. On the 19th, lord Colville arrived. The English now became formidable in that quarter, and capable of offensive operations. The clouds were now dissipated, and the prospect of an entire reduction of Canada, once more brightened. While these things were transacted in Canada, the colonies were, with great zeal and union, preparing for an early campaign. The general assembly of Connecticut, convened on the thirteenth of March. Mr. Pitt's letter was communicated, in which he laid open his majesty's design, to complete the conquest of Canada, and that he required the spirited exertions of the colonies. He stated the great encouragement they had still to exert themselves, from the success of former years. General Amherst made the same requisition this year, which he had made in the preceding years. The assembly therefore voted, to raise four regiments, consisting of twelve companies each, comprising a body of five thousand effective men, officers included. It resolved, that all necessary provision should be made for levying, clothing and paying them: and that they should be raised with all possible dispatch. Major general Lyman, was colonel of the first regiment, and commander of the whole. The other officers were generally the same as the last year.1

General Amherst took the field at an early period; and found himself at the head of a very respectable body of men. They were sufficient for three formidable armies. His plan was, by three different routes, to concentre his whole force at Montreal, for the reduction of that important city, where almost the whole force of Canada was collected; and whence all the out posts received their supplies and support. The capture of this, would be the fall of them, and the reduction of the whole country.

To effect this, he detached general Haviland, to proceed with an army, by the way of lake George, Crown Point and lake Champlain, to the place of general rendezvous. At the same time, general Murray was ordered, with all the troops which could be spared from the garrison of Quebec, to advance towards Montreal, by the river St. Lawrence; while the general himself, penetrated into Canada, by lake Ontario, and down the river St. Lawrence. To second these measures, captain Loring was detached to cruise on the lake. Two armed sloops were prepared for the same purpose. A great number of batteaux and small vessels were built, for the transportation of the troops, artillery, provisions, ammunition, implements and baggage of the army. At an early period, several regiments were sent forward from Albany to Oswego, for these purposes, and to make all necessary preparations for crossing the lake.

1 The chaplains were, Beckwith of Lyme, Leavenworth of Waterbury, Pomeroy of Hebron, and Beebe of Stratford.

In June, the general commenced his march from Schenectady, with the main army, and proceeded by the Mohawk and Oneida rivers, to Oswego. In less than three weeks the general reached this post with his whole army. This consisted of ten thousand regular and provincial troops, and one thousand Indians, under general Johnson.

Very great had been the difficulties already surmounted, in conducting such an army, with its artillery, provisions and military stores, through that vast tract of country between Albany and lake Ontario. Other generals had spent whole campaigns in accomplishing less than general Amherst had done already: but, greater difficulties still remained, in transporting this numerous army, with its necessary supplies, in open boats and gallies, across that vast lake, and down the numerous rapids of a mad river. It required the utmost caution, and the strictest order, lest they should fall foul of each other; lest they should approach too near the shore, or be driven too far out, on a sudden squall or storm, seasonably to reach the land: or lest they should not be steered and pushed forward with such exactness as to shoot the falls without turning sideways, and oversetting and dashing to pieces among the rocks. But the general, whose calm and steady resolution was not unequal to the difficulties before him, made all his dispositions with that admirable method and regularity of military arrangement, which so strongly marked the character of that great commander. After a detachment from the army had been sent forward to remove obstructions in the river St. Lawrence, and to find the best place for the passage of the boats and vessels, the army embarked and passed the lake without any misfortune. The general receiving intelligence that one of the enemy's vessels was aground, and disabled, and that another lay off Lagalett, determined, with the utmost dispatch, to go down the river and attack Oswegatchie and isle Royal.

On the 17th of August, the row gallies fell in with the French sloop commanded by M. de la Broquerie, who, after a smart engagement, surrendered to the English gallies. The enemy retired with great precipitation before the army, until it arrived in the neighbourhood of isle Royal. This was immediately so completely invested, that the garrison had no means of escaping. By the 23d, two batteries were opened against the fort, and it was cannonaded by these, in concert with the row gallies in the river. Dispositions having been made for a general attack, M. Ponchant, the commander, beat a parley and surrendered the fort on terms of capitulation.

As this was a post of singular importance, both to command the lake Ontario, and to protect the frontiers of the colonies, the general spent some time in repairing the fort, in making every preparation, and taking every precaution in his power for passing

his troops down the river to Montreal. As all the falls lie between this post and the city, this was by far the most dangerous part of the enterprise.

About the same time general Haviland took possession of the isle Aux Noix and by the most direct route was crossing the country to the St. Lawrence. General Murray, with the British fleet, was advancing up the river, and subduing the adjacent country. The respective armies bore down all before them, and the operations of the campaign were approaching to an important crisis.

When the necessary preparations had been made, general Amherst proceeded down the river; but notwithstanding all his precaution in passing the rapids, the stream was so violent, that numbers of the batteaux and whale-boats turned over and went down sideways, and were dashed in pieces on the rocks. About ninety men, nearly fifty batteaux, seventeen whale-boats and one galley, some artillery, provisions and ammunition were lost. This was indeed to be lamented, but considering the greatness of the embarkation, and the extreme difficulties to be encountered, the loss was not very considerable. Without any further misfortune, after a tedious, fatiguing and dangerous march and voyage of two months and seventeen days, after its departure from Schenectady, the army, with great joy, saw the city of Montreal, the object of their ardent wishes, and the happy period of their labours and dangers. The troops were immediately landed in the best order. No opposition was made, excepting from some flying parties, who, after exchanging a few shot, fled with precipitation. The general marched about six miles from the landing place, and drew up his army on a plain before the city. There it lay upon its arms during the night.

