UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Class 
 
Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
l! 
 
The Caravels of De Soto. 
 
AMERICAN FIGHTS AND FIGHTERS SERIES 
 
 Colonial 
 Fights and Fighters 
 
 BY 
 
 CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY, LL. D. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY GIBBS, SCHOONOVER 
 
 AND OTHERS, AND REPRODUCTIONS FROM RARE 
 
 OLD PRINTS, MAPS, DIAGRAMS, &c. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 
 MCMIX 
 
COPYRIGHT, IQOO AND IpOI, BY S. S. McCLURE CO. 
 1901, BY McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO. 
 
To 
 Edwin Wilson Morse 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART I 
 IN THE AGE OF DISCOVERY 
 
 FACE 
 
 DE SOTO AND THE MISSISSIPPI 
 
 I. THE BEST OF THE CONQUISTADORS 3 
 
 II. VITACHUCO S BOLD STROKE FOR LIBERTY ... 8 
 
 III. THE DEFENCE OF MAUVILA 14 
 
 IV. THE FATHER OF WATERS 23 
 
 V. THE MELANCHOLY END 26 
 
 THE REVENGE OF DE GOURGUES 
 
 I THE HUGUENOT COLONIES 33 
 
 II. THE MASSACRE OF FORT CAROLINE . . . .43 
 
 III. THE LINE IN THE SAND . 46 
 
 IV. THE TERRIBLE EXPIATION . . . .49 
 
 PART II 
 GENTLEMEN OF THE BLACK FLAG 
 
 SIR HENRY MORGAN AND HIS BUCCANEERS 
 
 I. PLUNDERING PUERTO BELLO 59 
 
 II. THE RAID ON MARACAIBO 67 
 
 III. THE STORMING OF FORT ST. LAWRENCE ... 72 
 
 IV. THE MARCH TO THE PACIFIC ... .78 
 V. THE SACK OF PANAMA . . . . 82 
 
 VI. THE END OF THE BUCCANEER 92 
 
 UNDER THE "JOLLY ROGER" 
 
 I. ROBERT MAYNARD STAMPS OUT BLACKBEARD . . 97 
 II. COLONEL RHETT AND MAJOR BONNET . . .106 
 
viii Contents 
 
 PART III 
 VARIOUS EARLY COLONIAL WARS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 SOME OF FRONTENAC S EXPLOITS 
 
 I. THE MASSACRE AT LA CHINE 121 
 
 II. THE BURNING OF SCHENECTADY 124 
 
 III. PHIPS FAILURE AT QUEBEC 130 
 
 IV. D lBERVILLE IN HUDSON S BAY 137 
 
 V. STRIKING THE IROQUOIS ....... 139 
 
 OGLETHORPE ON ST. SIMON S ISLAND 
 
 I. THE SPANISH EXPEDITION 145 
 
 II. THE DEFENCE OF FREDERICA 154 
 
 PEPPERRELL AT LOUISBOURG 
 
 I. THE DUNKIRK OF AMERICA 165 
 
 IT. AN IMPOSSIBLE PROPOSITION . .... 169 
 
 III. THE SIEGE AND CAPTURE 175 
 
 PART IV 
 
 THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE VALLEY OF THE OHIO 
 
 THE FIRST FAILURE 
 
 I. WASHINGTON S EXPEDITION 189 
 
 II. THE FATE OF JUMONVILLE 193 
 
 III. THE FIGHT AT FORT NECESSITY 198 
 
 THE SECOND FAILURE 
 
 I. THE CHARACTER AND CAREER OF GENERAL BRADDOCK . 205 
 
 II. THE MARCH TO THE VALLEY 211 
 
 III. THE DEFEAT ON THE MONONGAHELA . . . .221 
 
 THE FINAL SUCCESS 
 
 I. GRANT S DEFEAT ........ 243 
 
 II. FORBES ACHIEVEMENT AND DEATH .... 252 
 
Contents 
 
 THE FIGHTING AROUND TICONDEROGA 
 
 I. THE GRAND EXPEDITION 263 
 
 II. THE END OF LORD HOWE 269 
 
 III. ON THE HILL OF DEATH 275 
 
 IV. THE LAST CHARGE OF THE BLACK WATCH . . .279 
 V. THE LEGEND OF INVERAWE 284 
 
 BEFORE LOUISBOURG AGAIN 
 
 I. A GIBRALTAR Now 289 
 
 II. THE LANDING IN THE SURF 293 
 
 III. THE FORTRESS BELEAGUERED 297 
 
 IV. DESTRUCTION OF THE FLEET 3 
 
 THE FALL OF QUEBEC 
 
 I. THE STAKE, THE GAME, AND THE PLAYERS . . .307 
 II. THE REPULSE ON THE MONTMORENCY . . . .314 
 
 III. ON THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM 3 1 ? 
 
 IV. THE DEATH OF THE GREAT CAPTAINS . . . . 3 2 7 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 THE CARAVELS OF DE SOTO Frontispiece 
 
 Drawing by George Gibbs. FACING 
 
 PAGE 
 
 DE SOTO DISCOVERING THE MISSISSIPPI .... 20 
 
 Drawing by George Gibbs. 
 
 MENENDEZ DE AVILES 21 
 
 From an old print. 
 
 STORMING OF THE FORT AT CHAGRES 84 
 
 Drawing by George Gibbs. 
 
 BATTLE AT PANAMA 85 
 
 Drawing by George Gibbs. 
 
 THE MASSACRE AT LA CHINE 132 
 
 Drawing by Howard Giles. 
 
 ANNOUNCING THE ARRIVAL OF THE ENGLISH . . .133 
 
 Drawing by Howard Giles. 
 
 THE DEFEAT OF LE RENOMME"E BY THE MASSACHUSETTS PRI 
 VATEERS 180 
 
 Drawing by Frank E. Schoonover. 
 
 THE CAPTURE OF THE GRAND BATTERY . . . .181 
 
 Drawings by Frank E. Schoonover. 
 
 WASHINGTON AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-FIVE . . . .196 
 
 From a rare print. 
 
 GENERAL BRADDOCK 197 
 
 From an engraving of a contemporary portrait. 
 
 WASHINGTON AT BRADDOCK S DEFEAT ON THE MONONGAHELA, 
 
 AND THE DEATH OF BRADDOCK 292 
 
 From a mezzotint engraving of the original picture. 
 
Illustrations 
 
 VAOB 
 
 THE CUTTING OUT OF LE PRUDENT AND LE BIENFAISANT . 293 
 
 From a contemporary print. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM .... 324 
 
 From an old print. 
 
 THE DEATH OF WOLFE 325 
 
 From a mezzotint engraving of the original picture. 
 
 The old prints from which many of the above illustrations have been 
 made are in the collection of Hampton L. Canon, Esq., of Philadelphia* 
 to whose courtesy we are indebted for the privilege of reproduction. 
 
A LIST OF MAPS AND PLANS 
 
 i 
 
 EARLY SETTLEMENTS IN GEORGIA AND MAP OF ST. SI 
 MON S ISLAND AND FREDERICA 150 
 
 II 
 
 MAP SHOWING THE ROUTE AND ENCAMPMENTS OF THE 
 ENGLISH ARMY IN 1755 216 
 
 III 
 
 MAP OF BRADDOCK S DEFEAT PREPARED BY THE 
 AUTHOR 228 
 
 IV 
 
 SKETCH OF COUNTRY AROUND TICONDEROGA AND SIEGE 
 OF LOUISBOURG 274 
 
 V 
 
 MAP OF LOUISBOURG, 1758 290 
 
 VI 
 
 MAP OF THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC AND PLAN OF THE BATTLE 
 ON THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM 312 
 
 xiii 
 
Prefatory Note 
 
 THE generous reception and kindly criticism 
 which was accorded Revolutionary Fights and 
 Fighters, the first book of this series, has in 
 spired me to continue my efforts looking to the comple 
 tion of a Battle History of America, in which the stories 
 of all the conflicts, wars, and adventures, which have 
 taken place on the continent, will eventually find a place. 
 This time I have gone farther afield in choice of sub 
 jects and have wandered from the beaten path. The 
 reader is here introduced to some of the racial struggles 
 which went toward the making of the nation. As there 
 were soldiers before Agamemnon, so there were battles 
 in which we took conspicuous parts before the Revo 
 lution, notably in the French and Indian War, the princi 
 pal campaigns and exploits in which are set forth in the 
 latter part of the book. 
 
 It has been said sometimes that American history 
 lacks the elements of romance. As I consider the great 
 names which appear successively even in these few 
 pages, I am constrained to contradict the statement. 
 The proud, cruel, domineering, indomitable Spaniard; 
 the gay, debonair, dashing, brilliant Frenchman; the 
 merciless, rapacious, lustful, yet courageous Buccaneer; 
 the base, brutal, bloodthirsty Pirate ; the cool, stubborn, 
 persistent, persevering, heroic Englishman; the hardy 
 
xvi Prefatory Note 
 
 Colonist, adding to his old-world stock the virtues gen 
 erated by the new life in a new land, and the plumed 
 and painted savage with his fearful war cry, his stoic 
 endurance, his subtle strategy, pass before me in brill 
 iant panoramic procession. 
 
 Believe me, dear reader, if these things be not in 
 teresting to you, if you do not find them full of tragedy, 
 mystery, romance, the fault is in the teller, and not in 
 the tale. 
 
 I have made a selection of events to be discussed, in 
 accordance with my fancy, but I have tried to select 
 those which would show some of the diverse elements 
 and conditions which are met with in pre-revolutionary 
 history. As I have said, I have freely made use of every 
 source of information which would throw light upon 
 the subject. 
 
 No one who writes of this long period can fail to 
 feel a sense of indebtedness to Francis Parkman. His 
 books should be in every library, and should be read 
 by every lover of his country. He stands alone among 
 American historians in the greatness of his concep 
 tion and in the way he carried it out. For many hours 
 of pleasure and for much valuable information I stand 
 indebted to him, and I gratefully make the acknowledg 
 ment here. 
 
 C. T. B. 
 
 OVERBROOK, Phila., Penna., 1901. 
 
PART I 
 
 IN THE AGE OF DISCOVERY 
 
 I 
 
 De Soto and the Mississippi 
 
DE SOTO AND THE MISSISSIPPI 
 
 I. The Best of the Conquistadors 
 
 IN the year 1536, a magnificent cavalier of noble 
 presence and princely bearing, arrived at the court 
 of Valladolid. The richness of his vesture, the pro 
 fusion of his equipage, the magnificence of his house 
 hold, for he was attended by a number of young officers 
 scarcely less splendid than himself, dazzled the eyes of 
 all and it was no light thing to excite the astonfehment 
 of the court of the great emperor, Charles V. 
 
 The cavalier was Hernando de Soto. He was the 
 scion of a noble though impoverished family, in whose 
 veins flowed some of the bluest blood of Spain. He 
 was born in the year 1501, at Villeneuva de Barcarrota 
 at Xeres near Badajos. Like Cortez and Pizarro, he 
 was an Estramaduran. There must have been some 
 thing in the air of that province which produced heroic 
 men. 
 
 When but thirteen years old, with no fortune but his 
 target and his sword, he set sail for the new world 
 which was opening with such dazzling vistas of romantic 
 possibilities before the chivalry of the age. He was a 
 page in the train of Pedrarias, the infamous governor of 
 Darien. All the conquistadors wrote their names in 
 blood upon the records of the countries, which it were 
 a mistake in terms to say they governed, but Pedrarias 
 earned a name even among his bloodthirsty contempo- 
 
 3 
 
4 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 raries which indicated his character. Like Attila of old, 
 he was called the " Scourge of God " (Furor Domini). 
 In such a school was de Soto trained. 
 
 He met with the favor of Pedrarias, and in ten years 
 time was a captain in an expedition into the wilds of 
 Nicaragua. His chroniclers relate of him that he joyed 
 in the hunting of savages. In April, 1532, he landed 
 with a troop of horse on the Gulf of Guayaquil, a needed 
 reinforcement for the detestable Pizarro. The courage 
 and ability of de Soto were soon recognized by the keen 
 conqueror of Peru. Responsibilities gladly welcomed 
 were thrust upon him. It was he who discovered and 
 made way over the passes of the mountains. With Her- 
 nando Pizarro, he headed the embassy which boldly en 
 tered the camp where the Inca Atahualpa sat enthroned 
 amid a multitude of wild warriors. He is reputed to 
 have been the best horseman among the Spanish, and 
 he took occasion, incensed by the coolness with which 
 the Peruvian emperor met their advances, to give him 
 a sample of his skill at the manege. He caused his 
 horse to curvet and prance madly about the square, 
 finally rushing him at full speed toward the inca as if 
 to over-ride him, checking him within a few feet of his 
 sacred person by so powerful a wrench that he threw 
 the animal on his haunches at the foot of the throne. 
 The Peruvians were dreadfully afraid of a horse, but 
 the manoeuvre of the cavalier had no effect whatever 
 upon the impassive inca, who never raised his eyes, 
 though it was gravely related that he caused some of 
 his warriors who shrank back from the avalanche of 
 horseflesh and steel, to be beheaded after the departure 
 of the embassy for having shown fear before strangers. 
 
 He was one of the company which participated in the 
 
De Soto and the Mississippi 5 
 
 capture of the inca on the i6th of November, 1532, 
 and the dreadful slaughter in the square of Caxamarca. 
 At the storming of Cuzco he was the first over the 
 walls, and in all the battles and marches he bore a promi 
 nent part. It is to his credit, that being absent at the 
 time the inca, who had paid the unheard-of ransom of 
 fifteen million dollars in gold for his release, was basely 
 executed, he protested against this incredible treachery 
 when he returned to Caxamarca. 
 
 When the country was entirely subdued, he returned 
 to Spain, having received as his share of the ransom of 
 the inca, about two hundred and seventy thousand dol 
 lars in ingots of gold and silver. He met with a warm 
 welcome from the needy emperor, who proceeded to 
 bestow his royal favor upon him and borrow some sixty 
 thousand ducats forthwith. It is to the credit of Charles, 
 that he subsequently paid back this money a most un 
 usual act of royal condescension ! 
 
 With a halo of romance and a more substantial gild 
 ing of treasure adorning his handsome and stately per 
 son, he had but to choose for a wife the fairest of the 
 fair dames of Castile, purchase an estate, establish him 
 self as a grandee secure in the favor of the emperor 
 and pass the rest of his days in the enjoyment of his 
 treasures. His choice fell upon the beautiful Isabella de 
 Bobadilla, a daughter of old Pedrarias, and a connection 
 of that grand dame the Marchioness de Moya (Beatrice 
 de Bobadilla), who had been the friend of Columbus. 
 His present and his future appeared certain, when there 
 came to the court, early in the year 1537, a little man 
 named Cabeza de Vaca, who had been a doer of doughty 
 deeds, as we shall see, and was now a teller of strange 
 tales. 
 
6 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 Of six hundred who had set forth to explore Florida 
 in 1528, with visions of conquest before their eyes, he 
 and three others alone survived. They had passed eight 
 years in wandering across the continent from one savage 
 tribe to another, from Florida to the Gulf of California. 
 He had marvellous accounts to relate of a country in the 
 interior of Florida, then the generic name for North 
 America, beside which the riches of Mexico and Peru 
 lands where the precious metals were so base that the 
 horses were shod with silver! were inconsidered trifles. 
 He refused to divulge the exact location of this fabulous 
 Ophir, but he said enough to inflame the passions which 
 a year of idleness and enjoyment had not quenched of 
 de Soto. Unsatisfied by his tremendous booty and his 
 future prospects, he determined upon the enterprise in 
 which he hoped to acquire more glory and more gold 
 than had been found by Cortez and Pizarro. 
 
 The emperor was pleased to accord his gracious per 
 mission which cost him nothing and reserving for him 
 self a fifth of the gold which was discovered which 
 brought him nothing either he created de Soto a mar 
 quis, made him governor of Cuba and lord of Florida, 
 and pretty much all the rest of the western hemisphere 
 which was not yet discovered, with the title of Adelan- 
 tando. As I read the chronicles of the past it seems 
 that everybody who bore that magnificent appellation 
 was destined to misfortune. 
 
 When the news was passed among the young courtiers 
 of Spain that one of the conquerors of Peru was about 
 to take the sea once more, he was overwhelmed with 
 applications to join the expedition. It was an age of 
 chivalry, romance and credulity. The experiences of the 
 cavaliers in the new world had lost nothing by the 
 
De Soto and the Mississippi 7 
 
 telling in the old. Gold and silver were supposed to be 
 so plentiful that they could be had for the taking. With 
 this embarrassment of volunteers, de Soto was able to 
 select those best suited for his purpose.. Among those 
 who flocked to his standard were a large number of 
 noble Portuguese under the command of Vasconcelos. 
 Wise de Vaca did not go along. 
 
 On Sunday, the 6th of April, 1538, being St. Lazarus 
 Day, the expedition, comprising some nine hundred men, 
 set sail in a noble squadron of ships from the port of 
 San Lucar at the mouth of the Guadalquivir. Such had 
 been the profuseness of their preparation, that great 
 quantities of luggage, for which there was no room on 
 the ships, were left behind on the wharf to the pillage 
 of the people, but what did any man care for the reck 
 less expenditure of a few thousand ducats in Spain in 
 the face of uncounted ingots in Florida? 
 
 De Soto was followed by many of his old comrades 
 in arms in Peru, the chief of whom were Luis de Moscoso 
 and Nuno de Tobar, who were next him in command. 
 The beautiful Isabella de Bobadilla accompanied her gal 
 lant husband. En route they stopped at the Canary 
 Islands and were hospitably entertained by the governor. 
 At the entreaty of the wife of de Soto, the governor 
 allowed his daughter, a left-handed descendant by the way 
 but withal a dainty and charming lady also named Isa 
 bella de Bobadilla, to accompany the expedition. 
 
 Nufio de Tobar fell in love with her. She was un 
 able to resist his importunities, and though de Tobar 
 promptly married her when the consequences of their 
 indiscretion were apparent, his presumption withdrew 
 from him the favor of the governor, he was dismissed 
 and reduced to the ranks. After spending some time 
 
S Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 at Santiago and Havana, and putting all things in order 
 in Cuba, on Sunday, the i8th of May, 1539, with five 
 great ships, two caravels and two brigantines, they set 
 sail from Havana. Donna de Soto and Donna de Tobar, 
 the latter with a little baby in her arms, stood on the 
 Morro Castle and watched the white sails wafting their 
 lords to fame and fortune, as they supposed, sink out 
 of sight beneath the horizon. 
 
 II. Vitachuco s Bold Stroke for Liberty 
 
 On the 2Oth of May, being Whitsunday, they landed 
 in the Bay of Tampa, called by them the Bay of the 
 Holy Spirit. They numbered over six hundred per 
 fectly appointed men, perhaps two hundred of them be 
 ing horsemen. Among the number were twelve priests, 
 eight inferior clergy and four monks, who could min 
 ister to the soldiery and convert such of the natives as 
 the sword of the secular arm spared. One recruit named 
 Juan Ortiz unexpectedly joined the army in Florida. 
 He had been captured by the Indians from the party of 
 de Narvaez ten years before. He had mastered the Ind 
 ian tongue and was able to make himself understood by 
 the savages. He was a reinforcement of great value. 
 
 Nothing that the forethought of de Soto could sug 
 gest had been omitted in the preparations. He ex 
 pended the greater part of his private fortune in fitting 
 out the expedition. There were shackles for the slaves, 
 savage bloodhounds, spare armor, tools, portable forges, 
 and a small falconet, or cannon. They had with them 
 thirteen breeding sows in farrow, from which they ex 
 pected to procure large numbers of porkers. 
 
 On the 1 5th of July, the army, trumpeters and drum- 
 
De Soto and the Mississippi 9 
 
 mcrs in the lead, plunged into the depths of the forest 
 and disappeared in the Everglades. Twenty-five years 
 before, on the 27th of March, 1513, being Easter 
 Sunday, old Ponce de Leon had first caught sight of 
 the green and smiling shore. Confident that within its 
 confines flowed the wonderful fountain of youth for 
 whose rejuvenating waters his soul pined, he had named 
 it, in honor of the day, and the luxuriant vegetation 
 which sprang from the very edge of the sea, Pascua 
 Florida. Surely never was there a land so miscalled! 
 Not finding the fountain of youth, Ponce de Leon re 
 turned in 1531 and was killed. In 1520 Vasquez de 
 Ayllon had coasted along its shores and in 1525, with 
 the witchery of its beauty still over his soul, like de 
 Leon he had returned and had been slain with many of 
 his followers. 
 
 In 1528, Pamphilio de Narvaez, who is remembered 
 only for his vanity and his misfortunes, landed with six* 
 hundred men upon its shores. It was that de Narvaez 
 who had been sent to supersede Cortez in Mexico. Cor- 
 tez had defeated and captured de Narvaez and his men 
 in a night battle in which their commander lost his eye, 
 then with an address as great as his valor, Cortez per 
 suaded his prisoners to desert de Narvaez and enlist in 
 his service! 
 
 " Count yourself fortunate," said de Narvaez to Cor 
 tez, " in having captured me! " 
 
 " It is the least of things I have done in Mexico," 
 calmly responded the conquistador. 
 
 He rated his captive so low that he released him 
 and sent him back. In spite of this failure, we find 
 him in 1528 at Tampa, with his devoted six hundred. 
 Their adventures were one long tale of misfortune. 
 
io Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 None of them save de Vaca and his three companions 
 whose incredible adventures have been noticed, ever saw 
 civilization again. In the gloomy forests, the malarial 
 swamps and the depths of the ocean their bones lie 
 bleaching. 
 
 The land of flowers? Rather the land of blood ! Yet 
 in spite of these things the army of de Soto set forth 
 with a stout heart. 
 
 The ships having been unloaded, all but the caravels 
 which were kept for service were sent back to Havana. 
 The soldierly de Soto instituted a strict regime. The 
 army was drawn up in regular order, as the military sci 
 ence of the day indicated, and the companies marched 
 and preserved their different stations in due course. It 
 is neither profitable nor indeed possible, to follow the 
 daily wanderings of these gay cavaliers in the hitherto 
 untrodden wastes of the new land. In spite of constant 
 attacks, with their superior arms and equipment they 
 overbore opposition and daily penetrated farther and 
 farther into the continent. Their method was extremely 
 effective. De Soto got possession of the chief of any 
 tribe he chanced to come across and compelled him to 
 furnish a sufficient number of his subjects to carry the 
 baggage of the little army into the territory of the 
 next adjoining ruler, where a new levy of forced slaves 
 would be made and a certain proportion of those already 
 impressed, released and sent back to their own land. 
 The plan had the merit of simplicity and expedition, 
 but it left behind a smouldering train of revenge, and 
 it raised before, by means of rumor and message, a 
 flaming barrier of war and rebellion. The Spaniards 
 were brutal and licentious, but they did not descend to 
 the horrible excesses which had disgraced almost every 
 
De Soto and the Mississippi n 
 
 other expedition. De Soto was an angel of light be 
 side men like Pizarro, Pedrarias and Alvarado, the fierce 
 lord of Guatemala. 
 
 Sometimes the difficulties they encountered were tri 
 fling, sometimes of such alarming proportions that their 
 very existence was threatened; sometimes they travelled 
 through great forests, sometimes through cultivated 
 plains teeming with broad-bladed Indian corn; some 
 times they struggled desperately to extricate themselves 
 from the vast swamps in which they became enmired; 
 sometimes their way was barred by rushing rivers, or, 
 as they reached what are now Georgia and South Caro 
 lina, by long broken hills. 
 
 One of the most serious encounters \vhich they had 
 with the Indians occurred in the domain of a chief named 
 Vitachuco, in what is now Florida. In other circum 
 stances and with other chroniclers, he would have been 
 called a patriot. He was a politic savage, and on the 
 approach of de Soto s army, though he had threatened 
 them with annihilation, he dissembled and received them 
 with complaisance, offering them hospitality. The old 
 chroniclers love to dwell upon the splendid appearance 
 he presented, his royal dignity, the stately and gallant 
 band of braves who attended him, whose feathered head 
 dresses lent a touch of grace and softness to the fierce- 
 eyed faces beneath them. The courtesy of the savage 
 was no less Castilian than that of the Spaniards, and 
 the meeting of the savage-hearted but courtly de Soto 
 and the courtly hearted but savage Vitachuco, in this 
 new corner of the old world, is a scene upon which the 
 mind, like the eye, would fain dwell. But there was 
 black treachery in the hearts of both men in spite of the 
 veneer of politeness. 
 
12 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 It was Vitachuco s plan to appoint a meeting at which 
 de Soto would be invited to inspect his army. Twelve 
 trusted followers were told off to seize the unsuspect 
 ing Spaniard and a general massacre was to ensue. But 
 the Spanish commander had not come there a boy. 
 Suspicion, scrutiny, and treachery discovered the plot. 
 At the meeting de Soto had every Spaniard under arms. 
 When the deluded Indian gave the signal, instead of 
 being able to seize his enemy, he found himself, in spite 
 of his gigantic strength, a prisoner. His naked war 
 riors threw themselves upon the mailclad Europeans 
 with a courage that deserved a better fate. They made 
 their attack in vain. Their arrows, though shot with 
 amazing skill, fell back blunted from the steel cuirasses, 
 the spears hurled by never so powerful arms had not the 
 range of the deadly arquebuse, and the rude war club 
 was no match for the Toledo blade. 
 
 After being slaughtered by hundreds, seeing their chief 
 an impotent captive, they broke and fled. There were 
 two lakes near the battle ground. The terrifying Spanish 
 v cavalry headed them off from the larger, forcing them 
 to make for the smaller. With their relentless pursuers 
 close on their heels, the Indians plunged into the spark 
 ling waters. They were great swimmers apparently, for 
 the old historians relate that they swam about for thirty- 
 six hours! 
 
 The night fell and the Spaniards encircled the lake 
 and prevented a single savage from breaking through 
 the cordon of steel. As an evidence of their implaca 
 bility, the Spaniards state that half a dozen men would 
 swim together to form a platform in the water, upon 
 which another would kneel and discharge his bolts so 
 long as he had an arrow left in his quiver. 
 
De Soto and the Mississippi 13 
 
 As the next day wore on, the Spaniards stopped 
 shooting at them, their capture or death being inevita 
 ble; it was not good policy to waste ammunition, so 
 the two parties waited in grim silence. I suspect there 
 must have been shallow places in the water of which 
 the Spaniards were ignorant, in which the Indians rested 
 from time to time. The persistence of the conquerors 
 finally wore out the resistance of the conquered, and one 
 by one they came out on the bank all but twelve who 
 refused to surrender and remained in the water until 
 they were so exhausted that de Soto sent in some of 
 his men who were good swimmers and secured them. 
 Their lives were spared. 
 
 The plan of Vitachuco had entirely failed. His war 
 riors were enslaved, and his women the sport of the 
 Spaniards, but the spirit of the savage was not broken. 
 A fierce heart still beat in his breast. Hero-like, he de 
 termined to make one last effort for freedom. His men 
 still outnumbered the Spaniards. Upon a given signal 
 he arranged that they should rise and with whatsoever 
 weapon they could compass, be it nothing but their 
 fettered hands, they should overwhelm their captors. He 
 was well treated by de Soto, and one night as they sat 
 at supper together, he gave the signal by a mighty war 
 whoop, then leaping to his feet, he caught the Span 
 iard by the throat and dealt him a furious blow in the 
 face with his fist. De Soto sank senseless to the floor. 
 His nose was broken, his face smashed in, his teeth 
 knocked out. With a cry of exultation the savage 
 sprang upon his prostrate foe, and it was not until the 
 sword of an attendant was plunged through his body 
 that he relaxed his iron grasp. In obedience to the 
 signal the savages attempted to follow the example of 
 
14 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 their chief, but the attempt never presented even a pos 
 sibility of success. Many were massacred and the rest 
 punished, loaded with the baggage and forced to 
 move on. That was the end of Vitachuco s bold stroke 
 for liberty. 
 
 III. The Defence of Mauvila 
 
 The adventurers spent the first winter in the 
 fertile country of Appalache. D Anasco, at the 
 head of a detachment, discovered that bay upon 
 the Gulf of Mexico from which the unhappy expedition 
 of de Narvaez had set forth upon that last voyage, 
 from which they had never returned. Thirty horsemen 
 were sent back to the camp at Tampa to bring up the 
 remainder of the army which had been left behind. The 
 cavaliers fought their way down and the rear guard 
 fought its way up. The caravels sailed up the coast and 
 under the orders of de Soto made their way westward 
 some distance along the shore and finally discovered the 
 harbor of Pensacola. Thence the governor sent the 
 vessels back to Havana with letters to Donna Isabella, 
 and glowing accounts of what they had discovered and 
 the brilliant prospects before them. The ships under the 
 command of Maldonado were ordered to procure a re- 
 enforcement of men, horses and ammunition and re 
 turn to Florida the next October. 
 
 When the spring came, the men and horses refreshed 
 by their pleasant sojourn in the land of peace and plenty, 
 took up their march to the northeast again. The year 
 was a repetition of the preceding one. When they ad 
 vanced as far as the Savannah River in South Carolina, 
 they entered the land of Cofachiqui, which was ruled 
 
De Soto and the Mississippi 15 
 
 by a woman, a princess upon whose beauties of mind 
 and person the Spanish chronicles have dilated. She 
 probably had no more claim to beauty than Dulcinea 
 del Toboso! At any rate, draped in grass cloth and 
 cotton, crested with feathers and gleaming with pearls, 
 she came floating down the Savannah River like Cleo 
 patra coming to Antony. There was more Castilian 
 courtesy, and black treachery, the latter being on the 
 part of the Spaniards only. There is another fine story 
 of a string of pearls as large as hazelnuts which the 
 princess removed from her dusky neck and threw over 
 the shoulders of de Soto, after some bashful hesitation 
 and an exhibition of maidenly modesty, which show 
 that there was not a great difference between the women 
 of the old world and those of the new. There was a 
 ring, too, which de Soto plucked from his own finger 
 and placed upon that of the princess; which he meant 
 to get back later on (I am happy to say that he never 
 got it). 
 
 The usual demand for slaves and so forth things 
 too grim to be told on pages polite covered by that 
 et cetera was made. The little princess was made a 
 close prisoner and her people were treated with the usual 
 rigor. Observing the desire of the explorers for pearls 
 she led them to barbaric temples and decaying sepul 
 chres and exposed to their greedy gaze piles of the 
 translucent gems. With their usual extravagance, the 
 writers tell us of heaps so large that they could only 
 be estimated in bushels. Save a necklace or two for 
 each individual, a handful which even the commonest 
 soldier could carry, a few hundreds for the royal treas 
 ury and a choice boxful for his own use, which the 
 princess was allowed to carry, de Soto compelled his 
 
1 6 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 followers to leave the bulk of them until they should 
 return. It is pleasant to relate that the princess es 
 caped with the box of choicest pearls and de Soto s 
 ring and was not recaptured. 
 
 In one place after showing the people the terrible 
 power of the weapon by firing at a large tree until it 
 was knocked over, they left their only piece of artil 
 lery, too cumbersome for transportation. The explorers 
 pushed their way upward and westward into South Caro 
 lina across the foothills of the Appalachians, and gazed 
 in admiration upon the mighty mountain range which 
 barred their path. They then turned to the south and 
 moved down through Alabama and entered the do 
 mains of a renowned chief named Tuscaloosa, a giant 
 in stature. His welcome was none of the warmest, but 
 with careless indifference to anything the Indians might 
 do, they persisted in their advance. The wily savage 
 with specious promises of royal entertainment led the 
 army toward his capital city of palisades and thatch, 
 which he called Mauvila; a name perpetuated by the 
 modern city of Mobile, a few miles farther down the 
 same river. It was a well-fortified place according to 
 Indian standards, located on a beautiful meadow, upon 
 a neck of land surrounded on three sides by the rapidly 
 rushing Alabama River. It was enclosed by a palisade 
 fastened together by vines; the spaces between the logs 
 were filled with thick masses of mud and straw and many 
 of the tree trunks had taken root, so that the town was 
 surrounded by a wall of living green. 
 
 The main body of the army halted one night five miles 
 away from the village. The next morning, October 
 1 8th, 1540, de Soto, with one hundred cavaliers and foot 
 men, followed by the usual melancholy train of slaves 
 
De Soto and the Mississippi 17 
 
 bearing the baggage, set forth for the town. He left 
 orders for Moscoso to break camp and follow him with 
 the main army at once. 
 
 Led by the chief, de Soto and the advance guard en 
 tered the walls. The slaves and the baggage were left 
 hard by the gate outside. The place was crowded with 
 warriors, and while there were many women, scarcely 
 less fierce looking than their lords, the absence of chil 
 dren was noted. The Spaniards, however, fearlessly oc 
 cupied the houses assigned to them, and by de Soto s 
 orders prepared breakfast. Tuscaloosa had withdrawn 
 upon some pretext, and when breakfast was ready he 
 was summoned. Juan Ortiz, who carried the message, 
 was treated with contumely and compelled to repeat 
 it several times. In the thatched houses of the Ind 
 ians a fierce debate was going on. The discussion was 
 as to whether they should attack immediately, or wait 
 until the whole army had been gathered within the 
 town and finish the affair with one blow. The latter 
 plan was favored by the elders, but the impetuosity of 
 the young men could not be restrained. One of them 
 followed Ortiz out of the house and lifted his bow, 
 shouting defiance. 
 
 De Gallegos saw the movement and whipping out 
 his sword cut him from the shoulder to the waist. 
 The son of the dead chief drew his bow and launched 
 six arrows in quick succession. They all rebounded 
 harmlessly from the armor of de Gallegos, and, seeing 
 their futility, the Indian sprang upon him and dealt 
 him such a blow with the oaken bow that he only 
 succeeded in saving his life by passing his sword 
 through his assailant s body. 
 
 From every house and hiding place the Indians came 
 
1 8 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 running with yells of hatred. They struck the aston 
 ished Spaniards with the force of a tempest. Resist 
 ance under the circumstances was suicide. The Span 
 iards turned and fled at their highest speed to get out 
 of the town. They broke through the gate which the 
 precipitate attack had prevented from being closed and 
 then ran toward their horses, which were tethered out 
 side under the trees. Some of them were shot down 
 on the way. A few mounted and most of the others 
 cut the bridles so that the priceless animals escaped. 
 The horsemen threw themselves upon the advancing 
 Indians and checked their onrush until the rest of the 
 band formed up and advanced, and the Indians were 
 driven back into the walls. The Spaniards attempted 
 to storm the place but they were met with such a 
 volley of arrows that they retreated once more, again 
 pursued by the Indians. This advancing and retreat 
 ing was kept up for four long hours of hard fighting. 
 
 Meanwhile the slaves had carried their loads within 
 the walls. They were freed from their fetters and 
 given weapons. The hatreds engendered in their cap 
 tivity made them not less desperate than the savage 
 Alabamans. Finally de Soto determined to break into 
 the town. The Spaniards were smarting with wounds 
 and mad with rage. Dismounting from their horses, 
 under the cover of their shields they advanced to the 
 gate. In spite of the arrows which were rained upon 
 them they beat it down with axes and broke into the 
 enclosure. The Indians met them in solid ranks. They 
 were cut down in numbers but came on with most de 
 termined fury. By the command of the chief the 
 women, seizing weapons from the strewn ground, threw 
 themselves upon the foe. The Spanish position was 
 
De Soto and the Mississippi 19 
 
 desperate. Bidding the men hold on, de Soto and de 
 Tobar ran back outside, sprang upon their horses and 
 charged up the narrow streets through the seething 
 mass of Indians. Back and forth they rode, hewing 
 and slaughtering, the iron hoofs of the horses crush 
 ing the life out of the prostrate savages. Missiles were 
 rained upon them, but they bore charmed lives. Sounds 
 of their war cries infused new spirit into the men. 
 Finally as de Soto rose in the stirrups to deliver a 
 blow, an arrow pierced him in the unarmored thigh. 
 There was no time to take it out then, and he rode 
 through the rest of the battle standing in the stirrups, 
 a great feat of horsemanship and courage of which his 
 followers were justly proud. 
 
 The Spaniards finally succeeded in setting fire to the 
 thatched houses, and flame added its terror to the scene. 
 The battle had raged for eight hours, when about four 
 o clock the main body of the army under Moscoso, 
 which had been loitering along under the trees, came 
 in sight of the village. The crackling flames and roll 
 ing columns of smoke, the wild yells of the Indians, 
 and the war cries of the Spaniards apprised them of the 
 situation. Throwing aside everything but their weapons, 
 the cavaliers galloped forward with the foot soldiers 
 close behind them and entered the town. Throwing 
 themselves in front of their broken, exhausted com 
 panions, they swept the Indians resistlessly before them. 
 Men and women were indiscriminately slaughtered. The 
 brave savages fought until they were cut down to a 
 man. It is related that the last Indian left alive ran 
 to the wall and sprang upon it. When he saw that 
 escape was cut off by bodies of Spaniards he shook his 
 fist in defiance, caught his bowstring about his neck 
 
20 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 and hanged himself from the palisades ! Spain in its palm 
 iest days never produced a more devoted soldier. 
 
 There was not a living Indian, not even a wounded 
 one, to be seen. The village was a roaring furnace. 
 Eighty-two Spaniards had been killed outright, eigh 
 teen of them having been shot in the face. There were 
 two hundred and fifty badly wounded and fifty horses 
 had been slain an irreparable loss. The inefficient sur 
 geons had hundreds of serious wounds to dress! Most 
 of their baggage had been burned in the town, includ 
 ing all of the medical stores. In default of anything 
 better they dressed their wounds with the fat extracted 
 from the bodies of the dead Indians. 
 
 The vessels for the celebration of the mass and the 
 wheat flour for the bread had been lost as well. Hence 
 forth there was no mass on that journey. The priests, 
 robed in vestments of skins of wild animals, would 
 stand before the rude altars and repeat the service from 
 memory; nothing more. Dry mass, the soldiers called it. 
 
 They were not troubled by the Indians of that tribe 
 any further, for the reason that there were none left 
 all were killed. As Tuscaloosa was never heard of after 
 ward, it is supposed that he perished in the destruction 
 of his people. His brave efforts were as useless as 
 Vitachuco s. The Spanish accounts of the slain range 
 from eleven thousand to twenty-five hundred, the lat 
 ter figure probably being more nearly correct. 
 
 From messengers and Indians they here learned that 
 they were but six days march from Pensacola, which 
 was the place where they were to meet the ships. They 
 had found no gold, nothing but marching and fighting 
 had been their lot, and a natural longing for home filled 
 their minds. Seeing no way of bending their inflexible 
 
De Soto Discovering the Mississippi. 
 
Menendez de Avilez. 
 
De Soto and the Mississippi 21 
 
 leader, a conspiracy was hatched among the most dis 
 contented, to seize his person and abandon the expedi 
 tion. If they had succeeded de Soto would have been 
 carried back to Spain broken in fortune and ruined in 
 fame. He was resolute to press on. In spite of all he 
 still dreamed of conquests, still hoped to retrieve his 
 fortune. He knew too well what the royal gratitude 
 was. It was only consequent upon success. 
 
 For instance: in the year 1544, an old man forced 
 his way through the crowd of courtiers to the carnage 
 of Charles V. 
 
 " Who are you? " asked that monarch, looking wrath- 
 fully at the presuming intruder. 
 
 " A man who has added to your empire more king 
 doms than the number of cities you inherited," replied 
 the broken and disgraced Cortez. 
 
 " Drive on," said the king brutally to his coachman, 
 turning his back on the man whom he had abandoned. 
 Such would have been the greeting to de Soto if he 
 had failed. 
 
 The conspiracy was detected, the conspirators severely 
 punished, and under the orders of the chief the little 
 army faced to the northwest and abandoned its last 
 chance of getting home by way of the sea. 
 
 On the 1 7th of December, 1540, at the village of 
 Chicasa, which they had occupied for the winter, they 
 were surprised at midnight by an overwhelming force 
 of Indians who set fire to the negligently guarded camp. 
 The Spaniards, at first panic-stricken, were rallied by 
 de Soto, de Tobar and Vasconcelos. De Soto, who 
 slept in doublet and hose, was the only man to mount 
 his horse in this action. In the middle of the fight his 
 saddle turned and he pitched headlong among his ene- 
 
22 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 mies. There was a furious melee over the body of the 
 captain but he finally escaped. It was found afterward 
 that he had fought for an hour on horseback in an un- 
 girthed saddle. It was not for nothing that he had 
 the reputation of a finished horseman. 
 
 Fourteen men and fifty-seven horses were killed here, 
 and over four hundred hogs, which were penned up in 
 the middle of the city and carefully guarded, were 
 burned. Only the young porkers who were small 
 enough to run between the logs escaped. The Ind 
 ians regarded a hog as a valuable prize, and every sav 
 age came to the attack with three ropes one for a 
 Spaniard, one for a horse, and one for a hog. The 
 explorers spent that winter in the country of the 
 Chickesaws, in a deplorable state of destitution. In the 
 successive fights and fires everything they possessed, 
 even to saddles, had been lost. 
 
 With an energy which cannot be too much admired, 
 they made a bellows out of hides and two old arquebuse 
 barrels, and set to work to re-temper their weapons and 
 make new saddles, lances, and such other rude equip 
 ments as were possible. They had no clothing except 
 a few skins and they almost perished from the winter 
 cold, until a soldier who had been a weaver, Juan Vega, 
 made some grass cloth with which they covered their 
 nakedness. They made forays throughout the surround 
 ing country and treated the Indians with most brutal and 
 implacable severity. In another village of the Chicke 
 saws which they had gained by hard fighting, they put 
 everybody to death. 
 
De Soto and the Mississippi 23 
 
 IV. The Father of Waters 
 
 On April 25th, 1541, they set forward once more 
 upon the march. They were a rude array of sav 
 age men, clad in the skins of wild beasts, a few 
 of them riding horses, and driving a small drove 
 of swine, their rude weapons scarcely differentiating 
 them from the surrounding savages. Heading ever west 
 ward and northward, early in the month of May (the 
 exact date is not known), the advance guard broke 
 through the dense woodland and from a high bluff 
 (Latitude 35 N., near Memphis, Tennessee) beheld the 
 tawny, turbid flood of the Mississippi rolling swiftly 
 at their feet Espiritu Santo, de Soto named it. Up 
 and down as far as the eye could see, spread the great 
 river. A half league away the other bank confronted 
 them. 
 
 The discovery of the Mississippi, together with his mis 
 fortunes, are the incidents which have served to per 
 petuate the name of de Soto, otherwise he would be 
 remembered as lightly as de Narvaez or the others whom 
 the primeval forests of the new world had swallowed 
 up. The importance of a moment, the value of an in 
 cident, is rarely known until viewed through the per 
 spective of centuries of time. The broken de Soto, 
 who saw in the hurrying flood only an obstacle in his 
 path, little dreamed that this river valley was to be the 
 central artery of a great empire, not yet conceived in 
 the womb of nations, which would some day strike his 
 country the severest blow ever dealt to Spanish rule. 
 
 Twenty-two years before, Pineda had discovered the 
 delta and noted the vast volume of fresh water poured 
 
24 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 into the Gulf. Later de Vaca crossed one of the mouths 
 of the river. One hundred and thirty-two years after 
 de Soto, the undaunted Jesuit Marquette, with his com 
 panion Joliet, floated down from far Illinois in a frail 
 birch canoe, past the very bluff upon which the Span 
 iard stood and upon which he had erected a huge cross, 
 taking possession of the country in the name of Spain. 
 Ten years after Marquette s day, the intrepid La Salle 
 traversed the entire length of the " Father of Waters "; 
 and, fascinated by its majesty, had returned hoping to 
 colonize it, only to die by assassination on the Texas 
 shore. 
 
 In 1699, Iberville and Bienville built a fort at the 
 mouth of the delta on the sun-bleached sands of Biloxi 
 and claimed the country in the name of France. Years 
 after, while floating down this great stream, Aaron Burr 
 dreamed of empires in the West, and on its banks Philip 
 Nolan cursed the United States! It was to be a track 
 alike for the palatial steamer, the lumber craft and the 
 flatboat of primitive traders, one of whom was named 
 Abraham Lincoln. Over three hundred years after its 
 discovery Farragut with his storm-beaten prows breasted 
 the rushing current and awakened its quiet shores with 
 the thunder of his guns. 
 
 Commerce, trade, history, past and future, these were 
 nothing to the melancholy, desperate de Soto. There 
 was but one talisman to fix his attention, to engage 
 his intelligence, to lead him on the bright yellow 
 precious metal was still before his imagination. 
 
 Moving down the river until he found a place where 
 the ground sloped gently to the water s edge, the Span 
 iards crossed and took up their weary march. Drawing 
 away from the stream the tired cavalcade plodded on 
 
De Soto and the Mississippi 25 
 
 toward the northwest. They discovered no gold but on 
 the banks of the White River in Arkansas, they found 
 something more precious to them in their extremity, 
 and for which they had longed ever since they began 
 their wanderings, and that was salt. 
 
 " If I could only have a morsel of fresh meat and a 
 handful of salt," had been the plaint of many dying men, 
 " I think I could live." 
 
 Some of them ate it so greedily that they died of it. 
 By and by in despair the wretched army turned to the 
 southward and dragged its way down to the Mississippi. 
 Was the iron will of the conquistador at last broken? 
 Had he repented the decision w r hich led him away from 
 safety after Mauvila? Was the natural longing to see 
 Donna Isabella, to return to civilization at all hazards, 
 strong enough to move him? No, for after passing the 
 third winter in the province of Utiangue, where Juan 
 Ortiz died a great loss in the spring time they kept 
 on still exploring, fighting, hoping, though ever mov 
 ing to the south. Finally they struck the banks of the 
 great river again and followed its winding course until 
 they reached the village of Guachoya, at the mouth of 
 the Red River. 
 
 As they had been suffering dreadful hardships, and 
 fighting frequent battles, they were glad to find in 
 Guachoya a friend. Across the river rose the great town 
 of the famous Natchez. De Soto would have liked much 
 to cross the river and recuperate his men within its walls, 
 but the chief of the Natchez would have none of him. 
 When the Spaniard, resorting to diplomacy instead of 
 force on account of the condition of his men, announced 
 himself as the " Child of the Sun," the old chief told him 
 to dry up the river and come over and he would believe 
 
26 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 him. Alas, the end of all things for the Child of the Sun 
 was approaching. 
 
 V. The Melancholy End 
 
 Halting here uncertainly, de Soto was seized with a 
 wasting fever which never left him. In spite of his reso 
 lute will he was forced to take to his rude couch, where 
 he grew speedily worse. There is something manly and 
 attractive in the way in which he met his death. His life 
 had been hard, stern, cruel, and merciless. Ruthless and 
 treacherous, he had partaken of all the vices of his age 
 and nation, but there had been in him a magnificent cour 
 age, a cool hardihood, forethought for his men, an open- 
 hearted generosity. Here and there were sparks of jus 
 tice in his dealings with the Indians; once in a while 
 touches of mercy, standing out bright before the black 
 background against which they were exhibited. These 
 have half redeemed his fame. He had been the noblest, 
 the highest, and the best of the great explorers, and was 
 now the poorest and most miserable. He had everything 
 to live for when he set sail from San Lucar and nothing 
 was left of his possessions now, except the rude hut on 
 the banks of the Mississippi, two slaves, three horses, and 
 a few swine. Disappointment and despair had broken 
 even his resolute soul. All his toil, labor, sacrifice, devo 
 tion, courage, had come to naught. It all ended here on 
 the banks of the Mississippi. 
 
 He made his final preparations for death like a good 
 Christian, writing his will and testament in cipher on a 
 scrap of paper, confessing his sins and making his peace 
 with Heaven. With prudent forethought he called his 
 followers about him before he died. He had been a stern 
 
De Soto and the Mississippi 27 
 
 master but they loved him. Many of them had followed 
 him over the mountain passes of Peru, they had ruffled it 
 with him at the court of Spain, they had fought shoulder 
 to shoulder in the everglades of Florida, charged with 
 him in the flames of Mauvila. Some like de Tobar and 
 Moscoso had felt the weight of his stern displeasure. 
 These things were forgotten now. They remembered 
 him as the indomitable, heroic, courageous, far-seeing 
 captain. If there was a lack of other comforts, there were 
 tears and affection about his deathbed. In quaint words, 
 which have a genuine ring read to-day after a lapse of 
 centuries, Balthazar de Gallegos, acting as spokesman 
 for the rest, delivered a homily, words of condolence and 
 comfort, which were agreeable to the ears of the dying 
 man. 
 
 Wishing to avoid dissension, de Soto bade them choose 
 a successor, to whom he could commit the command. 
 With one accord, they left the determination to him, and 
 his eyes turned to Moscoso, his early friend, a decision in 
 which the others cheerfully acquiesced. At de Soto s 
 request, the officers and principal men of the depleted 
 army swore allegiance to the new commander in his hut, 
 and then all the Spaniards in groups of twenty passed be 
 side the bed of the dying commander and bade him fare 
 well. 
 
 He died next day, the 2ist of May, 1542, having been 
 ill but seven days. The fever of the body, which with 
 increasing virulence burned up his life, was typical of the 
 fever of his soul, which had led him to this untimely end. 
 His death came in the delirium of fever in which his mind 
 reverted to Peru, to Spain, and to Havana, where the 
 lonely Donna Isabella stood waiting on the strand. 
 
 Concealing the death of the " Child of the Sun " from 
 
28 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 the Indians, lest their prestige should diminish, Moscoso 
 caused the corpse to be hidden for three days, while the 
 boldiers were compelled to dissemble their grief by out 
 ward manifestations of joy and cheer. At the end of that 
 time, at the dead of night, they buried their great com 
 mander in a deep grave outside the village; but the 
 shrewd Indians suspected something, and, in great fear 
 lest they should dig up the plain and find the body, Mos 
 coso determined to disinter it and sink it in the river. 
 
 D Afiasco and four other captains soon found a place 
 over a hundred feet deep, which they thought would suit. 
 The next night the body was exhumed, and as there were 
 no stones to weight it, it was wrapped in mantles which 
 were filled with sand and carefully secured. At midnight 
 a little party rowed softly out to midstream, and there, 
 with a muttered prayer from the priests, the cavaliers 
 gently lowered the body over the side of the boat, and 
 with a sullen splash it sank beneath the surface. The 
 mighty mass of water rushed silently on over the iron 
 heart, now so still, which had once beat so fiercely in his 
 breast. The night wind in the trees sang his requiem 
 as they rowed back to the shore and left him. Surely 
 earth knows no grander sepulchre and the hand of man 
 cannot rear so noble a monument as the great river which 
 was the one and the other to the soldier now at rest. 
 
 What need to dwell upon the melancholy story further? 
 
 He had charged upon the survivors to convert the na 
 tives of the country to the Roman faith, and add all they 
 could to the crown of Spain, and he advised them to live 
 in peace and love with one another. These things they 
 mainly forgot. There was but one thought in every 
 mind, one desire in every heart, when the leader died 
 to get home! There were two ways open: one over- 
 
De Soto and the Mississippi 29 
 
 land to Mexico, and the other down to the sea by 
 way of the river. Ignorant of the distance and imagin 
 ing themselves to be much nearer the country of Cortez, 
 they decided to go overland. 
 
 For five weary months the survivors struggled west 
 ward until they came to the great deserts of Arizona. 
 There they halted, and after exploring in various direc 
 tions, in despair they turned back toward the river, which 
 they reached in December, 1542. 
 
 They wintered near the village of Guachoya again 
 and set to work building boats. Fortunately for them, 
 through all their wanderings they preserved one saw. It 
 proved to be their most priceless possession. The en 
 terprise and ingenuity of the Spaniards were astonishing. 
 Every bit of iron they possessed except swords was forged 
 into nails. The winter was a severe one and they only 
 sustained life while they worked, by ruthlessly appropri 
 ating every grain of corn from the surrounding villages. 
 So great were their exactions that the helpless Indians 
 died of starvation in scores. Here, too, died the gallant 
 de Tobar. Poor little Isabella and the baby, a sad end 
 ing to their love story! 
 
 At the expiration of five months they had succeeded 
 in building crazy boats in which they embarked and 
 floated down the river pursued by a great fleet of war 
 canoes of the Natchez. One of the boats was captured 
 with its crew, the horses reduced to twelve in number 
 were abandoned, and finally, on the i8th of July, the flo 
 tilla reached the sea. There was divided counsel again. 
 Some of them, led by d Afiasco, who had retained a rude 
 jackstaff through all his wanderings and who had some 
 pretensions to the art of navigation, were for sailing away 
 toward Havana. They tried it for a day or two, but were 
 
30 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 driven westward by a storm and abandoned the attempt, 
 running along the shore toward Mexico. On the loth 
 of September, 1543, four years and four months from the 
 day they left Havana, they reached the Panuco River in 
 Mexico, and were soon safe among their own people. 
 
 Three hundred gaunt, haggard, starving, broken men, 
 naked, shoeless, hatless, with neither equipment nor 
 weapon, save here and there a dulled sword which their 
 feeble arms could scarcely lift, were all that were left of 
 the proudest, gayest, and most splendid little army that 
 had ever debarked upon our shores. 
 
 Donna Isabella had sent out several expeditions 
 from Havana in all directions to seek for traces of her 
 missing lord, but they secured no tidings of de Soto. 
 Three years silence had broken her spirit. When the 
 word did come from Mexico of the unfortunate end of 
 the expedition and the death of her husband, like a true 
 and loving woman, having nothing left to live for, she 
 quietly folded her hands and died of a broken heart. 
 
PART I 
 IN THE AGE OF DISCOVERY 
 
 II 
 
 The Revenge of de Gourgues 
 
THE REVENGE OF DE GOURGUES 
 
 I. The Huguenot Colonies 
 
 OF all the passions which have raged in human 
 beasts those engendered in the holy name 
 of religion have been the worst, and the wars 
 of the most implacable ferocity have been waged be 
 tween clashing creeds. The ordinary method of en 
 forcing particular interpretations of the will of God 
 has been at the point of the sword, and the attempt to 
 propagate a new faith, or uphold an old one, has usually 
 resulted in the development of the most hellish passions. 
 Twas religious bigotry writ the word " deicide " in human 
 vocabulary and stamped forever upon the world s face the 
 sign of the cross. Since the hillock of Golgotha, so far 
 had men strayed from the teaching of the Gentle Master 
 in whose Name they perpetrated the most atrocious cruel 
 ties, that the rack and the fagot went hand in hand with 
 the Bible and the Priest, and the ecclesiastic became the 
 most potent factor in building the kingdom of God upon 
 a foundation of hatred and force. " Kill them all! " an 
 swered the fierce abbot to the soldier who asked him be 
 fore storming a town, how, in the confusion of the sack, 
 he could distinguish the saints and the heretics. " Kill 
 them all! God will know His own! " 
 
 On the 1 2th of July, 1555, fifty years before John Smith 
 landed at Jamestown and sixty years before the May- 
 
 3 33 
 
34 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 flower dropped anchor on the bleak coast of Cape Cod, a 
 little party of French Calvinists, backed by Coligny, and 
 under the command of Durand de Villegagnon, a 
 Knight of Malta, who had broken his monastic vows and 
 was coquetting with the Huguenots, landed in the bay of 
 Rio Janeiro, Brazil. 
 
 The answer of France to the famous bull of the Vice 
 gerent of Heaven, dividing the new world between the 
 great maritime powers, Spain and Portugal, was the ad 
 vent of this little band of Protestants to found a state 
 called Antarctic France ! For several years they dragged 
 on a wearisome, dreary, precarious existence, as did other 
 colonists of whatsoever degree at that period of the six 
 teenth century. Reinforcements came to them in 1557, 
 containing among others two Calvinist ministers from 
 Geneva, the first Protestant clergymen to set foot on the 
 western hemisphere. On the island of Villegagnon in 
 the bay of Rio Janeiro, was preached the first Protestant 
 sermon ever heard on this half of the world, from the 
 fourth verse of the twenty-seventh Psalm. Quarrels 
 arose in the little colony, singularly enough at first about 
 matters of ritual they have been going on ever since 
 in the Church world, by the way. Villegagnon proved 
 to be a scoundrel and pitched three of the Calvinists into 
 the sea they gravely call him the Cain of America de 
 spatched many of the others home, and finally followed 
 himself, leaving a miserable remnant to drag out a 
 wretched existence until they were slaughtered to a man, 
 by the Portuguese, after an heroic defence. 
 
 Undaunted by this failure, Coligny and the other Hu 
 guenot leaders, with the royal sanction, dreaming of the 
 establishment of a great empire on the one hand, a place 
 of refuge for the children of the Reformed faith on the 
 
The Revenge of de Gourgues 35 
 
 other, sent out another expedition of two ships under 
 the command of Jean Frangois Ribaut in 1562. On 
 April 3Oth, the expedition reached the coast of Florida. 
 On May 1st, sailing northward, they entered the great 
 river St. Johns, which they called the river of May, 
 and there with much ceremony, the French landed and 
 erected a column of stone bearing the arms of the king. 
 
 It was not an unknown world at the time, short as had 
 been the period which had elapsed since its discovery. 
 Within its confines Ponce de Leon had searched in vain 
 for the fountain of youth; its gloomy boundaries had re 
 ceived the expedition of de Narvaez, which struggled 
 with privation and fever and savage attack, until but 
 four of them were left; through its everglades and 
 swamps had toiled the proud little army of de Soto, the 
 unhappy discoverer of the Mississippi. No colony had 
 been established upon its shores, but the monarch who 
 sat upon the throne of Spain, the wily Philip II., con 
 firmed therein by the Pope, claimed the territory as 
 his own. 
 
 The ships of Ribaut again sailed northward until they 
 rounded Hilton Head, and anchored in the quiet waters 
 which awakened to the thunder of the guns of Dupont, 
 three hundred years after. There they established the 
 first actual settlement on the coast of North America 
 and named the place Port Royal. Leaving thirty of his 
 men to hold possession, the only Christians in the wil 
 derness extending from the Arctic Circle to the Carib 
 bean, Ribaut returned to France. The cruelty and the 
 ruthlessness of the captain, a disinclination to work, an 
 ignorance of the humbler and more useful arts, soon 
 plunged the colony into the direst distress. The com 
 mander was murdered, the affections of the Indians alien- 
 
36 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 ated, and finally, in utter despair, they built themselves 
 an unseaworthy, wretched little boat and set forth upon 
 a return voyage to France; considering the paucity of 
 their resources, it was an appalling undertaking. The 
 hardships they endured on that memorable voyage were 
 frightful. Supplies of every sort gave out, and in their 
 extremity they resorted to cannibalism. The lot fell 
 upon one of their number and he was killed and eaten. 
 When they had abandoned hope they were rescued by a 
 wandering English ship. 
 
 Undaunted by these failures, the leaders of the Hugue 
 nots persisted in their plans, and on June 25th, 1564, a 
 third expedition, consisting of three ships, the largest of 
 120 tons and the smallest of 60 tons, under the command 
 of the distinguished navigator Rene de Laudonniere, 
 again entered the St. Johns. They found intact the pil 
 lar which had been erected by Ribaut. Ascending the 
 shallow marshy-shored river, at a distance of about eight 
 miles from the ocean, they came to a high bluff which de 
 scended inland into a verdant meadow bordered by a clear 
 stream and surrounded at some distance by primeval for 
 ests growing in tropic luxuriance. There the delighted 
 voyagers at once set to erect a fortification, which they 
 called Fort Caroline, after Charles IX. It was built in 
 the form of a triangle with bastions at each point. On 
 the land side there was a ditch and rampart, and on the 
 river, a palisade. Inside were quarters for the men and 
 houses for the officers. Two of the ships returned to 
 France, the other was left with the colonists. 
 
 The Indians were friendly and conceived a great liking 
 for the gay debonair Frenchmen. It was summer, and 
 in that land of plenty everyone had enough. They were 
 halcyon days for all. The colonists were composed 
 
The Revenge of de Gourgues 37 
 
 mainly of gentlemen, adventurers and soldiers, with a 
 sprinkling of criminals it was common practice to fill 
 the ranks of a colony by resorting to the prisons and 
 offering liberty in the new land to those who would 
 undertake the voyage. There were few artisans and no 
 tillers of the soil. With reckless improvidence, they made 
 no provision for the winter. Policy dictated a strict neu 
 trality between warring tribes of Indians, but they soon 
 became involved in the local savage quarrels, and in their 
 time of need the natives refused to furnish them with 
 further provisions. Labor of any kind was distasteful to 
 most of them. In similar stress John Smith had re 
 marked sternly, paraphrasing an older saying, " He that 
 will not work, neither shall he eat." When he said that, 
 he more than promulgated a rule of local application, he 
 laid down the great principle of national existence. 
 Upon the soil and the tiller of it depend, as upon nothing 
 else, the prosperity, the existence even, of a people. No 
 great nation has ever been founded solely upon the ingot. 
 The dream of the Frenchmen was for another Peru, and 
 their eyes were constantly turned toward the fabled gold 
 mines in the distant Appalachians. 
 
 Laudonniere seems to have been a well-meaning man 
 and he did the best he could under the circumstances, 
 but he finally fell very ill, and when his iron hand relaxed 
 its grasp of the situation the discontent came to a head. 
 A number of colonists combined and seized one of the 
 vessels in the harbor, and at the muzzle of an arquebuse, 
 with the threat of instant death in case of refusal, wrung 
 a reluctant permission from the helpless commander, to 
 leave the rest and go on a little buccaneering cruise of 
 their own. 
 
 The pirates were lucky enough to capture a Spanish 
 
38 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 brigantine, and in several successful raids in the Antilles, 
 amassed much booty; but they were finally overcome off 
 Jamaica by the Spaniards by strategem; many were killed 
 or captured and only twenty-six of them succeeded in 
 escaping from the island. There was nothing for them 
 to do but to return to Fort Caroline. When the little 
 vessel reached St. Johns, all their supplies had been used 
 except two barrels of wine. To fortify themselves against 
 the consequences of their misdeeds and the righteous in 
 dignation of Laudonniere, they proceeded to get drunk, 
 when they were easily apprehended by the faithful sol 
 diers of the garrison, and carried before their commander. 
 Four of them were promptly sentenced to be hanged. 
 " Comrades/ said one as the sentence was about to be 
 carried out, " will you stand by and see us hanged like 
 dogs? " " These," said Laudonniere grimly, " are not 
 comrades of murderers and traitors." However, in 
 obedience to the requests of the others, the ringleaders 
 were shot instead of hanged. The colony was destined 
 to hear from this expedition later, it was a curse that 
 came awfully home. 
 
 The situation of the colonists, while it was outwardly 
 peaceful, had become more and more desperate. They 
 were starving and dying when on August 3d, 1565, the 
 watchman on the bluff, frantic with joy, announced the 
 arrival of a great ship flying the English flag. It proved 
 to be the Jesus of seven hundred tons, a very large vessel 
 for the time, and was followed by three smaller ships 
 all under the command of Sir John Hawkins, who was 
 the pioneer Englishman to engage in the detestable slave 
 trade then considered a proper avocation for a gen 
 tleman! Hawkins, who had put into the river because 
 he was short of water, was kindly disposed toward the 
 
The Revenge of de Gourgues 39 
 
 French Protestants and offered to take them back to 
 France in his squadron. Laudonniere, however, pre 
 ferred to purchase from him one of the smallest of his 
 ships, which Hawkins very willingly sold to him, and 
 with mutual expressions of esteem they separated. The 
 colonists immediately began to fit out the ship for their 
 return voyage, when on the 28th of August, seven other 
 ships were seen off the mouth of the river. Ignorant of 
 their character, the colonists sought shelter in the fort, 
 and on the following day, when several boat loads of 
 heavily armed men came cautiously up the river, the can 
 non of the fort were trained upon them. It was soon 
 discovered that the newcomers were some three hundred 
 Frenchmen, under the command of Ribaut, who had 
 been sent, as before, by Coligny. Among them was 
 Robert, the first Protestant minister to set foot on the 
 continent of North America. 
 
 There was great rejoicing among the colonists at this 
 unlooked-for reenforcement, and many discussions were 
 had between Ribaut, Laudonniere and the other officers, 
 while the ships were discharging their cargoes, as to what 
 was best to be done. They were still dreaming of the 
 gold mines of the mythical Appalache, when on the 4th 
 of September, about midnight, the watchers on the ships, 
 which were still anchored outside the bar at the mouth 
 of the river, became aware of the presence of a huge ves- 
 sel-of-war, followed by several other formidable craft, 
 which silently drifted down upon them in the stillness of 
 the autumn night. Hails passed at once, and the French 
 were informed that the first ship was the San Pelayo l the 
 flagship of a Spanish Armada under the command of 
 Pedro Menendez de Aviles, one of the most distinguished 
 admirals in the navy of Spain. He calmly announced 
 
40 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 his intention of extirpating the heretics in the morning 
 and when taunted by the French to attempt it immedi 
 ately, he endeavored to do so. The ships opened fire 
 upon each other, but the more mobile, though under 
 manned, French ships slipped away in the darkness and 
 got to sea, followed by the Spaniards. 
 
 The day following, the people on shore, who had heard 
 the firing in great perturbation of spirit, were astonished 
 to find their own ships gone and a stranger flying the 
 yellow flag of Spain, the San Pelayo, alone, a great ship of 
 one thousand tons, in the offing! They made such sturdy 
 preparations to meet her with the smaller vessels, that, 
 after looking at the fortifications, Menendez turned the 
 prow of his ship to the southward and soon disappeared 
 from view. A few days afterward an Indian war party 
 informed them that the Spaniards had landed a short dis 
 tance down the coast and were engaged in building a 
 fortification, which they called St. Augustine, and that 
 the Pelayo had been joined by many other ships. The 
 news was confirmed, on their return, by the four French 
 ships which had run to sea to escape the Spanish attack. 
 There was thus developed a situation full of menace and 
 danger for the French, and Ribaut, Laudonniere, an the 
 officers engaged in earnest counsel. 
 
 Several plans were proposed. One was for them to 
 remain where they were and receive the attack; the other 
 to leave Fort Caroline and march boldly upon the Span 
 iards before they had time to fortify themselves; and a 
 third was for every available man to go aboard the ships 
 and make a sudden dash upon the Spanish vessels in the 
 harbor, and after surprising and destroying them, com 
 plete the annihilation of the land force. Ribaut, in spite 
 of unanimous opposition, resolved upon the latter plan; 
 
The Revenge of de Gourgues 41 
 
 which seems, after all, to have promised more success 
 than the others. In truth, their situation was well-nigh 
 desperate. Menendez was at the head of a fleet of thirty- 
 four vessels, carrying twenty-six hundred men; many of 
 his ships were galleons of large size, and among his forces 
 were veteran companies from the Low Countries, of the 
 famous Spanish infantry, at that day an unsurpassed sol 
 diery. Menendez, himself, was well worthy, on the score 
 of ability, of the great trust which had been reposed in 
 him and the honors which had been heaped upon him by 
 his king. 
 
 Of a noble Asturian family, like many boys past, pres 
 ent, and to come, at an early age he ran away to sea. 
 He had fought against the Barbary pirates, the French 
 and the English, and early attained high rank in the 
 service. He had made several voyages to the Indies and 
 had amassed great wealth. Though he had at one time 
 fallen into disrepute with his capricious master, he had 
 lately been restored to favor and given command of the 
 whole continent from Florida north, with the title of 
 Marquis and the rank of Adelantando. He was a daring 
 and skilful sailor, a distinguished and intrepid captain. 
 In addition, however, to the usual obligations of his com 
 mand, he had been intrusted with the duty of driving 
 out the Huguenots who had impiously presumed to sully 
 the soil of New Spain with their heretical presence. The 
 prospect enkindled in his iron breast the feelings of an 
 ancient warrior of the Cross. Some of the Frenchmen 
 from Fort Caroline, who had been captured on that fatal 
 pirating excursion, had saved their lives by betraying the 
 location of the French colony. Some of the members 
 of the Catholic party in the court of France lie under 
 grave suspicion of having sent word to Philip of the plans 
 
42 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 of the Huguenots. In the eye of the Spanish king their 
 presence was an offence to God. It was the fond hope of 
 Menendez not only to serve his country and king but 
 his God by extirpating these heretics. Fiske calls him, 
 and justly, the last of the Crusaders. Like himself, his 
 followers were also imbued with mixed ideas; they too 
 dreamed of serving God by killing Lutherans and con 
 verting savages; of finding a new empire, perhaps an 
 other Mexico; and, incidentally, of turning an honest 
 penny. They set forth upon their expedition with that 
 intensity of purpose which has ever characterized the 
 Spanish zealot. So important was the matter deemed 
 by Philip, that a reenforcement of fifteen hundred men 
 was despatched after the first expedition started. 
 
 The voyage was an extremely stormy one and the ships 
 were scattered and several of them lost. Menendez, how 
 ever, made a stop at San Juan, Porto Rico, and after col 
 lecting five or six of the larger ships containing some 
 seven hundred men and leaving instructions for the rest 
 to follow, pursued his course, until, as we have seen, he 
 fell foul of the French at the mouth of the St. Johns, and 
 thereafter established St. Augustine. 
 
 On the loth of September, Ribaut and his men with 
 five ships set forth upon their daring undertaking. On 
 the nth one of the fiercest gales ever recorded blew up 
 on the coast. The sailors of Menendez toiling on the 
 ramparts saw the weather-beaten French ships tossing to 
 and fro in the fierce wind and rain on the gray sky line. 
 For several days the tempest continued with unabated 
 violence. The pious Spaniard thought he detected the 
 hand of God interfering in his behalf. All danger from 
 the French was at an end while the storm raged. 
 
The Revenge of de Gourgues 43 
 
 II. The Massacre of Fort Caroline 
 
 But the genius of Menendez immediately determined 
 upon his plan. While the French ships were beating 
 up against the storm and endeavoring to claw off the 
 dreaded lee shore, he would fall on Fort Caroline. 
 
 Five hundred of his best men were mustered and on 
 the 1 7th of September set forth upon their journey. The 
 rain beat upon them unceasingly as they toiled along 
 under prodigious difficulties. Sometimes waist-deep in 
 water, sometimes sinking into treacherous quagmires, 
 picking their precarious way over morasses, cutting down 
 great trees to bridge the swollen streams, with incredible 
 labors they slowly advanced. The little army was in a 
 chronic state of mutiny from its hardships, and nothing 
 but the iron hand and indomitable resolution of the leader 
 controlled it. Finally on the evening of Wednesday, the 
 1 9th of September, they arrived in the vicinity of the 
 fort. 
 
 Menendez assembled his men and in the drenching rain 
 he made them one of the fiery speeches which he could 
 so well deliver. They had made their march and 
 achieved their goal. The rest of the task he assured them 
 would be easy and the soul of the man who was killed 
 in the attack might be sure of a swift passage into Heaven 
 by the favor of God, since it was in His cause they were 
 imperilling their lives. He managed to infuse into his 
 drooping band something of his own resolute spirit and 
 during the night the stragglers came up and the men 
 ranged themselves in orderly ranks ready to be led 
 against the hated foe. It had been impossible to keep 
 lighted, or to light, the matches of the arquebuses, and 
 
44 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 they were discarded; their sole reliance was upon the 
 sword. 
 
 The dawn was beginning" to break through the rain- 
 laden atmosphere when two officers cautiously descended 
 to the meadow and captured a straggling Frenchman. 
 Confident that no danger was to be apprehended from 
 any foe in such weather, the officer of the guard, La 
 Vigne, had retired to his quarters and most of the sentries 
 had followed his example. The two officers dragged the 
 soldier back to Menendez, who was sheltered behind a 
 hillock, and after extorting information from him as to 
 the situation he was instantly killed. The men clamored 
 to be led forward. Menendez gave the word of com 
 mand and silently the band came out from the shelter of 
 the trees and debouched in the open. A trumpeter who 
 happened to be awake in the fort saw them and instantly 
 sounded the alarm. " At them!" cried Menendez. 
 " Santiago. God is with us. Victory ! " The Spanish 
 took up the cries and sprang over the ramparts or 
 through the breaches. A few soldiers who had run from 
 their quarters at the call of the watchman made a short 
 but brave resistance. Laudonniere sprang from his bed, 
 seized his sword and shield and threw himself, half naked, 
 against the approaching Spaniards. There was a fierce 
 melee within the walls in the gray rain of that ghastly 
 morning, but the French were cut down almost to a man. 
 Seeing resistance was useless, Laudonniere turned and 
 fled. The pursuers, unfamiliar with the way, entangled 
 themselves in the tents and Laudonniere leaped the pali 
 sade and gained the woods. A number of others were 
 successful in escaping with him, among them the minister. 
 
 Fifty of the women and children under fifteen years of 
 age were spared by the orders of Menendez, the rest of 
 
The Revenge of de Gourgues 45 
 
 the people in the fort were put to death, a number of them 
 being hanged instead of stabbed. Of those who had es 
 caped to the woods, six, ignorant of the excesses of the 
 Spaniards, chose to go back and give themselves upx, 
 Their comrades who watched them from the cover of the 
 trees saw them cut down ere they had time to make a 
 remonstrance. The assailants drunken with blood lust, 
 behaved with the most frightful barbarity. It is of record 
 that they plucked out the eyes of the dead and impaling 
 them on the points of their swords and daggers jerked 
 them across the river with cursings and imprecations at 
 the three remaining ships of Ribaut s squadron, one of 
 which was commanded by his son, who seems to have 
 been unworthy of his great father. 
 
 When the rain stopped the Spaniards opened fire on 
 these ships; one was sunk and the others fled. Twenty- 
 six of the fugitives under Laudonniere succeeded in gain 
 ing these two ships and after great hardships reached the 
 coast of France. The number of killed in the attack 
 amounted to about one hundred and sixty and the Span 
 ish gained a great booty by the sacking of the fort. 
 Above the heads of those he had hanged, the Spaniard 
 caused to be fastened a huge board bearing this inscrip 
 tion: " I do this not as to Frenchmen but as to Lutherans 
 and heretics! " At the close of the day, the pious Men- 
 endez wept tears of joy at having been permitted to pro 
 mote the cause of the true Church in this happy manner, 
 and almost the worst feature of the whole affair lies in the 
 fact that his tears were undoubtedly genuine! 
 
46 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 III. The Line in the Sand 
 
 Pass we to the next scene in this trilogy of horror. On 
 the afternoon of the 29th of September two hundred 
 starving Frenchmen were standing bound and defence 
 less before the implacable Menendez. All of Ribaut s 
 ships had been wrecked at different places on the coast. 
 This particular company had been endeavoring to make 
 Fort Caroline, of whose fate they were ignorant until 
 informed by the Spanish, who had intercepted them at 
 an inlet henceforth known as Matanzas, which means 
 " slaughterings." Weakened by privation, exposure and 
 hunger, they had placed themselves at the mercy of the 
 Spanish admiral they little knew its quality! After the 
 French had yielded their arms they had been ferried across 
 the river in groups of ten, and after being well fed singu 
 lar act of complaisance on the part of their captors they 
 were marched behind the sand hills and their hands se 
 curely bound. It was evening before the last Frenchman 
 was brought over. 
 
 With Menendez was Mendoza the priest, and at his 
 suggestion inquiry was made as to whether any of the 
 captives were Christians (that is to say Catholics). 
 Twelve sailors answered in the affirmative. These with 
 four ship carpenters were released and sent by boat to 
 St. Augustine. The rest were ordered to take up their 
 march over the sand dunes. Menendez and Mendoza 
 walked silently in the lead followed by a platoon of sol 
 diery and then the bound, dejected prisoners, closely 
 guarded. The thoughtful Spaniards stopped in a lonely 
 hollow, deep among the tree-clad hills. Where they 
 stopped Menendez drew a long line in the sand with the 
 cane he carried. 
 
The Revenge of de Gourgues 47 
 
 The day was drawing to a close. The sun had set, 
 and as the shades of night descended the first group of 
 the Huguenots reached the line. Without a word of 
 command the Spanish guards fell upon them with sword 
 and halberd and hatchet, and bound as they were, cut 
 them down. As each party came doggedly on it met a 
 like fate. Did they front death with the courage of the 
 warrior, the fortitude of the martyr, the calmness of the 
 philosopher? Did they beg life in anguish, in despair? 
 Did they mingle curses with groanings, or did they suffer 
 in silence? We know not. Not a Frenchman survived 
 to tell the story and the Spaniards have not said. Men- 
 doza the priest stood by thanking God exulting! Te 
 Deum Laudamus. " In religion, what damned error did 
 ever lack a sober brow to bless it and approve it with 
 a text?" 
 
 When all was over, Menendez and his band went on 
 their way rejoicing, but not all the waters of Heaven could 
 wash from the shuddering earth that red line! 
 
 His work was not yet accomplished however. On the 
 loth of October, off Anastasia Island, he met Ribaut and 
 the main body of the shipwrecked French some three 
 hundred and fifty starved, broken men. As before, a 
 river intervened between them and the Spanish. The 
 French were incapable of making any resistance to the 
 force of Menendez. They resorted to parley and it is 
 believed received some promise from the Spanish captain 
 that their lives would be spared. Ribaut, who seems to 
 have been a man of heroic breed, would scarcely have 
 consented to put himself in the power of the enemy with 
 out some such assurance. At any rate, he arranged to 
 surrender. Two hundred of his party, however, refused 
 to be bound by his convention and fled to the southward. 
 
48 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 The remainder, to the number of one hundred and fifty, 
 were brought across the stream. Ribaut himself gave 
 into the hands of the admiral the royal standard, his com 
 missions and weapons, etc. As before, the French were 
 brought over in groups of ten. While the first party 
 were crossing Ribaut was taken behind a neighboring 
 sand hill and bound, as were all the others. 
 
 There was no marching this time and no red line. The 
 envenomed Spaniards surrounded the bound and helpless 
 prisoners. " Are you Catholics or Lutherans? " they 
 cried. " Will any here go to confession? " Calmly 
 Ribaut answered: " I and all here are of the Reformed 
 faith." There was a moment s hesitation, followed by 
 bitter murmurs of rage from the Spaniards. The voice 
 of the old man reciting the I32d Psalm was heard in the 
 tumult: "Memento Domine." "We are of earth, to 
 earth we must return," he added. " Twenty years more 
 or less can matter little." He turned to Menendez and 
 looked at him. Twas such a look as the Gentle Master 
 might have given Peter fifteen centuries before. 
 
 Menendez gave the signal. By his direction five 
 youths were spared and the rest were put to the sword. 
 At the last moment Ribaut with dauntless courage re 
 proached Menendez, calling upon him to remember his 
 promise that their lives should be spared. A soldier cut 
 short his denunciations by plunging a dagger into his 
 heart. The head of the brave old Frenchman was cut in 
 four pieces and mounted upon the rain-washed walls of 
 St. Augustine. The two hundred men who had fled were 
 subsequently captured by the Spanish, who, strange to 
 say, kept the promises which were made and spared their 
 lives, though they were treated with ignominy and shame. 
 The total number of killed in the various massacres ap- 
 
The Revenge of de Gourgues 49 
 
 pears to have been upwards of six hundred persons, most 
 of them cut down in cold blood. 
 
 In the gloomy gridiron palace in the mountains of 
 Guadaramas, the indefatigable king of Spain pursued his 
 life of mingled debauchery and despatches. There was 
 great news for him one winter morning. A letter had 
 arrived from the new world from the trusted Menendez. 
 The king eagerly opened the missive out of it dropped 
 a blood-stained lock of Ribaut s gray beard! He read 
 with vivid appreciation of the contents, and when he had 
 finished, as was his wont, he seized the royal pen and 
 wrote upon it a few sentences. " Say to him that as to 
 those he has killed he has done well," mark the tacit 
 reproof to mercy in the sentence " and as to those he 
 has saved they shall be sent to the galleys." Is there a 
 more frightful picture in history than the sombre king 
 penning this awful endorsement in the forbidding cham 
 bers of the Escurial? The black lines traced by his pen 
 are as damning as the red line of Menendez. 
 
 IV. The Terrible Expiation 
 
 Laudonniere and his fellow fugitives brought the first 
 news of the Spanish conduct to France. Soon after 
 wards the other atrocities were enumerated. There was 
 peace between the countries of the most Christian and 
 the most Catholic majesties and France was filled with 
 a hue and cry for reparation. Some feeble efforts were 
 made by Charles IX and Catherine de Medici and a 
 correspondence ensued, but nothing was done. After 
 all, they were Huguenots and heretics. What could 
 be expected from a prince who could shoot down his 
 flying and unarmed subjects, who- had trusted to his 
 
50 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 honor, on the dread 24th of August Saint Bartholo 
 mew s day! What could be hoped from a king who 
 could gaze unmoved upon the mortifying body of the 
 betrayed admiral who had not learned in all his study 
 of Scripture the meaning of that text, " Put not your 
 trust in princes! " What could be expected from a ruler 
 who said to his fastidious courtiers then, " The body of 
 a dead enemy always smells sweet! " 
 
 The court talked, argued, debated and forgot! But 
 what the power of France could not, or would not effect, 
 was undertaken by a simple gentleman, one of the lesser 
 nobility of the land. Dominique de Gourgues was of that 
 country which gave birth to de Bergerac and d Artagnan. 
 He was a Gascon and a sailor. He had been captured 
 by the Spaniards and sent to the galleys. He had been 
 a prisoner of the Turks. Liberated by the Knights of 
 Malta, he had made many voyages in distant seas and 
 was a bold, successful navigator. The Spaniards call 
 him a Huguenot and a heretic, but it is more than prob 
 able that he was a Roman Catholic. At any rate we 
 fain would think so. If a Catholic he was great enough 
 to rise above his religion. He hated Spain and he loved 
 France. He determined to do what the king and the 
 country dared not attempt. 
 
 Selling his patrimony and borrowing from his family, 
 he procured three small ships which he manned with one 
 hundred and eighty chosen men, proven spirits ready for 
 any hazard. With a commission to go on a slave-trading 
 voyage, he set forth in August, 1567, from the Charente. 
 Early in the next spring, after a roundabout voyage, he 
 reached the coast of Florida. Here for the first time de 
 Gourgues revealed to his hardy followers the purpose of 
 his expedition. With persuasive Gascon eloquence he 
 
The Revenge of de Gourgues 51 
 
 painted the horrible treachery and brutal treatment which 
 had been accorded the colonists. He spoke to them of 
 the lost honor of France, and appealed to them by every 
 quality of their manhood to join with him in wiping out 
 the stain and exacting summary vengeance. Like the 
 bold sailor he was he promised that they should incur no 
 danger he would not share; that they should make no 
 advance he would not lead. With beating hearts they 
 welcomed the bold project and de Gourgues instantly 
 moved up the coast toward the St. Johns. 
 
 The Spaniards had rebuilt the French fort and had 
 renamed it San Mateo. In addition they had thrown 
 up two smaller redoubts at the mouth of the river. So 
 quietly had de Gourgues slipped away from France and 
 so unsuspicious were the Spaniards, that when the watch 
 ers in the redoubts saw three ships toiling along in the 
 offing, they gave them a friendly salute, which was re 
 turned. De Gourgues landed forty miles north of the 
 river. He was met by bands of Indians in warlike array. 
 There was menace in their appearance, but when they 
 learned that the newcomers were Frenchmen and had 
 come to exact vengeance upon the Spaniards, who had 
 already made themselves hated by their cruelties and ex 
 cesses, they were welcomed with shouts of joy; and savage 
 voices, filled with indistinct memories, broke forth into 
 fragments of Psalms they had learned from Laudonniere! 
 There was counselling and feasting and preparation. 
 Three days after the landing, de Gourgues, with one hun 
 dred and fifty Frenchmen and three hundred Indians, 
 moved down toward the river. 
 
 Twenty sailors were left with the ships. The French 
 and their allies, who were led by Satouriona and his 
 nephew Olotoraca, a young chieftain of great prowess, 
 
52 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 were about to attack over four hundred Spanish soldiers 
 secure in fortifications of their own making. The French 
 descended the coast in boats, several times in imminent 
 danger of shipwreck, until they came to the Indian ren 
 dezvous. There they disembarked and marched through 
 the wood. De Gourgues in the full armor of the time, 
 was in the lead; with him was Olotoraca carrying a 
 French half pike. In the afternoon they came to a 
 stream flowing into the St. Johns, on the opposite side 
 of which lay one of the redoubts, and there encamped 
 for the night. There was but little rest for de Gourgues, 
 who, with the Indian guides, spent the long hours in 
 reconnoitring and laying his plans. 
 