So remarkably had providence guided the motions of the several armies, that though they pursued long and different routes, through the enemy's country, in which they had numerous difficulties to encounter, and in which they could have no intelligence of each others' operations, they all met at the same time, at the place of general rendezvous. General Murray landed on the island, the same day that general Amherst took possession of it: and general Haviland, with the army under his command, appeared on the other side of the river, opposite to the city.

General Amherst had given orders, that the cannon should be immediately brought on from the landing place, at La Chine; and in the morning determined to invest the town. But, as soon as the morning appeared, the Marquis Vaudreuille, governor of Canada, finding himself compassed with armies, addressed a letter to general Amherst, demanding a capitulation. After several letters had passed between the general and governor, the demand was granted. The terms were such as, while they were humane and favorable to the French, did honor to the British arms and nation.

The Marquis Vaudreuille had done every thing for the defence of Canada, which became a vigilant and magnanimous officer. When all hope of the recovery of Quebec failed him, he fixed his head quarters at Montreal, and used every art and exertion for its preservation. He not only levied forces, collected magazines, and erected new fortifications on the Island, but he had recourse to feigned intelligence, and other arts of delusion, to support the depressed spirits of the Canadians.1 His chief hopes were not, however, placed in the greatness of his strength, nor in his various arts, but in the difficulties, which, on all sides attended the entrance of Canada. He flattered himself that, after the general sickness and defeat of the garrison at Quebec, there would be little danger from that quarter. He knew the great distance between Albany and Montreal, by the way of Oswego and the St. Lawrence, and the almost insuperable difficulties of conducting an army down so many rifts and rapids, as there were in that river, between lake Ontario and Montreal. These, in conjunction with the impenetrable woods, morasses and mountains, which covered the country through which the armies from New-York and NewEngland must pass, he hoped would so retard their operations, and protract the war, that a general pacification would finally save the country. But when he saw the three armies, notwithstanding all these difficulties, forming a junction before the town, consisting of more than twenty thousand men, all his hopes were dashed, and he perceived that his only safety was in capitulation. The extent of the country was so great, the interests of the people, and the objects of the treaty were so many, that it made the capitulation a work of considerable time. It consisted of nearly sixty articles; but on the eighth of September it was completed.

By this, not only Montreal, but all the other French posts in Canada, with the whole country, were surrendered to the crown of Great Britain. All the troops in Montreal, and in the other posts, were allowed the honors of war, and were to be treated strictly as prisoners; but to be sent directly to France, on condition of their not serving during the war. The capitulation secured to the inhabitants, of every character, the full enjoyment of the Roman Catholic religion, personal safety, and property of every kind.

Montreal is the second place in Canada, for extent, numbers, buildings, commerce, strength, and opulence. It stands on an excellent and well cultivated island, about ten leagues in length, and nearly four in its greatest breadth. The city is built in a quadrangular form, on the bank of the river St. Lawrence. The bank gently rising, divides the city into the lower and upper towns. Though the ascent from the lower to the upper town is so gradual

1 See his circular letter to the militia of Canada, preserved in Rider's History of England. Vol. xlvi.

as to be scarcely perceivable, yet when you have reached the citadel in the upper, it appears entirely to overlook them both, and to command the river and the adjacent country. The city, by reason of its central situation, between Quebec and lake Ontario, became the grand resort of the Indian traders, and depot of their commerce. As it is more than three degrees south of Quebec, and as the river, in its whole extent, from that city to this, inclines considerably to the south, the country is far more pleasant, and the seasons more clement, than at the capital. Father Charlevoix says, " After passing Richlieu islands, one would think he were transported into another climate. The air becomes softer and more temperate, the country more level, the river more pleasant, and the banks infinitely more pleasant and delightful."

Before the war, the fortifications of this city were mean and inconsiderable: and though additions had been made since, yet there was nothing to render the capture of it an enterprise of any great difficulty, except that of leading an army through such a prodigious and difficult tract of country, as the English were obliged to pass, that they might appear before it; and that here was collected all the regular, and most of the provincial force of Canada.

General Amherst had the honor and good fortune of surmounting all difficulties, and of making such dispositions, as that, almost without the shedding of blood, to complete the conquest of Canada. Thus, in a little more than a century and an half from its first settlement, in the sixth year of the war, after six general battles, this vast country was completely conquered, by the conjoined arms of Great-Britain and her colonies. This conquest, if we consider the extent and difficulty of the operations by which it was effected, the number of inhabitants,1 the greatness and fertility of the country subdued, the safety it gave to the English colonies in America, and the transfer of the whole Indian trade to the merchants of Great-Britain, appears to have been one of the most important, ever achieved by the English arms.

The accomplishment of so great a work, with so little bloodshed, without a single instance of rashness or inhumanity, without any considerable accident or misfortune, while it reflected the highest military honor on the commander in chief, did equal honor to the humanity and goodness of his heart. It must be allowed, that he was peculiarly happy, in having subordinate commanders, who, with such ability and vigor, seconded him in all his operations; and in commanding a body of regular and provincial troops, whom no labors could discourage, and whom no dangers could dismay.

After all, the principal honor is to be ascribed to the Supreme Ruler, whose all-governing agency directed the whole series of 1 These, at the time of the conquest, were estimated at more than 100,000.