 In the morning, when the tide was out, they found a 
 sheltered ford behind a clump of trees, and fastening their 
 powder horns to their headpieces and holding their ar 
 quebuses and swords above their heads, they waded 
 through the water. The oyster shells in the bottom of 
 the river cut and tore their feet but they pressed on. 
 Shortly after noon they drew up in battle array under the 
 trees near the fort. 
 
 " Look!" cried the Gascon, pointing at the redoubt. 
 " There are the murderers who have butchered our coun 
 trymen! Forward!" 
 
 With clenched teeth the men swept on. 
 
 The Spaniards had just finished their dinner when one 
 of the artillerymen, who happened to glance over the 
 rampart, in frantic terror gave the alarm. The French 
 were advancing upon them in ordered ranks. A party 
 under Lieutenant Cazenove had been detached to secure 
 the gate. The gunner discharged his cannon at them, 
 but before he could reload, Olotoraca, leaping upon the 
 rampart, drove a pike through his heart. De Gourgues 
 
The Revenge of de Gourgues 53 
 
 was mounting the glacis when he heard a cry that the 
 Spaniards were escaping by the gate. He led his men 
 toward that point on the run. Cazenove was already 
 hotly engaged and the whole garrison to the number of 
 sixty were caught and killed, except a few who were 
 reserved for a special purpose there was no mercy in 
 the reservation. 
 
 The Spanish redoubt on the other side of the St. Johns 
 had opened fire upon the French. The Indians plunged 
 into the stream and swam across. One of de Gourgues 
 larger boats had been brought along the shore. Enter 
 ing it with eighty men he pushed across the river. 
 Terror seized the Spanish and they fled. They were sur 
 rounded by Indians, however, and the French fell upon 
 them with determined fury. The utmost efforts of de 
 Gourgues could save but fifteen of them for that special 
 purpose. The next day was Low Sunday, the octave of 
 the Resurrection. The French made no attack on Fort 
 San Mateo that day, though they busied themselves with 
 preparations. The woods, however, teemed with Ind 
 ians and the Spaniards dared not leave the fort. One 
 bolder than the rest at last ventured out disguised as an 
 Indian and entered the French line. Olotoraca discov 
 ered him at once. From him it was learned that there 
 were two hundred and sixty Spaniards in the fort and 
 that they were mad with terror; they believed the 
 French amounted to over two thousand men. 
 
 On Monday night the attack began. The Spaniards 
 opened fire on them with their culverins, but the French 
 remained concealed in the forest, and finally the Span 
 iards sent out a strong party to reconnoitre. Cazenove, 
 with a detachment, was moved forward to flank the 
 enemy. De Gourgues, himself, kept his men well in hand 
 
54 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 in the bushes until the head of the Spanish advance was 
 upon them. A deadly fire in front and flank cut them 
 down, and before they could recover themselves, out of 
 the smoke of the battle appeared the steel-clad French. 
 Not a man reached the fort, but in the sight of the rest 
 of the Spanish they were killed or taken. Those in the 
 fort now lost their heads. They abandoned their fortifi 
 cations and fled to the woods away from the advancing 
 French. The Indians fell upon them with savage fierce 
 ness and held them in check until the French overtook 
 them. Again a few were saved from slaughter. Near 
 the fort were the trees from which had swung the bodies 
 of the Frenchmen whom Menendez had hanged. Thither 
 were dragged the wretched Spaniards whom de Gour- 
 gues had saved. They, too, were hanged, and over the 
 mouldering remains of the former inscription a new tab 
 let was nailed bearing these words, which had been traced 
 with a hot iron: " Not as to Spaniards, but as to trai 
 tors, robbers, and murderers! " 
 
 On the 3d of May de Gourgues set sail for France. 
 The Spaniards from St. Augustine repossessed the land. 
 De Gourgues, broken in fortune and under the disfavor 
 of a king who scarcely knew how to resist the Spanish 
 demand for his head, lived in the utmost obscurity and 
 poverty, but was finally restored to favor, and invited by 
 Queen Elizabeth to enter her service. He chose, how 
 ever, to accept the command of a Portuguese fleet which 
 was preparing to fight against Philip II., when he died at 
 Tours, in 1583. 
 
 De Gourgues revenge had failed in but one point. 
 Menendez, the chief fiend, had escaped, for the Spaniard 
 returned home laden with honors and high in the affec 
 tions of his king and his countrymen. At the very sum- 
 
The Revenge of de Gourgues 55 
 
 mit of his career, when about to assume command of a 
 fleet of three hundred sail and twenty thousand men, 
 which was destined to sail against England, he died at 
 Santander, in 1574, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. He 
 had begun at Fort Caroline the work of driving the 
 French from the continent, which was completed by 
 Wolfe two hundred years after on the Plains of Abraham. 
 
 I picture Menendez standing before the Judgment Bar 
 of God, his feet upon a red line in the sand. I see the 
 long indictment read against Philip in the same High 
 Court, bearing these awful words in the king s own 
 hand, " Say to him that he has done well." 
 
 The flag of the French was driven from the continent 
 long since by the Anglo-Saxon, and the last vestiges of 
 the great Empire of Spain were wrenched from the 
 trembling hands which vainly strove to retain them by 
 the children of the same proud race, when the hot 
 muzzles of the great guns spoke at Manila and San 
 tiago ! 
 
PART II 
 GENTLEMEN OF THE BLACK FLAG 
 
 I 
 
 Sir Henry Morgan and His Buccaneers 
 
SIR HENRY MORGAN AND HIS 
 BUCCANEERS 
 
 I. Plundering Puerto Bello 
 
 " Woe to the realms which he coasted ! for there 
 Was shedding of blood and rending of hair, 
 Rape of maiden, and slaughter of priest, 
 Gathering of ravens and wolves to the feast ; 
 When he hoisted his standard black, 
 Before him was battle, behind him wrack, 
 And he burned the churches, that heathen Dane, 
 To light his band to their barks again. " 
 
 AS in the course of animal growth we pass 
 embryonically or otherwise through the vari 
 ous conditions of physical being which mark 
 progressive stages of evolution, so in mental develop 
 ment successive epochs of history are represented. 
 Sooner or later every normal life enters upon an age 
 of chivalry, and the characters upon which we love to 
 dwell are the knights-errant of the past. The words 
 bring before us pictures of courage, generosity, devo 
 tion to an ideal and all the chivalric virtues. Rise in 
 our memory the names of Arthur, Lancelot, Galahad, 
 Roland, the Black Prince, Du Guesclin, culminating in 
 that famous knight who was without fear and without 
 reproach. 
 
 It is a far cry from Bayard to Morgan the Buccaneer. 
 Yet the latter by the favor of His Gracious Majesty, 
 
 59 
 
60 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 Charles II of England, was made a belted knight, and 
 henceforth was known as Sir Henry Morgan. A king 
 who could frolic with Rochester and Buckingham, who 
 could sell his honor to the hereditary enemy of his coun 
 try for French gold, plus Louise de Kerouailles, would 
 thoroughly enjoy Morgan! 
 
 One of the earlier stages of the tempo-mental develop 
 ment referred to is that in which most lads, and some 
 girls perhaps, desire to become pirates! It precedes, 
 logically enough, the knight-errant phase. (Query: Was 
 the knight a sublimated robber, or was the robber a de 
 generate knight?) I think it may be on account of the 
 freedom from restraint which a pirate is supposed to en 
 joy, that his profession is so fascinating to our period of 
 tutelage. Some impressions of youthful days remain 
 the piratical for instance. We frequently forget to be 
 chivalrous and gentle, but we never altogether lose our 
 appreciation of the ruthless independence of the rovers 
 of the sea, and the story of their lives, with its brutality 
 and bloodshed, grime and horror, fascinates us still. 
 
 This is a tale of a few of the exploits of the greatest 
 and worst of the buccaneers. Like " Taffy," Morgan 
 was a Welshman. The parallelism may be carried 
 farther with accuracy, for he was also a thief, but there 
 it stops. " Taffy " was an angel of light beside Morgan. 
 Like the first conspicuous bearer of his name, Sir Henry 
 was a heretic, from the Spanish stand-point. He was 
 born the son of poor but honest parents, farmers in 
 Wales, in 1637. At an early age he ran away to sea, 
 bound himself out as an indentured servant, and sailed 
 for the New World. He faithfully served his time and 
 then cast about to see what fields of action were open 
 for a young gentleman of limited education, entire un- 
 
Morgan and His Buccaneers 61 
 
 scrupulousness, abundant courage and over-weening am 
 bition, and decided to join the ancient and successful 
 army of tanners, otherwise buccaneers. 
 
 The catching of cattle and the preserving of the meat 
 and hides by the process of " boucan," i.e., drying them 
 over fires of aromatic green twigs, had been a most profit 
 able vocation. Cattle in the West Indies were had for 
 the taking and the life was free, easy, and bold. When 
 the supply of cattle gave out, however, it was a perfectly 
 natural and legitimate transition to turn from tanning 
 the hides of animals to doing a little experimenting in the 
 same direction upon men. The rich and unwieldy Span 
 ish galleons, laden with the treasure of Mexico and 
 Peru, slowly swashing through the Caribbean homeward 
 bound, suggested themselves as objects of profitable at 
 tack. There was more sport in their capture, greater 
 reward to be gained therefrom, and there was just as 
 much blood in the human cattle as in the wild beasts that 
 had roamed the hills. 
 
 Under the stimulus of this opportunity, into the vor 
 tex of the Caribbean w^ere speedily precipitated the vile 
 of all nations. Hereditary national and racial antago 
 nisms were laid aside, or held in abeyance, in the presence 
 of a common hatred. Spain was undoubtedly the most 
 unpopular power that ever dominated the earth. She 
 was also, at that time, the richest. The yellow flag was 
 an invitation to attack which was accepted with murder 
 ous avidity. As the buccaneers grew and prospered, 
 from the taking of single ships, or even squadrons, it was 
 an easy step to organize expeditions to seize the principal 
 towns on the Spanish Main and after plundering them, 
 hold them for ransom. 
 
 Bartholomew Portuguese, L Olonnois, and Mansvelt 
 
62 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 had already made a name for themselves when Morgan 
 rose to unenviable eminence and surpassed them all. He 
 had become widely known through his ruthless boldness 
 and success, and had been chosen as second in command 
 of the great fleet which Mansvelt had assembled with the 
 hope of carving out a buccaneer republic from the Span 
 ish domains, when death put an end to the Dutchman s 
 scheme, scattered the great squadron that had been gath 
 ered for the attempt and possibly changed future history 
 to a degree. Morgan attracted to himself some of the 
 bolder spirits and with a force of twelve small vessels he 
 sacked the town of Puerto Principe, Cuba, from which 
 his party gleaned no inconsiderable profit just enough 
 to whet the appetites of the buccaneers for more ! Not 
 that their appetites needed much whetting, for of all the 
 examples of insatiable rapacity the " Brethren of the 
 Coast " so they called themselves bear the palm. 
 
 After the raid on Puerto Principe a quarrel over the 
 spoil between the French and the English caused the 
 former to abandon his command, and Morgan was left 
 with but nine small vessels, carrying about four hundred 
 and fifty men. Such was the ascendency he had gained 
 over his ruthless followers, that he actually induced them 
 to commit the whole charge of the next expedition to 
 him alone, and the vessels put to sea from Jamaica in the 
 early part of 1668, without the commander communicat 
 ing his purpose to anyone. The only information he 
 vouchsafed was that he expected to make their fortunes 
 on this occasion. He knew how to inflame their cupidity 
 and they became eager to follow wherever he chose to 
 lead. They reckoned without the daring of their leader. 
 After a voyage of some days they anchored off Costa 
 Rica; when they made a landfall, Morgan announced to 
 
Morgan and His Buccaneers 63 
 
 his captains that he intended to sack the town of Puerto 
 Bello. To this proposition there was an instant demur. 
 The boldness of the idea appalled them. 
 
 Puerto Bello, although an unhealthy place of residence, 
 was a strong town defended by two large castles and 
 several smaller works garrisoned by three hundred regu 
 lar soldiers. It contained a resident population of two 
 thousand. The wealthy residents and slave traders lived 
 in the city of Panama and only came to Puerto Bello 
 when the galleons arrived from and departed to Spain. 
 At such times a great fair was held and the ordinary 
 population of the city was largely increased. Morgan 
 had carefully timed his arrival for this propitious season. 
 The buccaneers hesitated in the face of such tremendous 
 odds, claiming that they were not sufficiently strong to 
 assault so formidable a place; but Morgan, who, with all 
 his badness was a born leader of men, stoutly clung to his 
 plan, pointing out ways and means by which it could be 
 accomplished, heartening and inspiriting the reluctant by 
 his dauntless bearing and confidence, and finally appealed 
 to their ruling passion in this stout phrase: 
 
 " If our numbers be small, our hearts are great. The 
 fewer we are the more union among us and the larger 
 shares we shall each have in the spoil." That settled it. 
 They finally agreed to follow him and clamored to be 
 led to the attack. 
 
 Morgan had brought his squadron to a lonely spot 
 some thirty miles to the westward of the town. Favored 
 by a fair wind they sailed along the shore until they 
 reached a point within a few miles of the city. Leaving 
 a few men in the vessels to work them up to the harbor 
 the next day, the little army landed on the shore at mid 
 night. Led by an Englishman who had been a prisoner, 
 
64 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 in perfect silence they toiled through the dense tropic 
 wood toward the town. As they drew near the out 
 skirts in the gray of the morning, they spied a sentry on 
 the edge of the clearing. The man, not dreaming there 
 was a foe within a thousand miles of him, kept negligent 
 watch over the sleeping town. The buccaneers crept 
 softly through the underbrush, sprang upon him and dis 
 armed him. No alarm was given. 
 
 They dragged their captive back to the main body 
 where Morgan questioned him as to the situation and 
 he was menaced with a thousand deaths if he did not tell 
 the truth. Led by their terrified prisoner they took up 
 their march again and soon reached the castle of Triana. 
 They were not discovered until they had completely in 
 vested the fortification and demanded its surrender, un 
 der pain of no quarter. Disdaining this astonishing re 
 quest the garrison sprang to arms and opened fire, but 
 the capture of the sentry, the negligent watch kept and 
 the celerity of their movements had enabled Morgan s 
 men to gain the outworks and they presently succeeded 
 in storming the castle. 
 
 They had threatened to give no quarter, and they were 
 men who always kept promises of that kind religiously. 
 They had some virtues, these buccaneers. They were 
 usually loyal to each other, obedient to their officers, 
 warred only on Spaniards and frequently had prayers be 
 fore battle! When they captured the castle, therefore, 
 they forced all the soldiers and officers into the great hall 
 under which they collected all the powder they found in 
 the magazine. Reserving the women and children for a 
 worse fate they barred the outlet of the hall, touched off 
 the powder and then withdrew. The tower was blown 
 up and the garrison killed to a man. 
 
Morgan and His B uccaneers 65 
 
 These happenings had given the alarm to the town, the 
 inhabitants of which endeavored to conceal their treas 
 ures and fly to the depths of the forest. Meanwhile the 
 governor of the place and the remainder of the garrison 
 had thrown themselves into the other castle and prepared 
 to make a stout defence. Detaching a body of men to 
 secure the town, Morgan advanced toward the fort. 
 There was no possibility of a surprise of course and how 
 to take the castle was a problem. The buccaneers who 
 were all expert marksmen concealed themselves about 
 the walls and by brilliant feats of sharpshooting kept 
 down the Spanish fire. If anyone appeared in the em 
 brasures he was sure to be hit. 
 
 Finally a brilliant idea occurred to the chief fiend. 
 Morgan directed that the monks and nuns from the 
 monasteries and convents which had been seized, should 
 be brought forward. He also caused a number of great 
 ladders to be prepared large enough for three men to 
 mount abreast. When the terrified monks and nuns ap 
 peared he ordered them to take up the ladders and place 
 them against the walls. They begged and entreated, but 
 their captor was pitiless and the helpless men and women 
 finally seized the ladders and advanced toward the castle 
 imploring the governor not to fire upon them. The man 
 who kept that castle was an heroic soldier. He intended 
 to hold the fort at whatever sacrifice, so in spite of the 
 adjurations and anathemas of the priests and the shrieks 
 and prayers of the nuns, he opened fire upon them. It 
 was impossible for the poor men and women to retreat 
 behind them were the buccaneers. In utter despair 
 they rushed forward and set the ladders, many of them 
 being killed or wounded in the attempt. The pirates 
 5 
 
66 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 carrying fire-balls and grenades scrambled up the lad 
 ders and poured over the walls. 
 
 All the members of the garrison who did not surrender 
 instantly were put to the sword. The brave governor 
 made an heroic resistance. Deserted by his men, several 
 of whom he had killed with his own hands for their pusil 
 lanimity, he fought on alone. In spite of the entreaties 
 of his wife and children, who had been taken, he con 
 tinued to fight until he was killed, saying when asked to 
 surrender, " I had rather die as a soldier than be hanged 
 as a coward." The other works made but a feeble re 
 sistance and the town was soon at the mercy of the buc 
 caneers a misnomer that, they had no mercy in them. 
 
 The pirates forced the prisoners, wounded and un- 
 wounded, into one of the rooms of the castle where they 
 were left to their own devices without food or attention 
 of any sort. The women were removed for unmention 
 able purposes, and the company spread over the town to 
 plunder and destroy. They gave way to the most fright 
 ful excesses and debaucheries. Such was the confusion, 
 disorder, and drunkenness, that fifty resolute men could 
 have captured the whole pirate band. Unfortunately 
 they were not there. 
 
 For fifteen days the ruthless murderers lorded it over 
 the hapless town, until even their merciless natures were 
 sated with debauchery and crime. Having pillaged the 
 warehouses of the merchants and provisioned their ships 
 for the return voyage, they arranged to depart. Before 
 they left, however, Morgan determined on a final coup. 
 He informed the wretched prisoners that unless he re 
 ceived a ransom of one hundred thousand pieces of eight 
 (Spanish silver dollars), he w 7 ould burn the town and raze 
 the fortifications to the ground. Two prisoners were 
 
Morgan and His Buccaneers 67 
 
 sent to de Guzman, the governor of Panama, with this 
 message. In reply the governor put a large force of men 
 in motion to take the pirates before their retreat. 
 
 Being informed of this expedition by a runaway slave, 
 Morgan prepared a cunning ambush in a defile through 
 which the Spaniards must march and with one hundred 
 men threw the advance into confusion, and after killing a 
 large number forced a retreat. The governor refused, in 
 spite of his defeat, to pay any ransom. He contented 
 himself with promising Morgan no quarter when he 
 should be taken a futile threat. The miserable inhabi 
 tants, however, managed to scrape up the ransom de 
 manded and brought it to the pirates, who, having se 
 cured all they could from the town, kept their faith with 
 them and sailed away to Jamaica, leaving the houses un- 
 burned. 
 
 Before he left, however, Morgan promised de Guzman 
 that he would return in a twelvemonth and pay him a 
 visit! The governor warned him off, but with extraordi 
 nary complaisance at the same time made him a present 
 of a beautiful emerald ring! 
 
 II. The Raid on Maracaibo 
 
 The ill-got gains of the pirates soon vanished and they 
 were ripe for another undertaking. The news was passed 
 among the islands that Morgan was organizing another 
 expedition and men flocked to join him at the appointed 
 rendezvous, a little island south of Hispaniola. The Eng 
 lish governor of Jamaica, desirous of taking a hand in 
 the successful and profitable enterprise of the pirate, con 
 tributed a large and formidable war vessel from New 
 England, called the Oxford, carrying thirty-six guns. 
 
68 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 Our thrifty ancestors frequently furnished contingents 
 for such expeditions. While they were provisioning the 
 squadron a splendid French ship from St. Malo, called 
 the Flying Stag, carrying thirty-six guns also, joined 
 them. 
 
 Morgan cast covetous eyes upon this vessel, which 
 agreed to sail in his company though not under his com 
 mand. Under pretence of hospitality he inveigled the 
 French officers on board the Oxford, where they were 
 arrested on some flimsy pretext and Morgan took posses 
 sion of their ship. Elated by their success, the bucca 
 neers held a great carouse on the Oxford, during which 
 her powder magazine exploded and she blew up. Some 
 thirty officers in the after cabin, removed from the vicin 
 ity of the explosion, escaped with their lives; the rest of 
 the crew of three hundred and fifty men were nearly all 
 killed or drowned. The bay was covered with floating 
 corpses for days. Morgan had them stripped of their 
 clothing and jewelry and then allowed them to float un- 
 cared for. It was believed that the Oxford and her Yan 
 kee crew had been blown up by the French prisoners 
 below. I hope so. The French ship was sent back to 
 Jamaica and the governor confiscated her. 
 
 In spite of the loss of the Oxford, Morgan set sail with 
 fifteen vessels and eight hundred men, the largest ship 
 carrying only fourteen small guns. Eight of his vessels 
 parted company on the voyage and never rejoined him. 
 He pressed on, however, with seven small ships and three 
 hundred men to attack the wealthy and important city 
 of Maracaibo, situated on the lake of that name in Venez 
 uela. The expedition met with little opposition and 
 found the castle which guarded the strait and town sus 
 piciously deserted when they swarmed over the walls. A 
 
Morgan and His Buccaneers 69 
 
 hasty inspection revealed that the Spaniards had prepared 
 a trap for them by igniting a fuse leading to the magazine. 
 In a few seconds they would have been blown to pieces, 
 and the world would have been thereby the gainer, if 
 Morgan had not gallantly cut the fuse and prevented the 
 danger. The town fell almost without resistance, and 
 the same scenes of torture and outrage ensued. 
 
 Having got what they could from the town they made 
 predatory excursions into the surrounding country, which 
 was filled with fugitives, and among other devil doings 
 they sacked the smaller town of Gibraltar. By these 
 expeditions they collected an immense booty and a great 
 number of prisoners. Having been five weeks in posses 
 sion after exacting an immense ransom for the release of 
 the unfortunate prisoners and for not burning the town, 
 Morgan determined to depart. 
 
 Lake Maracaibo is connected with the sea by a narrow 
 strait guarded by a large fort which commands the open 
 ing. Toward the latter part of April, 1669, a squadron 
 of three formidable Spanish men-of-war of forty, thirty 
 and twenty guns respectively, arrived off the strait and 
 anchored right in the entrance. The Spaniards occupied 
 the fort upon which they mounted some heavy guns. 
 The squadron easily overmatched Morgan s force. After 
 some bombastic correspondence between the buccaneer 
 and the Spanish admiral, in which the latter offered the 
 pirate free passage home with his men if he would give 
 up his booty and his prisoners and refrain from burning 
 the town, which terms were indignantly refused by the 
 buccaneer, Morgan determined to force the passage by 
 means of a fire ship. The fire ship was rigged with 
 dummy guns and logs of wood dressed in uniforms to 
 give the impression that she was a war vessel. She was 
 
;o Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 filled to the deck with powder, tar, brimstone and other 
 combustibles. Twelve of the most daring of the bucca 
 neers agreed to man her. 
 
 On April 3Oth, the squadron set sail, the fire ship in the 
 lead, heading straight for the huge galleon of the Spanish 
 admiral. The Spaniards believing it to be Morgan s flag 
 ship, withheld their fire, intending to crush it with a 
 broadside. They had not reckoned on the swiftness of 
 the fire ship and the activity of the buccaneers. Before 
 they realized it the infernal machine had run them aboard 
 and grappled with them, without receiving a shot. She 
 instantly burst into flames. The buccaneer captain and 
 his crew leaped overboard. The galleon, dry from her 
 cruise in the tropics, caught fire and in spite of every 
 effort was soon burning furiously. In the midst of the 
 confusion while the crew was striving to put out the fire, 
 Morgan came up with the rest of his fleet and opened with 
 his guns upon the galleon. The second ship, terrified 
 by the fate of the flagship, was boarded and captured al 
 most without resistance and the third vessel in attempting 
 to escape got ashore and was burned by an attacking 
 party. The flagship meanwhile burned to the water line 
 and sank. 
 
 The admiral and a few of his crew succeeded in reach 
 ing the castle, the garrison of which was under arms. 
 The rest of the men were burned or slaughtered. No 
 quarter was the word again. Elated by their success, 
 Morgan landed and attempted to storm the castle, but 
 he met with such a stout resistance that he was driven 
 back with a loss of some sixty killed and wounded. 
 Abandoning the attack for the present, the buccaneers 
 returned to Maracaibo. 
 
 The captured ship was fitted out for Morgan s own 
 
Morgan and His Buccaneers 71 
 
 use and the ransom he had seen fit to demand for the 
 town was increased by five hundred cows for victualling 
 his fleet. By great exertion they were provided and hav 
 ing taken some ten thousand pieces of eight from the 
 wreck of the Spanish flagship, all they could secure out 
 of a total of forty thousand she had on board when she 
 sank, Morgan again made for the sea. It was useless 
 to think of attacking the fort, and while the Spaniards 
 held it, the narrow channel between the lake and the 
 ocean was closed. In this dilemma, Morgan resorted 
 to strategy. 
 
 He anchored his ships just out of gunshot range and 
 in full view of the castle. Boats were called away and 
 filled with men who rowed to the shore behind a clump 
 of trees which hid them from the garrison. The men 
 then concealed themselves by lying in the bottom of 
 the boats, which, apparently empty, were rowed back 
 to the ship by a few men. This performance went on 
 all day, giving those in the fort the impression that the 
 buccaneers were landing in force to attack them from 
 the land side. During the afternoon, therefore, the 
 Spaniards busied themselves with shifting their guns to 
 the land side of the fort in preparation for the expected 
 attack. 
 
 As the night fell, Morgan weighed anchor and his 
 squadron drifted quietly down the river with the ebb tide. 
 Though it was moonlight he was not discovered until the 
 vessels were right under the walls of the castle. When 
 the alarm was given, every sail was at once spread with 
 ready quickness, and favored by a strong land breeze the 
 vessels rushed for the open sea. The Spaniards reshifted 
 their battery, but before they could get the long eighteen 
 pounders to their embrasures again, the buccaneers were 
 
72 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 out of range. The Spaniards fired upon them, but be 
 yond killing and wounding a few men, did little damage. 
 They had scarcely made an offing when they ran into 
 the teeth of a tremendous gale. It was only by the exer 
 cise of the most superb seamanship that their boats were 
 kept afloat on the perilous lee shore. After four days of 
 tempest, six heavy armed vessels gave them chase in the 
 midst of the storm. Fortunately for the pirates they 
 turned out to be a French naval force under the command 
 of d Estrees. When the storm abated, generously as 
 sisted by the French admiral, the pirates finally reached 
 Jamaica without losing a ship. The booty was even 
 greater than that taken from Puerto Bello, and every man 
 was loaded with plunder money, jewels, silks, raiment, 
 liquors, women, slaves, everything which helps to make 
 up the hellish paradise of the rover of the sea! 
 
 III. The Storming of Fort St. Lawrence 
 
 Encouraged by this success Morgan organized another 
 expedition, which, from its magnitude and audacity 
 threw his other adventures into the background. He 
 was the king of the buccaneers now, and he had only to 
 lift his hand to find himself surrounded by the cream of 
 the ferocious society. Word was swiftly passed from 
 mouth to mouth in every drinking place, brothel, and 
 purlieu of the wicked cities of the Caribbean, that he was 
 about to take the sea once more, and that there would be 
 rich pickings for bold men under his command. Morgan 
 himself wrote letters to the principal scoundrels of his 
 acquaintance from Tortuga to St. Kitts. A rendezvous 
 was appointed at Port Couillon, on the south side of His- 
 paniola as usual. 
 
Morgan and His Buccaneers 73 
 
 His previous successes and the glowing accounts of 
 the royal times they had enjoyed, which had been spread 
 about by all the swaggering rogues among their detest 
 able kinfolk and acquaintances, caused the greatest num 
 bers to flock to the rendezvous. 
 
 Some of them came in ships, others in canoes and small 
 boats, and many with incredible hardships came overland 
 on foot. So great was the number of applicants that it 
 became difficult for strangers to secure a place in the 
 fleet. 
 
 Morgan carefully scrutinized the various applicants, 
 and by a process of natural selection secured such a body 
 of desperate, hardened, ferocious, courageous ruffians as 
 probably had never been assembled before or since. 
 
 The flagship was the Flying Stag, the French ship of 
 thirty-six guns, which had been sent by the governor of 
 Jamaica. It was gravely alleged that Morgan issued com 
 missions to his principal officers in the name of the gov 
 ernor and King Charles II, guaranteeing them from all 
 effects of Spanish hostility. On October 24th, 1670, 
 twenty-four vessels had assembled at the rendezvous. 
 After some predatory expeditions to secure supplies, the 
 squadron set sail for Cape Tiburon, to take in food and 
 water. Here Morgan was joined by several ships from 
 the thrifty coasts of New England, which had been re 
 fitted and commissioned at Jamaica. The combined 
 fleet now numbered thirty-seven vessels of various sizes, 
 manned by twenty-two hundred human tigers. 
 
 The armada was divided into two squadrons under a 
 vice-admiral and other subordinates. The first squad 
 ron sailed under the royal English flag, and no more dis 
 graceful band ever served under that noble emblem. The 
 second squadron was under a white ensign, probably 
 
74 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 French, and Morgan s ship flew a red banner with a white 
 cross and at the bowsprit a red, white and blue flag 
 singular precursor of our national colors. 
 
 Contrary to custom he took counsel with his principal 
 officers to consider the best point of attack. They wa 
 vered between Panama, Carthagena and Vera Cruz; the 
 determinating factor being not so much which was the 
 easiest but which was the richest. The decision finally 
 fell upon Panama. I have no doubt that de Guzman s 
 emerald, which he still wore, influenced Morgan to this 
 decision. 
 
 We can imagine how the hearts of these buccaneers 
 beat with anticipation, how their eyes gleamed with lust 
 and cupidity, as in the cabin of the Flying Stag, with 
 strange oaths and deep potations, they drank success to 
 their enterprise, the most difficult thing ever attempted 
 before or after by the famous brethren of the coast. In 
 order to procure a guide and establish a base of supplies, 
 the expedition first captured the fortified island of St. 
 Catherine. A mulatto slave among the captives, who is 
 described as a rogue, a thief, and an assassin, who de 
 served breaking on the wheel, agreed to guide them. 
 He was promised liberty and a full share of the booty 
 for his pilotage. 
 
 Before they could proceed to Panama it was necessary 
 to capture the fort at the mouth of the Chagres River. 
 Morgan and the bulk of his command remained at St. 
 Catherine s, employed in preparation for their enterprise, 
 while five ships and four hundred men under the com 
 mand of Bradley, a famous buccaneer, were sent forward 
 to seize the castle. Morgan was to follow with the rest 
 after eight days. 
 
 The castle of St. Lawrence was built on a high moun- 
 
Morgan and His Buccaneers 75 
 
 tain of the same name at the mouth of the river. It was 
 surrounded by strong wooden palisades banked on the 
 inside with mounds of earth. There were four bastions 
 toward the land and two toward the sea. The land side 
 sloped down to a gentle valley, the sea face was precipi 
 tous and unscalable. The top of the mountain was di 
 vided in two parts by a ditch thirty feet deep. At the foot 
 of the hill was an eight-gun fort and two batteries of six 
 guns all commanding the river. As usual the buccaneers 
 landed some distance away from the point of attack and 
 marched through a wood which was so thick that they 
 had to hew out a way with axes and cutlasses. They 
 finally reached a hill which commanded the castle, but 
 as they were without cannon and beyond musket range 
 their position was of no value. 
 
 They finally descended the hill, avoiding the river forts, 
 crawled across the open on their hands and knees to es 
 cape the dreadful fire which the Spaniards and their 
 Indian auxiliaries poured upon them, which killed and 
 wounded many of them, and then sword in hand, swarmed 
 up the steep sides of the hill and strove to climb the pali 
 sades. Many were shot down before they reached the 
 rampart, where they enjoyed a certain immunity, for the 
 most expert shots among the pirates who had been sta 
 tioned under cover picked off every Spaniard who showed 
 his head in an embrasure. 
 
 The fight dragged on until evening, when the bucca 
 neers, having in vain tried to fire the palisades, retreated 
 down the hill in the dusk in great disorder, having lost 
 heavily. They carried their wounded with them. Brad 
 ley had both legs broken by a cannon shot, but his spirit 
 was still undaunted. A steady exchange of musketry 
 was kept up during the evening until night fell, when 
 they made another assault. 
 
76 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 Taking advantage of the darkness a strong party crept 
 up to the palisades. At the same time a body of French 
 were detailed to climb the path upon another side and 
 make a diversion. One of the Frenchmen was pierced 
 in the shoulder with an arrow. Hastily tearing the dart 
 from his quivering flesh, he took a handful of wild cotton 
 which he kept in his pouch for lint, wound it around the 
 arrow and then extracting the bullet from his musket sub 
 stituted the arrow for it. He took careful aim at the 
 castle roof and discharged his piece. The arrow alighted 
 on some dry thatch. The cotton caught fire from the 
 discharge. It smouldered a moment or two upon the 
 thatch and then broke into a bright flame. There was 
 soon a roaring blaze on the roof of the castle. Other 
 buccaneers picked up the Indian arrows and repeated the 
 experiment. Flames broke out on every side and finally 
 a barrel of powder blew up in a bastion, causing great 
 damage. 
 
 With fierce cries of victory, the buccaneers rushed to 
 the attack. The poor Spaniards were in a dreadful di 
 lemma. Their situation was indeed desperate. Their 
 forts and houses were burning behind them and their 
 foes were clamoring at the palisades. If they left the 
 ramparts for a moment they would be slaughtered by the 
 foe; if they could not check the flames they would be 
 equally lost. They fought on, however, with the gal 
 lantry of their proud race. Their bodies outlined against 
 the bright light presented a fair target for the pirate 
 sharpshooters, while the latter were invisible in the dark 
 ness. While the palisades held, the Spaniards made good 
 their defence, but as the night wore on the buccaneers 
 succeeded in setting fire to the palisades. 
 
 When morning broke, the wooden walls had been 
 
Morgan and His Buccaneers 77 
 
 burned down and the earthen ramparts had fallen in great 
 heaps. Pouring a tremendous musketry fire upon the 
 now undefended place, shooting down man after man at 
 the guns which stood in the open, about noon they ad 
 vanced to the storm. They passed the ditch by climb 
 ing on one another s shoulders. The Spaniards rallied 
 around their governor and defended themselves with the 
 courage of despair. It was a hand to hand struggle of 
 the most dreadful description. Rampart after rampart 
 was taken by the resistless valor of the pirates, and the 
 defenders finally fought from room to room in the castle, 
 making a last stand in the guard room, when the gov 
 ernor, sternly refusing to surrender, was shot dead. 
 
 When the buccaneers finally overbore resistance and 
 broke down the last brave defence by sheer weight of 
 numbers, they captured but fourteen men, whom they 
 rendered helpless by tearing their weapons from their 
 hands. Many of the Spaniards disdaining to surrender 
 leaped over the cliff into the sea. The fourteen captives 
 and nine or ten too desperately wounded to move, were 
 all that were left of some three hundred and fifty men in 
 the garrison, not counting Indians. Over two hundred 
 of the buccaneers had been killed or wounded. It was 
 as bold an attack and as desperate a defence as was ever 
 made. 
 
 The courage of the buccaneers was beyond description. 
 One of the surgeons has left on record an incident which 
 shows the fortitude and fury of these pirates. A man who 
 had been pierced in the eye by an Indian arrow came to 
 the doctor to have it taken out. The surgeon shrank 
 from the operation, knowing the intense pain it would 
 involve. As he hesitated, with a curse the man tore it 
 out of his eye with his own hand, and binding around his 
 
78 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 head a piece of rag ripped from his shirt, he rushed for 
 ward to the assault once more. 
 
 A few days after, Morgan arrived with the main body. 
 Great was the joy of the buccaneers when they saw the 
 royal flag of England floating over the ruined fort. In 
 their eagerness to make the harbor several ships were 
 wrecked on the rocky reef at the mouth of the river, in 
 cluding the famous Flying Stag. The crews and pro 
 visions were saved, and but for a " norther " which 
 swooped down upon them, the ships might have been 
 saved. The remainder of the ships safely entered the 
 harbor and the fort was rebuilt and garrisoned. 
 
 IV. The March to the Pacific 
 
 On January 18, 1669, the buccaneers set out with thir 
 teen hundred men in canoes and small boats toward 
 Panama. The great loss at the mouth of the Chagres 
 and the wreck of the ships filled some of the superstitious 
 sailors with foreboding, but they were jeered and laughed 
 at by the majority of the ruffians, and under the threat 
 of being left behind they fell in with the rest. This was 
 the cheer with which they began their march: " Long 
 live the King of England and long live Harry Morgan. * 
 A nice collocation that! 
 
 For four days they toiled along the river, some in 
 canoes and boats and some on the banks. Their pro 
 visions speedily gave out and their hardships began. 
 The country was a wilderness. They met no one. The 
 villages they passed through had been denuded of every 
 thing edible and abandoned. They were forced to sub 
 sist upon roots, leaves, and grasses. In the absence of 
 any proper equipment for any land campaigning they 
 
Morgan and His Buccaneers 79 
 
 were compelled to sleep on the ground in the damp, 
 chilly, unhealthy tropic nights, consequently many fell 
 ill. Their clothing was soon torn to rags by the im 
 penetrable forests through which they were forced to 
 make their toilsome way. 
 
 On the fourth day they came upon an intrenchment 
 at which they rushed to the attack, sword in hand, but 
 when they climbed over the ramparts they found it had 
 been abandoned like the rest. There was a large num 
 ber of old leather bags in the place. They cut them into 
 pieces, soaked them in water, beat them soft between 
 two stones, scraped the hair off with their knives, and 
 toasted them by the fire. When cooked sufficiently, 
 they cut each piece into small cubes and swallowed them. 
 A poor substitute for food they found it. 
 
 On the fifth day, at a plantation at Barbacoa, they 
 found several bags of flour, some jars of wine and bunches 
 of plantains in a cave, which by Morgan s orders were 
 divided among the most exhausted of the men. Some 
 of them were nearly dead from famine, fatigue, exposure, 
 and illness. The weaker men were placed in the canoes 
 and they resumed the march. 
 
 On the sixth day they rested and sent out foraging 
 parties to gather berries and roots until noon when they 
 again started forward. One party wandering from the 
 way came to a plantation and a barn filled with corn. 
 They broke down the crib and fell upon the maize raven 
 ously, eating it raw in their desperate hunger. The rest 
 of the army was notified, and forgetting discipline and 
 order swarmed about the great barn like ants on a hill. 
 Each man received a small portion. They had a skir 
 mish that afternoon with some Indians which was of no 
 importance except that the men, thinking they were at 
 
8o Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 last in touch with the Spaniards, with plenty of food in 
 sight, threw away the maize they had saved. The Ind 
 ians fled, and the buccaneers crossed the river and 
 struggled on. They were in a state of utter despair, and 
 only the heroic determination of Morgan kept them up. 
 The admiral inspirited them by bribing the guides to tell 
 them that they would soon be at their goal. 
 
 On the seventh day they arrived at a town called Cruz. 
 As they approached it they saw, through the thick wood, 
 columns of smoke rising from every side. Imagining 
 that this betokened fires from the village kitchens, they 
 rushed forward with the eagerness of starvation, only to 
 find that the Spaniards had evacuated the place, taking 
 everything eatable with them, and then had set fire to the 
 town. There were a few stray cats and dogs prowling 
 around the deserted streets; the hungry pirates fell upon 
 them and they were soon killed and eaten. 
 
 In the only building at Cruz which had not been 
 burned, they found fifteen jars of Peruvian wine. Though 
 Morgan spread a report that the wine was poisoned, the 
 starving and desperate men could not refrain from drink 
 ing it. Many of them became violently ill from their 
 excesses. The canoes with the sick were now sent back 
 to join the other boats. 
 
 On the morning of the eighth day, Morgan passed his 
 ragged tatterdemalions in review. He found his force 
 was reduced to eleven hundred men. From this number 
 he selected one hundred of the strongest to lead the ad 
 vance, and then took up the march again. Late in the 
 evening while traversing a rocky pass, they were am 
 bushed by Indians who killed or wounded some twenty 
 men by a flight of arrows. The buccaneers fired blindly 
 into the woods and two or three Indians fell from the 
 
Morgan and His Buccaneers 81 
 
 heights into the road. One of them was evidently the 
 chieftain of the party; a brave man, for as he lay wounded 
 on the rocks and one of the buccaneers made toward him 
 offering him quarter, he savagely tried to stab his whiter 
 but no less savage foe. He was instantly shot down. 
 The Indians broke and fled after the loss of their leader, 
 and though the buccaneers pursued them and killed sev 
 eral, they could not capture any of them. However, a 
 way had been made through the pass, which a hundred 
 resolute men could have held against an army. The rain 
 beat down upon them all that night as they lay in the 
 open without shelter. 
 
 The ninth day was a repetition of the others, a day of 
 hunger, of labor, of despair. That day they saw some 
 Spaniards for the first time, and although Morgan offered 
 a reward of three hundred crowns for every prisoner 
 brought in, they did not succeed in catching any. They 
 still toiled on, however, heading ever to the southward, 
 and in the afternoon they climbed a mountain, called to 
 this day El Cerro de los Bucaneros, or the hill of the bucca 
 neers, from the top of which they saw spread before them 
 the heaving waters of the great Pacific Ocean. The 
 sight had meant much to Balboa, more to Sir Francis 
 Drake, it meant still more to Morgan and his men. I 
 have no doubt that the old " Thalatta," which had risen 
 to the lips of the ten thousand on a similar occasion, 
 mingled with the shouts and cries of that triumphant 
 hour. Your most ruthless and dangerous buccaneer was 
 your broken-down gentleman. They were a desperate, 
 ragged band, half-naked, half-starved; animals with 
 scarcely a semblance of humanity left to them, but they 
 knew that they could get all they needed in the city near 
 at hand. 
 6 
 
82 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 They descended the mountain that afternoon and came 
 to a valley filled with horses, mules, and cows. The rav 
 enous buccaneers fell upon them like beasts of prey. 
 They tore huge lumps of flesh from their quivering bodies 
 while the animals were still alive and scarcely waited to 
 scorch them by the fire in their frantic hunger. Says a 
 contemporary observer: " Covered with blood of the 
 animals they had slain, they resembled cannibals rather 
 than Christians." Having satisfied their appetites with 
 the first full meal they had enjoyed in ten days, they took 
 up their march toward the shore. Ascending a little 
 eminence just at nightfall they saw the church steeples 
 of Panama bright in the light of the setting sun. Salvoes 
 of musketry and wild cheering rang in the air. The red 
 flag under which they fought was unfurled and saluted 
 with blasts of trumpets. The camp was then pitched for 
 the night, the sentries posted with care and then, lying 
 on their arms, they sought much needed rest, in prepara 
 tion for the demands of the morrow. 
 
 V. The Sack of Panama 
 
 When the buccaneers put themselves in motion the 
 next morning, the tenth day, they marched for two hours 
 through pleasant valleys magnificently wooded and di 
 versified by running brooks and lakes of fresh water. At 
 last they halted upon the top of a small hill. Beneath 
 them spread the fairest prospect their eyes had ever 
 looked upon. If Cuba is the Pearl of the Antilles, cer 
 tainly Panama was the Gem of the Pacific. The white 
 city lay before them embowered in foliage like a " handful 
 of pearls in a goblet of emerald." Broad and fertile savan 
 nas extended between them and the town. A large part 
 
Morgan and His Buccaneers 83 
 
 of the plain was under cultivation and the beach was 
 fringed with plantations shaded by groves of orange and 
 lemon trees mingled with tall clusters of cocoanut palms. 
 Beyond the city stretched the broad expanse of the beau 
 tiful Pacific. It was a picture of peace and contentment, 
 soon to be replaced by a simulacrum of hell. 
 
 The houses and shops of the city were built chiefly of 
 cedar and stone. There were at least seven thousand 
 buildings in the town and the population numbered about 
 thirty thousand. The city was laid out in a handsome 
 and imposing manner with broad streets and plazas. 
 Within its walls eight monasteries, a lofty cathedral, 
 many churches and a splendid hospital attested the piety 
 and generosity of the sons of Castile. The largest build 
 ings, however, were the great warehouses of the Genoese 
 company, which were tenanted from time to time by 
 thousands of wretched human beings torn from their Afri 
 can homes to be sold into slavery. Out in the harbor 
 far away rose the beautiful islands of Tavoga and Tavo- 
 gilla. 
 
 Here, at stated times, arrived the great plate fleet laden 
 with treasure from the mines of Peru, which was ex 
 changed for the negro slaves and for the produce and 
 manufacture of the world, for Panama was the entrepot 
 for all the trade with the South Seas. More than two 
 thousand mules were annually employed transferring 
 gold and silver alone to Puerto Bello. It was the strong 
 est, richest, most magnificent city in the New World. 
 
 It was protected by walls and forts, one on the Vera 
 Cruz road mounting no less than fifty guns. There were 
 six hundred soldiers held in reserve in the city and the 
 streets were barricaded. On- the plain between the buc 
 caneers and the town an army was drawn up. It com- 
 
84 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 prised four regiments of regular Spanish infantry, a bri 
 gade of splendid cavalry, two thousand armed citizens, 
 sixty Indians and some negroes. This formidable array 
 of over five thousand men, nearly fifteen hundred of 
 whom were horsemen, was augmented by a strange aux 
 iliary, consisting of two hundred wild and furious Span 
 ish bulls, which were with difficulty controlled by Indians, 
 negroes and mounted picadors. 
 
 The Spanish soldiers were all brilliantly uniformed and 
 caparisoned and made a brave show in the morning, ad 
 vancing steadfastly under the great yellow silken flags of 
 Spain. The hearts of the buccaneers sank at the sight 
 of this army before them. The task seemed beyond their 
 capacity. If they succeeded in defeating this force they 
 still would have to deal with the city. 
 
 Morgan by one of his brief, fiery speeches succeeded in 
 infusing some of his own energy into the ranks of his 
 ragged, sullen men, numbering now scarcely more than 
 a thousand blades. He divided them into three battal 
 ions, sending two hundred picked marksmen in advance 
 as a forlorn hope. When all of his dispositions had been 
 completed, he pointed out that they had no option, they 
 must fight or die. The buccaneers giving three cheers 
 desperately moved do\vn the hill against the enemy. If 
 ever an army fought with a halter around its neck, it was 
 this. It was a struggle not merely for booty and lust, 
 but life. The thought nerved their arms. 
 
 The Spaniards advanced gallantly, the horsemen lead 
 ing. Morgan sent his forlorn hope against them. As 
 the Spanish cavalry charged, the buccaneers halted in a 
 bit of marshy ground into which the horsemen galloped 
 recklessly, only to find themselves mired, checked and 
 thrown into confusion. The little party poured volley 
 

 Storming of the Fort at Chagres. 
 
Battle at Panama. 
 
Morgan and His Buccaneers 85 
 
 after volley into the cavalry, who made the most strenu 
 ous efforts to extricate themselves and advance. 
 
 Meanwhile the Spanish infantry and the main body of 
 the buccaneers opened fire upon each other. There was 
 no comparison between the marksmanship of the rival 
 forces. The Spaniards were mowed down in scores but 
 kept on bravely. At this juncture the men in charge of 
 the bulls endeavored to drive them upon the English 
 flank. The men on Morgan s right hand had not hunted 
 cattle for nothing in days gone by. By clever manoeu 
 vring they succeeded in heading them off, and the mad 
 dened animals rushed through the ranks of the Spanish 
 infantry, trampling them and throwing them into terrible 
 confusion. A valuable auxiliary they proved to the 
 pirates. 
 
 After two hours of fighting, Morgan so manoeuvred 
 his men that a gap was opened in the Spanish line be 
 tween the cavalry and the infantry. Into this gap, with 
 the quickness of a born soldier, he threw a small body 
 which he had held in reserve, at the same time ordering 
 a general advance which he led in person. The Span 
 ish line was pierced and broken. The pirates poured 
 through the gap and extended themselves on either side. 
 Taken in reverse the horsemen were cut to pieces. Over 
 six hundred of them were killed outright, a large num 
 ber wounded, and the remainder were driven in headlong 
 flight from the field. The forlorn hope, which had done 
 such effectual shooting, now turned its attention to 
 the disheartened Spanish infantry. It had been beaten 
 out of all semblance of organization and assailed on two 
 sides after a few more volleys and some desultory firing, 
 the men broke and fled. The buccaneers pursued them 
 unrelentingly, giving no quarter. The field became a 
 
86 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 scene of indiscriminate slaughter. The Spaniards were 
 completely broken and scattered. Morgan had mean 
 while adroitly interposed between the Spaniards and the 
 city, so that only a few fugitives gained the walls. 
 
 Allowing his men, who were tired out from hacking, 
 hewing, and slaughtering, but a short time for rest, for 
 he appreciated the necessity of giving the Spaniards no 
 time to recover themselves, Morgan took up his march 
 for the city. Like a good soldier he avoided the fort on 
 the Vera Cruz road and approached from the direction 
 of Puerto Bello. The pirates were met by a smart fire 
 from the ramparts, but their blood was up now, and they 
 recked little of works or fortifications. They carried the 
 outer works by storm and poured into the terror stricken 
 city in a resistless horde. The Spaniards left there made 
 an heroic defence, fighting from street to street and from 
 house to house, until they were cut to pieces, but nothing 
 could stay the onslaught of these human tigers. Ere 
 sunset they were in complete possession of the city. 
 
 Ample warning had been given of the approach of the 
 buccaneers and many of the wealthy citizens, including 
 a large number of women and children, had fled to the 
 islands and the surrounding country. They had taken 
 much treasure with them and concealed much more. In 
 spite of this, however, the conquerors found themselves 
 in possession of a vast booty. The Spanish officials had 
 been confident that the pirates would be unable to capt 
 ure the city. They had trusted in the numbers and valor 
 of their army and they had therefore not destroyed and 
 concealed everything and they had not entirely depopu 
 lated the town. Indeed it would have been impossible. 
 Morgan, fearful lest his men should get entirely out of 
 hand, enjoined them, under the severest penalties, to 
 
Morgan and His Buccaneers 87 
 
 drink no wine. They had lost heavily in their tremen 
 dous battle, probably not more than six hundred able- 
 bodied men remained to him, and there were many 
 wounded needing attention. He was fearful lest the 
 Spaniards, who still greatly outnumbered him, should 
 rally and overwhelm his little force. The men were re 
 strained with the greatest difficulty. 
 
 They had struggled, fought, marched and suffered so 
 dreadfully they could scarcely be made to understand the 
 necessity for further restraint in the presence of wine, 
 women, and treasure lying under their grimy, blood 
 stained, lustful, covetous hands. Unable to defend the 
 town with his little force, Morgan resorted to a desperate 
 expedient. He himself set fire to a number of the prin 
 cipal buildings of the city, to placate his men spreading 
 the report that the Spaniards had done it. The night 
 was dry and windy and the fire got beyond control, burn 
 ing down the greater part of the town before it could be 
 checked. 
 
 That night the buccaneers camped under arms outside 
 the walls. When the fire finally burned itself out, Mor 
 gan despatched a strong party to the Chagres River to 
 announce the victory, and see that all went well with the 
 garrison, and then the victors entered the trembling city. 
 They fortified the Church of the Trinity, raised earth 
 works about it, and mounted all the guns they could 
 crowd in the plaza. The remainder of the guns on the 
 walls and the forts were spiked. 
 
 Then began the search for treasure. That night the 
 passions of hell pent up in their bosoms, and, burning 
 more fiercely from their unaccustomed restraint, were let 
 loose. The bright moon from the clear heaven looked 
 down in all its tender tropic splendor upon such a carni- 
 
88 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 val of crime and debauchery as possibly the world had 
 never seen. The sacking of a town is a most frightful 
 event, even when it is done by regular soldiery, but when 
 the army is made up of men like the buccaneers, there 
 are added to the scene touches of horror and atrocities 
 which no pen can describe. The lust and greed of the 
 conquerors was proportioned to the difficulties they had 
 undergone in achieving the conquest. 
 
 Rapine, murder, plunder, outrage, drunkenness, ex 
 cesses of every kind, filled the night with misery. 
 Neither old age nor youth, beauty nor innocence, wisdom 
 nor folly, good nor evil, were spared. It is impossible 
 to depict the horrors of the period. The wounded and 
 the prisoners were crowded into the churches where they 
 had so often worshipped and were left to starve or die. 
 Tortures of every kind which their rude ingenuity could 
 suggest were inflicted upon helpless victims to make 
 them disclose the hiding place of their treasures. 
 Women killed themselves, happy if they could deliver 
 the blow which ended their lives before they were forced 
 to submit to their conquerors. Others less fortunate, 
 struggling in the arms of these demons in human shape 
 besought piteously and in vain for that death they would 
 have so gladly welcomed. 
 
 For days these practices continued. They hung the 
 prisoners up by their beards and the hair of their heads, 
 or by a single arm or leg, and let them swing. They drew 
 them as tight as they could with tackles on their arms 
 and legs and then beat them with rattans. They tied 
 slow matches beneath their fingers and toes, lighted them 
 and let them burn. They improvised racks which tore 
 off limb after limb, they broke them upon wheels, sus 
 pended them in the air and loaded them with timbers and 
 
Morgan and His Buccaneers 89 
 
 stones until their arms pulled out. But their favorite 
 method of torture, favorite because it was so easy and 
 efficacious, consisted in tying a stout cord around the 
 head of the victim, inserting the barrel of a pistol between 
 the forehead and the cord and twisting the cord until the 
 eyes sprang from their sockets! The only mercy they 
 exhibited was sometimes to kill those whom they had 
 tortured. The Spaniards were completely broken, and 
 though small bodies of men were seen from time to time 
 hovering about the city they never made any attack or 
 rallied in sufficient numbers to become formidable. 
 
 Parties of buccaneers daily scoured the country in all 
 directions, going out in the morning with light hearts 
 and high hopes and returning in the evening loaded with 
 spoil and driving before them parties of wretched men 
 and women whom they had routed from their fastnesses. 
 Morgan manned a small boat in the harbor with twenty- 
 five men and sent it after a great ship which was loaded 
 with church plate and other treasure, and contained over 
 four hundred women, which had been sent away the 
 morning of the capture of the city. It was a prize which 
 appealed to the buccaneers from every standpoint. The 
 party located the galleon at evening and determined, 
 under the stimulus of the wine they had taken and the 
 pleasant prospect presented by a score of unfortunate 
 women they captured, to defer taking her until the morn 
 ing. When the next morning came she was gone with 
 all her precious freight. The escape is the one bright 
 incident in this chronicle of horror. The little party re 
 turned after capturing a Spanish brigantine carrying 
 twenty thousand pieces of eight. 
 
 Morgan now set forth with three hundred and fifty 
 men to scour the country far and wide, raiding every 
 
90 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 plantation, torturing every master and outraging every 
 mistress they came across. When he returned he found 
 that a shipload of Spaniards had arrived from the south, 
 ignorant of the capture of the fort. Among them was a 
 woman of surpassing beauty and heroic soul, the young 
 wife of a rich merchant in Peru. The buccaneer fell in 
 love with her. The ogre washed his blood-stained hands, 
 clothed himself in the rich vestments of his captives, paid 
 his court to her, and laid the treasure of his heart at her 
 feet. He caused her to be comfortably lodged and re 
 spectfully treated while he prosecuted his attentions. 
 She repulsed him with disdain. When, inflamed by her 
 resistance, he would have outraged her, she snatched his 
 own dagger from his side and swore that if he laid hand 
 upon her she would poniard herself before his eyes. The 
 brute must have been really in love with her, for he spared 
 her life in spite of her refusal. Though he treated her 
 to the greatest indignities, she succeeded in preserving 
 her honor in spite of all. She was the one woman who 
 came forth unharmed from the hands of the buccaneers. 
 The magnitude of their capture, the quantity of their 
 booty, the terrible license which had prevailed, created 
 dissension and distrust between the men and their offi 
 cers, which especially vented itself upon Morgan. The 
 most solemn oath of buccaneering was that the spoil 
 should be fairly apportioned and that there should be no 
 individual concealment. This was violated, Morgan him 
 self, it was more than suspected, doing the most of it. 
 One hundred of the buccaneers conspired to seize a boat 
 and make for the South Seas. Morgan discovered the 
 conspiracy, burnt the boat and punished the malcontents 
 severely. His position was a difficult one. If he had 
 not played off the different bands of adventurers divided 
 
Morgan and His Buccaneers 91 
 
 into jealous nationalities, against one another, he would 
 probably have been deposed. As it was, he held the 
 command in an iron grasp. 
 
 Finally, after utterly ruining what was left of the town, 
 the buccaneers took their departure on February 24, 
 1671. They had a vast amount of precious merchandise, 
 one hundred and seventy-five beasts of burden laden with 
 gold, silver and jewels alone, and six hundred prisoners 
 held for ransom. 
 
 The pirates were divided into a van and rear guard, 
 with the prisoners between them. They marched cir 
 cumspectly under arms. The unfortunate captives, espe 
 cially the women and children, suffered horribly, but they 
 were driven forward relentlessly. Those who fainted 
 and died on the roadside were counted happy by those 
 who survived. Those who had been young and beauti 
 ful before they fell into the hands of the buccaneers, fared 
 the worst. 
 
 The Spanish woman who had so bravely held her honor 
 against Morgan s advances, was taken with the rest. She 
 sent two priests to friends of her husband to get her 
 ransom money fifteen thousand pieces of eight! They 
 had betrayed their trust and had used the money to 
 rescue some of their own friends. When Morgan learned 
 of this fact he released the woman without ransom, and 
 treated the messengers with the utmost rigor. It is the 
 one solitary act of clemency and mercy which appears in 
 his whole history. When the party reached the village of 
 Cruz, Morgan halted until all but a few of the poor pris 
 oners were redeemed. The false messengers, by the pay 
 ment of a prodigious sum of money, escaped a just ret 
 ribution for their treachery. The treasure was unloaded 
 and embarked in boats and sent down the river to Bar- 
 
92 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 bacoa. There, a muster of the buccaneers was held, and 
 everyone was searched for concealed booty, Morgan 
 himself setting- an example by submitting to the search. 
 The search was most thoroughly done, but in a way 
 which greatly infuriated the sated, covetous pirates. The 
 men were even compelled to discharge their firearms lest 
 they had concealed jewels in the gun barrels. 
 
 The band, now almost in a state of revolt, took up the 
 march and finally reached the Chagres once more. Mor 
 gan and a body of his favorites, mainly English, were in 
 terror of their lives. They put a bold front upon the 
 situation, however, and the day after their arrival they 
 divided the booty, which amounted to over two million 
 dollars, or pieces of eight, in cash, not counting the value 
 of silk, cloth of gold, arms and merchandise. The jewels 
 were sold unfairly, the admiral and his friends buying the 
 greater part for a mere song; besides which, in spite of the 
 search, Morgan had found means to conceal an immense 
 treasure in small compass. The buccaneers were dis 
 gusted and infuriated at the small sum which they indi 
 vidually received, and they even proposed to seize Mor 
 gan and compel him to disgorge and re-divide. He got 
 wind of their intention, however, and treacherously aban 
 doned the main body by stealing out of the harbor in his 
 own ship followed by four English vessels, whose cap 
 tains and crews had been in his confidence. 
 
 VI. The End of the Buccaneer 
 
 Morgan returned to Jamaica, and, contrary to his cus 
 tom, invested his money, foreswore pirating and married 
 the daughter of one of the principal men of the island. 
 His position was an uneasy one, however, and it was 
 
Morgan and His Buccaneers 93 
 
 rumored among the buccaneers who escaped from the 
 Chagres in small detachments, wandering to various 
 parts of the Caribbean and never apparently assembling 
 in great force again, that Morgan, fearing for his life, 
 had determined to take possession, with a party of con 
 genial spirits, of the famous island of St. Catherine, and 
 take up the old trade again. The men, whose former 
 affection for him was now turned to bitterest hatred, de 
 termined to waylay him on his voyage and capture him 
 with his wife, children, and treasure. But before Morgan 
 could get away a new governor arrived at Jamaica with 
 a royal order to send Morgan to England to answer to 
 the complaints of the king of Spain. 
 
 Undoubtedly the reformed pirate did not find this a 
 hard matter; possibly some of the gold, silver and jewels 
 of Panama found their way, beside the French crowns, 
 into the coffers of the needy English king, for Charles II 
 disgraced knighthood by giving this dishonored advent 
 urer the royal accolade! Sir Henry Morgan returned 
 to Jamaica in triumph where he continued his respect 
 able career and rose to positions of prominence. In 1680, 
 the Earl of Carlisle, the then governor of the island, re 
 turned to England on account of ill health, and left 
 Morgan as the deputy governor! The old buccaneer had 
 his hour. He remembered his old comrades and the 
 threats they had made against him, and he used his new 
 found authority to apprehend them and hang them with 
 out mercy until the arrival of a new governor put a stop 
 to his revenge. When his royal protector, Charles II, 
 died, he was thrown into prison, and of his further fate 
 nothing is known. 
 
 If any man ever earned a place in hell Morgan did, 
 and when we read of his atrocities in the rude chronicles 
 
94 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 of the past, we can easily be unchristian enough to hope 
 that he got it. 
 
 There is another thought which rises in the mind in 
 connection with the story of the sufferings of the Span 
 iards in Central America, and it is a thought of retribu 
 tion. The chronicles of their own people and the testi 
 mony of impartial observers show that in their period of 
 domination they had treated the unfortunate aborigines 
 of the land with a cruelty and rapacity which would have 
 made an Aztec warrior blush and put even a buccaneer 
 to shame. When they suffered under the expeditions of 
 the buccaneers they might look back upon the peaceful 
 populations they had exterminated, the wretched women 
 they had debauched, and the smiling land they had de 
 stroyed in their lust for gold, and remember that rext of 
 Scripture, which says: 
 
 With what Measure Ye Mete, it shall be Measured to 
 You Again." 
 
PART II 
 GENTLEMEN OF THE BLACK FLAG 
 
 II 
 
 Under the "Jolly Roger" 
 
UNDER THE "JOLLY ROGER " 
 
 I. Robert Maynard Stamps Out Blackbeard 
 
 THE year 1701 which marked the accession of 
 Philip V, a Bourbon Prince, to the throne 
 of Spain, and saw the entrance of Louis XIV 
 of France into the field of Spanish colonial power, also 
 marked the end of the buccaneer. It was one thing for 
 the English " Brethren of the coast," the " gentlemen 
 adventurers " of the Spanish Main to make war upon the 
 weak and neglected outlying dependencies of a decadent 
 power like Spain, and quite another to attempt to con 
 tinue the practice when the Spanish colonies were pro 
 tected by the white flag of France. Their careers were 
 closed forthwith. 
 
 The situation threw the buccaneers into consternation. 
 What could gentlemen of the sword who had been ac 
 customed to plunder where they listed, to rob and mur 
 der at their own sweet will, do to make a living under 
 such circumstances? Honest labor, industrious toil were 
 not to be thought of. What happened? A few a very 
 few of them reformed; many of them died of excesses 
 and dissipation, or ended their careers in the common 
 gaols for a wide variety of crimes; most of them, how 
 ever, became should I say degenerated into? out and 
 out pirates and in a spirit of universal hostility warred 
 against everybody. 
 
 7 97 
 
98 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 The " Jolly Roger " with its ghastly " death s head 
 and crossbones " on a black field, supplanted the various 
 ensigns of the buccaneers. In greatly diminished com 
 panies the ruffians and others inspired by their suc 
 cesses, including two women pirates! undertook plun 
 dering and murdering expeditions thereafter in ships and 
 vessels of various sizes, as they could compass them, 
 sweeping the ocean in every direction and generally con 
 fining their undertakings to the high seas. It was not 
 until 1730 that they were completely put down by the 
 combined efforts of everybody who was respectable, and 
 peaceful ships were allowed to sail the ocean with a mini 
 mum of anxiety and a maximum of safety from these 
 rapacious and bloodthirsty plunderers. 
 
 The buccaneer had a few virtues usually as bravery 
 and fidelity to his associates just enough to throw into 
 high relief the hideous agglomeration of his vices. The 
 pirate had no good qualities whatsoever, even his courage 
 was fitful as a rule, and usually failed him in the end. I 
 have chosen two as typical illustrations of the brood and 
 because they were captured by two gallant gentlemen 
 after two as pretty fights of the kind as ever took place. 
 
 Drummond, Teach, Thatch, " Blackbeard," so the 
 catalogue of aliases and descriptive titles runs, was origi 
 nally a sailor an " indifferent honest " man, I take it 
 of Bristol, England. In the long war of the Spanish 
 Succession he had been at various times an officer, part 
 owner, and commander of a privateer. He had suffered 
 financial losses and met with galling personal indignities 
 from the French in his several cruises. On one occa 
 sion having been taken prisoner he had been wofully 
 treated during his confinement, undergoing great hard 
 ships before he escaped from captivity. When peace was 
 
Under the "Jolly Roger" 99 
 
 declared in 1715, and he was forced to return some of 
 the prizes he had taken, he found himself practically a 
 ruined man. In company with a Mr. Benjamin Horni- 
 gold a singularly appropriate name for a pirate he 
 proceeded to make individual war on his own account 
 against the French. The right of private vengeance of 
 this character not being recognized by the law of nations 
 he speedily found himself an outlaw and promptly de 
 generated into a professional pirate. In this day he 
 would probably have been sent to a lunatic asylum, where 
 he belonged. 
 
 The much frequented and carefully patrolled waters 
 of Europe soon became exceedingly dangerous places 
 for the indulgence of his piratical proclivities, so he 
 hoisted the black flag and bore away for that halcyon 
 section of men of like ilk, the American coast. Of all 
 those who cruised up and down in our waters and they 
 were a choice lot of scoundrels, certainly he became 
 preeminent for cruelty, brutality, depravity, and success. 
 Blackbeard, his name, or his pseudonym rather, became 
 painfully known from one end of the coast to the other. 
 He was so styled from an immense black beard with 
 which he was endowed, which he was accustomed to 
 plait in two long braids and tie them up behind his ears 
 with delicate blue ribbons a nice combination, that! 
 When he went into action it was his practice to stick 
 lighted matches * under his hat to give his face a terrify 
 ing appearance. In addition to the usual belt studded 
 with weapons he habitually wore another one across his 
 breast from which depended as many pistols as he could 
 hang on it. 
 
 * Slow matches, of course, which were used for igniting the priming of the 
 cannon. 
 
ioo Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 He was a man of huge proportions and of herculean 
 strength, but ineffably base and cruel, yet he knew how 
 to control the ruthless bands of human hyenas and wolves 
 which he assembled from time to time. He used to 
 shoot one of them every once in a while to keep his hand 
 in and make the rest feel that he was master! One of 
 his men, whose name Stevenson has appropriated to the 
 coxswain in his immortal romance Treasure Island, was 
 called Israel Hands. For some reason Hands was not 
 executed when the usual fate befell Blackbeard and the 
 rest and he told a story of how the pirate chief query: 
 why chief, I wonder? entertaining some of his men at 
 dinner one night in his cabin suddenly blew out the light 
 and began to shoot at the legs of the men under the table, 
 just to let them know he was there! It was a wonder 
 and a pity some one did not kill him. 
 
 On one occasion, the weather being mild and the ship 
 needing no attention, he called all hands into the hold, 
 closed the hatches, and set fire to a barrel of sulphur with 
 the truthful remark that since they were all devils and 
 the ship was a perfect hell, he intended to see how much 
 of the real thing in the way of popular accessories they 
 could stand. He remained there until his men were al 
 most choked to death, although he himself did not ap 
 pear to be seriously affected possibly because he was 
 more of a devil than the rest. I quote from a quaint old 
 book a portion of his journal. He was a semi-literary 
 pirate, it seems. 
 
 "Such a Day. Rum all out: Our company some 
 what sober; A damn d Confusion amongst us! 
 Rogues a plotting; great Talk of separation. So I 
 look d Sharp for a Prize: Such a Day, took one with 
 a Great deal of Liquor on Board, so Kept the Com- 
 
Under the " Jolly Roger" 101 
 
 pany hot, damn d hot; then all things went well 
 again." 
 
 It was his habit after a profitable cruise to turn his 
 ill-got plunder into cash at the first convenient town, 
 then get rid of his crew either by dismissing them or 
 marooning them on desolate islands where they might 
 starve or die for all he cared, while he spent his money 
 on shore and deluded himself with the idea that he was 
 having a good time and enjoying life! The pirates were 
 exceedingly good customers of the townspeople along 
 the shore those who owned no ships, that is from 
 Massachusetts to Carolina, and by confining their prey 
 ing strictly to the sea were in high favor with land 
 lubbers. 
 
 Among other things, Blackbeard was accustomed to 
 indulge himself in marriage, which he did to the extent 
 of fourteen wives in different places! What sort of a 
 woman could she be who would marry him, I wonder? 
 He would linger on shore until his money was gone, then 
 he would beg, borrow, or steal more often the latter 
 a small boat, desert his latest wife, assemble another crew 
 and proceed upon his nefarious way once more. If he 
 captured a better ship than his own he appropriated it. 
 By this means he once had under his command a large 
 ship mounting forty guns which he called Queen Anne s 
 Revenge, though what that gentle and rather stupid prin 
 cess could have to revenge, and why she was connected 
 even thus innocently with piracy is hard to under 
 stand. 
 
 On this vessel he performed two notable exploits. He 
 beat off His Majesty s ship-of-war Scarborough, of twenty 
 guns, after a long and severe engagement and then taking 
 his station off the harbor of Charles Town, South Caro- 
 
102 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 lina, he captured all the outgoing and incoming mer 
 chant ships for several days. One of them contained a 
 number of important personages who were returning to 
 England. After sinking the ship and plundering the 
 passengers, being in need of medicine, spirits, and other 
 things, the audacious pirate sent a demand to Governor 
 Johnson for these necessaries and stated that if his re 
 quest were not complied with at once he would proceed 
 to murder his prisoners! 
 
 His emissary s boat was wrecked and the time set for 
 his return having elapsed Blackbeard cold-bloodedly set 
 about carrying out his threat. Fortunately for them, 
 however, just as they were to be executed, a messenger 
 came off to the ship explaining the cause of the delay and 
 they were respited for another day, at the end of which 
 time the humiliating terms were complied with. It was 
 hard on Johnson and the Carolinians, but they had to do 
 it. Blackbeard set the prisoners on shore far from 
 Charles Town, as it was called then, which they finally 
 reached after many hardships. 
 
 On the occasion of his marriage to his fourteenth wife 
 after he had marooned most of his company, he had gone 
 to Bath, North Carolina, on the Pamlico River, where he 
 had taken advantage of the king s amnesty and abjured 
 and renounced his former practices. Governor Eden 
 was present at the marriage. He was also present at the 
 distribution of the plunder which took place shortly after 
 when Blackbeard resumed his former avocation, the gu 
 bernatorial share in one capture being some sixty barrels 
 of sugar. It was lucrative partnership for His Majesty s 
 representative. 
 
 Emboldened by this connection the pirate s rapacity 
 passed all bounds. He began to plunder the ships of 
 
Under the " Jolly Roger" 103 
 
 those who had hitherto tolerated his existence and prac 
 tices for commercial reasons. The governor still pro 
 tected him and complaints proved unavailing. Indeed, 
 the complicity of Governor Eden was so apparent to the 
 merchants of North Carolina, whose ships had suffered 
 severely from this red scourge, that in their desperation 
 they appealed to the famous Alexander Spotswood, Gov 
 ernor of Virginia, to rid them of Blackbeard s presence. 
 Virginia had suffered with the rest and the governor 
 acted promptly, and with the concurrence of the bur 
 gesses determined to settle Blackbeard forever. 
 
 There happened to be two of His Majesty s ships-of- 
 war lying in the Chesapeake at the time, the Pearl and 
 the Lyme. Robert Maynard, a dashing young officer, 
 was a lieutenant on the Pearl. He volunteered to lead 
 an expedition to destroy the pirate. Two small sloops 
 were hastily procured and manned and word having been 
 received that Blackbeard with a new schooner lay at 
 Ocracoke. Inlet, Maynard at once made his way thither. 
 Blackbeard s schooner mounted eight guns and was a 
 heavy overmatch for the two sloops, although as they 
 each carried upwards of thirty men they had nearly twice 
 as many fighters as the pirates. 
 
 Maynard came within sight of the pirate late on the 
 evening of the 2ist of November, 1718. Placing his 
 ships so that they barred the exit he waited until morn 
 ing to make the attack. Blackbeard, whose vessel was 
 aground in the shallow water, also prepared for the ex 
 pected battle. In the morning by lightening his vessels 
 and using sweeps, the Englishman approached the pirate. 
 One of the chroniclers records a quaint dialogue which 
 purports to have taken place between the two command 
 ers ere the battle was joined. 
 
Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 Blackbeard in all his awe-inspiring paraphernalia, 
 which was so terrifying to women and children and 
 peaceful traders, but rather amusing to men of war, 
 mounted on the rail and called out: 
 
 " Damn you for villains, who are you? And from 
 whence come you? " 
 
 You may see from our colors we are no pyrates," re 
 plied Maynard. 
 
 " Send a boat aboard! " roared the other. 
 
 " I cannot spare my boat, but I will come aboard of 
 you as I can with my sloop," answered Maynard, urging 
 his men to redoubled efforts at the oars. 
 
 Blackbeard sprang to the rail of his schooner and seiz 
 ing a bottle of whiskey drank from it and then shouted 
 the following toast: 
 
 " Damnation seize my soul if I give you Quarters or 
 take any from you!" 
 
 " I neither ask for, nor will I give you any quarters," 
 replied Maynard. 
 
 At this juncture the second sloop got aground, but 
 Maynard dashed on alone. Having come within range 
 of the small cannon on the pirate schooner Blackbeard 
 opened fire with a heavy broadside of " langridge " a 
 hideous and death-dealing charge of nails, balls, old iron, 
 scraps, etc. a discharge which did great execution. As 
 Maynard s men were entirely exposed no less than twenty 
 of them were killed or wounded. Fortunately a breeze 
 having sprung up which rendered the use of sweeps un 
 necessary, Maynard directed the remainder of his crew 
 to go below and conceal themselves in the hold. He 
 made the man at the helm who steered the sloop lie down 
 on the deck while he himself stood up alone on the deck 
 covered with the dead. The pirates poured furious dis- 
 
Under the "Jolly Roger" 105 
 
 charges upon him but in the smoke and confusion fort 
 unately he remained untouched. 
 
 Presently the little sloop fell aboard the pirate still 
 aground. As the two vessels came together the pirates 
 hurled a lot of improvised hand grenades on the deck of 
 the sloop which exploded without doing much damage, 
 and seeing no one in the smoke, Blackbeard at the head 
 of fourteen of his men sprang aboard of it. As the 
 boarders gained the decks the wind caught the sloop and 
 drove her clear of the schooner, which still contained 
 about as many men as had reached the sloop. 
 
 The separation was unlucky for the pirate. Maynard 
 calling his men from below at once sprang forward and 
 engaged the enemy. There were but thirteen English 
 men to meet fifteen pirates. The conflict was extremely 
 severe. The two commanders at once crossed swords, 
 but the pirate had at last met his match in the honest 
 man. After eight of his men had been killed and he him 
 self had received so the veracious chroniclers state no 
 less than twenty-five wounds, his throat was pierced by 
 the sword of the gallant Maynard, who had himself been 
 severely wounded. Blackbeard s pirate days were over. 
 The seven pirates remaining, all wounded, were captured. 
 Most of Maynard s twelve had been wounded and sev 
 eral were killed. The decks of the little sloop were 
 deluged with blood. 
 
 Meanwhile, the other sloop had floated with the rising 
 tide and had engaged and captured the pirate schooner 
 and the balance of the crew after a stout but unavailing 
 resistance. The pirates papers showed conclusively that 
 Governor Eden had been associated with them. May 
 nard acted promptly. He sailed up to Bath, North 
 Carolina, broke open the governor s storehouse and 
 
io6 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 carried off everything which the books showed had been 
 received from the pirates, including the sugar. Taking 
 his prisoners and bringing the body of Blackbeard he 
 then sailed back to Virginia. He entered the Chesa 
 peake with the head of the decapitated ruffian swinging 
 by his long hair from the bowsprit end. The body of the 
 pirate was hung in chains in a place known thereafter as 
 " Blackbeard s Island." He was surrounded by the un- 
 decapitated bodies of his crew, with the exception of 
 Israel Hands mentioned above. For a long time the 
 more reckless spirits among the hard-drinking squires 
 who were wont to assemble at Williamsburg, the Do 
 minion capital, were accustomed to drink rum punch out 
 of a huge silver-mounted bowl, the bottom of which was 
 composed of the skull of the infamous pirate. The 
 curious bowl, like the custom, has happily been lost. 
 
 It was a most gallant and heroic expedition and brill 
 iantly carried out on the part of young Maynard. It 
 apparently elicited no particular attention from the home 
 authorities at the time, however, and Maynard received 
 no especial reward for his services, for the records show 
 that he did not receive his commission as captain until 
 twenty years after this exploit. In modern days the 
 recognition of such a successful enterprise would have 
 been prompt and adequate. 
 
 II. Colonel Rhett and Major Bonnet 
 
 That these military titles should appertain to a fero 
 cious pirate and his gallant captor is a thing which might 
 at first be thought strange. Soldiers often have pirat 
 ical instincts, to be sure, but they do not usually exhibit 
 them on the sea. Circumstances, however, bring about 
 
Under the " Jolly Roger" 107 
 
 strange results and, contrary to the rule in the case of 
 poets, pirates seem to be made rather than born. 
 
 Early in the eighteenth century there lived at Bridge 
 town, in the Island of Barbados, a retired officer of the 
 English army whose name was Stede Bonnet. He was 
 a man of good birth, independent fortune, and no little 
 education. He was prosperous and respected by his 
 neighbors, and apparently there was no reason why he 
 should not have continued to hold their respect while he 
 pursued the even tenor of his way until the end. In the 
 spring of the year 1717, however, he lightly took it into 
 his head to become a pirate! 
 
 The cause of this determination has always been more 
 or less of a mystery. What could have induced an eld 
 erly man who had been a professional soldier and who 
 knew absolutely nothing about the sea, to become a 
 pirate, especially as he was not driven by the pressure of 
 want or by the consciousness of injury, or by any other 
 assignable cause to undertake this nefarious profession? 
 Only one reason has ever been alleged and that but ten 
 tatively. Mankind, since the days of Adam, has been 
 accustomed to lay everything disastrous that happens to 
 a woman. Bonnet had a wife. She seems to have par 
 taken rather of the character of Xantippe than of that 
 of Griselda. Bonnet, it is stated, was not endowed with 
 Socratic patience, and to escape his wife s temper he 
 turned to piracy. Frankly, I do not believe the story 
 at all. I think he was insane. 
 
 At any rate, from whatever cause, the decision having 
 been arrived at, he set about carrying out his purpose. 
 His money and his respectability made it easy. He pur 
 chased a swift handy schooner which he called the Re 
 venge favorite name for piratical craft, I presume be- 
 
io8 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 cause their owners tried to delude themselves into the 
 belief that they had been injured by society and had there 
 fore a quasi-right to prey upon it. Lavishly providing 
 this vessel with everything necessary and manning it 
 with a choice and select body of scoundrels, Bonnet bade 
 farewell to Barbados and his wife, and set forth ostensibly 
 upon a trading voyage. 
 
 As soon as he got off soundings he hoisted the black 
 flag and announced to his surprised crew that he was 
 now a pirate. The statement did not worry them a bit. 
 They were more than willing to go pirating. If there 
 were any who were not willing they kept discreetly quiet 
 and nothing marred the unanimity with which the crew 
 embraced the opportunity. It was evident to everyone 
 that Bonnet knew nothing about seamanship or naviga 
 tion and in fact, except in one particular, was about as 
 unfit a person to command a pirate ship as could be 
 imagined. The one exception to his disabilities lay in 
 his bloodthirsty courage. The subordinate officers 
 among his crew would have gladly seized the ship, de 
 posed him and gone pirating on their own account, but 
 Bonnet, who was possessed of ferocious determination 
 which went to the length of killing two or three of his 
 ruffians, finally succeeded in establishing his ascendancy 
 over them. 
 
 The world was before him and he proceeded to open 
 his oyster. From Massachusetts to the Carolinas he 
 roved along the coast at his own sweet will, plundering 
 and destroying. In all the atrocious customs and habits 
 of pirates he speedily became a past master. This once 
 respectable English gentleman and churchman could 
 look with as utter an indifference upon the suffering of 
 the poor hapless wretches whom he captured and forced 
 
Under the " Jolly Roger" 109 
 
 to walk the plank, as if he had been bred among bucca 
 neers. Murder, robbery, rapine, outrages of every kind 
 he perpetrated upon the high seas. 
 
 On one occasion he fell in with Blackbeard and the 
 two pirates cruised in company with doubly damnable 
 results. Blackbeard soon found that Bonnet knew noth 
 ing about ships. Inviting him to dine, therefore, and 
 having by this means got him on board his own ship, he 
 coolly deposed him from his command. Bonnet pro 
 tested vehemently, but as he was surrounded by Black- 
 beard s men and as his own men were lukewarm in his 
 cause, he could do nothing but protest. Blackbeard did 
 not kill him, he made him a clerk! It was intensely gall 
 ing to the bold spirit of the soldier-sailor, but there was 
 no help for it. He w r as with Blackbeard when he made 
 his famous raid on Charles Town, and w r hen the Queen 
 Anne s Revenge was wrecked in Topsail Inlet, North 
 Carolina, and Blackbeard got rid of the troublesome 
 members of his crew by marooning them while he went 
 off to get a pardon and enjoy his plunder, he gave Bon 
 net back his sloop. 
 
 Bonnet had learned something, and choosing a time 
 when Blackbeard was absent he also went off to Gov 
 ernor Eden, surrendered himself and received a pardon 
 under the king s amnesty proclamation. Armed with 
 this and with a few bold spirits in his company he set 
 forth on the Revenge, announcing that he was bound for 
 St. Thomas. There he stated that he intended to get a 
 commission as a privateer to prey upon the French and 
 Spanish ships, the war then being in full blast. 
 
 All he needed was a crew. He knew where to find it. 
 He ran down to the desolate island off Topsail Inlet, 
 where Blackbeard had marooned the men. The some- 
 
no Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 time pirates were in desperate straits. Bonnet took them 
 on the Revenge, revived and fed them, and then an 
 nounced his intention of resuming his former vocation 
 and incidentally of his purpose of hunting for Blackbeard. 
 The marooned men were only too willing. It speaks well 
 for the courage of Bonnet that with a handful of men he 
 was desirous of engaging so redoubtable a villain as his 
 old captor, but it does not speak well for his discretion or 
 his sanity. At any rate, although Bonnet hunted for him 
 assiduously he did not find him, and at last, despairing of 
 success, he bore away for northern waters for metal more 
 easy, if less attractive. 
 
 On this cruise he changed the name of the Revenge to 
 the Royal James, which was the title of the young Pre 
 tender. I suppose Bonnet deluded himself again with 
 the idea that having now become an adherent of the 
 house of Stuart he was at liberty to work his will upon 
 the high seas. He also changed his name to Captain 
 Thomas for the good of his health. 
 
 He had a royal time, from the pirate point of view, off 
 New York and Philadelphia, and finally with his hull full 
 of plunder and with two captured vessels he turned to 
 southern waters once more. Having been injured some 
 what in a storm and being tired with the long cruise, he 
 entered the Cape Fear River with his prizes. Grown 
 bold and reckless, instead of purchasing the things he 
 required for the repair of his ship and the comforts of 
 his men, he landed bodies of men and took what he 
 wanted wherever he found it. 
 
 The South Carolinians and their hot-headed but able 
 governor, Johnson, were still chafing under the humiliat 
 ing tribute which Blackbeard had enforced. When the 
 settlers about the Cape Fear River informed the authori- 
 
Under the "Jolly Roger" m 
 
 ties by expresses of the arrival of Bonnet, and of his 
 actions, Johnson determined to do something. 
 
 Among the principal settlers of South Carolina was 
 one William Rhett. This gentleman was born in Lon 
 don in 1666, and he had come to Carolina in 1694. By 
 profession he was a gentleman sailor. Circumstances, to 
 wit, the colonial need and his own force of character, had 
 made him a colonel of the Carolina militia. When a 
 French and Spanish squadron made a descent upon 
 Charles Town in 1708, he had been appointed " vice 
 admiral " of the colonial naval force, and had driven the 
 invaders away from the coast after capturing one of their 
 ships. 
 
 He was a high-tempered, passionate and irascible man, 
 but endowed with undaunted courage and undoubted 
 ability. For the rest, he was a warden of St. Philip s 
 Episcopal Church and the agent for the distribution of 
 the stipends of the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Gospel in Foreign Parts. Colonel Rhett immediately 
 offered to lead an expedition against Bonnet. Two 
 small trading sloops, the Henry and the Sea Nymph, com 
 manded by Captains Martin and Hall, and mounting 
 eight small guns each, were both filled with volunteers. 
 The contingent on the Henry was seventy men, that on 
 the Sea Nymph sixty. 
 
 " Colonel- Vice-Admiral " Rhett hoisted his broad pen 
 nant upon the Henry and set sail. Some time was wasted 
 in chasing another pirate who had ventured to take a 
 look in at Charles Town harbor, but on the 2Oth of Sep 
 tember, 1718, the cruise against Bonnet, who was still 
 carrying things with a high hand in the Cape Fear River, 
 was begun. On the evening of the 26th Colonel Rhett 
 arrived off the bar at the mouth of the river. The tide 
 
ii2 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 was out and his pilots were not sufficiently acquainted 
 with the river to allow him to move up to attack the 
 pirates, the topmasts of whose vessels could be seen above 
 the trees around an adjacent headland. Rhett therefore 
 anchored for the night in a position to command the 
 river. 
 
 As soon as he became aware of the approach of the 
 Carolina cruisers Bonnet manned his boats and under 
 the supposition that the vessels at the mouth of the river 
 were traders, organized an expedition for their capture. 
 A nearer approach disclosed the true state of affairs, how 
 ever, and Bonnet found himself in a quandary. While 
 the Royal James mounted ten guns and was manned by a 
 crew of sixty men and while she was larger than either 
 of Rhett s vessels, and her guns heavier than those the 
 cruisers mounted, yet she was an indifferent match for 
 the two of them. Besides, your genuine pirate always 
 avoided a fight as long as he could help it. 
 
 Bonnet, therefore, determined to make a run for it, 
 hoping to beat off the sloops and gain the open sea. The 
 Royal James was in no condition to do this that evening 
 or he would have tried it at once. All night long, how 
 ever, his men worked indefatigably to fit her for cruising 
 and with much success, for as the day broke, abandoning 
 his prizes, he stood toward the sea. Rhett was ready for 
 him. Expecting just such a manoeuvre he had kept his 
 men at their guns all night, and as they saw the Royal 
 James come flying down the river before a strong off 
 shore breeze, with every sail set, Rhett ordered his two 
 sloops to beat toward her. 
 
 As Bonnet came tearing down the stream the approach 
 of the Henry and the Sea Nymph forced him to hug the 
 shore more closely than he intended. In fact so skilfully 
 
Under the " Jolly Roger" 113 
 
 did Rhett handle his two ships that Bonnet had to choose 
 between running him down and thus bringing on a hand 
 to hand fight with both of them, or leaving the channel. 
 He left the channel and went aground. Rhett, in hot 
 pursuit of him, had no time to check the way of the Henry 
 before he, too, took ground, within pistol shot distance 
 of the Royal James. The Sea Nymph also ran on one of 
 the sand bars with which the mouth of the river abounds, 
 but unfortunately too far away from the pirate to be of 
 much service to Rhett. 
 
 The Henry and the Royal James immediately opened 
 fire upon each other. The tide was ebbing and such were 
 the relative positions of the two ships that, as the water 
 shallowed and they careened on the sand bars, the deck 
 of the Royal James was turned away from the, deck of the 
 Henry which her own inclination left entirely exposed. 
 This gave Bonnet a decided advantage, for his men could 
 shoot at the king s men without being exposed them 
 selves, while the helpless Carolinians on the slanting deck 
 had absolutely no protection from the pirate s discharges. 
 
 Farragut s famous maxim about the best protection 
 from the enemy s fire being a well-directed fire from your 
 own guns, had not been enunciated, yet Rhett knew the 
 principle thoroughly. Animated by their commander, 
 who, some accounts say, was wounded in the fight, his 
 men stood to their guns manfully and poured a perfect 
 stream of shot from their weapons upon the pirate, which 
 was returned with equal resolution and much greater ef 
 fect, for no less than forty per cent, of the Carolinians 
 were either killed or wounded. For five long hours they 
 kept up the conflict, the Sea Nymph joining in at long 
 range. 
 
 It was evident that whichever vessel would be first 
 
 8 
 
ii4 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 floated by the tide when it reached its flood, would be, 
 able to terminate the conflict out of hand. The pirates 
 were in high glee over the situation. One of the old 
 tellers of the tale relates how they mocked and jeered at 
 the unfortunate Carolinians and how they made a " whiff 
 with their bloody flag " as indicative of their contempt; 
 but their joy was turned to despair when, as the tide came 
 rolling in, they saw the Henry gently rising to an even 
 keel and the Sea Nymph following suit while their larger 
 vessel still lay aground. 
 
 Calling up the Sea Nymph Rhett now made for the 
 pirate. But the spirit had gone out of the men on the 
 helpless Royal James and they clamored to surrender. 
 Bonnet, pistol in hand, swore that he would never yield 
 and attempted to fire the magazine, but his men over 
 powered him and, just as the two attacking ships took 
 position to rake them, flung out the white flag. 
 
 The total loss on the little squadron of Rhett was 
 twelve killed and twenty-eight wounded, which was very 
 heavy indeed considering that the Sea Nymph had been 
 but slightly engaged. The pirate s loss is not definitely 
 stated, but it was believed to be over thirty. The Henry 
 and the Royal James were so shot-torn and shattered that 
 they could with difficulty be kept afloat. Rhett, how 
 ever, patched them up and taking the two prizes returned 
 to Charles Town. He had a warm reception when he 
 arrived with his little flotilla with the royal standard float 
 ing above the black flag on the pirate s schooner. 
 
 Bonnet and his men to the number of thirty were at 
 once put on trial for piracy. Chief Justice Trott, him 
 self an arrant scoundrel, but a man of great ability, pre 
 sided at the trial. They were all found guilty and sen 
 tenced to be hanged. Trott was a man mighty in the 
 
Under the " Jolly Roger" 115 
 
 Scriptures, in the letter that is, though not in the spirit 
 so for that matter was Bonnet and a few paragraphs 
 from his address to Bonnet on his conviction are curi 
 ously interesting. 
 
 " You being a Gentleman that have had the advantage of 
 liberal education and being generally esteemed a man of 
 Letters I believe it will be needless for me to explain to you 
 the nature of Repentance and Faith in Christ they being so 
 fully and so often explained in the Scriptures that you can 
 not but know them. And therefore perhaps for that reason 
 it might be thought by some improper for me to have said 
 so much to you as I have already upon this occasion ; Neither 
 should I have done it, but that considering the course of 
 your life and actions, I have just reason to fear that the 
 Principles of Religion that had been instilled into you by 
 your Education have been at least corrupted if not entirely 
 defaced by the Scepticism and Infidelity of this wicked age ; 
 and that what Time you allowed for Study was rather ap 
 plied to Polite Literature; and the vain Philosophy of the 
 Times than to a serious Search after the Law and Will of 
 God, as revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures. For had 
 your Delight been in the law of the Lord, and that you had 
 meditated therein Day and Night Psal. 1-2 you would then 
 have found that God s Word was a Lamp unto your Feet, and 
 a Light to your Path Psal; 119-105, and that you would ac 
 count all other knowledge but Loss in comparison of the 
 Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus Phil. 3-8 who 
 to them that are called is the Power of God and the Wisdom 
 of God i Cor: 1-24, even as the hidden Wisdom which God 
 ordained before the World. Chap : 2-7." 
 
 And so on in the same strain. 
 
 Bonnet had behaved with much personal dignity and 
 courage under Trott s disgraceful brow-beating during 
 
n6 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 the trial, and some sympathy had been elicited for him 
 therefor, but when the issue was determined and his 
 hideous fate was realized, he broke down, and played the 
 coward. He overwhelmed everybody, including Colonel 
 Rhett and the governor, with the most abject, pusillani 
 mous, disgraceful pleas for mercy; and because he had 
 been born a gentleman and was of a different social stamp 
 from the ordinary pirate, he actually moved some of the 
 persons to whom he addressed himself a curious state 
 of affairs. The fact that he had been born to better 
 things really made his wickedness more reprehensible. 
 Johnson sturdily refused to commute his sentence or to 
 grant him a reprieve to go to England or anywhere else. 
 He was even deaf to such appeals as this which Bonnet in 
 his despair finally addressed to him. 
 
 " I heartily beseech you ll permit me to live, and I ll volun 
 tarily put it ever out of my Power by separating all my Limbs 
 from my Body, only reserving the use of my Tongue to call 
 continually on, and pray to the Lord, my God and mourn all 
 my Days in Sackcloth and Ashes to work out Confident hopes 
 of my Salvation, at that great and dreadful Day when all 
 righteous Souls shall receive their just rewards. And to 
 render your Honour a further Assurance of my being incapa 
 ble to prejudice any of my Fellow Christians, if I was so 
 wickedly bent I humbly beg you will (as a Punishment of 
 my Sins for my poor Soul s sake) indent me as a menial 
 Servant to your Honour, and this Government during my 
 Life, and send me to the fartherest inland Garrison or Set 
 tlement in the Country or in any other ways you ll be pleased 
 to dispose of me. 
 
 " Now the God of Peace that brought again from the Dead 
 our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the Sheep, thro the 
 Blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every 
 
Under the "Jolly Roger" n; 
 
 good Work to do his Will, working in you, that which is 
 pleasing in his Sight through Jesus Christ to whom be Glory 
 for ever and ever is the hearty Prayer of 
 " Your Honour s Most miserable and Afflicted servant 
 
 " STEDE BONNET." 
 
 The concluding paragraph was worthy of the religious 
 Trott. 
 
 Before he could be executed Bonnet with four com 
 panions escaped from confinement and attempted to get 
 to sea in an open boat. Contrary winds drove them 
 ashore upon Sullivan s Island. Colonel Rhett headed an 
 expedition to capture him and his company, which was 
 easily done after two of the pirates had been killed. Bon 
 net and his men were hanged at Execution Dock on the 
 24th of November, 1718. Sharp and summary had been 
 that administration of Carolina justice and the surviving 
 pirates began to feel that it would be well for them to 
 keep away from the Carolina coasts hereafter. 
 
 What became of the wife who appeared in shadowy 
 outline at the beginning of this sketch, is not known; but 
 if she actually existed we seem to find in Bonnet s char 
 acter, as he exhibited it in his piratical expeditions, suffi 
 cient excuse to justify her for everything of which she was 
 even remotely accused. If she ever lived she should have 
 been glad that he was hanged, but being a woman who 
 probably loved him some time, I suppose she was sorry 
 for his end. This statement I consider a handsome 
 amendment for having set down the vague story of the 
 suspicions about her character. 
 
PART III 
 VARIOUS EARLY COLONIAL WARS 
 
 I 
 Some of Frontenac s Exploits 
 
SOME OF FRONTENAC S EXPLOITS 
 
 I. The Massacre at La Chine 
 
 A FEW miles above the city of Montreal the St. 
 Lawrence pours its mighty flood of water in mad 
 turmoil over those jutting points of rock, the 
 passage of which is the most exciting experience in the 
 descent of the great river. Upon the banks of the 
 stream, just above the rapids, where the low-lying land 
 permits it to widen into a vast expanse of water known 
 as Lac St. Louis, one Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, 
 by permission of the Sulpicians, whose influence was para 
 mount in Montreal, had buih himself a manor and es 
 tablished there a village, which, in the year 1689, con 
 tained some four hundred inhabitants. To this place, 
 with fanciful anticipation that the great river if pursued 
 far enough would afford a convenient passage to China, 
 the long-sought-for and mysterious East, had been given 
 the name of La Chine. The name is still preserved in the 
 whirling rapids. 
 
 On the night of the 4th of August, 1689, i n the 
 midst of a furious storm of rain and wind, hundreds of 
 birch-bark canoes were launched upon Lac St. Louis, 
 and silently paddling across the river, some fifteen hun 
 dred ferocious Iroquois landed upon the shore and with 
 out a sound surrounded the village. A failure to invest 
 Fort Frontenac had left these Children of the Long- 
 
 121 
 
122 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 house, as the savage confederates of the Five Nations 
 were called, free to attack this unprotected and unsus 
 picious point. At a given signal the blood-curdling war 
 whoop was raised, the doors of the houses were burst 
 open and the startled inhabitants were killed or captured 
 before they realized what had happened. Many of them, 
 awakened from sleep by the touch of a rude hand, opened 
 their eyes to see a hideous painted face bending over 
 them and before their lips could form a cry a tomahawk 
 would be sunk into their brains a happy fate which 
 those who were spared for the moment would fain have 
 preferred. 
 
 After the settlement had been plundered by the rapa 
 cious Indians the torch was applied to the houses, which, 
 in spite of the rain, burned furiously, the bright glare 
 warning the scattered inhabitants far and near that the 
 threatening war with the Iroquois had at last begun. The 
 Indians completely devastated the village. Added to 
 their natural ferocity were the passions engendered by 
 the captured liquor of which they freely partook, and 
 under the double stimulus, they committed acts of inde 
 scribable horror. 
 
 Two or three palisaded forts in the vicinity of La Chine 
 were garrisoned with soldiers and militiamen in small 
 numbers, but for the most part they remained in their 
 intrenchments paralyzed with terror and did nothing. 
 Subercase, a gallant officer in command of the troops in 
 the field, was at Montreal when the news of the massacre 
 was brought by a frightened fugitive the next morning . 
 Some two hundred soldiers lay encamped midway Mon 
 treal and La Chine. They had been apprised of the 
 massacre by fugitives and had been ordered under arms, 
 but had not dared to advance. Subercase, riding full 
 
Some of Frontenac s Exploits 123 
 
 speed, found them hesitating. Rallying to their sup 
 port about a hundred inhabitants, he put himself at their 
 head and moved forward. The ruins of La Chine, the 
 dead men, women, and children smouldering in the em 
 bers or hanging to stakes, filled their hearts with rage and 
 revenge. 
 
 Word was brought to them that the Indians were en 
 camped a few miles farther on. Although few in num 
 bers they were eager to attack, and Subercase, sword in 
 hand, led them into the forest glades. His victory would 
 have been certain, and his vengeance complete, for the 
 Indians, it was afterward learned, were so overcome with 
 liquor that they could have made but little resistance. 
 As he approached their encampment, however, he was 
 overtaken by the Chevalier de Vaudreuil, who bore per 
 emptory orders from Denonville, the governor of Canada, 
 for the party to return at once. To his bitter disappoint 
 ment, Subercase was compelled to obey and the whole 
 detachment retreated to Fort Roland. Montreal was 
 wild with terror and Denonville had recalled the troops 
 to protect the town from the supposed inevitable attack. 
 
 The Indians, recovering from their debauch, ravaged 
 the country about the city for miles, but made no effort 
 to attack the town everything outside of its walls and 
 the forts, however, was plundered and destroyed. 
 Among other things the savages succeeded in cutting 
 off a detachment of some eighty soldiers trying to reach 
 Fort Roland from Fort St. Remy. They massacred 
 them almost to a man. Having sated themselves with 
 plunder in their long sojourn, one afternoon they took 
 their hapless captives across the river, and that night, after 
 torturing their victims with diabolical ingenuity, ended 
 their revel by an awful cannibal feast. The wretched, im- 
 
1^4 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 potent French stood in little groups on the strand at La 
 Chine and Montreal, and with sickening hearts watched 
 the flickering lights at Chateauguay which hovered over 
 the place of death, dishonor, and horror to those they 
 loved. 
 
 This appalling incident was the result of the Incapacity 
 of the governors of New France, the culmination of years 
 of treachery, duplicity and oppression, and was the begin 
 ning of a series of frightful episodes, which did not termi 
 nate until the power of the Five Nations was broken, 
 some eight years after. The people of the land cried out 
 for a man to extricate them from their awful situation, 
 and King Louis XIV sent them one in the person of old 
 Frontenac. 
 
 II. The Burning of Schenectady 
 
 Louis de Buade, Comte de Palluau et de Frontenac, 
 sprang from an ancient and honorable Basque family, 
 cradled in the shadow of the Pyrenees. His grand 
 father had been advanced to high station by Henry the 
 Fourth. His father had been maintained in the same 
 degree of eminence by a continuance of the favor of that 
 merry monarch. The melancholy Louis XIII had con 
 sented to stand godfather for the baby born in the year 
 1620, who was to be the future governor, and he vouch 
 safed to him the signal honor of giving him the royal 
 name. By his ardent, fiery Gascon nature, Frontenac 
 was marked out for the profession of a soldier, and in 
 1635, at the age of fifteen, he entered the French army 
 as a gentleman-volunteer under Maurice of Nassau, ris 
 ing, when twenty-three years of age, by successive acts 
 of hardihood and audacity to the rank of colonel of the 
 
Some of Frontenac s Exploits 125 
 
 Normandy regiment. He took part in many of the 
 sieges and battles in Flanders, and commanded his regi 
 ment with brilliant success in Italy, earning a reputation 
 for desperate gallantry and headlong valor which made 
 him the darling of the court of Louis XIV. 
 
 He was wounded again and again, but nothing seems 
 to have dampened his military ardor. Rapidly passing 
 through the different grades he was made a lieutenant 
 general in 1669 and sent by the great Turenne, the first 
 soldier of his day in Europe, as his especial choice to com 
 mand the forces of Venice in a life and death struggle 
 the Republic was then waging in Candia against the 
 Turks. It was a most arduous and difficult position, but 
 Frontenac accepted it gladly. From causes which he 
 could not control, ultimate success did not attend his en 
 deavors, but the price which he made the Turks pay be 
 fore they conquered the island their loss being reputed 
 at one hundred and eighty thousand men taken in con 
 junction with the insufficient means at his disposal, raised 
 him to a very high place among the soldiers of the world. 
 
 Long before this campaign, in 1648, with his usual 
 audacity he had made a love match with one of the beau 
 ties of the court, Anne de la Grange-Trianon, aged six 
 teen at the time; capturing that lady as it were by storm, 
 and whisking her off to the church under the noses of 
 her violently opposing guardians! The match was not 
 a happy one, for if Frontenac was flint, Anne was steel, 
 and they disagreed violently and quarrelled from the be 
 ginning. They therefore lived apart, each apparently 
 retaining the highest respect for the other! 
 
 It is more than surmised that the first appointment of 
 her fiery, hot-tempered husband to the governorship of 
 Canada, was largely the result of his wife s influence. 
 
i26 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 Singular to state she was not immoral, which is saying 
 much for a woman so circumstanced in that court, and 
 she appears to have remained faithful to her titular lord. 
 She simply wished to be rid of him. Another cause, how 
 ever, has been assigned for sending this brilliant soldier 
 and courtier to New France, and perhaps with better 
 reason, for he is reputed to have promised to become a 
 rival of the Royal Sun in the affections of the famous 
 Marquise de Montespan. 
 
 However that may be, for ten years, from 1672 to 1682, 
 he had enjoyed a tempestuous and stormy career as gov 
 ernor of Canada. During this time he quarrelled with 
 everything and everybody, but in spite of his rancorous 
 difficulties with the Jesuits and Bishop Laval, and the 
 Intendants Talon and Duchesneau, he showed such ex 
 ecutive ability and general capacity, as had been mani 
 fested by no previous governor since the days of Cham- 
 plain. During his term of office he sent forth Joliet and 
 Marquette to discover the Mississippi. It is interesting 
 to note that when Joliet saw for the first time the mighty 
 " Father of Waters," he called it the River de Buade, and 
 although Marquette named it La Concepcion, De Buade 
 it remained for some time. Frontenac was the patron 
 and friend of that other heroic spirit La Salle, who was 
 assassinated in the swamps of the Gulf of Mexico vainly 
 endeavoring to found an empire for France. 
 
 The royal governor was so far in advance of his time 
 as to actually constitute and summon in New France a 
 sort of States-General, or Parliament, for the govern 
 ment of the country under him, of course. This was 
 much to the disgust of that most absolute of monarchs, 
 Louis XIV, who hated Parliaments and made himself 
 the States-General of his kingdom, and the king severely 
 
Some of Frontenac s Exploits 127 
 
 rebuked him for his action and countermanded his Par 
 liament. It was a singular thing for the old noble to do 
 for he was by nature one of the most aristocratic of men. 
 
 The quarrels in Quebec became so fierce finally that 
 Frontenac and the intendant were relieved and ordered 
 home. The two succeeding administrations of La Barre 
 and de Denonville, culminated, as we have seen, in the 
 awful massacre at La Chine. Before the news reached 
 France, Louis had decided to replace Frontenac on the 
 great rock of Quebec, and after he heard the tidings he 
 determined to maintain him there. 
 
 The French king was then in the zenith of his power, 
 the peace of Nimwegen had left him the undisputed 
 primacy in Europe. The years of extravagant excesses 
 which followed, coupled with the tremendous strains in 
 volved by his previous campaigns, had, however, under 
 mined his resources, and France was never so vulnerable 
 as at this moment of her triumph. The desire of Louis 
 to replace James II upon the throne of England, and his 
 inveterate hatred of William of Orange, caused war to 
 break out again in 1688, and Frontenac was charged with 
 carrying it on in the New World. To him was allotted 
 the task of exterminating the English colonists on the 
 seaboard and bringing the whole continent of North 
 America into the power of New France. To bring about 
 this magnificent result, he was provided with his brains 
 and his hands by Providence, and reenforced by the good 
 will and the orders of the king, who was so busily occu 
 pied in other directions as to be able to spare him but 
 little in the way of troops and supplies. 
 
 On the 1 2th of October, 1689, the governor reached 
 Quebec and found New France at the last gasp. Instead 
 of conquering the English it was necessary to struggle 
 
128 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 for life. In his magnificent planning Louis had given 
 no thought to the Iroquois, and even the news from La 
 Chine scarcely enlightened him. The Indians, undoubt 
 edly inspired by the English, had given evidence of their 
 intentions toward Canada in the massacre, and it was 
 rumored that preparations were already under way on 
 the part of the English vigorously to follow up the in 
 roads of their savage allies. With characteristic energy 
 Frontenac endeavored to relieve the situation, and re 
 habilitate the country. Striving by diplomacy and ca 
 jolery to propitiate the Indians for the time being, in spite 
 of the awful blot left upon the colony by the unpunished 
 foray, he sent three expeditions to strike the English 
 border settlements, to restore French prestige in the sav 
 age mind, and to make at least a beginning toward over 
 whelming that thin line of humanity on the seaboard. 
 
 It was winter before the three expeditions got away 
 under the command of different members of that young 
 Canadian noblesse, who showed themselves men of dis 
 tinguished capacity and courage in all the campaigns on 
 this continent. One party under the command of de 
 Mantet, and three of the sons of the celebrated Le 
 Moyne, of whom d Iberville w r as chief, comprised some 
 thing over two hundred and fifty men, half of them 
 French, the others Christianized Hurons. Having 
 marched twenty-two days in mid-winter, in which they 
 suffered incredible hardships, on the 4th of February, 
 1690, the^ arrived near the little Dutch village of 
 Schenectady, the northernmost settlement in New York. 
 Albany had been their destination, but Schenectady lay 
 nearer to them and exhausted human nature could do no 
 more. 
 
 The people of Schenectady had laughed at the warn- 
 
Some of Frontenac s Exploits 129 
 
 ings of Governor Leisler. That night the ten militia 
 men who garrisoned the town mounted snow sentinels 
 at the two gates of the stockade, which they left open, 
 and under this secure wardship, retired to their bar 
 racks. The unsuspicious inhabitants were all asleep, 
 The French and Indians lay concealed until nightfall and 
 then in the midst of a furious snow storm they softly en 
 tered the town, encircled the houses, made all prepara 
 tions and awakened the inhabitants with the usual war 
 cry. Some sixty were killed, including twenty-two 
 women and children, and ninety persons were made pris 
 oners. The killing was attended by frightful barbarities, 
 perpetrated by the Indians as usual. The town was 
 looted and burned, and taking some thirty prisoners with 
 them, having turned adrift the balance, the French, laden 
 with plunder, retraced their steps to Canada with light 
 hearts. A party of warriors from the Long-house over 
 took them and in a fierce battle killed some eighteen of 
 them, but otherwise they got back safely with their pris 
 oners and their plunder. 
 
 Another expedition numbering fifty-two persons, under 
 de Rouville, surprised the settlement at Salmon Falls on 
 the Piscataqua River, on the night of March 27th, and 
 reenacted the butchery at Schenectady. As they were 
 retracing their steps with fifty-four prisoners they fell in 
 with the third French party, and early in June the com 
 bined force moved against the settlement on Casco Bay, 
 called Fort Loyal, which is now Portland, Maine. 
 
 This place was garrisoned and was regularly besieged. 
 After six days of gallant defence, the officer in command, 
 Captain Sylvanus Davis, surrendered under promises of 
 protection, which were basely forgotten, and the usual 
 massacre ensued. All these predatory excursions had 
 9 
 
130 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 been most brutally and ruthlessly carried out to complete 
 success by the infuriated French and their savage allies. 
 The effect upon popular opinion, and especially on the 
 Indians, was immediate and decided. There was some 
 fight left in the French after all, it appeared. 
 
 Meanwhile, for the first time in many years, the sav 
 ages from the northwest had been able to transport their 
 furs and peltries to Montreal. Frontenac s vigorous 
 policy had opened a way for them and a constantly in 
 creasing stream of wealth and trade poured through the 
 colonies. There was a great meeting of the chiefs and 
 braves at Montreal in July, and it is gravely related that 
 the spirited old governor general actually seized a toma 
 hawk and personally joined in the war dance, by which 
 an alliance offensive and defensive was celebrated. 
 
 A curious picture is presented by this habitue of the 
 court of the proudrest, most punctilious, and best dressed 
 of monarchs, abandoning himself to wild Indian revel 
 ry; whooping, yelling, brandishing his tomahawk with all 
 the fervor of the most savage of his allies. But one of 
 the secrets of his success lay in his intuitive knowledge of 
 the savage character and his ability to control the Ind 
 ians. He was half Indian in spirit himself, this fierce 
 old warrior, and his actions they could understand and 
 appreciate. Even those who warred against him, cher 
 ished for him an instinctive respect and went softly in 
 his presence. 
 
 III. Phips* Failure at Quebec 
 
 But the sturdy English colonists did not submit tamely 
 to the inroads of Frontenac s partisans. The sluggish 
 Dutch blood of New York was stirred by the dreadful 
 
Some of Frontenac s Exploits 131 
 
 news that came down the river, and a certain Captain 
 John Schuyler, raised a force to attack Montreal by land; 
 Massachusetts came to his assistance. A party of sev 
 eral hundred colonists, under Winthrop and Schuyler, 
 were assembled in the spring to march up to the attack 
 by the familiar route along Lake Champlain, which was 
 the inevitable war path of the different contending 
 nationalities on this continent until the victory of Mac- 
 Donough finally shut the gate. 
 
 Meanwhile, Massachusetts, bankrupt in treasury and 
 exhausted in credit, boldly undertook an enterprise of 
 even greater magnitude, no less than the capture of 
 Quebec itself. Massachusetts bore the same relation to 
 the provinces that South Carolina, later on, did to the 
 Southern States. She was always spoiling for a fight and 
 generally found people ready to accommodate her. Ap 
 pealing to England for help, and when her appeals were 
 unnoticed falling back upon her own limited and over 
 strained resources, she assembled some thirty-four ves 
 sels, only four of which were of respectable size and the 
 rest small and of trifling force. In these vessels were 
 embarked twenty-two hundred men under the command 
 of Sir William Phips. 
 
 Phips was a plain, rough sailor, originally a ship-car 
 penter, grossly ignorant and obstinate, who had captured 
 Port Royal in Nova Scotia without striking a blow. He 
 was honest, according to his lights, and he was brave. 
 Other qualifications for leadership he had none. Earlier 
 in life he had located a sunken galleon in the West Indies 
 and had recovered from it the treasure it had contained. 
 He had put down a mutiny on the king s ship he com 
 manded on that occasion by the force of his vigorous 
 personality and had been knighted for these exploits 
 
132 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 He was chosen to the command of this expedition, and 
 the soldiers, who were, of course, militiamen, were under 
 the direction of John Walley, a Barnstable mechanic. 
 He, too, was brave, but untrained, ignorant and inexperi 
 enced. 
 
 The ships were scantily provisioned and inadequately 
 provided with ammunition. A more capable com 
 mander would never have dreamed of attempting so stu 
 pendous a feat of arms with so feeble a force. En 
 couraged, however, by his easy success at Port Royal, 
 Phips blithely set forth upon his impossible expedition. 
 His departure was much delayed, waiting for reenforce- 
 ments from England which never came, and it was not 
 until October, near the commencement of the closed 
 season, that the fleet dropped anchor in the basin of 
 Quebec. 
 
 The land expedition up Lake Champlain, badly con 
 ducted, having effected nothing whatever, decided to 
 return. Before doing so, Schuyler pushed forward with 
 an advance party and had a severe engagement with a 
 larger force of French and Indians in which the honors 
 remained with the Dutch-Americans, but the mind of 
 Frontenac was set at rest by the news of the prompt and 
 final retreat of the party. 
 
 His calmness was speedily broken by the arrival of a 
 courier at Montreal with the startling news that the Eng 
 lish were coming up the river! Leaving Callieres, gov 
 ernor of Montreal, to bring up the garrison to Quebec, 
 with all speed Frontenac made his way down the river. 
 By his orders fortifications had been commenced on the 
 landward side of the town. He had caused a stockade 
 with a ditch and earth wall to be built from the St. Charles 
 River to the St. Lawrence. The work was not entirely 
 
The Massacre at La Chine. 
 
Announcing the Arrival of the English. 
 
Some of Frontenac s Exploits 133 
 
 completed when he arrived, but with his usual vigor he 
 infused so much of his own spirit into the population 
 that during one night they finished the palisade. Can 
 non were planted on the walls of the city and upon the 
 plateau of Cape Diamond, to command the shipping in 
 the basin, and two batteries were erected near the water s 
 edge in front of the lower town. The country was 
 scoured for the hardy Canadian militia, and the regular 
 garrisons of the near-by posts on the river were concen 
 trated in the town. 
 
 Early in the morning of October i6th, 1690, the fleet 
 of Phips came slowly trailing past the Isle of Orleans 
 and dropped anchor just out of gunshot of the city. 
 Phips had not displayed his usual energy. He had lin 
 gered three weeks at Tadoussac and then had proceeded 
 leisurely up the river, touching at several places, in most 
 of which he met with a warm reception from Canadi 
 ans and Indians, who, from the cover of the thick woods, 
 on the shore, inflicted great loss upon his men. The first 
 sight of the city and the natural strength of the position, 
 apparent even to his dull mind, possibly for the first time 
 convinced him that the task was not the easy one which 
 his experience at Port Royal had led him confidently to 
 expect. 
 
 Putting a bold face upon the matter, however, he sent 
 an aide ashore under a flag of truce. The officer was 
 blindfolded by the orders of Frontenac and led by a 
 roundabout road over barricade after barricade into the 
 town. Then, still blindfolded, he was conducted to the 
 great hall of the Chateau St. Louis, the residence of the 
 governor, and the bandage was taken from his eyes. He 
 found himself standing before a tall, thin old man of 
 commanding presence, with a nose like an eagle s beak, 
 
134 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 who looked at him sternly out of a pair of fierce gray 
 eyes, deep set under great tufted brows, a weather- 
 beaten, age-lined face, which, better than the upright fig* 
 ure and the easy grace of movement, bespoke years of 
 campaigning on the field. It was Frontenac. 
 
 He was surrounded by a brilliant group of the young 
 noblesse of the colonies, attired in all the bravery which 
 the French have ever managed to assume however hard 
 their circumstances or however desperate their situation. 
 To him the rude young provincial officer presented an 
 impudent summons from Phips to surrender. The letter 
 was read aloud, and was received with bursts of indigna 
 tion by the officers and men present. Frontenac, how 
 ever, restrained their passion and dismissed the officer, 
 refusing to give him any letter for his commander, saying 
 that he could get his reply from the mouths of the cannon. 
 He remarked incidentally, that a man of his station and 
 reputation should not be approached in the rude and 
 brusque manner in which Phips had addressed him. 
 
 In spite of Phips bold demand, his situation was well- 
 nigh hopeless. But there were two or three things which 
 he might have done which would have presented a faint 
 possibility of success. He was advised to attack the 
 landward side of the town and was informed that there 
 was a practicable path farther up the river affording ac 
 cess to the plateau. It was the same path by which 
 Wolfe made his famous ascent of the cliff seventy years 
 later. Phips rejected this offer and decided to land his 
 men on the side of the Charles River opposite Quebec, 
 cross the river at a ford and capture the town by storm, 
 while he, himself, engaged the different batteries with 
 his ships! While these preparations were going on, the 
 garrison of the town was reenforced by the arrival of 
 
Some of Frontenac s Exploits 135 
 
 Callieres and his men from Montreal; that was the end 
 of Phips last hope if he had known it, which, of course, 
 he did not. 
 
 In pursuance of his foolhardy plan, after some delays 
 Walley and fifteen hundred men were debarked at 
 Charlesbourg. They were met by a warm fire from par 
 ties of French on the Quebec side of the Charles River, 
 who proceeded to annoy and harass them greatly, inflict 
 ing severe loss upon them. The New Englanders fought 
 bravely, charging their concealed foes in the thickets 
 again and again, but to no avail. Before Walley could 
 properly make such disposition as his untutored mind 
 permitted, with culpable impatience Phips moved over 
 to attack the town with his ships. It was perfectly prac 
 ticable for him to enter the Charles River and cover the 
 passage of his troops by his ships, instead of which, he 
 threw away the only remaining chance of success and 
 proceeded to bombard the upper and lower town and 
 the rocky heights of Cape Diamond. 
 
 Frontenac was ready for him, and the ships and the 
 town engaged in a hot fire for two days. No harm was 
 done the city; the gunnery of the English was execrable, 
 their powder supply was finally exhausted and they ac 
 complished nothing beyond battering up the face of the 
 rock. On the other hand Frontenac dismasted the flag 
 ship, seriously damaged many other vessels, and finally 
 drove the whole fleet out of action. Phips flag which 
 floated over to the strand was picked up by the French 
 as a trophy. 
 
 Meanwhile, smallpox broke out among the men on 
 shore. When Phips heard of this news he practically 
 gave up the game. Although he blustered somewhat, 
 the spirit was gone out of him. He had still to extricate 
 
136 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 Walley s troops from their now precarious situation. 
 Manifesting at last some little evidence of military apti 
 tude, he moved some of his vessels near the shore to pro 
 tect Walley s wretched men, who had suffered greatly 
 from rain, exposure, and sickness, and from parties of 
 French skirmishers and Indian raiders, until the weather 
 permitted to reembark the party on the fleet. 
 
 Having done this successfully, on the 2ist of October, 
 after wasting two aimless days, he turned tail and, fol 
 lowed by his disorganized and scattered ships, went 
 helter-skelter down the river. Stopping below Isle Or 
 leans to careen his shattered ships and repair damages, 
 he finally reached Boston with but few of his vessels in 
 company, and while many of them finally arrived at dif 
 ferent ports, a number of the vessels were lost with all 
 on board. As the result of this disastrous expedition, 
 the credit of impoverished Massachusetts was lower and 
 her treasury a little more empty than before. The pres 
 tige of Frontenac was greatly enhanced by this gallant 
 defence, and his most Christian Majesty at Versailles even 
 went so far as to strike a medal in honor of the event, 
 which, like all the medals he struck, bore the image of 
 his own royal physiognomy. 
 
 During the remainder of Frontenac s term of office in 
 Canada, neither party being able to muster an army for 
 midable enough to undertake a conquest on a large scale, 
 the French, English, and Indians confronted one another 
 with an implacable hatred, which found no outlet save in 
 predatory excursions and forays. A trail of blood and 
 terror extended over all the frontier. The torch and the 
 scalping-knife were busy in every direction. Success in 
 clined sometimes to one side and sometimes to the other, 
 but on the whole, the balance of advantage was with the 
 French. 
 
Some of Frontenac s Exploits 137 
 
 In 1691, Peter Schuyler, ancestor of General Philip 
 Schuyler of Revolutionary fame, had an encounter with 
 Valrenne near Chambly on the Richelieu River, which 
 Frontenac characterizes as the hottest fight which had 
 yet taken place in Canada. The honors appear to have 
 been equally distributed in the barren but desperate en 
 gagement. By Frontenac s orders and inspired by the 
 Jesuit priests from 1691 to 1695 the Abenakis broke up 
 the English settlements on the coast of Maine by re 
 peated raids of the same terrible character. Indeed the 
 Christianized Indians were quite as ferocious as their 
 heathen brethren. In the end the French were entirely 
 successful and the English were pushed down to the sea 
 board settlements and compelled to stand on the defen 
 sive. But little could be done for the support of the 
 English colonists in this war by the Home Government, 
 which, at the time, had troubles of its own on its hands. 
 The Iroquois, too, suffered severely and after the defeats 
 of the English they never took the field in force as they 
 had done at La Chine. 
 
 IV. D Iberville in Hudson s Bay 
 
 In 1696 an expedition comprising three ships under 
 the famous d Iberville, captured the fort at Pemaquid. 
 After this adventure d Iberville sailed for Newfoundland, 
 captured St. John s, and ravaged the island. The next 
 year among other attacks which Frontenac planned was 
 one upon the English trading posts on Hudson s Bay. 
 To drive the English from this section, which he consid 
 ered particularly his own, had been a favorite project of 
 the king. Therefore, by Frontenac s orders, in 1697, 
 d Iberville turned the prows of his little squadron of five 
 
138 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 ships to the northward and skirted along the coast of 
 Labrador. Picking his way through the ice floes which 
 came floating down from the frozen north, in August 
 he finally entered that gloomy gray inland sea named 
 after the unfortunate Henry Hudson. 
 
 At the entrance of the bay the supply ship was caught 
 in the icepack and lost. A few days later a violent storm 
 arose which separated d Iberville from his three remain 
 ing ships. As he sailed down the bay in his frigate the 
 Pelican, forty-four guns, one morning the lookouts 
 sighted three large vessels coming toward them. Sup 
 posing that they were his missing ships he immediately 
 headed for them, but to his great surprise presently dis 
 covered that they were three large English vessels the 
 Hampshire, a man-of-war of fifty-two guns (in bad con 
 dition); and two armed merchantmen the Daring, of 
 thirty-six, and the Hudson s Bay, of thirty-two. The 
 three ships greatly outclassed his own single frigate, but 
 with the usual dauntless gallantry of his race, d Iberville 
 immediately engaged them. 
 
 It was about nine o clock in the morning. The battle 
 that ensued was an exceeding hot one. During the com 
 bat, by his brilliant seamanship, however, d Iberville so 
 manoeuvred his frigate that he succeeded in raking his 
 opponents in succession. About one o clock he man 
 aged to take such an advantageous position off the quar 
 ter of the dismasted Hampshire that she literally sank 
 with all on board under his furious broadsides. He then 
 closed with the Hudson s Bay, which presently struck 
 her flag in a sinking condition, upon which the Daring 
 fled and was seen no more. The Pelican was too much 
 cut up to pursue. 
 
 Flushed with victory d Iberville stood on down toward 
 
Some of Frontenac s Exploits 139 
 
 Fort Nelson, which it was necessary to capture. Another 
 fierce gale blew up and his ship ran ashore and was 
 wrecked. She had been badly shattered in hull, masts, 
 and rigging, and was in no condition to weather the 
 storm. By herculean efforts he succeeded in landing his 
 men and prisoners and saving his arms and ammunition. 
 The Hudson s Bay was also lost. Undaunted by this 
 misfortune he marched overland to the fort and invested 
 it. Fortunately, however, his missing ships arrived at 
 this time. The fort was vigorously bombarded and after 
 three days surrendered, the garrison receiving honorable 
 terms. The French spent the winter there and when the 
 spring came they returned to Quebec, having utterly 
 broken up the English trade. It was a glorious exploit 
 and well worthy the genius of the colonizer of Louisiana. 
 " He had triumphed over the storms, the icebergs, and 
 the English." Yet the brilliant adventure is scarcely re 
 ferred to in history. 
 
 V. Striking the Iroquois 
 
 New France was now exceedingly prosperous. The 
 fur trade, upon which it depended, had recommenced 
 and there remained no enemy to be dealt with except 
 the Iroquois. The spirit of this w r onderful confederation 
 of savage tribes was as high as ever, but their power had 
 greatly diminished. Continued warfare with enemies 
 constantly growing more powerful, as the French, and 
 with foes to whom an inveterate hatred superadded an 
 unwonted bitterness in combat, like the Huron and the 
 Illinois, had greatly depleted the ranks of their fighting 
 men. With sullen defiance, however, though they were 
 
140 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 in the main abandoned by their English allies, they re 
 fused to make peace, which Frontenac so earnestly 
 sought of them, and whenever opportunity presented 
 they continued their savage forays against New France. 
 
 In the year 1696 the governor general determined 
 finally to break their opposition. By great exertions he 
 assembled at Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario, the 
 largest army which had ever set forth upon a land expedi 
 tion in Canada. In a vast fleet of bateaux and canoes 
 some twenty-two hundred men under the leadership of 
 the indomitable old Count himself, then seventy-six years 
 of age, crossed the lake and entered the Oswego River. 
 Transporting their boats by portage around the falls and 
 overland they embarked on Lake Onondaga and pres 
 ently reached the land of the Long-house. 
 
 As the army debarked upon the shore they saw in the 
 distance dense columns of smoke and as they advanced 
 in martial array through the forest, with drums beating 
 and trumpets sounding, they found that the Onondagas 
 had burned their town and fled rather than risk a bat 
 tle. Frontenac sent his men to complete the destruc 
 tion of the crops in the fields and the villages nearby, 
 which they did with merciless severity. They made cap 
 tive several fugitives who had failed to make good their 
 escape and these they put to death with an exquisite re 
 finement of torture, which would not have shamed an 
 Iroquois. Then, having marched through the country 
 in a high-handed manner and demonstrated their power 
 in such a way that even the unthinking Indian realized 
 it, they returned to Fort Frontenac, and the Indians soon 
 thereafter sued for peace. Perhaps they were further 
 moved to this design by the signing of the treaty of Rys- 
 wyck, September 2Oth, 1697, which brought about peace 
 
Some of Frontenac s Exploits 141 
 
 between England and the French and deprived the 
 Iroquois of their strongest ally. 
 
 The news of the peace also nipped in the bud some 
 brilliant schemes of the aged Count, which he was pre 
 paring to put into operation, in spite of the fact that he 
 was not only an old but a broken man. He had become 
 in fact so worn out by his strenuous life, that in the last 
 campaign against the Iroquois, it had been necessary to 
 carry him about in a chair. The eagle spirit with which 
 he had fought through so many battles had at last worn 
 away the bars of the cage and was about to take its flight. 
 His end was peaceful. The intendant Champigny, with 
 whom he had been continually at odds, forgot their differ 
 ences and did his best to cheer the declining hours of the 
 lonely old governor. He kept up his haughty spirit to 
 the last, hurling defiance at Lord Bellemont, the royal 
 governor of New York, in a spirited correspondence, un 
 til the end of all his struggles came quietly and peacefully 
 on the afternoon of the 28th of November, 1698. It is 
 interesting to note that he bequeathed his property to 
 the wife of his youth, who survived him. I wonder if 
 she remembered the romance of her girlhood. 
 
 Frontenac left the colony at the very height of its fort 
 unes; not before, nor after, was it in the enjoyment of 
 such prosperity. Though in the idea of absolutism in 
 rule which it represented was enshrined the inevitable 
 cause of its downfall, when opposed to the idea of inde 
 pendence exhibited by its English rival, yet Frontenac 
 endued it with such vitality, that through him it lasted 
 for sixty years longer, until it died with Montcalm. 
 
 Frontenac had all the vices of his age. He was high- 
 tempered, passionate, haughty and unyielding. Con 
 ciliation was an element entirely foreign to his character. 
 
142 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 He quarrelled always, everywhere and with everyone. 
 He contended for his personal prerogatives with as much 
 zeal as he fought for his king. He cannot be held guilt 
 less of inaugurating the ruthless reprisals which devas 
 tated the border. It is not on record that he took any 
 steps to prevent the calamities and mitigate the horrors 
 attendant upon the raids which he planned and which were 
 carried out by his partisans, wood rangers and Indians. 
 He was a good hater and an unsparing combatant, but 
 his faults were more than counter-balanced by his good 
 qualities and his virtues. 
 
 He was loyal to his friends, generous in his apprecia 
 tion of the merit and achievements of those beneath him. 
 Petty jealousy of his officers had no place in his large 
 mind. He was a man of splendid executive ability, un 
 wearied persistence and the highest courage, a trained 
 and brilliant soldier of wide experience, and a devoted 
 servant of his king and his country. Between Cham- 
 plain and Montcalm he stands the most splendid repre 
 sentative of the power of France in America. He suc 
 ceeded where others failed, and few men who have lived 
 have so far impressed upon the keen judgment of the 
 Red Men who with all their faults, were seldom de 
 ceived in their estimate of a man and a soldier such evi> 
 dence of power and capacity and courage, as this grim 
 soldier from the battle fields of the Old World, this gay 
 courtier from the parks of Versailles, who finished his 
 course, like the eagle in his aerie, on the gray old rock 
 of Cape Diamond. 
 
PART III 
 VARIOUS EARLY COLONIAL WARS 
 
 II 
 
 Oglethorpe on St. Simon s Island 
 
OGLETHORPE ON ST. SIMON S ISLAND 
 
 I. The Spanish Expedition 
 
 IT is perhaps not generally known that the Spanish- 
 American War of 1898 had a precursor on this con 
 tinent in the War of the Austrian Succession, some 
 times called locally " King George s War." During this 
 conflict the Spanish invaded the province of Georgia in 
 great force, and but for the skill and courage of James 
 Edward Oglethorpe would probably have carried their 
 arms successfully up the coast for an indefinite distance. 
 Save in the largest histories the defence of St. Simon s 
 Island, which was the principal and most picturesque 
 episode of the war, is passed by with scarcely more than 
 a mention, yet it was as pretty a feat of arms on the 
 part of the colonists and as brilliantly successful in its 
 outcome as any campaign ever fought on the continent. 
 Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia, was one of the 
 most interesting characters in the whole range of 
 colonial record. Our personal knowledge of him is 
 probably greater than that we possess of any of his con 
 temporaries, for he lived to a great age, being ninety 
 years old when he died; and as he was of good birth, 
 ample fortune, a man of affairs who had risen to high 
 station, he mingled with the best society in his long life, 
 and many interesting anecdotes of him have been re 
 corded. He and the great Dr. Johnson were warm 
 friends, for instance, and the industrious and ever delight- 
 10 145 
 
146 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 ful Boswell has set down much about him, with that dis 
 criminating eye for interesting personal gossip which he 
 possessed. 
 
 Oglethorpe was born in London near the close of the 
 seventeenth century, probably in 1696.* He early en 
 tered the military service and in the Austro-Turkish War 
 served as an aide to the celebrated Prince Eugene, and 
 was present doing good service at the famous siege of 
 Belgrade. While scarcely more than a boy, dining with 
 a prince of Wiirtemberg and other officers, the prince 
 rudely filliped a few drops of wine from his glass into the 
 face of the young ensign. In Boswell s words, " Here 
 was a nice dilemma. To have challenged him instantly 
 might have fixed a quarrelsome character upon the 
 young soldier; to have taken no notice of it might have 
 been considered as cowardice. Oglethorpe, therefore, 
 keeping his eye upon the prince, and smiling all the time 
 as if he took what his highness had done in jest, said, 
 * My prince, that is a good joke; but we do it much bet 
 ter in England, and then threw a whole glass of wine in 
 the prince s face! An old general who sat by, said, 
 That was well done, my prince, you began it. Ogle 
 thorpe had chosen a remarkably neat and effective way 
 of getting out of the difficulty, and one which would not 
 have occurred to many boys of his age. Under the cir 
 cumstances there was nothing the prince could do; what 
 he thought of it all has not been recorded. 
 
 After leaving the army, in which his service had been 
 exceptionally brilliant, Oglethorpe entered Parliament 
 and, his attention being turned by service on a commit- 
 
 * There is much uncertainty about the date of Oglethorpe s birth, and the 
 authorities differ widely The latest and most authoritative work on the 
 subject, The Dictionary of National Biography, gives it as 1696. 
 
Oglethorpe on St. Simon s Island 147 
 
 tee of investigation to the situation of insolvent debtors 
 of England, he determined to relieve their hard condi 
 tion. With the sanction of the king a company was 
 formed and a grant of land obtained south of the Caro- 
 linas, which was to be constituted " a place of refuge for 
 the distressed people of Britain, and the persecuted Prot 
 estants of Europe." 
 
 The prospective settlers therein were all scrupulously 
 examined by the agents of the company and no one was 
 allowed to embark for the colony whose character and 
 ability could not pass the scrutiny successfully. In this 
 respect the colony of Georgia was unique. The only 
 debtors, too, who were allowed to go there were those 
 who had become involved in difficulties and were lan 
 guishing in prisons through misfortune, and fraudulent 
 debtors were rigorously excluded. 
 
 Oglethorpe was a stanch Protestant and he debarred 
 from his colony all Papists. He was liberal enough, how 
 ever, to welcome Jews if any should desire to come. The 
 first settlement was formed at Savannah in 1733 and by 
 Oglethorpe in person, and thereafter a steady stream of 
 immigrants of the very highest class poured into the 
 colony and settlements were made at different points. 
 Among those who sought refuge in the new land were 
 sturdy and industrious Lutherans from Salzburg, fleeing 
 from the persecutions of their prince-bishop; frugal and 
 pious Moravians under the leadership of the cultured, 
 able, and learned Spangenberg; and a small body of bold 
 and warlike Highlanders from Scotland. The colony 
 grew and prospered in spite of the fact that rum and 
 negro slavery were both equally prohibited. Among its 
 inhabitants at different times were John and Charles 
 Wesley and George Whitefield. 
 
148 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 When the European War began, which Carlyle calls 
 "Jenkins ear war," from the act of the Spaniards in 
 cutting off the ear of a certain English sea captain of un 
 savory reputation named Jenkins who lied about the 
 incident atrociously, by the way the southern American 
 colonists, of course, were involved in the struggle. 
 Oglethorpe, who had gone back to England in the in 
 terim, was appointed brigadier general, with supreme 
 command of all the military forces of Georgia and the 
 Carolinas. He returned to the province he had founded 
 and so ably administered at the head of a trained, dis 
 ciplined regiment of six hundred men, which had been 
 raised and equipped in England. 
 
 In the summer of 1740 he undertook an unsuccessful 
 and ill-advised campaign against St. Augustine, with a 
 motley force of two thousand colonists and Indians and 
 a squadron of six English ships. The invaders effected 
 nothing. They had no siege guns, the Spaniards were 
 reenforced from Havana, and after exhibiting a high 
 degree of forbearance for the inoffensive inhabitants of 
 the land, whom they had treated with unusual courtesy, 
 they gave over the attempt and withdrew from Florida. 
 
 The commander of Fort Augustine, Don Manuel de 
 Monteano, who had successfully repulsed Oglethorpe s 
 attack, conceived the design of delivering a return stroke 
 which would be decisive. Summoning to his aid all the 
 forces of Cuba, great preparations were made for the 
 coming campaign. The Spaniards hoped to sweep the 
 whole southern seaboard, overwhelm the weak colony 
 of Georgia, take the wealthy and populous Carolina 
 provinces, and carry the war at least as far as Virginia. 
 The result of the campaign would probably make them 
 masters of all the territory south of the afterward famous 
 
Oglethorpe on St. Simon s Island 149 
 
 Mason and Dixon s line, and add an empire to the Span 
 ish colonial dominion. 
 
 Over fifty ships of various sizes were assembled be 
 tween the two ports, Havana and St. Augustine, upon 
 which were embarked between five and six thousand 
 men, many of them veterans of the celebrated Spanish 
 infantry which had often proved itself among the best 
 soldiery of Europe. The expedition was provided with 
 every necessary equipment including an unusually fine 
 artillery train. 
 
 The Georgia seaboard, even more than that of the 
 Carolinas, is covered with large islands and shoals, access 
 to the main land being had through numerous sounds 
 between the islands. On several of these islands Ogle 
 thorpe had erected fortifications, notably Fort William 
 on Cumberland Island, commanding Amelia Sound; but 
 the principal defensive works were on St. Simon s Island, 
 off the mouth of the Altamaha River. 
 
 Here some six years before had been established the 
 military settlement of Frederica. As he had named the 
 province Georgia in honor of George II. , so he had called 
 the town Frederica, after the worthless and dissipated 
 Frederick, Prince of Wales, who is known to fame as the 
 father of George III., and is the man for whose dog Pope 
 wrote the following verse: 
 
 " I am his highness dog at Kew, 
 Good reader, pray, whose dog are you ? " 
 
 These are the principal things for which Frederick is 
 noted. 
 
 Georgia was of necessity what we would now call a 
 " buffer " State, between the older northerly colonies and 
 the Spanish settlements in Florida. Oglethorpe had 
 
Early Settlements in Georgia, and Map of St. Simon s Island and 
 Frederica 
 
Oglethorpe on St. Simon s Island 151 
 
 chosen the location on St. Simon s Island with an eye 
 single to its defensive possibilities. On a high bluff sur 
 rounded by thick and impenetrable forests, about mid 
 way on the western shore of the island, he had built a 
 fort protected on the land side by a tide-water ditch, and 
 on the river side by a water battery and by another bat 
 tery of twelve heavy guns so mounted as to command 
 the channel of a navigable river which gave access to the 
 place, for three quarters of a mile. Any attacking ships 
 would be forced to subject themselves to a rak .ng fire for 
 that distance as they came in. In addition they \vould 
 be compelled to endure an oblique fire, from the fort it 
 self. 
 
 The intrenchments were strongly built of a material 
 called " tabby," a compound of lime, sand, and shells, 
 which hardened upon exposure into stone-like cement 
 of impenetrable consistency. The fort and the batteries 
 were amply provided with artillery. On one side of the 
 fort before the forests began was an open place used as a 
 parade ground, which was completely commanded by its 
 guns. Back of the fort, the town, surrounded by a ram 
 part, was built. No access to Frederica, built upon the 
 landward or the river shore, was possible from the sea 
 ward shore of the island, on account of the character of 
 the beach and certain pathless morasses beyctfC it. At 
 the lower part of the island and commanding St. Simon s, 
 or Jekyl, Sound, several batteries had been erected and a 
 well-built road laid out connecting Frederica with these 
 works. The road wound about in devious course be 
 tween impenetrable forests and dangerous marshes. 
 Sometimes it would widen into a meadow or savanna 
 where would be a clearing spacious enough in which to 
 pitch a camp, but presently the forest and the marsh 
 
152 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 would approach each other once more and the road re 
 sume its character of a narrow pass. 
 
 To garrison Frederica, Oglethorpe had his own regi 
 ment, which was an efficient body of men, well officered, 
 several companies of Rangers, and a small body of High 
 landers from the, settlement at Darien, full of warlike 
 courage and zeal as became the children of the fighting 
 Scottish race. In all they amounted to less than eight 
 hundred men. To supplement this force he had his own 
 schooner of fourteen guns and eighty men, two sloops of 
 about the same size and armament, a large merchant ship 
 called the Success, which mounted twenty-two guns, and 
 several smaller craft. 
 
 Before attempting any enterprise against the upper 
 coast cities to the northward, it was necessary for the 
 invaders to dispose of this force. It would be dangerous 
 to leave such a post to menace the rear of the Spanish 
 expedition and possibly destroy its communications. 
 Monteano therefore intended to sweep the little English 
 and colonial force off the coast in short order and pro 
 ceed on his way rejoicing. He thought it would be an 
 easy task. He reckoned without his host, as we shall 
 see. 
 
 On the 22d of June, 1743, the commanding officer of 
 Fort William found means to inform Oglethorpe that 
 fourteen Spanish ships had appeared off Amelia Sound. 
 It was the advance, of the expected attack. After a 
 smart engagement with the fort they were driven off 
 with some loss and entered Cumberland Sound north of 
 the island and out of range of Fort William, but within 
 easy shooting distance of Fort Andrew. The two forts 
 on Cumberland Island were both small and not provided 
 with large garrisons. Their situation was critical. Ogle- 
 
Oglethorpe on St. Simon s Island 153 
 
 thorpe acted promptly; he always did. Embarking two 
 companies of his regiment on his own schooner and the 
 two sloops and taking advantage of a favorable wind, he 
 at once put to sea. 
 
 On the evening of the 23d of June he came in sight of 
 the Spanish squadron riding quietly at anchor. Giving 
 them no time to get under way or to make any other 
 preparation for battle, with bold yet calculated courage 
 he dashed at them. Although one of his captains, named 
 Tolson, became panic-stricken at the sight of the odds 
 and bore away from the approaching contest seeking 
 safety in ignominious flight, Oglethorpe, followed by the 
 other sloop, kept right on. The Spaniards were taken 
 by surprise by the audacity of his manoeuvres, yet they 
 hurried to their quarters and opened a wild and inef 
 fectual fire upon the approaching English from the guns 
 that bore. Oglethorpe skilfully ran into the smoke banks 
 to leeward and, himself hidden, deliberately poured his 
 broadsides into the huddled mass of the Spanish at short 
 range, with such effect that no less than four of the Span 
 ish vessels afterward foundered in a storm on account 
 of the severe handling they had received. 
 
 The two little vessels succeeded in passing the Spanish 
 fleet with little or no loss. Oglethorpe landed imme 
 diately on Cumberland Island and, after spiking the guns 
 of Fort St. Andrew, threw some of his soldiers and the 
 garrison of the, abandoned work into Fort William. 
 Leaving a promising young Scotsman named Alexander 
 Stewart in command of that work, the general succeeded 
 in regaining St. Simon s Island with his two remaining 
 vessels without further loss. His arrival was a source of 
 great joy to the soldiers and inhabitants of Frederica, as 
 the boat which had run away had returned bearing the 
 
154 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 news that Oglethorpe s flotilla had been sunk by the 
 Spaniards and that he had been lost. The cowardly cap 
 tain was immediately put under arrest for his pusillani 
 mous conduct. 
 
 II. The Defence of Frederica 
 
 On the 28th of June the united Spanish fleet appeared 
 off St. Simon s Bar. The number of vessels varies in 
 the different accounts, some authorities stating that there 
 were as many as fifty-six. There were at least thirty-six 
 of them, however, the largest being three ships of twenty 
 guns each, although the majority of them were vessels of 
 a sort known as a " half-galley," probably propelled by 
 sweeps as well as sails; some of them were large enough 
 to carry one hundred and twenty men and mount an 
 eighteen-pound gun, although being built for service in 
 inland streams, they drew but five feet of water. The 
 statements as to the number of soldiers on board range 
 from seven to five thousand. On the 5th of July, the 
 Spaniards, taking advantage of a brisk gale and a heavy 
 flood tide, crossed the bar and engaged the forts at the 
 end of the island. For four hours the battle was severely 
 contested. The Success and the small ships also joined 
 in the encounter and the Spanish made four different 
 attempts to board the Success, which, from her larger 
 size, was necessarily anchored farthest away from the 
 shore. They were repulsed in each instance with heavy 
 loss. They finally abandoned the contest, but they suc 
 ceeded in passing the forts and entering the river well up 
 toward Frederica. 
 
 Oglethorpe acted promptly as usual. Sending his 
 vessels to sea with orders that they proceed to Savannah, 
 
Ogletliorpe on St. Simon s Island 155 
 
 he spiked the guns of the batteries at the lower end of 
 the island and concentrated his forces at Frederica. The 
 Spanish commander, having reconnoitred the water ap 
 proach to that fort, and after having advanced rather 
 hesitatingly to attack it, which attempt was repulsed with 
 some loss, determined to land his army at Gascoigne s 
 bluff on the island. Some four thousand men, including 
 the Spanish artillery, grenadiers, and dismounted dra 
 goons, and regiments of negroes and mulattoes, took 
 possession of the abandoned forts, erected additional 
 batteries mounting twenty eighteen-pound guns, and 
 made other preparations for the expected conquest. 
 
 They had discovered that it was impossible to take the 
 fort by water, and that it was equally impossible to lead 
 an army through the. woods. The military road which 
 Oglethorpe had built offered the only practicable mode 
 of access to Frederica. On the 7th of July, Don Manuel 
 sent out a scouting party comprising one hundred and 
 twenty Spaniards, forty Indians and forty negro grena 
 diers. They came marching gayly up the road and walked 
 blindly into an ambush which had been prepared with 
 consummate skill by the English commander. In the 
 battle that ensued the greater part of them were killed 
 out of hand. A few only of the Indians and negroes 
 escaped to tell the tale. Oglethorpe took a prominent 
 part in the fighting, engaging the Spanish captain hand 
 to hand and finally killing him. He performed several 
 feats of personal prowess in the encounter which greatly 
 endeared him to his men. The English pursued the fly 
 ing Spanish for several miles until they came to an open 
 meadow on the edge of which Oglethorpe posted them 
 in anticipation of a return attack. He himself returned 
 post-haste to Frederica to bring up the rest of his men. 
 
156 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 Don Manuel when he heard of the disastrous defeat 
 immediately sent out a second and much stronger party 
 comprising one hundred grenadiers, two hundred infan 
 try, a small squadron of horse, and a large body of negro 
 troops and Indians, all under the command of Don An 
 tonio Barba, a veteran and experienced soldier. Throw 
 ing out scouts and making use of every precaution, they 
 marched up the road to the place held by the detachment 
 of Oglethorpe s men and a small body of Highlanders. 
 Notwithstanding their previous success, in some way the 
 regulars became panic-stricken as the Spanish advance 
 appeared in the open, and after exchanging a few futile 
 volleys they abandoned the field and withdrew. 
 
 The retrograde movement soon became a rapid retreat 
 and they streamed up the road in one of those strange 
 panics which sometimes seizes upon the best of troops. 
 A platoon of the Highlanders under Lieutenant Mackay 
 and a small company of colonial Rangers under Lieu 
 tenant Sutherland, brought up the rear. Fortunately 
 they did not share the prevailing fear of their comrades, 
 and after retreating a short distance they resolved to 
 lay an ambuscade for the pursuing Spaniards. They 
 halted, turned about, made a detour, struggled back 
 through the woods until they actually got in the rear of 
 the Spanish force still advancing up the road. They 
 chose a position where the way narrowed to a width of 
 less than twenty yards and bent into a crescent between 
 a morass and the thick wood, and there determined to 
 wait an opportunity of dealing a decisive blow, not doubt 
 ing that the enemy would soon return. 
 
 Having learned something of the dangers of the way 
 by their previous disastrous repulse, the Spanish advance 
 had been halted after a short pursuit, and as they thought 
 
Oglethorpe on St. Simon s Island 157 
 
 they had dispersed the force before them and as they were 
 not strong enough to attack Frederica, they retraced 
 their steps and returned to the open to make a camp. 
 They came back slowly, so that the Georgians had ample 
 time to make proper dispositions. They carefully chose 
 their place and lay concealed in the thick undergrowth 
 awaiting the enemy. Presently the Spaniards came 
 marching along the road. As they reached the spot 
 where the English had been awaiting them and whence 
 the regulars had retreated in terror, imagining that no 
 enemy was anywhere near them, and considering them 
 selves protected by marsh and wood, they entered the 
 defile covered by the guns of the waiting Scots, halted, 
 dismounted, stacked arms and prepared to repose and 
 rest under the shade of the palmetto tree. 
 
 The colonists had been cautioned by Mackay, the 
 ranking officer, on no account to fire until he gave the 
 word. It was his desire completely to surround the 
 Spaniards before he began the engagement, but a Span 
 ish horse happening to catch a sight of a Highland bon 
 net through the trees over the undergrowth the wearer, 
 in disobedience to orders, having risen to get a better 
 look shied violently and attracted the attention of his 
 rider and he at once gave the alarm. The Spaniards 
 awoke to the peril of their situation and sprang to their 
 arms. 
 
 Concealment was at an end. Instantly the Highland 
 ers and Rangers fired. The Spaniards taken at a great 
 disadvantage and seeing the woods on either side of them 
 ablaze with musketry, after a few feeble and ineffectual 
 discharges by such men as could reach their weapons, 
 turned to fly. The officers bravely tried to check their 
 retreat, but unavailingly. Don Antonio Barba was mor- 
 
158 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 tally wounded and many of the officers fell. The High 
 landers and Rangers burst out of the woods and charged 
 upon the enemy with bayonet or claymore in hand. This 
 completed the rout. More than two hundred of the 
 Spanish party were killed and wounded on the spot and 
 many captured before they got out of reach of the little 
 party of scarcely more than fifty Highlanders and 
 Rangers. 
 
 Back on the road advancing at the head of the rest of 
 his troops, Oglethorpe met the fleeing soldiers of the 
 regiment and heard the story of their disgraceful retreat. 
 Rallying the men and putting an officer in charge of them 
 with instructions to bring them up at full speed, he gal 
 loped on ahead down the road at a great pace. He saw 
 of course that the Highlanders and Rangers were not 
 with the rest of the troops, and when he heard the firing 
 he imagined that they had been, or were being, cut down 
 and captured. The Spaniards had openly declared that 
 they would give quarter neither to man nor woman. 
 
 In great anxiety Oglethorpe made his way toward the 
 scene of the encounter. What was his joy when he 
 reached the pass to find that not one of his troops had 
 been touched and that over two hundred of the enemy 
 lay dead and dying before him! Of the remainder of the 
 Spanish party but few reached the main camp. So fierce 
 had been the attack and pursuit of the colonists, that 
 most of the Spaniards had forsaken the road in their blind 
 attempts to escape. Those who unwittingly plunged 
 into the hideous marsh of course never succeeded in ex 
 tricating themselves from its awful depths; while for years 
 afterward hunters ranging the woods would find in lonely 
 spots skeletons which told grim tales of lost Spaniards 
 dying of starvation and exposure in the savage wastes 
 
Oglethorpe on St. Simon s Island 159 
 
 of the forest. The encounter was called the battle 
 of Bloody Marsh, and Oglethorpe promoted the two 
 young officers who had commanded the Highlanders and 
 Rangers, on the field. It is noteworthy that this battle 
 was gained by the colonists alone after the men of the 
 regiment recruited in England had fled the field. 
 
 Meanwhile the situation of the soldiers in the Spanish 
 camp was growing desperate. Fever and dysentery had 
 broken out, hundreds of the men fell ill, and fresh water 
 was scarce. They were unable properly to care for the 
 many wounded and ill. They had lost over five hundred 
 men in the several battles. They made, however, one 
 more attempt to capture the place, this time by a boat 
 expedition. The attack was gallantly made, but they 
 were beaten off with great loss by the forts and the bat 
 teries at Frederica. Several of the Spanish boats were 
 sunk and Oglethorpe, commanding the boats of the place, 
 pursued the flying Spaniards until he was within range 
 of the guns of their ships. 
 
 Dissensions sprang up between them on account of 
 these repeated failures, and the rivalry between the con 
 tingents from Cuba and Florida at last developed a dan 
 gerous degree of antagonism and discontent. Learning 
 this situation, Oglethorpe, although the Spaniards still 
 numbered over three thousand effectives, determined to 
 beat up their camp. For the expedition he chose five 
 hundred of his best troops, notably the Highlanders and 
 Rangers, who had done such valiant work at Bloody 
 Marsh, and with them advanced to the attack on the 
 night of the I2th of July. 
 
 A Frenchman in the party, however, gave the alarm 
 to the Spaniards by firing his musket, and before he could 
 be apprehended escaped in the darkness and made his 
 
160 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 way to the Spanish camp, in which the men immediately 
 stood at their arms. Oglethorpe therefore had to with 
 draw. But he turned the man s desertion to good ac 
 count. The traitor revealed to Don Manuel the feeble 
 ness of the garrison of Frederica and urged him to attack 
 it in force, when the result would be certain success. 
 
 The commander was hesitating when a Spaniard, who 
 had been taken by Oglethorpe and who professed to have 
 escaped from captivity, was brought to him. On his 
 person was found a letter which he confessed to have 
 agreed to deliver to the Frenchman for a sum of money 
 that had been given him. The English general had writ 
 ten this letter to the Frenchman purporting to consider 
 him as his spy; and in it, among other things, urged him 
 to persuade the Spaniards to remain in their camp for 
 three days or more, or until an English fleet with two 
 thousand troops aboard, then on its way, should come 
 down from Charleston. He also stated that Admiral 
 Vernon was about to attack St. Augustine with another 
 fleet. Oglethorpe had bribed the prisoner and the letter 
 fell into the hands of the Spanish commander as Ogle 
 thorpe knew it would instead of being delivered to the 
 Frenchman. 
 
 The ruse succeeded perfectly. Instead of the friend 
 whose advice was worth having and who would have 
 helped them, the Spanish officers looked upon the 
 Frenchman as an English spy. They would have hanged 
 him in spite of his protestations of the falsity of Ogle- 
 thorpe s letter, had not Don Manuel, who entertained 
 some, doubt as to the reports, interfered to save his life. 
 The situation of the Spaniards, however, was such that 
 when word was brought them that three ships South 
 Carolina scouting vessels had been seen in the offing, 
 
Oglethorpe on St. Simon s Island 161 
 
 supposing them to indicate the approach of the English 
 fleet, they were filled with terror. Sick, hungry, thirsty, 
 dispirited, they set fire to the fort and, abandoning large 
 quantities of stores and supplies, including their guns, 
 they piled aboard their ships and sailed away. There was 
 no English fleet anywhere near the scene of action and 
 none was coming; no ships were menacing St. Augus 
 tine, either. 
 
 Oglethorpe at once surmised that they would stop at 
 Fort William and endeavor to strike one effective blow 
 there. He sent expresses, therefore, to the young com 
 mander and bade him hold out at all hazards. For two 
 days Ensign Stewart and sixty men sustained a vigorous 
 attack from the Spaniards, whom they finally repulsed. 
 Oglethorpe had followed in the wake of the retreating 
 ships with his own small vessels and annoyed them as 
 much as he could. Shortly after the middle of July the 
 Spaniards abandoned their expedition and the whole 
 armada left the coast, never to return. 
 
 The celebrated Whitefield, who was with Oglethorpe 
 at the time, said of the results of the campaign, " The de 
 liverance of Georgia is such as cannot be paralleled save 
 by some of the incidents of the Old Testament." When 
 the smallness of his force and the overwhelming strength 
 of the Spaniards is considered, the student of history must 
 agree with the theologian. Oglethorpe s defence had 
 been brilliant in the extreme. He had saved the South 
 ern colonies from coming under the evil of Spanish rule. 
 Of the little campaign it is not too much to record, with 
 approval, the phrase which called the narrow road be 
 tween the wood and the marsh at Frederica " the Ther 
 mopylae of America." 
 
 Oglethorpe returned to England in 1743. He lived 
 iz 
 
1 62 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 until 1785, having risen to the highest military rank and 
 having survived all his contemporaries. He preserved 
 his physical and mental vigor until the very end. Like 
 the Law-Giver of the Old Testament, his eye was not 
 dimmed nor his natural force abated when he died. Wai- 
 pole writes of him: " His eyes, ears, articulation, limbs, 
 and memory would suit a boy, if a boy could recollect a 
 century backward. His teeth are gone; he is a shadow 
 and a wrinkled one; but his spirits and his spirit are in 
 full bloom; two years and a half ago he challenged a 
 neighboring gentleman for trespassing on his manor! " 
 
 Boswell corroborates this testimony and says that he 
 was " very healthy and vigorous, and was at last carried 
 off by a violent fever. In his youth and early manhood 
 he was noted for his handsome face and noble bearing. 
 The illustration shows him in his extreme old age. Then 
 he irresistibly reminds us of Holmes s Last Leaf upon the 
 Tree. 
 
 " The mossy marbles rest 
 On the lips that he has pressed 
 
 In their bloom ; 
 
 And the names he loved to hear 
 Have been carved for many a year 
 
 On the tomb. 
 
 " But now his nose is thin 
 And it rests upon his chin 
 
 Like a staff : 
 
 And a crook is in his back, 
 And a melancholy crack 
 
 In his laugh. " 
 
 But this was a soldier once who deserved well of his 
 country and whose name and exploits should not be for 
 gotten in the new land his courage and skill preserved 
 from the iron rule of the Spaniard. 
 
PART III 
 VARIOUS EARLY COLONIAL WARS 
 
 III 
 
 Pepperrell at Louisbourg 
 
PEPPERRELL AT LOUISBOURG 
 
 I. The Dunkirk of America 
 
 THE extreme southeastern boundary of the 
 mouth of the Gulf of St. Lawrence is marked 
 out by the island of Cape Breton. Huge prom 
 ontories, beetling cliffs, massive indentations and broken 
 reefs mark the bold shore and make the rocky coast line 
 among the most dangerous in the world. On the south 
 side of the island there is a deep and splendid haven upon 
 the edge of which now nestles a dilapidated fishing vil 
 lage. On the peninsula which juts out toward the east 
 and which, with a continuing line of reefs ending in a 
 rocky islet, encloses the spacious harbor, are the grass- 
 covered mouldering remains of one of the greatest for 
 tresses of the world. 
 
 In the year 1744 the massive ramparts, which had been 
 laid out in accordance with those principles of scientific 
 fortification established by the celebrated Vauban, en 
 closed the town of Louisbourg. After twenty-five years 
 of labor and the expenditure of over twenty million livres 
 (between five and six million dollars), they were still un 
 completed, although even then so formidable in character 
 as to be practically impregnable. It was fondly believed 
 that unfinished as they were, any adequate garrison could 
 successfully hold the works in despite of any force which 
 could be brought against them.* 
 
 * See map on page 274; also inset map on page 290. 
 165 
 
1 66 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 Across the base of the peninsula referred to as extend- 
 ing between sea and harbor, had been built a line of 
 works about twelve hundred yards in length. The glacis 
 sloped gently up from a vast marsh which prevented 
 approach from the landward side. Between it and the 
 walls lay a ditch eighty feet wide and thirty-six feet deep. 
 On the opposite side of this moat a huge rampart of earth 
 from forty to sixty feet thick, rose to a height varying 
 between thirty and forty feet. It was faced with ma 
 sonry, defended by three formidable bastions, and sur 
 mounted at intervals by cavaliers, or super-imposed 
 works further to enfilade the wall. The bastions were 
 known as the King s (the citadel) in the centre and the 
 Queen s and Dauphin s at either end. The wall was car 
 ried around the seaward and landward edges of the penin 
 sula, enclosing a wide triangle, the apex of which was 
 finished by another huge bastion called the bastion Mau- 
 repas, after the famous prime minister of King Louis 
 XV. Beyond this bastion stretched an unprotected 
 piece of low ground used as a cemetery, which gradually 
 narrowed into a barrier of rocky and impassable reefs 
 forming an excellent breakwater, extending across the 
 bay and terminating in c, huge rock upon which was 
 erected a powerful battery of thirty heavy guns. This 
 formidable work which commanded the entrance to the 
 harbor, which was about a half mile wide, was called the 
 Island Battery. Commanding the entrance from the 
 inner shore of the bay another fort had been erected, 
 called the Grand or Royal Battery, which mounted 
 twenty-eight French thirty-six pounders (equivalent to 
 an English forty-two), and two long eighteens. Thus 
 an enemy s vessel attempting to enter the harbor would 
 be subjected to direct fire from the Island and an enfilad 
 ing fire from the Grand Battery. 
 
Pepperrell at Louisbourg 167 
 
 The main works of the town were pierced with one 
 hundred and forty-eight embrasures, though but ninety 
 guns, many of them of large calibre including several 
 mortars, were mounted therein. There were a few breaks 
 in the wall toward the sea where there was no access by 
 land, and an approach for ships so difficult as to be prac 
 tically impossible. Even here, however, temporary 
 works afforded sufficient protection. Opposite the 
 Island Battery a tower of lofty proportions from whose 
 summit a fire blazed nightly, indicated to approaching 
 vessels the entrance to the harbor. Access to the town 
 from the land was had at the northwest corner of the 
 base wall, over a causeway and bridge which was pro 
 tected by a circular battery of eighteen cannon covered 
 by the Dauphin bastion. 
 
 The various works were garrisoned by eight com 
 panies of regular soldiers, three of which were Swiss 
 mercenaries. The force was supported by some four 
 teen hundred Canadian militia. In quality the defenders 
 were deficient. The commandant and his second were 
 irresolute and vacillating, the troops unpaid and badly 
 treated. They had been compelled to work on the forti 
 fications without extra compensation, their regular pay 
 was long in arrears, and official peculation, the curse of 
 New France, had deprived them of their legitimate per 
 quisites and comforts. A short time before the invest 
 ment they had broken out in open mutiny and had been 
 persuaded to return to their duties with the greatest diffi 
 culty. The spirit of the peasants, traders, and other in 
 habitants was not much better. The folly of France in 
 allowing such conditions to obtain in the place upon 
 which so much had been lavished, and which was deemed 
 of such importance, is apparent. Aside from the fortifi- 
 
1 68 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 cations and harbor, the place had little value; the 
 inhabitants were poor and their dwellings mean. 
 
 By the terms of the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, which 
 closed the long wars of Louis XIV, England retained 
 possession of Nova Scotia (Acadia), and France, with 
 a prompt appreciation of its importance under the 
 changed conditions, immediately began fortifying this 
 strategic point on Cape Breton Island. Louisbourg was 
 the only naval depot held by the French on the continent 
 of North America. It commanded the St. Lawrence 
 River, afforded a safe harbor of refuge for fleets, an ex 
 cellent base for future naval operations against the Eng 
 lish colonies, and was an advantageous point of departure 
 for possible privateers. For that reason in war times it 
 became known as the Dunkirk of America. 
 
 The long peace between England and France was 
 broken in the year 1744 by a war, which may be regarded 
 as a phase of the Second Silesian war. The unscrupulous 
 ambition of Frederick the Great and the resolute de 
 termination of Maria Theresa to protest by force of arms 
 against his unjust aggression, which plunged Europe 
 into a quarter of a century of dire conflict, finally involved 
 England and France in a struggle for supremacy lasting 
 many years. Though the long period was marked by 
 intervals of feverish peace, the conflict did not end until 
 France, ruined at sea at Trafalgar, was finally crushed on 
 land at Waterloo. The two greatest results of these wars 
 from our point of view were, first, the loss to France of 
 all of her American possessions, and, second, the inde 
 pendence of the United States. The first Anglo-French 
 war of the period was terminated by the peace of Aix-la- 
 Chapelle in 1748 and the principal interest of the war 
 centred about this fortified point on the iron-bound 
 
Pepperrell at Louisbourg 169 
 
 shore of Cape Breton; for one of the most audacious 
 conceptions that ever entered the brain of man had re 
 sulted in the capture of the tremendous fortress. 
 
 II. An Impossible Proposition 
 
 When the news of the declaration of war was received 
 by Du Quesnel, the governor of Louisbourg, he imme 
 diately despatched a force to capture the fisheries at 
 Canso in Nova Scotia, and having succeeded in the en 
 terprise, he sent forth a larger expedition under Du 
 Vivier, his best subordinate his only good one by the 
 way to take Port Royal, or Annapolis, the principal 
 English stronghold in Nova Scotia. The expedition 
 failed in the end. The news of these attacks was at once 
 carried down the coast until it reached the ear of the 
 versatile William Shirley, the governor of Massachusetts. 
 Shirley, a capable English barrister, was an able and am 
 bitious lawyer and administrator, an author of tragedies 
 in a small way, and believed himself to be a born soldier 
 of a high order. He immediately projected it is said at 
 the instance of William Vaughan of Damariscotta, a re 
 turn stroke in the capture of the redoubtable fortress of 
 Louisbourg. Vaughan was a bold, impetuous man of 
 wealth and prominence, a member of the Massachusetts 
 General Court and interested in the fishing industry, and 
 therefore doubly inimical to Louisbourg as a standing 
 menace to the profitable fishing of the Grand Banks. 
 Having with difficulty won over the Massachusetts Gen 
 eral Assembly to acquiesce in his scheme, by a majority 
 of one only obtained it is said by the opportune break 
 ing of a leg of one of the opposition which kept him at 
 home when the final vote was taken Shirley, with char- 
 
1 70 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 acteristic courage and zeal, prepared to carry out the 
 expedition. 
 
 The grotesque audacity of the enterprise is apparent 
 when we reflect that, save for a few old Indian fighters 
 and some inconsequent remnants of the disastrous Carta 
 gena expedition, there was not a single professional sol 
 dier in the colonies at the time; that there were no regu 
 lar troops, no trained officers, no experienced veterans, 
 no naval force, and that Massachusetts was entirely bank 
 rupt, its paper practically worthless. 
 
 The prime movers of the expedition had so little idea 
 of the magnitude of their undertaking, that it was gravely 
 proposed to advance upon Louisbourg in the midst of 
 winter when the depths of the snow which would probably 
 be piled up around the ramparts would enable them to 
 attack at once and, by swarming over the walls, capture 
 the city! When they finally set forth, Shirley s detailed 
 plan for surprising the town when the garrison was asleep, 
 was scarcely less absurd than this winter proposition. 
 However, just because nobody realized the nature of the 
 attempt, everybody entered upon the affair with light- 
 hearted zeal. It is a maxim in war that green troops 
 will attempt that impossibility from which the experi 
 enced veteran recoils, and this enterprise evidenced the 
 soundness of the maxim. 
 
 Massachusetts sent about thirty-three hundred men, 
 Connecticut five hundred, and New Hampshire the same 
 number, a part of whom were paid by the bankrupt but 
 enthusiastic colony of Massachusetts. New York lent 
 to the expedition some eighteen cannon of assorted sizes 
 and qualities. The other colonies gave their good-will 
 and their prayers and nothing else. Cautious Rhode 
 Island did enlist a number of men for the purpose, but 
 
Pepperrell at Louisbourg 171 
 
 waiting too long to see which way the " cat would jump " 
 the contingent did not arrive until after the siege was 
 over. Including the guns from New York, the artillery 
 train of the army comprised thirty-four cannon and mor 
 tars, the largest being a twenty-two pounder. With 
 ignorant audacity, they counted upon making up a 
 proper train of siege guns by taking them from the 
 French, and by Shirley s orders they carried with them a 
 large quantity of ammunition and balls for the forty-two 
 pounders. About ninety transports were easily assem 
 bled, consisting of fishing and coastwise trading vessels, 
 the war having broken up the fisheries and destroyed 
 trade. These were convoyed by a dozen armed vessels 
 belonging to the navies of the separate colonies, assem 
 bled for the purpose. 
 
 Shirley placed the naval force under the command of 
 Captain Edward Tyng, of Massachusetts, who had dis 
 played his courage and capacity by recently capturing a 
 French privateer which greatly outclassed his own ship. 
 His flagship was the frigate Massachusetts, of twenty- 
 four guns. Captain John Rous, another hardy New 
 England sailor, commanded the Shirley Galley, a ship of 
 twenty guns, and the other war-vessels except the Ccesar, 
 of twenty guns, were of less force. 
 
 The army was commanded by one William Pepperrell, 
 a prosperous and enterprising merchant of Kittery, 
 Maine, one of the richest and most influential men in the 
 colonies. The son of a Welsh immigrant who had made 
 a fortune by trade, shipbuilding and fishing, he was a 
 man of great native shrewdness and capacity, who had 
 been reasonably well educated, having gone so far as to 
 study surveying and navigation, though like many other 
 men of his time he seems to have prosecuted these studies 
 
172 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 to the neglect of the gentle art of spelling. Although a 
 colonel of militia, when appointed lieutenant general of 
 this expedition, he had enjoyed no military experience 
 whatever. Nobody in the army had for that matter. 
 Courage, energy, tact, good nature and good sense he 
 had in plenty, and he was popular with the army, a first 
 requisite under the circumstances. The second in com 
 mand was Major General Roger Walcott, of Connecti 
 cut. 
 
 The army was recruited from large numbers of unem 
 ployed fishermen in the seacoast towns, who carefully 
 took with them their cod lines in addition to their fire 
 locks, from hardy farmers, substantial mechanics and dar 
 ing frontiersmen. The most singular contingent, how 
 ever, was a goodly company of preachers. The famous 
 Whitefield furnished a motto for the flag in the following 
 words, Nil desperandum Christo duce, and to the stern 
 Puritans of New England, the fact that their foes were 
 Papists, whom they hated with the proverbial intensity 
 of the children of Plymouth Rock, lent to the whole af 
 fair something of the nature of a crusade. It was that 
 religious spirit which lifted the undertaking above the 
 level of the opera bouffe. Not only every regiment, but 
 many companies, enjoyed the services of a chaplain. 
 
 Even Shirley himself was sensible that as a military 
 performance the enterprise was more or less of a farce. 
 He proposed, however, to avert all disaster, by giving 
 from his house in Boston, before the departure, such 
 minute directions as would provide for every emergency 
 and suffice for every contingency in order to ensure the 
 success of the enterprise. These orders were actually 
 drawn up and constitute a unique military document, 
 a monument to the industry of the indefatigable gov- 
 
Pepperrell at Louisbourg 173 
 
 ernor, if nothing else. As his naval contingent was so 
 insignificant he despatched a swift sailing vessel to Com 
 modore Peter Warren, the Commander of the British 
 forces in the West Indies, requesting his cooperation. 
 Warren had married an American woman and owning 
 large tracts of land in the colonies was much interested 
 in promoting their welfare. 
 
 On the 24th of March, 1745, the fleet set sail from 
 Nantasket Roads, and after a very hazardous and stormy 
 passage, arrived early in April at the harbor of Canso, 
 which they promptly took possession of. There are 
 numerous interesting contemporary accounts of the ex 
 pedition in the shape of diaries, letters and sermons, 
 which show that Pepperrell was not alone in the army 
 in his contempt for orthography. One of them refers to 
 the passage in the following terms: " But not haveing a 
 good Pilate suffered verry much att sea." Shade of the 
 Procurator! 
 
 Arrived at Canso they found that the harbor of Louis 
 bourg and the adjacent shores where they proposed to 
 land were blocked with masses of ice, and they were 
 forced to remain inactive for some three weeks. They 
 passed the time in drilling and drinking, preaching and 
 playing. Meanwhile, Tyng, Rous, and the other colonial 
 captains established a strict blockade of the harbor with 
 the privateers. It required no mean skill and seaman 
 ship on the part of these New England privateersmen to 
 maintain an efficient blockade on such a coast and keep 
 off the dangerous lee shore. 
 
 On the 1 8th of the same month, the colonists en 
 camped at Canso, were surprised by the sound of heavy 
 cannonading to seaward. It seems that the French 
 frigate Renommte, 32, then commanded by the distin- 
 
174 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 guished Comte de Kersaint, who lost his life and his ship 
 subsequently while heroically fighting against the great 
 Lord Hawke at the famous night battle in the storm at 
 Quiberon Bay, had been sent by the French Government, 
 which had heard of the expedition, with despatches and 
 supplies to Louisbourg. The Renommee first fell in with 
 the Shirley Galley, which promptly engaged her. Cap 
 tain Rous made so gallant a fight with his little ship that 
 he held the heavy frigate off until the Massachusetts and 
 some of the other privateers came within range. The 
 Renommee was brilliantly fought and manoeuvred by her 
 able captain, but the delay caused by the superb fighting 
 of the Shirley Galley enabled the other ships to close and 
 de Kersaint was forced to abandon his attempt to enter 
 the harbor, and turn back to France. He led the priva 
 teers a long chase and by a gallant fight finally escaped 
 from their overwhelming force. A day later he fell in 
 with a belated squadron of transports, convoyed by sev 
 eral small privateers and with them he sustained another 
 severe engagement in which, however, he effected noth 
 ing, as the convoy all got in safely. 
 
 On the 22nd of April, a heavy frigate flying the Eng 
 lish flag came into the harbor. It was the Elthan, 40, the 
 first ship of Commodore Warren s squadron. In the 
 absence of orders the commodore had at first refused to 
 leave his station, but having received word from Eng 
 land, after his refusal, that he should cooperate with the 
 colonists, he had gathered such ships as he could and set 
 sail for Boston. Having learned from a Massachusetts 
 schooner he overhauled that the expedition had sailed, 
 he changed his course and came direct to Louisbourg. 
 On the 23rd of April, the rest of the squadron, comprising 
 the Suferbe, 60, Launceston, 40, and Mermaid, 40, arrived 
 
Pepperrell at Louisbourg 175 
 
 at Canso. After consulting with Pepperrell the Com 
 modore immediately sailed to assume charge of the 
 blockade, the colonial ships, by Pepperrell s orders, being 
 put under his command. 
 
 III. The Siege and Capture 
 
 Toward the last of April, the ice having broken, and 
 the harbors being open, the weather mild and pleasant, 
 the army embarked on the shipping and beat up toward 
 Louisbourg. On the morning of Saturday, the 3Oth, a 
 landing was effected in Gabarus Bay, which Pepperrell 
 managed with great skill. The privateers ranged along 
 the shore poured a furious fire upon the exposed places 
 to the west of the town. The regiments embarked in 
 the boats of the fleet which were directed toward Flat 
 Rock Point. Du Chambon, who had succeeded to the 
 command of the place on the death of Du Quesnel a short 
 time before, sent Captain Morepain, a French privateers- 
 man, with eighty men to oppose the landing. The boats 
 pulled vigorously toward the shore, but when almost 
 within musket range suddenly turned to the left and 
 dashed toward a little sand-beached bay formed by the 
 mouth of a river, which offered easy access to the shore. 
 Wolfe landed there years after. Morepain and his men 
 made for the same spot, but as they had to traverse the 
 large arc of a circle, while the boats had a much shorter 
 distance to go in a straight line, the advance guard was 
 able to make a landing, before the French party ap 
 peared. When they did come in touch, however, they 
 attacked with great spirit, but were beaten off with severe 
 loss by the constantly increasing numbers of the Ameri 
 cans. They thereupon retired to the town. Advance 
 
1 76 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 parties were immediately sent out by Pepperrell, to cover 
 the landing of the rest of the army which occupied several 
 days; the troops lying at night upon the ground very 
 much exposed and without cover. Fortunately the 
 weather then and during the whole of the siege con 
 tinued unusually mild and agreeable. 
 
 On the second day after the landing Pepperrell de 
 tached the irrepressible Vaughan with some four hun 
 dred men to advance through the woods, pass round the 
 town and destroy the valuable storehouses in the rear of 
 the Grand Battery. The expedition met with no oppo 
 sition and Pepperrell was apprised of its success by vast 
 columns of smoke which rose from the burning build 
 ings. 
 
 The next morning, May 3rd, with but thirteen men, 
 Vaughan made a reconnaissance of the Grand, or Royal, 
 Battery. As the little party approached they discovered 
 no signs of life and it appeared to the Americans that the 
 battery had been abandoned. Unable to credit the testi 
 mony of their eyes, they hesitated on the outskirts of the 
 battery for some time, and Vaughan finally bribed an 
 Indian, by the proffer of a whiskey flask which he had in 
 his pocket possibly for just such emergencies, for he is 
 careful to tell us that he did not drink himself to enter 
 the fort. The Indian was drunk enough to be reckless 
 and with his courage further stimulated by Vaughan s 
 whiskey, he crawled into the battery and found that it 
 was indeed deserted. The French in cowardly panic at 
 the sight of the burning buildings, had hauled down their 
 flag .and fled to the city after hastily spiking their guns. 
 When the rest of the party entered the fort, William 
 Tufts, an eighteen-year-old Massachusetts boy, climbed 
 up the flagstaff and fastened his red coat to the top in 
 
Pepperrell at Louisbourg 177 
 
 lieu of a British ensign. The French greeted him with 
 a general discharge of artillery which did no damage. 
 Vaughan immediately despatched a messenger to Pep 
 perrell informing him of the capture in the following tell 
 ing words: 
 
 " May it please your Honor to be informed that by 
 the grace of God and the courage of 13 men, I entered 
 the Royal Battery about 9 o clock, and am waiting for a 
 reinforcement and a flag." 
 
 Meanwhile, the French, in four boats, repenting of 
 their panic, returned to reoccupy the fort. The dauntless 
 Vaughan with his thirteen devoted men stood on the 
 open beach in plain view (why they did not occupy the 
 fort is hard to understand), and under the fire of the 
 French guns from the town and Island batteries, and 
 beat back by the accuracy of their fire, the boats "filled 
 with Frenchmen. They succeeded in maintaining their 
 ground until reinforcements arrived, making the capture 
 secure. 
 
 This may be considered as the determining event of 
 the siege and it was the one detail of Shirley s astonish 
 ing plan which was successfully carried out. The be 
 siegers found themselves in possession of a number of 
 heavy guns of the latest and most approved pattern. 
 The spiking had been done so carelessly that Major Seth 
 Pomeroy, who was a gunsmith by trade, was able to ex 
 tricate the files from the " tutch holes " without diffi 
 culty. A notable man this Pomeroy. Says Parkman: 
 
 " On board one of the transports was Seth Pomeroy, 
 gunsmith at Northampton, and now major of Willard s 
 Massachusetts regiment. He had a turn for soldiering, 
 
 19 
 
178 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 and fought, ten years later, in the battle of Lake George. 
 Again, twenty years later still, when Northampton was 
 astir with rumors of war from Boston, he borrowed a 
 neighbor s horse, rode a hundred miles, reached Cam 
 bridge on the morning of the battle of Bunker Hill, left 
 his borrowed horse out of the way of harm, walked over 
 Charlestown Neck, the scene of action as the British were 
 forming for the attack. When Israel Putman, his com 
 rade in the last war, saw from the rebel breast work the 
 old man striding, gun in hand, he shouted, By God, 
 Pomeroy, you here! A cannon shot would waken you 
 out of your grave ! 
 
 In their hasty evacuation the French had failed to de 
 stroy the munitions of war in the battery and the New 
 Englanders found themselves in possession of what they 
 quaintly describe as " Sume Bums," which the " Buma- 
 neers " of the army put to good use in bombarding the 
 town. A very good attempt at phonetic spelling that, 
 for a man who disguised the familiar word shillings as 
 "SheLins!" 
 
 The English forty-two pound balls just fitted the capt 
 ured guns and they immediately began to play upon the 
 town with great effect. The morass which extended 
 from the landing place to the wall of the fort rendered 
 it impossible to draw the guns, which the army had 
 brought with them and landed from the transports, over 
 the ground in the usual way. Lieutenant Colonel Mes- 
 erve, who happened to be a carpenter, improvised great 
 flat sledges upon which the cannon were placed. Some 
 two hundred men were attached to each sledge by breast 
 straps and ropes and the guns were dragged over the 
 marshes until they could be mounted in the five batteries 
 which were opened near the town. The guns from the 
 
Pepperrell at Louisbourg 179 
 
 Grand Battery, which had been captured so easily, were 
 distributed among these several batteries, and a furious 
 fire was poured upon and returned from the French 
 works. The diaries are full of the roaring of cannon, the 
 exploding of the " Bums " or " Bumbs " as the word is 
 indifferently spelled! 
 
 There was a woful lack of competent artillerists in the 
 besieging force and Commodore Warren, at the request 
 of Pepperrell, sent several veteran gunners ashore to 
 teach the New Englanders, but in spite of the instruction 
 they received, through their careless and reckless hand 
 ling of the guns, several of them burst with dire conse 
 quences to the amateur cannoneers. The besiegers and 
 the town kept up a continuous fire upon each other, but 
 the effect was felt more by those in the town than by 
 those outside. Every house within the walls was unten 
 able. Many were destroyed and set on fire. To escape 
 from the deadly fire, the miserable inhabitants were forced 
 to take to the casemates, where they dragged out a 
 wretched existence. Provisions became scarce and pow 
 der scarcer. Their condition became critical. The New 
 Englanders steadily advanced their batteries, and al 
 though entirely ignorant of the art of making trenches 
 and opening parallels, succeeded in demolishing the cir 
 cular battery opposite the gate, dismounted many of the 
 guns on the walls and began to make serious breaches 
 therein. Their intrenchments were absurd, but the 
 French made no sortie. Perhaps the commander was 
 afraid to use his mutinous troops outside the walls. 
 
 Meanwhile the condition of the besiegers was scarcely 
 more happy. Their powder, so lavishly expended, was 
 running perilously low and the soldiers had suffered great 
 hardships on account of the lack of everything which goes 
 
i8o Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 to make up the proper equipment of an army. They 
 kept up their cheerfulness, however, with creditable zeal, 
 and tenaciously clung to their endeavor, amusing them 
 selves by pitching quoits, shooting at a mark, wrestling, 
 and generally having a good time when not actually at 
 work in the batteries. At one period over fifteen hundred 
 men were on the sick list at once, most of whom subse 
 quently recovered. The diaries abound with interesting 
 and amusing incidents of the siege. One of the officers 
 gravely records that " One of ye Genls Died who went 
 into an House To plunder and killed himself with drink." 
 During the siege a French captain was made prisoner 
 and his death is thus recounted by another chronicler: 
 " The French Capt. Died this Day that was wounded & 
 taken ye 17 Day, he offered Ten Thousand Pounds for a 
 fryar to Pardon his Sins before he died and I would have 
 done it my Self as well as any fryar or Priest Living for 
 1-2 ye money." What a lost opportunity to turn a few 
 honest pounds! 
 
 So impressed were Pepperrell s men with their prowess 
 that early in the siege, on the 7th of May, they sent a 
 summons to Du Chambon demanding an unconditional 
 surrender, to which the French commander replied that 
 the only answer he could make to such a demand would 
 be delivered from the mouth of his guns ! A council of 
 war held to consider this doughty reply, determined to 
 carry the fortifications by storm and " laders and Fa 
 Sheene s " (fascines) were prepared for the purpose. The 
 day brought prudence, however, and it was a good thing 
 for the final success of the expedition that at the last 
 moment wiser counsels prevailed, for at that date the 
 attempt certainly would have resulted in disaster, so the 
 cannonade was vigorously resumed. 
 
The Capture of the Grand Battery 
 
Pepperrell at Louisbourg 181 
 
 As a French merchant ship had succeeded in running 
 the blockade and entering the harbor, the mouth of which 
 was commanded by the Island Battery, Pepperrell de 
 termined that the next step undertaken should be the 
 capture of this battery, mounting thirty guns, seven 
 swivels and two mortars and garrisoned by one hundred 
 and eighty men. The dashing Vaughan, elated with his 
 success at the Royal Battery, offered to undertake the 
 capture with a couple of hundred men. Volunteers were 
 called for, but the party which assembled for the purpose, 
 with the democratic notions which prevailed in the army 
 discarded Vaughan and elected one of their own number, 
 named Brooks, to take charge. Several attempts were 
 projected which were hindered by weather conditions, 
 but finally on the 26th of May, some four hundred and 
 fifty men in a number of boats made the attempt. 
 
 In order to effect a surprise the boatmen discarded 
 their oars and softly paddled the boats over to the Island. 
 The surf was breaking heavily upon the only practicable 
 landing place and it was found impossible to land more 
 than three boats at a time. The landing was effected 
 without hindrance, however, but when about a third of 
 the attacking force had been drawn up on the beach, 
 someone proposed three cheers, which were given with 
 such a will that they awakened the Frenchmen, who 
 sprang to arms and poured a deadly fire upon them, 
 which was promptly returned. Probably the enthusiast 
 who gave the alarm was drunk the diaries are replete 
 with statements that so and so was drunk for although 
 the matter had assumed the appearance of a crusade, 
 there was probably as much New England rum in the 
 commissary stores as anything else. Rum, Puritanism, 
 and Religion went hand in hand. 
 
1 82 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 Several more boatloads landed on the Island, but the 
 great guns from the fort sunk some of the remaining 
 boats with their crews and drove off the rest. When 
 the morning broke there was nothing left for the shore 
 party, cut off from its retreat by the defeat of the boats, 
 but to surrender, which they accordingly did. The total 
 loss in killed, wounded, and taken in the expedition 
 amounted to something under two hundred men. This 
 was the only French success and the garrison were much 
 elated thereby. 
 
 The undertaking having failed, Pepperrell determined 
 to land a party on Lighthouse Point, erect a battery and 
 thence attack the Island. There was a young civil engi 
 neer in the army named Richard Gridley, who undertook 
 the work, though he had no military experience. What 
 he learned in this campaign stood his countrymen in 
 good stead years after, for it was he who traced the line 
 of earthwork for that midnight party under Prescott, 
 which threw up the first American intrenchments on 
 Breed s Hill in 1775. The battery was soon in working 
 order and poured such a concentrated fire upon the Island 
 Battery that its guns were dismounted or destroyed. 
 The condition of the French was now desperate, and Du 
 Chambon at last resolved upon a sortie. He sent the 
 Sieur de Beaubassin with a chosen party of troops who 
 were joined by eighty Indians, to attack the lighthouse 
 battery. They were met by the New Englanders while 
 still in the woods, defeated with heavy loss and driven 
 back to their boats, carrying with them a badly wounded 
 commander. 
 
 Meanwhile France had made another effort to relieve 
 the town. The ship-of-the-line Vigilant, sixty-four guns, 
 and commanded by the Marquis de la Maisonfort, had 
 
Pepperrell at Louisbourg 183 
 
 been filled with four months supply of provisions, one 
 thousand barrels of powder, twenty brass guns and three 
 hundred soldiers and despatched to Cape Breton. On 
 the i Qth of May the Vigilant sighted the blockading 
 squadron. Instead of running directly for the harbor, 
 disregarding everything else, when the chances are that 
 he could have relieved the town, Maisonfort turned aside 
 from his path and attacked the Shirley Galley. That 
 little vessel, as usual, made a stout resistance and by a 
 running fight drew the rash Frenchmen into the midst of 
 the English blockading squadron, where after an heroic 
 defence and loss of eighty killed and a large number 
 wounded, Maisonfort was compelled to strike his flag. 
 The loss of the powder was fatal to French hopes and 
 the capture replenished Pepperrell s depleted magazines. 
 The Vigilant was refitted, manned by six hundred New 
 Englanders and added to Warren s fleet, which had been 
 reenforced from time to time by the arrival of several 
 English ships. By a ruse sometime after, the besieging 
 party found means to acquaint Du Chambon of the capt 
 ure of this ship and with it perished the last hope of the 
 French. They held on desperately for some time longer, 
 however, hoping for the arrival of a relieving fleet. 
 
 Warren was getting very impatient over the slow prog 
 ress of the siege and finally proposed to enter the harbor 
 with his ships while the army attempted to storm the 
 town. Preparations were made to carry out his bold plan 
 when on June I5th, the French drums were heard from 
 their dismantled works beating a parley. On the i6th 
 of June, 1/45, the great fortress actually capitulated to 
 this assemblage of farmers and fishermen, led by a lum 
 ber merchant, and Pepperrell had the satisfaction of re 
 ceiving the keys of Louisbourg in his hand. The incred- 
 
184 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 ible had happened. The credit of it all was due to Shirley 
 and Pepperrell, though the enterprise which the one 
 planned and the other carried out would not have suc 
 ceeded had it not been for the efficient blockade main 
 tained by Warren and his ships. 
 
 The King was properly grateful. He created Pepper 
 rell a baronet and made him a colonel in the English 
 army. Shirley was also made a colonel of a regiment and 
 Warren was promoted to the rank of admiral. Gallant 
 Captain Rous of the Shirley Galley was given a commis 
 sion of post captain in the Royal Navy. The siege had 
 been a picturesque affair, grotesque and amusing when 
 looked at from a distance, but real and earnest enough to 
 the participants. Pepperrell deserved all he got; he had 
 spent over ten thousand pounds of his own money in the 
 enterprise. Some time afterward Massachusetts was re 
 paid for all her expenditures from the Royal Treasury 
 and the finances of the colony were thereby put on a. 
 sound basis. 
 
 When the army entered the town after the surrender 
 expecting unlimited plunder, it was very much disgusted 
 at the poverty of the inhabitants and the small booty 
 which awaited it. One diarist records the situation as 
 follows: "A great Noys and hubbub amongst ye Sol 
 ders a bout ye Plunder; Som Cursing, som a Swarein." 
 I should think so. The wealth of Louisbourg was in 
 its walls, and they were battered to pieces and could 
 not be taken away. 
 
 Among the preachers was one zealot named Moody, 
 who set forth upon the enterprise armed with an axe, 
 with which he proposed to destroy and break up the 
 idols which were worshipped by the French, and perhaps 
 incidentally convert a few of them! The first thing he 
 
Pepperrell at Louisbourg 185 
 
 did when the colonists entered the town was to proceed 
 to the churches and enter upon the work of demolition. 
 A spiritually minded, gentle Christian crusader, he seems 
 to have been quite up to the level of his ironclad proto 
 types! 
 
 The French in an endeavor to retake the town pre 
 pared a great fleet under Admiral d Anville, who set 
 forth the following year, but the expedition proved the 
 most unfortunate ever undertaken by France. The 
 ships of the fleet were scattered and wrecked by frightful 
 storms, the men died like sheep from disease, and the 
 expedition, never even sighting an enemy, effected noth 
 ing and ended in the most ignominious and heartbreak 
 ing disaster. At the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, however, 
 the work of the brave colonists was rendered of no effect, 
 for by the terms of the treaty, England returned Louis 
 bourg to France. The gigantic undertaking had all to 
 be done over by Amherst, Wolfe and Boscawen, thirteen 
 years later. These commanders were supported by a 
 great fleet and a perfectly appointed army of brave sol 
 diers. 
 
 This colonial expedition was the maddest enterprise 
 and the most impossible from a military point of view 
 that was ever undertaken. That it succeeded was due 
 to the combination of patient endurance, religious zeal 
 and innate capacity of the New England men, seconded 
 by the shrewdness and ability of Pepperrell, the hearty 
 cooperation of Warren, and the culpable supineness and 
 inefficiency of the garrison. Its importance to the 
 "future history of this country was not little. Many of 
 the colonists learned how to fight in this campaign and 
 the drums which rolled in triumph at the head of the 
 hardy colonists as they strode through the sally port at 
 
1 86 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 Louisbourg were the same which beat the long roll on 
 the slopes of Bunker Hill. When the New Englanders 
 saw the mud walls Gage erected on Boston Neck and 
 compared them to the mighty ramparts of Cape Breton, 
 which they had so gallantly surmounted, they laughed 
 them to scorn. 
 
PART IV 
 THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE PALLET OF 
 THE OHIO 
 
 I 
 The First Failure 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR THE VALLEY 
 OF THE OHIO 
 
 I. THE FIRST FAILURE 
 
 I. Washington s Expedition 
 
 THE greatest figure of his age here enters the 
 pages of history. On Christmas day, 1753, a 
 little party of white men and Indians took their 
 departure from a rude frontier fort at Venango at the 
 junction of French Creek with the Allegheny River in 
 western Pennsylvania, and plunged southward into the 
 primeval forests extending for leagues in every direction 
 about them. Since the 3Oth of October they had been 
 prosecuting a difficult and dangerous undertaking in the 
 wilderness of western Virginia and Pennsylvania. Ex 
 hausted and worn out from the tremendous hardships 
 they had undergone, depressed by their lack of success 
 although their mission had not been altogether a fail 
 ure their pack horses jaded and feeble, they were in no 
 condition to undertake the terrible journey which inter 
 vened between them and the report which would mark 
 the completion of their duty. 
 
 The embassy had been sent by the lieutenant governor 
 of Virginia, Robert Dunwoodie, to protest to the French, 
 who, by the direction of Du Quesne, the governor of 
 Canada, a descendant of the great naval commander who 
 
 189 
 
190 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 defeated de Ruyter, were establishing themselves in the 
 valley of the Ohio a section of the New World claimed 
 by both England and France, for various reasons more 
 or less vague and unsatisfactory. The English, or Amer 
 icans rather, were also to win over, if they could, the 
 Indian tribes of that section of the country to the cause 
 of England. Dunwoodie s protest was emphasized by 
 the threat of resort to arms in case the French did not 
 heed it. 
 
 The sturdy Scottish governor had chosen as the most 
 fit person for this arduous mission a young man, a mem 
 ber of one of the first families in the Commonwealth, who 
 had recently been appointed major and adjutant general 
 of the Virginia militia; his name was George Washing 
 ton. 
 
 On October 3Oth, the youthful major, then but twenty- 
 one years of age, had set forth from Williamsburg ac 
 companied by a certain old soldier of fortune, a Dutch 
 man named Jacob van Braam, whose acquaintance he 
 had made previously and who had spent the summer at 
 Mt. Vernon, Washington s home, teaching the young 
 planter and would-be soldier what little he knew of the 
 noble art of war. Van Braam was taken on the expedi 
 tion as an interpreter, for the veteran added to his other 
 doubtful accomplishments a smattering of French. To 
 these two were added subsequently one Christopher Gist, 
 a bold and daring frontiersman, hunter and trader; John 
 Davidson, an Indian interpreter; four other frontiers 
 men, and several Indians, 
 
 The expedition had met with indifferent success. 
 They had managed to gain the partial adherence of the 
 most important Indian in the Ohio valley, quaintly called 
 from his subordination to the Iroquois Confederacy the 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 191 
 
 " Half King, * and it was believed that if he did not act 
 ually espouse the English cause he would at least remain 
 neutral, but otherwise they had accomplished little. The 
 party had first arrived at Venango on the 4th of Decem 
 ber. They were hospitably received by Captain Chabert 
 de Joncaire, the commandant, to whom a visitor in the 
 lonely wilderness about the post was a veritable god 
 send. They seem to have made a night of it, French, 
 Americans, and the Dutchman, together. Amid the deep 
 potations of the others, however, the young commander, 
 who had partaken but sparingly in the carousing, pre 
 served his wits and heard the boasting betrayal of the 
 French plans for occupying and holding the valley. 
 
 Farther up the river about twenty miles from Presqu* 
 Isle (Erie) lay the principal post of the French, Fort le 
 Bceuf, then commanded by a brave and accomplished 
 chevalier named Legardeur de St. Pierre, to whom, by 
 Joncaire s direction, the party repaired, as he was the 
 ranking French officer in that region. They were re 
 ceived with courteous and gracious hospitality; Dun- 
 woodie s letter of protest was delivered and after a delay 
 of several days Washington received St. Pierre s reply, 
 which was in effect similar to the famous remark of Mac- 
 Mahon at Sevastopol, " J y suis, fy reste " (" I am here 
 and here I stay ! "). With this not too encouraging mis 
 sive, for the reply had been committed to writing, having 
 so far completed their mission, they started for home in 
 canoes down the river, and after a brief stay abandoned 
 their boats at Venango and resumed their journey. 
 
 For three days they struggled southward through the 
 roadless forest in the midst of blinding storms of snow 
 and sleet which froze as it fell. The poor pack horses 
 proved to be unequal to the demands made upon them, 
 
Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 so the men finally gave up their saddle horses to relieve 
 them of some of their burdens and the party pressed on 
 afoot. The Indians, suborned by the French, deserted 
 them, and matters assumed a serious complexion. 
 
 Their progress was very slow and the young com 
 mander, who was most anxious to deliver his report, 
 finally put the cavalcade under the charge of van Braam 
 with directions to follow on as best he could. Then 
 equipping himself in an Indian hunting suit with a heavy 
 Indian match-coat * to protect himself from the cold and 
 the inclemency of the weather, attended by the redoubt 
 able Gist similarly clad, he pressed on ahead of the party. 
 
 It was one of the most dangerous journeys ever under 
 taken. Through trackless forests, over unknown moun 
 tains, or crossing icy rivers swollen to raging torrents, 
 in the midst of the furious tempests of a winter of unusual 
 severity, the two men struggled on. The Indian who 
 guided them through the wilderness was in the pay of 
 the French and he led them far from their way. His 
 treachery finally culminated in an open attack. Seizing 
 a favorable opportunity he turned suddenly and fired 
 point-blank at his employer, but George Washington was 
 not destined to die by a savage rifle shot in an unknown 
 wilderness. God had other things for him to do and the 
 bullet missed him. He and Gist were upon the Indian 
 instantly and Gist, with the lex talionis of the frontier in 
 his heart, would have killed the traitorous savage out of 
 hand, but Washington humanely interfered to save his 
 life. They disarmed him, drove him from them, and, hav 
 ing kindled two delusive fires, doubled on their trail and 
 
 * "A large loose coat formerly worn by American Indians, originally made 
 of fur skins matched and sewed together, and afterward of match-cloth, a 
 kind of coarse woollen cloth, called so, as resembling in texture the fur skins 
 originally used." 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 193 
 
 escaped from the pursuit which their false guide insti 
 tuted as soon as he joined his band. 
 
 Reaching the banks of the unfordable Ohio one night 
 and finding it not yet frozen over, with one poor hatchet 
 that remained to them they made a wretched raft and 
 attempted to pole themselves across the river amid the 
 swirling cakes of ice. The raft was capsized in mid-stream 
 and only by the most desperate exertions did they suc 
 ceed in gaining the bank of an island near by. There 
 they lay all night in their wet clothes and Gist was badly 
 frozen. The next morning luckily they found the nar 
 rower waters on the other side of the island frozen over, 
 and were thus enabled to cross and proceed on their way. 
 Starving and frozen, after incredible hardships they finally 
 arrived at the rude hut of a trapper named Frazier, on the 
 banks of the Monongahela River. Resting there until 
 the first of January, 1754, they pressed on to Gist s house 
 sixteen miles farther. Here they separated. Washing 
 ton procured a horse and on the i6th of January placed 
 the defiance of the French in the hand of the governor 
 at Williamsburg. 
 
 II. The Fate of Jumonville 
 
 The stout Scotsman immediately toolc measures to 
 make good his threat. Preparations were at once made 
 to occupy the valley, and a fort was projected at the point 
 where the Monongahela and the Allegheny rivers unite 
 to form the Ohio. With a soldier s ready eye, as he 
 passed the confluence of these two rivers on his journey, 
 Washington had discerned it to be the proper place for a 
 fortification to command the valley and control its trade. 
 Subsequent generations which have built the great city 
 13 
 
194 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 of Pittsburgh on the same site, have attested the accuracy 
 of his observations and the correctness of his judgment. 
 
 Thither Dunwoodie despatched Captain Trent with 
 Lieutenant Frazier and Ensign Ward, together with a 
 hundred men to build the fort. In the meantime, ex 
 torting reluctant acquiescence and some small sums of 
 money from the refractory House of Burgesses, he set 
 about raising a regiment for the purpose of prosecuting 
 the campaign on the Ohio. Joshua Fry, an English gen 
 tleman of some soldierly experience in the Low Coun 
 tries, was commissioned colonel with Washington as his 
 lieutenant colonel. Recruiting went on slowly until it 
 was stimulated by the promise of a land bounty, always 
 a useful and effective inducement and one frequently 
 offered in the United States after it came into being. 
 
 On the 2nd of April, 1754, matters had so far advanced 
 that Washington started from Alexandria with two com 
 panies amounting to one hundred and fifty men. The 
 remainder of the regiment and the artillery were to be 
 brought up by Colonel Fry. At Wills Creek (now Cum 
 berland, Maryland), the Ohio Company, a powerful and 
 influential trading organization, had a large storehouse. 
 There Trent was to meet Washington s party with pack 
 horses and they were to go forward and garrison the fort, 
 which he was supposed to have completed but which he 
 had not. 
 
 They found Trent there on the 2Oth of April but no 
 pack horses. Washington immediately sent back to Vir 
 ginia for them, but on the 25th of April the men of the 
 advance party of fort builders who had been left at the 
 designated spot under Ensign Ward, arrived at Wills 
 Creek. They were a sorry looking lot and they had a 
 sorry tale to tell. 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 195 
 
 The French had also seen the advantage presented by 
 the location which the English had seized and Monsieur 
 de Contrecceur, who had succeeded old St. Pierre as chief 
 in command of the valley, when he heard of the advent 
 of the English despatched some five hundred men to dis 
 possess them. They arrived before the unfinished Eng 
 lish work and demanded its evacuation. As they were 
 provided with cannon and in overwhelming force, to re 
 sist would have been madness. Ward received assurance 
 that he could withdraw unharmed with all his supplies 
 and wisely accepted the terms. The French destroyed 
 the crude English stockade and at once began the erec 
 tion of a formidable work which they called in honor of 
 their commander, Fort Du Quesne, thereby immortaliz 
 ing him. 
 
 Washington acted promptly; his instinct as a soldier 
 and his impulses as a man always led him to attack. That 
 he subsequently schooled himself into such a great de 
 fensive fighter shows the mastery he acquired and main 
 tained over himself. He determined to advance to 
 another storehouse nearer the enemy from which he 
 could threaten him and strike if opportunity arose, while 
 he awaited his reinforcements. On the 2Qth of April, 
 therefore, he marched from Wills Creek. His progress 
 was slow and toilsome in the extreme. The creeks were 
 flooded by the spring rains and it was not until the 23rd 
 of May that he reached a place called the Great Meadows. 
 This was an open and level field surrounded by tree-cov 
 ered mountains. Washington says that he thought it 
 " a charming field for an encounter," and he proceeded 
 to make preparations for one. 
 
 He cleared away the bushes and taking advantage of 
 a ravine with a shallow creek brawling through it, he 
 
196 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 marked out a rude fort. The little army encamped and 
 set to work upon the intrenchments. On the 25th, how 
 ever, having received news from some friendly Indians 
 that a party of French had been lurking in the vicinity, 
 Washington determined to surprise them. He set forth 
 from the camp in the dead of night with forty men, six 
 of whom straggled from the party in the darkness. 
 Guided by his friend the " Half King/ the little band 
 stumbled through the woods in the darkness and came 
 upon the French just before sunrise upon the morning 
 of the 26th of May, 1754. The French, who were par 
 tially surprised, at once sprang to their arms. Washing 
 ton gave the command to fire. For some fifteen minutes 
 the two parties kept up a fierce fusillade upon each other, 
 at the end of which the French threw down their arms 
 and surrendered. 
 
 Washington lost one killed and three wounded. The 
 French had ten killed and twenty-one wounded and capt 
 ured, but one man escaping. Among the killed was the 
 commander, a young ensign named Coulon de Jumon- 
 ville. The French chose to regard the death of Jumon- 
 ville as an assassination, claiming that he was an envoy 
 bearing a peaceful letter of warning, and they wasted a 
 vast quantity of poetry and protest over the matter. The 
 claim is absurd and untenable and was abandoned by 
 everybody but statesmen and romancers terms not de 
 void of a certain association. Peaceful envoys who are 
 desirous of delivering letters do not lurk concealed for 
 days in the presence of the enemy. 
 
 There, in that obscure skirmish in the backwoods of 
 America, rather than at Lexington, was fired " the shot 
 heard round the world." When the young Virginian 
 gave the word to begin, he precipitated a globe-encir- 
 
George Washington at the Age of 
 Twenty-five. 
 
General Braddock, 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 197 
 
 cling series of conflicts which did not end until the final 
 defeat of France and Napoleon on the field of Waterloo, 
 sixty years later. Let it be noted, too, that amid all the 
 splendid figures, statesmen, soldiers, patriots, men who 
 shed lustre upon this great period of conflict, the name 
 of no one stands higher in these categories than that of 
 Washington. 
 
 The young colonel was greatly elated by his success. 
 The two parties had been about equal in numbers and he 
 had shown no little skill in making his dispositions for 
 the attack. With the enthusiasm of a very young man 
 he wrote to his brother as follows: " I fortunately es 
 caped without any wound; for the right wing, where I 
 stood, was exposed to, and received, all the enemy s fire; 
 and it was the part where the man was killed and the rest 
 wounded. / heard the bullets whistle, and, believe me, 
 there is something charming in the sound." * 
 
 King George is reported to have said in his dryly hu 
 morous way, when this rodomontade, as Walpole called 
 it, was reported to him, " He would not say so if he had 
 been used to hear many." When he was an old man 
 Washington was asked if he had made the statement 
 ascribed to him. He justified it by saying that if he did, 
 it was when he was very young. As to that, although 
 he learned to conceal his feelings in after years, I very 
 much doubt if he ever changed his opinion, for if there 
 was anything on earth he loved, it was a fight. 
 
 * Italics mine. C. T. B. 
 
198 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 III. The Fight at Fort Necessity 
 
 The prisoners taken were sent back to Dunwoodie and 
 the main body remained in the camp. Provisions were 
 very scarce, in fact the detachment was nearly starved 
 and the name they gave to their intrenchment, Fort 
 Necessity, is grimly indicative of their situation. They 
 were regularly and vigorously drilled, however, and every 
 Sunday in default of a chaplain Washington conducted 
 religious services himself. 
 
 Presently the remainder of the regiment came strag 
 gling up to the Great Meadows. Colonel Fry had died 
 at Wills Creek and Washington found himself in com 
 mand of some three hundred men. They were indiffer 
 ently armed, poorly provided, wretchedly clothed. With 
 them also came an independent company from North 
 Carolina. Mackay, who commanded them, held a king s 
 commission and would receive no orders from Washing 
 ton who held a colonial rank only. His men regarded 
 themselves as regular soldiers and bore themselves with 
 great arrogance, and indolence as well, toward the Vir 
 ginians. Therefore, leaving Mackay to garrison Fort 
 Necessity, Washington with high hopes of success, 
 marched forward on the nth of June to attack Fort Du 
 Quesne. Neither he nor any other Englishman was to 
 get a glimpse of it even, for years to come. 
 
 On the way thither he received word that the place 
 had been heavily reenforced and its capture with his force 
 was out of the question. A council of war was called and 
 in accordance with its unanimous decision, he determined 
 to return to Wills Creek; then, after obtaining further 
 reinforcements, he intended to advance once more. The 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 199 
 
 retiring regiment got no farther than Great Meadows, 
 however, in its retreat. The soldiers were completely 
 exhausted by the labor of carrying the baggage and 
 dragging the artillery, which comprised nine little swivels, 
 and they were forced to stop at Fort Necessity for rest. 
 
 Hard on their heels came the French. They were led 
 by Coulon de Villiers, called from his many successful en 
 terprises " Le Grand Villiers," who was burning with 
 desire to avenge the death of his young brother, Jumon- 
 ville. His party was composed of five hundred regulars 
 and Canadian militia and as many Indians. Washing 
 ton, who was advised of the approach of the enemy by 
 his scouts whom he had mounted on wagon horses 
 and sent forward to reconnoitre, finding it impossible to 
 go farther had devoted his time to strengthening Fort 
 Necessity, which was now a rude square stockade, with 
 the swivels mounted upon the walls, which afforded little 
 or no protection for the gunners. There was a shallow 
 ditch around the fortification. 
 
 On the 3rd of July, early in the morning, the French 
 appeared on the wooded hills. Washington drew up his 
 men in the meadow outside the fort and made ready for 
 battle. It was a bold defiance and the indicated desire 
 for a hand to hand conflict in the open was quite in keep 
 ing with the character of the man. The French, how 
 ever, and especially the Indians, had no mind to play that 
 sort of a game. They remained concealed in the sur 
 rounding woods firing on the Americans from the shelter 
 of the trees. Washington thereupon reoccupied the fort 
 and a battle commenced which was maintained with 
 great vigor all day long. 
 
 During the afternoon it rained frequently and heavily; 
 so much so, that, at times, the combatants were forced to 
 
200 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 suspend operations, but whenever there was the slightest 
 intermission in the falling water, the fighting was re 
 sumed. Poor and wretchedly equipped as the Vir 
 ginians were, they were excellent marksmen and they 
 poured a steady fire upon their encircling foes delib 
 erately and coolly discharging their pieces and endeavor 
 ing to make every shot tell. The French and Indians 
 were equally good shots with the rifle and the casualties 
 on both sides were severe. It was found impossible for 
 the Americans to make any effective use of their swivels 
 as almost every man who attempted to manipulate them 
 was immediately shot down. 
 
 As the evening drew on the condition of the besieged 
 became desperate. Their ammunition was almost gone 
 and nearly one hundred men out of a total of three hun 
 dred and fifty had been killed or wounded. The stock 
 ade had at last become untenable, for the French had 
 found a position from which they could enfilade it and 
 every corner was being searched by the leaden messen 
 gers of death whenever the rain made firing possible. 
 Washington s condition was hopeless. Fortunately for 
 him, however, the French were not in a very much better 
 situation. They had suffered about an equal loss in killed 
 and wounded during the engagement; the Indians, who 
 were not happy in a siege, were threatening to break 
 away; their ammunition was also nearly exhausted; de 
 Villiers, therefore, proposed a parley to discuss terms of 
 capitulation. 
 
 Washington fearing treachery resolutely refused it, and 
 as the rain was pouring down in torrents, operations were 
 again suspended, although both parties lay suspiciously 
 upon their arms. The French finally sent an officer, who 
 succeeded in assuring Washington of the honesty of his 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 201 
 
 commander s intentions, and the parley was accordingly 
 had. Captain van Braam was sent to the French cap 
 tain to ascertain what terms he proposed. The terms 
 which de Villiers offered were most generous. The 
 Americans were to march out of the fort with all the 
 honors of war and everything they could carry. One 
 of the swivels was allowed them; everything they could 
 not carry was to fall to the French and Indians. 
 
 Washington having accepted them, the articles were 
 reduced to writing by the French and brought back to 
 camp by van Braam. The American officers, who knew 
 no French, gathered around the Dutchman as he trans 
 lated the French propositions to them. It was a difficult 
 task; the night had fallen and the rain was still pouring 
 down; a solitary candle was hardly kept alight in the rain; 
 van Braam stumbled through the blurred, blotted terms 
 of the capitulation and Washington and his officers after 
 ward appended their signatures to it. 
 
 To anticipate, after it was all over, they found they had 
 formally acknowledged that they had assassinated young 
 Jumonville. They knew no French. Van Braam read 
 ing hurriedly had mistranslated the word " Tassassinat," 
 by " the death," or " killing." It is probable that he did 
 it through carelessness and ignorance, for his knowledge 
 of French was not comprehensive. At any rate the re 
 sults of the blunder were sufficiently serious, for Wash 
 ington found himself a self-proclaimed murderer, and it 
 was a point over which the French made great capital in 
 their subsequent discussions of the happenings in the 
 Ohio valley. All this was in the womb of the future, 
 however, at that time. 
 
 The next morning, the 4th of July, too, the fort was 
 evacuated and Washington with a very dejected feeling 
 
202 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 set forth upon his retreat. His poor, tired, worn-out, 
 half-starved men, staggered along the road, carrying on 
 their backs or in hastily improvised litters, the wounded 
 members of the regiment, the dead having been buried 
 where they had fallen. Indians ran along by the side 
 of the Virginians with menacing gestures and shouts for 
 a long time, but they affected no one by their conduct. 
 For seventy weary miles the Americans plodded on until 
 they reached the storehouses at Wills Creek, where op 
 portunity for rest and refreshment was afforded them. 
 Washington left them there to recuperate and rode on 
 to Williamsburg to make his melancholy report to the 
 governor. 
 
 This, his first campaign, had ended disastrously. It 
 had opened most auspiciously, but it had terminated in 
 defeat. There was nothing dishonorable, however, in it. 
 He had conducted himself well, defended his post bravely, 
 and retreated with the honors of war before an over 
 whelming force. Yet he felt discouraged and dispirited. 
 His feelings, however, were not shared by his country 
 men, who received him with open arms and undimin- 
 ished confidence. 
 
 Two phases of his career had passed. They had seen 
 him first as a hardy and adventurous frontiersman, then 
 as a bold if somewhat reckless border fighter; and a year 
 only was to elapse when they were to discover in him the 
 most promising young soldier of his place and time. 
 
PART IV 
 THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE PALLET OF 
 THE OHIO 
 
 II 
 
 The Second Failure 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR THE VALLEY 
 OF THE OHIO 
 
 II. THE SECOND FAILURE 
 
 I. The Character and Career of General Braddock 
 
 IN England, near the close of the seventeenth cen 
 tury, probably in 1695, there was born to Major 
 General Edward Braddock, Lieutenant Colonel of 
 the Coldstream Guards, a son who was named for his 
 father. The origin of the family is unknown. The last 
 one left no descendants and the family has vanished into 
 the obscurity from which it sprang. 
 
 Though the name between father and son appears for 
 over seventy years on the roster of the same famous regi 
 ment of the Guards a regiment so distinguished in Eng 
 lish history that it was found necessary to caution its men 
 lest they should bear themselves too arrogantly toward 
 the soldiers of less favored corps but little is known of 
 their history. It is vaguely surmised that they were of 
 Irish extraction, though the name Braddock query, 
 broad oak? does not bear out the speculation. How 
 they obtained an entree into this exclusive body of sol 
 diery and the means by which they were enabled to at 
 tain and retain their coveted station are equally unknown. 
 Possibly in their capacity and merit, although these were 
 but rarely rewarded at Court, may be found the only 
 
 explanation. 
 
 205 
 
206 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 The son referred to became one of the most famous 
 characters in English history; and, I do believe, one most 
 unkindly dealt with by those who have tried to chronicle 
 his actions. He was unlucky and hence unforgiven. To 
 paraphrase an old proverb, " Nothing defeats like de 
 feat," and poor Braddock has been overwhelmed with 
 unmerited censure, his character and career made the 
 subject of heartless jest, his misfortunes emphasized by 
 undeserved obloquy, his reputation destroyed by in 
 sinuation and innuendo, and his good qualities which 
 were many have been almost totally lost sight of. 
 
 I hold no brief for England or the English. My own 
 ancestors did fight under Forbes when he finally captured 
 Fort Du Quesne, but that is their solitary instance of 
 English service, of which I have record; their original 
 nationality was Irish and they were invariably found in 
 opposition to England. Some of them may have been in 
 the Irish Brigade which opposed Braddock s own regi 
 ment of Guards at Fontenoy, yet in this story of a defeat 
 as disastrous not as disgraceful, I maintain, in opposi 
 tion to popular opinion as ever befell an English army, 
 I shall incidentally strive to do justice to this unfortunate 
 commander. 
 
 He entered the English service in 1710 as an ensign 
 in his father s regiment, the Coldstream Guards afore 
 mentioned, being then about fifteen years of age, and he 
 remained with it continuously until 1753, participating in 
 all of the brilliant services in which it took part, including 
 the famous battles of Dettingen and Fontenoy. After 
 ward, when " Butcher " Cumberland carried out his 
 bloody campaign in Scotland Braddock was with him. 
 His conduct at Culloden and afterward attracted the 
 favorable notice of the duke, who thereafter became his 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 207 
 
 firm friend and patron. To him Braddock owed his 
 subsequent advancement. 
 
 In 1746, while still retaining his connection with the 
 regiment, he was appointed brigadier general in the line 
 and commanded a detachment in Admiral Lestock s ex 
 pedition to Quiberon. He afterward returned to the 
 Netherlands and remained there until 1748, distinguish 
 ing himself at the siege of Bergen-op-Zoom. 
 
 In 1753 he was detached from the Guards and sent to 
 Gibraltar to take command of the Fourteenth Foot, an 
 organization which had shown itself to be one of the most 
 unruly and undisciplined in the service, and which needed 
 some hard treatment to bring it into shape. He com 
 pletely changed the character of the regiment, reducing 
 it to order, drilling and disciplining it until it became 
 noted for its efficiency; and it is stated, greatly to his 
 credit, that the men of the regiment in spite of the break 
 ing in he had given them, fairly adored him. 
 
 On the 29th of March, 1754, by the influence of Cum 
 berland, he was appointed major general and com 
 mander of all His Majesty s troops then in, or to be sent 
 to, North America. So much for his record, which was 
 one of constant, even brilliant, service, hard fighting, and 
 steady promotion. 
 
 Now, as to his character. Walpole speaks of him as 
 " desperate in his fortunes, brutal in his behaviour, obsti 
 nate in his sentiments." Let us examine these charges. 
 When Braddock s father died the family consisted of two 
 sisters and this one son. To each of the sisters was left 
 about six thousand pounds and to the son probably the 
 same amount. One sister died early leaving her estate 
 to the other. Goldsmith records that the surviving sister 
 expended her fortune and ruined herself to pay the debts 
 
208 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 of the man she loved, a creature unworthy of such a sacri 
 fice, for rinding her property was gone he promptly de 
 serted her. 
 
 In despair poor Fanny Braddock resorted to the gam 
 ing table and eventually committed suicide, although 
 nothing whatever could be brought against her moral 
 character. Walpole writes that Braddock when he heard 
 of the untimely end of his sister, remarked, "Poor Fanny! 
 I always thought she would play until she would be forced 
 to tuck herself up." Certainly it was a brutal thing to say 
 if he said it. Walpole again relates a story of Brad- 
 dock s robbing his mistress of her last guinea and then 
 abandoning her. The incident was embodied in a play 
 and Walpole ascribed it to this soldier. These two anec 
 dotes are the main things by which he is discredited. 
 
 Walpole s statements are not above suspicion. In 
 many instances he is palpably wrong and the accuracy of 
 his judgment must often be questioned (as for instance 
 when he calls Washington a " brave braggart " or a 
 " fanfaron " two things he certainly was not). In 
 truth, Walpole had the habit of the gossip, and the gossip 
 of the satirical kind at that; nothing escaped his heartless, 
 caustic pen. He would sacrifice truth to a jest, accuracy 
 to a witticism, reputation to an anecdote, honor to a trifle, 
 without a compunction. As for instance, when the Brit 
 ish army was toiling through the Alleghenies under in 
 credible difficulties, Walpole coolly writes that " Brad- 
 dock seems in no hurry to get himself scalped! " 
 
 While investigating various historical subjects I have 
 found a number of misstatements in Walpole s Letters, 
 consequently I am not disposed to rely entirely upon his 
 statements or conclusions. To offset his deductions the 
 following points are worthy of consideration. Brad- 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 209 
 
 dock s income was something like three hundred pounds 
 a year, and since Walpole stamped him as a man of broken 
 fortunes the fact that he increased it slightly during his 
 lifetime and left the sum of seven thousand pounds to 
 Mrs. Anne Bellamy, gives the story the lie at once. Also, 
 it is known that he freely drew upon his private funds 
 for the furtherance of the king s business in America, 
 which is significant. 
 
 Everybody admits that he was a man of the most de 
 termined courage. He could not have been enrolled for 
 forty-five years in the finest regiment of the British army, 
 whose officers were all men of birth and station, had he 
 been a low, vulgar, brutal, tyrannical man. Mrs. Bel 
 lamy preserves one little anecdote about him which seems 
 to refute the charge of cruelty and brutality. She says: 
 
 " As we were walking in the park one day, we heard a 
 poor fellow was to be chastised; when I requested the 
 General to beg off the offender. Upon his application 
 to the general officer, whose name was Dury, he asked 
 Braddock, how long since he had divested himself of 
 brutality and the insolence of his manners? To which 
 the other replied, * You never knew me insolent to my 
 inferiors. It is only to such rude men as yourself that I 
 behave with the spirit which I think they deserve. 
 
 He had served in many campaigns and always with 
 credit. According to his standard he was a most ac 
 complished soldier. Nobody ever claimed that he was 
 a heaven-born leader, or that he was a great military 
 genius, and when he was placed in conditions which no 
 British soldier had ever faced and matched with foes 
 whose tactics no British officer had ever fathomed, under 
 circumstances hitherto unparalleled, he failed; but there 
 was probably no soldier in the British army at the time 
 14 
 
210 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 who would not have failed, and those who succeeded sub 
 sequently, did so from experience gained by observing 
 his failure. 
 
 In a day, moreover, in which peculation was universal 
 and the public service was honeycombed with fraud and 
 reeked with corruption, he was rigidly and sturdily hon 
 est even Walpole admits this last and it does not accord 
 with the character of a debt-ridden spendthrift. 
 
 And we must not forget that the men of the worst 
 regiment in the service, whom he had trained, loved him. 
 Wolfe sums up his character when he styles him " a man 
 of courage and good sense, although not a master of the 
 art of war," that last must have been said of nearly all 
 English soldiers except Wolfe himself! 
 
 The evening before Braddock left England he called 
 upon Mrs. Bellamy and as he bade her good-by he told 
 her she would never see him more, for he was going with 
 a handful of men to conquer whole nations; and, pro 
 ducing a map of the country, he said that to do this they 
 must cut their way through unknown woods and that 
 they were to be sent like sacrifices to the altar. 
 
 It was Braddock s misfortune to be the first British 
 soldier to conduct a campaign against Indians and sav 
 ages in the wilderness, and unless he were possessed of 
 the genius which would enable him to adapt himself to 
 unknown and unfamiliar conditions, the first soldier was 
 fairly enough doomed to defeat. I have a great sym 
 pathy for him and some admiration, which has arisen 
 without design on my part from a study of the various 
 authorities used in preparing this account. Arrogant, 
 imperious, stubborn, self-willed, hard, he had his faults 
 and they were grave but they were more than counter 
 balanced by his virtues. 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 211 
 
 II. The March to the Valley 
 
 But to return to the story. The King and his minis 
 ters were determined that the French should be driven 
 out of the Ohio valley and when the campaign of Wash 
 ington with its disastrous termination was reported in 
 England, it was decided to send over to America such a 
 force as would suffice as they fondly thought to settle 
 the question. 
 
 France and England were still at peace with each 
 other and were loudly proclaiming their mutual affection, 
 while both parties were engaged in most formidable and 
 warlike preparations. It was decided that the force for 
 the reduction of Fort Du Quesne, with which we are 
 immediately concerned, should consist of the Forty- 
 fourth and Forty-eighth regiments of the line, then quar 
 tered in Ireland. Braddock was to have chief command 
 in the colonies, with Shirley, Governor of Massachusetts, 
 as his second. Two more regiments of infantry, Shir 
 ley s own and Pepperrell s were to be raised in the colo 
 nies. The number of men in the Forty-fourth and 
 Forty-eighth regiments, then containing about five hun 
 dred each, was to be increased to seven hundred each 
 by enlistments in America. 
 
 The main force under Braddock was to take Fort Du 
 Quesne, w r hile auxiliary expeditions were proposed to 
 seize Ticonderoga, Niagara, and various other points. 
 All but that under the immediate direction of the com- 
 mander-in-chief may be dismissed from our consideration 
 for the present. 
 
 On the 25th of February, 1755, the famous ship-of-the- 
 line Centurion, on which Anson had made his wonderful 
 
212 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 cruise around the world, arrived at Hampton Roads, in 
 Virginia, with two other ships, the naval force being un 
 der the command of Commodore Keppel, afterwards so 
 justly celebrated an admiral. Braddock and his staff 
 were on this squadron. The remainder of the troops 
 came straggling in at different dates on thirteen trans 
 ports and three storeships, and it was not until the middle 
 of March that the entire army was landed upon the shores 
 of Virginia. 
 
 A council of all the royal governors was held and 
 preparations made to carry out the plans of the English 
 Ministry. After incredible delays and infuriating ex 
 periences caused by dilatory and unruly colonial assem 
 blies, by incompetent executives, and by jealousy, mal 
 administration, and insubordination everywhere, which 
 exasperated the general beyond endurance and caused 
 him to voice his anger and disappointment in no meas 
 ured terms, the necessary recruiting was completed, and 
 the expedition in May reached Fort Cumberland. 
 
 It is noteworthy that Washington himself, on many 
 occasions, was quite as severe in his strictures upon the 
 incapable colonial governments and the inefficient militia 
 as Braddock had been. The English general s most 
 serious blunder was his contempt, freely and forcibly ex 
 pressed, for the provincial troops; yet it was easy to 
 understand. How could a man who had been trained a 
 strict disciplinarian a bit of a martinet indeed think 
 otherwise of such soldiers as the provinces produced? 
 Knowing nothing of the conditions of the warfare in 
 which he was about to engage, Braddock was not able 
 to see possibilities of usefulness in anything but the 
 rigidly drilled automata of the British line. 
 
 Fort Cumberland was a rude structure which had been 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 213 
 
 built about the storehouses at Wills Creek on the Po 
 tomac to provide a base of supplies from which the army 
 could begin the campaign proper. The two regular regi 
 ments had been recruited to seven hundred men each. 
 In addition there were two companies of colonial troops, 
 a company of guides or pioneers, a troop of light horse 
 and a detachment of sailors from the squadron. 
 
 Sir John St. Clair, Quarter-Master-General, had been 
 sent to America ahead of the others to make arrange 
 ments for the transportation of the army. He proved 
 himself glaringly and wofully inefficient and accomplished 
 practically nothing. Wagons and horses for the baggage 
 and artillery train had been provided at last through 
 the efforts of Benjamin Franklin, who had come upon 
 the scene like a good angel and relieved the situation, 
 after Braddock had almost despaired of securing trans 
 portation. Franklin had cunningly told the Pennsyl 
 vania farmers that their wagons and teams would be well 
 paid for, adding that if they did not offer them volun 
 tarily they would probably be taken for nothing the 
 king s business must not be delayed. 
 
 Poor Braddock in the midst of all his difficulties, de 
 scribed Franklin as the only man of parts and sense he 
 had met in the country although the shrewd philoso 
 pher did not reciprocate the opinion. There was one 
 other man, however, whom Braddock had probably for 
 gotten when he wrote, to whom he had wisely given his 
 confidence, and that was Colonel Washington. 
 
 When the order had come the previous year making 
 colonial officers of whatsoever rank junior even to en 
 signs who bore the king s commission, Washington had 
 instantly resigned the service, although it was a serious 
 blow to him to see all his hopes of military preferment 
 
214 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 vanish. He was a frequent visitor to the camp, which 
 was established near Alexandria, however, and in com 
 pany with the other gentry of the province extended 
 much hospitality to the British general and his officers. 
 He closely observed the drills and made himself master 
 of the minutiae of army life as presented there. The 
 lessons he learned were exceedingly valuable, indeed, it 
 was there he laid the foundation of his knowledge of drill 
 and discipline. It was the only school of the soldier he 
 ever attended. It is greatly to Braddock s credit let 
 it be set down that he readily discerned the soldierly 
 stuff that was in Washington and in order to avail him 
 self of his valuable service, offered him a position upon 
 his own staff with the rank of colonel. There the high- 
 spirited Virginian would be subject to no orders but the 
 general s own. Orme and other members of the staff 
 welcomed him gladly and Washington engaged in his 
 new duties with becoming zeal and success, winning 
 golden opinions everywhere. It was in many ways a 
 most fortunate appointment for Braddock and his men. 
 
 By May 2Oth, the whole force was assembled at Fort 
 Cumberland. On the 3Oth of May, having lost, it will 
 be seen, some three months of precious time, which was 
 in no sense the fault of Braddock, the advance began. 
 Six hundred men were sent forward to open the road, 
 w r hich was a narrow Indian trail wretchedly cleared, wind 
 ing through the woods. On the 7th of June, the first 
 party followed under the command of Sir Peter Halket, 
 colonel of the Forty-fourth; on the 8th the second party 
 under Lieutenant Colonel Gage moved out, and on the 
 loth, the rear guard under Colonel Thomas Dunbar, of 
 the Forty-eighth, broke camp. 
 
 In ten days the army arrived at Little Meadows, hav- 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 215 
 
 ing made less than two miles and a half per day! They 
 waited here for a week to recuperate and to receive be 
 lated provisions and forage which had been promised 
 them but which were very slow in coming in. On the 
 1 8th of June, by Washington s advice, Braddock de 
 termined to press forward with what he called a flying 
 column; although crawling column would be a better 
 term. 
 
 Taking two hundred provincials and one thousand 
 regulars, with four howitzers, four twelve pounders, 
 twelve coehorns,* and thirty ammunition and artillery 
 wagons, with the provisions on pack horses, and leaving 
 the rest of the artillery train and the baggage with eight 
 hundred of the poorest men under Dunbar who took 
 great umbrage at being relegated to the rear to follow 
 as best they could, Braddock set forth. On the 2ist of 
 June they entered Pennsylvania and by the 24th they 
 had progressed, in five days, seventeen miles! Their 
 way took them through a rough, wild, unbroken country, 
 absolutely in its native state. Now they climbed lofty 
 mountains, now they followed the winding course of 
 rushing streams, now they defiled through narrow val 
 leys. On the hills great woods of gloomy pine trees 
 overshadowed them, and the rough road which the toil 
 ing pioneers managed to cut through the trees was hardly 
 practicable even for pack horses. 
 
 * Sometimes their slow progress lay through open 
 forests, where the giant stems of oak and poplar, chest 
 nut and maple, rose from a clean carpet of fallen leaves, 
 or spread their leafy roof over wide stretching and 
 luxuriant masses of rhododendrons and azaleas, just now 
 
 * A small mortar for throwing grenades, usually carried by hand by four 
 men. 
 
Map Showing the Route and Encampments of the Expeditions of 
 Braddock and Forbes in 1755 and 1758 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 217 
 
 in the very zenith of their bloom; at other times they 
 were brushing between sombre walls of cypress and hem 
 lock which hid the sunlight and the heat from dank, dark 
 soils where the moss-grown carcasses of fallen trees lay 
 heaped together in all stages of decay. Now the long 
 column was clinging precariously to a precipitous hill 
 side, beneath which some pent-up torrent churned and 
 roared. Now it was struggling cattle, horses, wagons, 
 and men in some rocky channel, where a shrunken 
 stream trickled amid the debris of its winter floods. 
 Signs of the French and Indians were plentiful, but as 
 yet they kept their distance, filling the measure of their 
 hostility with taunts and ribald verses smeared upon the 
 trees. Admirable discipline was maintained, and every 
 precaution that prudence required was observed by Brad- 
 dock. Men were thrown out upon both flanks march 
 ing abreast through the trees, while beyond these again 
 scouting parties ranged the woods. A careless straggler 
 was occasionally killed and scalped, but no party of the 
 enemy ventured an attack upon the column, attenuated 
 though it of necessity was." * 
 
 They practically met no enemy, no. friend. The silence 
 about them to men accustomed to the crowded countries 
 of Europe was menacing and unbearable. To the sol 
 diers with their leather leggins, tight woollen coats, heavy 
 knapsacks, tall mitred hats, the heat and fatigue of the 
 journey were almost unsupportable. 
 
 The march dragged fearfully, as the long line plodded 
 and struggled on. Instead of discarding every bit of 
 parade and pressing rapidly toward Fort Du Quesne, 
 Washington complains that they stopped to level every 
 
 * Bradley, The Fight with France for North America. An excellent 
 book. 
 
218 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 mole hill and build a bridge over every creek. Not a 
 single practice of a European march was omitted, no 
 point of military procedure was slighted. It might take 
 them years to reach the valley of the Ohio, but they 
 would do it as trained soldiers should. They set a fine 
 example to the forest trees, since there was nothing else 
 to see them. This was one of Braddock s greatest mis 
 takes. 
 
 Yet in all the hardships of the journey the general, 
 now a stout old man of sixty years, cheerfully shared. 
 When the pack horses began to give out he set the ex 
 ample of surrendering his own for the service of the 
 army; an example which was followed by the officers 
 generally, as they toiled on slowly but surely through 
 the wilderness. 
 
 Braddock has been accused of neglecting to employ any 
 Indians and as despising these valuable allies. Whatever 
 his opinions, and naturally he would not be greatly pre 
 possessed in their favor, as a matter of fact he never had 
 an opportunity to employ more than fifty and these, with 
 the exception of eight, presently abandoned him. On 
 the 3rd of July he encamped at Jacob s Creek and per 
 sonally urged the remaining Indians to go forward on a 
 scouting expedition. They at first refused to do this, 
 but he finally persuaded them and they set forth on the 
 following day. Christopher Gist, who had joined him, 
 also departed upon the same errand. Dunbar with the 
 rear guard meanwhile had started on the 2nd of July to 
 follow -the army. 
 
 On the 6th the scouting expeditions came back and 
 reported that all was quiet in front of them and that the 
 fort did not appear to have been heavily reenforced. 
 On the same day a convoy of provisions for which Brad- 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 219 
 
 dock had been waiting reached him and he set forth 
 again. 
 
 On the 7th he reached Little Turtle Creek on the bank 
 of the Monongahela. He intended to cross this and 
 proceed directly to the fort. If he had done so probably 
 he would have succeeded in capturing it, but he was pre 
 vented by two circumstances; a report that was brought 
 to him of the necessity for leading his army through a 
 narrow pass between the river and the mountain, which 
 could easily be held by the French, and by his inability 
 to get his wagons across the creek on the ordinary road 
 owing to the steepness of the banks. He was informed, 
 too, that by turning to the left he would find a practi 
 cable crossing of the Monongahela and then after advanc 
 ing a few miles another ford of the same winding river, 
 which offered no difficulties to his passage. When he 
 had crossed the second ford he would be within six miles, 
 an easy striking distance, of the fort with no intervening 
 obstacles worthy of mention. He determined, therefore, 
 to try this road. Turning back from Turtle Creek, on 
 the evening of the 8th he encamped near the first cross 
 ing of the Monongahela. 
 
 There Washington joined him. He had been ill of a 
 fever and Braddock had compelled him to remain behind 
 with Dunbar s force. Washington had only agreed to 
 do this upon the assurance of the general that he should 
 be brought up before the anticipated action, which he 
 says he would not have missed for five hundred pounds. 
 It gives a touch of homeliness to the narrative when we 
 learn that Braddock solemnly enjoined Washington to 
 take " Dr. James powders," which he assured him were 
 the finest powders in the world for fever! Washington 
 was still ill and had been brought up most of the way in 
 
220 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 a wagon following the provision convoy. However, 
 when he reached the others he was sufficiently recovered, 
 although very weak, to mount his horse. 
 
 At three o clock on the morning of the Qth of July, 
 1755, Braddock detached a strong party under Lieuten 
 ant Colonel Gage to secure the crossings. At four 
 o clock Lieutenant Colonel St. Clair, the quarter-mas 
 ter-general, was sent forward with a large working party 
 to clear the roads. At six o clock the general himself, 
 with the rest of the army, broke camp. Four hun 
 dred men were posted on the heights covering the first 
 crossing which the advance guards had declared unoccu 
 pied, and the whole army, baggage wagons, artillery 
 train, pack horses, cattle, camp followers including 
 some thirty women! safely made the passage. At 
 eleven o clock they reached the second ford, which was 
 held in force by Gage and St. Clair. They were much 
 surprised that no attempt had been made to dispute their 
 passage in either instance. 
 
 It was a bright sunny morning. Thinking it prob 
 able that French or Indian scouts might be lurking in 
 the vicinity Braddock determined to effect the second 
 passage of the river in the finest military style. Com 
 panies were deployed and with the sound of trumpet and 
 fife and roll of drum, the little army plunged into the 
 water and marched across. A brave and splendid show 
 they made; the red-coated regulars, the Virginians in 
 blue, the sailors, the pioneers, the irregulars in their hunt 
 ing suits; the martial music, the loud blasts of the 
 trumpet, the rolling of the drums, the splashing feet in 
 the sparkling waters, the sunlight reflected from the 
 gleaming gun barrels and flashing bayonets, filled the 
 scene with a martial display the like of which had never 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 221 
 
 before been witnessed in America. The observers, of 
 which there were not a few, were duly impressed but 
 not in the least dismayed. 
 
 The river where they crossed although six hundred 
 feet broad was very shallow. They made the passage 
 without difficulty and halted for dinner on the other side. 
 At last they were within striking distance of the enemy. 
 The last river was crossed, the last obstacle surmounted, 
 the rest was to be plain sailing. Braddock and his offi 
 cers were much elated. They had been a long time on 
 this journey, but the end was near. Gayly they made 
 their preparations for the final stage of their march. It 
 never seems to have occurred to any one, not even to 
 Washington, that they were approaching a most disas 
 trous defeat a slaughter, a rout. Everyone was sub 
 limely and supremely confident of certain and immediate 
 success, and in that fatuous but natural confidence they 
 took up the final march. 
 
 III. The Defeat on the Monongahela 
 
 The ground on the east bank, the Du Quesne side, of 
 the Monongahela sloped gently up from the bank of the 
 river for some distance and was well covered with old 
 trees with little or no underbrush. Near the crossing 
 stood Frazier s house where Washington and Gist had 
 received their timely succor a year before. It was now, 
 of course, abandoned. Having seen his whole army 
 safely across, about one o clock Braddock gave orders 
 for the advance. So far they had seen no one. Al 
 though they were near the fort no body of troops had 
 come to oppose them. Nevertheless the English neg- 
 
222 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 lected no precaution which their experience and tactics 
 suggested. Lieutenant Colonel Gage was again thrown 
 forward with an advance party with the guides and engi 
 neers; in front of them some of the Virginia light horse 
 were ordered to scout. Flankers were extended through 
 the woods on either side. Some little distance in the 
 rear of Gage, who was accompanied by two pieces of ar 
 tillery, came St. Clair with his party of road makers; then 
 followed the general with the main body of the army and 
 the artillery train, while Sir Peter Halket with some regu 
 lars and the colonial troops, amounting in all to some 
 four hundred men, brought up the rear with the baggage 
 train. 
 
 It was Braddock s intention to march until late in the 
 afternoon, then encamp for the night and the next morn 
 ing formally invest the fort. Neither he, nor Washing 
 ton, nor anyone unless it were shrewd old Benjamin 
 Franklin back in Philadelphia putting a damper upon a 
 fund which was being subscribed to celebrate the victory, 
 by remarking that it would be better to raise such a fund 
 when the victory came seems to have doubted the re 
 sult. Indeed, as Benjamin Franklin had said, if Brad- 
 dock once succeeded in investing the fort its downfall 
 would be certain. The only question in Franklin s mind 
 was as to the likelihood of his getting there. 
 
 Fort Du Quesne was a stoutly built affair of logs, but 
 was commanded by adjacent hills, and though it was im 
 pregnable to musketry, yet with Braddock s artillery train 
 it would have been untenable. In fact de Contrecceur 
 had about decided that a defence was not feasible and 
 that the only thing left for him to do would be to with 
 draw. He had, in fact, made every preparation for re 
 treating when Braddock appeared. He had no doubt 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 223 
 
 but that he would be permitted to leave with all the 
 honors of war and had arranged to do so. 
 
 Fortunately for the French, however, the second in 
 command of the post, the young Chevalier de Beaujeu, 
 was one of those daring and adventurous soldiers to 
 whom the idea of retreat is the last that presents itself, 
 and he persuaded de Contrecoeur to allow him to take 
 some seventy French regulars and one hundred and fifty 
 Canadians with thirty-two officers and cadets from the 
 small garrison of the fort, and, with such Indians as he 
 could induce to follow him attempt, at least, to delay the 
 advance. The French had assembled a large party of 
 Indians from all over the northwest in the clearing about 
 the fort, and influenced by Beaujeu s impassioned ora 
 tory and by the persuasions of such men as Charles de 
 Langlade, a famous half-breed wood-ranger, and no less 
 a chief than the afterward famous Pontiac, some six hun 
 dred and forty-seven of them at last volunteered to fol 
 low him. The total attacking forces numbered, there 
 fore, less than nine hundred men. 
 
 Barrels of powder and bullets were broached before 
 the gates and the Indians helped themselves. It was de 
 Beaujeu s intention to dispute the passage of the river, 
 but the delay in getting the Indians off, and Braddock s 
 celerity the one time he was quick in his movements 
 had forced him to abandon the effort. Although in 
 formed by his scouts that he had lost this favorable op 
 portunity de Beaujeu determined to attack the British 
 when he could and accordingly pressed on a brave fel 
 low indeed. This fact effectually disposes of the state 
 ment that Braddock was the victim of an ambuscade.* 
 
 * This is a charge often made and is last repeated in Woodrow Wilson s 
 Colonies and Nation. It is without foundation. There was no ambush. 
 
224 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 Gage and his party preceded by Gordon, an engineer 
 officer, and some of Captain Stewart s fleet light-horse 
 men, steadily advanced up the valley. A quarter of a 
 mile from the river bank the hills rose to a maximum 
 height of perhaps two hundred feet. As they marched 
 along in the general direction of the river, though con 
 stantly swerving inward, the woods became thicker and 
 the ground covered with underbrush. The marching 
 column followed a narrow path a few feet wide which 
 wound in and out among the trees, not much more than 
 a trail in fact. 
 
 The axemen under St. Clair by cutting down trees did 
 their best to increase the width of the road which pres 
 ently made a wide detour away from the bank of the 
 river to escape a swamp which was the termination of a 
 rather broad shallow ravine, over which it was necessary 
 for them to cross. One hundred and fifty yards farther 
 another ravine parallel to the first stretched across the 
 path of the invaders. From this ravine two smaller and 
 rather deep depressions in the ground ran almost at right 
 angles to it in a direction roughly paralleling the Eng 
 lish advance. 
 
 The forest here was filled with shrubs and bushes and 
 the two small ravines were hidden by trees, vines and a 
 thick undergrowth. Back of the ravine upon the right 
 arose a steep and commanding hill also thickly wooded. 
 No one, neither French nor British, seems to have had 
 the slightest previous idea of the existence of these 
 smaller and parallel ravines. Unfortunately the flanking 
 parties, preserving European military distances, were not 
 thrown out quite far enough to detect them, and they 
 were not visible until one stumbled into them. Between 
 this quartet of ravines the battle happened to be fought; 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 225 
 
 if the place had been made to order it could not have 
 been more favorably constructed for the purposes of the 
 French and Indians, and the luck was altogether against 
 the British. 
 
 At half after two Gordon, the engineer officer with the 
 advance party, being then a short distance from the sec 
 ond transverse ravine, suddenly became aware of a party 
 of soldiers in French uniform directly in front of him. 
 They seemed to the astonished Englishman to have 
 sprung from the ground. They were led by a man in a 
 hunting shirt upon whose breast shone the polished silver 
 gorget of an officer. Waving his hat the soldier turned 
 to his men and spoke a short word of command. In 
 stantly the forest rang with the report of arms followed 
 by the shouts of " Vive le Roi! Vive la France! " Sev 
 eral of the English fell. 
 
 The horse having discovered the enemy very properly 
 gave back to clear the front for the infantry, and Colonel 
 Gage instantly deployed his men into such a line as the 
 crowding trees permitted. A heavy volley from the Brit 
 ish crashed through the woods in response to the French 
 attack. The artillery was wheeled to the front and one 
 or two vigorous discharges seemed to blow the advancing 
 French away. The officer who had given the first com 
 mand to fire was seen to fall. The French gave ground. 
 
 The British cheering madly began to advance. But 
 before they had gone a few steps shot began to drop in 
 on them from either flank. Here and there a dusky 
 painted, feathered figure could be seen flitting from tree 
 to tree, but nothing else. The Indians at that moment 
 moved forward and stumbling upon the ravines immedi 
 ately occupied them. Flashes of fire darted under the 
 branches, drifts of smoke blew down upon the men in 
 15 
 
226 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 the open; the soldiers began to fall, they paused uncer 
 tainly, the shots came in from every side; they faced 
 about, fired wildly, hesitated, began to retreat. 
 
 The French in front of them rallied and came on once 
 more with loud cries; and then a new sound mingled with 
 the cheering of the French. Upon those unaccustomed 
 English ears for the first time broke the savage war cry 
 in all its appalling, menacing fury. The retreat became 
 a rout and in a wild run the advance came pouring 
 through the woods abandoning their cannon. In vain 
 Gage, who was wounded, tried to rally them, in vain the 
 Virginia horse strove to intercept them. 
 
 Back at the crossing Braddock heard the sound which 
 told him that the expected attack had at last begun. 
 Leaving Halket and the rear guard with the baggage 
 he immediately ordered up the rest of the army and 
 pressed on toward the front himself. From both flanks 
 and the front a fierce fire was being poured upon the 
 advance parties, quickly extending on each side and 
 rapidly enveloping the whole British lines. In spite of 
 the most determined efforts of their officers Gage s men 
 rushed upon the wavering ranks of St. Clair s detach - 
 ment, not yet heavily engaged, which they threw into 
 great confusion. The British had seen no one, did not 
 see anyone thereafter still the resistless rain of death 
 kept up, still the men fell. 
 
 Meanwhile, M. Dumas, who had succeeded to the 
 command on the death of de Beaujeu, in spite of the fact 
 that his Canadian auxiliaries had retreated after the first 
 disastrous discharge of the English, and in spite of the 
 fact that the Indians had at first shown signs of with 
 drawing, succeeded in rallying them and his own men. 
 At that moment the solitary chance of success for Brad- 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 227 
 
 dock s men had presented itself. A prompt advance 
 upon the French by Gage s party, a scattering of the 
 other troops through the woods, righting by taking ad 
 vantage of every cover, would have routed the French 
 regulars and sent the, at first, lukewarm Indian contin 
 gent into speedy retreat. However, neither Gage nor 
 St. Clair with the advance were able enough or experi 
 enced enough to recognize this opportunity and in a 
 moment it was lost. Washington would have seized the 
 chance probably, but he was still with Braddock, who 
 knew nothing about it, and had he been at the front he 
 had not sufficient rank or influence to have been heeded 
 if he had suggested it. 
 
 Gage and St. Clair were both experienced soldiers. 
 They called in their flankers, all who were left alive that 
 is, and endeavored to get their men into line. It was 
 what they had been taught to do and what almost any 
 other mere well-trained soldier would have done. It 
 needed the bitter lesson of defeat to teach them differ 
 ently. They got it. They knew nothing of forest fight 
 ing, but in that day they or the watching world rather 
 learned something. Not for a hundred and fifty years 
 would a British army be caught in such a position 
 their lesson lasted until they attempted to crush the 
 South African republics the other day. 
 
 With the French officers and cadets and the regular 
 soldiers, Dumas, with his second in command, de Lig- 
 neris, clung to the ravines in front of the British lines and 
 the dangerous moment passed. The Indians recovered 
 from their alarm and, guided and inspired by de Langlade 
 and Pontiac and several of the French officers, they com 
 pletely filled the two parallel ravines and a large body 
 took shelter behind the trees upon the hill to the right, 
 
Map of Braddock s Defeat, Prepared by the Aathor. 
 
 B B, British j C, Advance party ; C, Rear guard ; K, Frazer s house j R R, 
 
 Ravines filled with Indians. 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 229 
 
 where they were practically safe from danger, and whence 
 they poured in a withering and destructive fire. 
 
 As the main body of the redcoats came up the narrow 
 road on a double quick the advance parties, now mixed 
 in the helpless confusion of a retreat, precipitated them 
 selves into the on-coming mass of their comrades. The 
 two regiments became disorganized at once and were 
 thrown into great confusion. They halted, hesitated, 
 struggled into broken disjointed lines and began firing 
 wildly in every direction. 
 
 The Indians meanwhile continued to move along 
 through the ravines on both flanks until they had the 
 English practically surrounded. In fact, after a short 
 time the savages were so far extended that they were 
 enabled to engage Halket and the rear guard; although 
 the colonials with him, taking cover and thoroughly un 
 derstanding the savage way of playing the game, there 
 put up a much stiffer fight. In vain did Braddock and 
 his officers endeavor to restore a semblance of order to 
 the disorganized men. The regimental standards were 
 advanced and the men were besought to rally upon them. 
 Officer after officer appealed to his men to follow him 
 and charge upon the enemy whom they could not see 
 yet whose presence was indicated by the encircling line 
 of fire. But they could do nothing with their men. In 
 their desperation in several instances the officers assem 
 bled in little parties hoping thereby to form a nucleus by 
 which the men could be induced to advance. In vain. 
 The British soldiers remained huddled like sheep in the 
 narrow lane in the tree-covered fields, thick with under 
 brush, blazing away in futile volleys at an enemy who 
 shot at them from every direction. It was hardly neces 
 sary for the French and the Indians to take careful aim. 
 
230 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 All they had to do was to stand concealed in the ravines 
 and point their guns over the edges at the huddled mass 
 of red and blue showing through the smoke under the 
 trees, and pull the trigger. 
 
 All that mortal man could do was done by Braddock 
 and his officers. Such heroism as they showed on that 
 field deserves the highest commendation. From the 
 high hill to the right came the most galling fire. Colonel 
 Burton, whose name was last upon the dying lips of Wolfe 
 at Quebec, finally got together one hundred men to 
 charge the hill and dislodge the enemy. Bravely he ad 
 vanced, but after he had gone a few paces he found him 
 self alone, the soldiers would not follow. One of the 
 Virginia companies left the huddled mass of redcoats 
 and advanced on the run until they gained the shelter of 
 some fallen trees, when they began to pour a careful fire 
 upon their foes. The excited British saw the smoke 
 ahead of them, and thinking it came from an enemy, the 
 artillery fired at it and over fifty of the Virginians were 
 killed thereby. Indeed many of the English were killed 
 by the fire of their comrades.* 
 
 When the battle began the colonial troops, and the 
 regulars who had enlisted in the colonies, having better 
 knowledge of the demands of the situation, immediately 
 sought the shelter of the trees and began to fire upon 
 the Indians, endeavoring to fight them in their own way. 
 Many of the British soldiers blunderingly essayed the 
 same tactics. To hide behind a tree was in Braddock s 
 mind the act of a coward, and the infuriated general act 
 ually beat the men out into the open with the flat of his 
 sword, endeavoring to form and keep the line and this 
 
 * It is sometimes alleged that Braddock was shot by one of his own men, 
 but the statement is undoubtedly false. 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 231 
 
 in spite of the advice of Washington and the colonial 
 officers ! 
 
 Braddock s stubborn courage was magnificent. Freely 
 exposing himself he held his men inflexibly in those un 
 availing lines of battle; hot, tired, hoarse, cheering them 
 on and encouraging them to fight; horse after horse to 
 the number of five shot under him, his clothes riddled 
 with bullets our hearts go out to the brave if stupid 
 soldier. All his aides were disabled from wounds at last 
 except the young Virginia colonel, and right gallantly 
 did Washington second him that day. That young man 
 heard bullets whistle then as he had never heard before. 
 And he was the hero of the stricken field. 
 
 He was everywhere in the very thick of the fray, now 
 striving to lead a charge, one moment springing from his 
 horse and single-handed wheeling a cannon about and 
 discharging it at the concealed foes; again heartening the 
 frightened men, teaching them to take cover as he could, 
 imploring them to make a brave stand; carrying the 
 orders of the general here and there, begging him to 
 allow the men to fight behind the trees; exposing him 
 self freely, recklessly, to all the dangers of the battle, he 
 raged about that field like a perfect incarnation of war. 
 Two horses were shot beneath him and his clothing was 
 riddled with bullets. Many of the Indians, it was told in 
 after years, marked his tall figure and fired carefully at 
 him again and again, but without avail. God was still 
 protecting him for the great work of the future. 
 
 So the battle raged until nearly five o clock in the 
 afternoon. The long hours wore away and the woods 
 were still filled with the continual crackle of the muskets 
 and the roar of the heavier guns. The ground was cov 
 ered with dead and wounded. Sixty-three of the eighty- 
 
232 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 nine officers had fallen. Washington in his excitement, 
 writing while the story of the defeat was still fresh in his 
 mind, called the British soldiers cowards, but men who 
 can stand and fight an unseen enemy, for more than two 
 hours while they are being shot down from every side, 
 cannot properly be described as cowards. They stood 
 helplessly in the forest glades dying in their tracks, the 
 living blazing away ineffectually at the surrounding 
 country while the Indians and the French made targets 
 of them, until their ammunition was exhausted and Brad- 
 dock himself at last commanded a retreat. Even to the 
 brave, stubborn bulldog soul of the general the con 
 sciousness of defeat was at last borne. To stay longer 
 was to invite destruction. With a breaking heart the 
 proud old soldier gave the order. 
 
 He had not a single staff officer left unwounded except 
 Washington. The British army had become complete 
 ly disorganized. There was no semblance of order or 
 organization left in it. The retreat at once became a 
 rout. The men preserved no order and left the field on 
 a wild run. Just as he gave the order to retire a bullet 
 struck the general in the arm and passed through it into 
 the lung, inflicting a mortal wound. Captain Stewart 
 of the horse and Washington sprang to his assistance. 
 Realizing that he had received his death wound the un 
 fortunate leader begged piteously to be left to die upon 
 the field where he had performed such prodigies of valor 
 in vain. Not heeding his request they lifted him upon 
 a tumbrel or tool-cart, and dragged him after the rest. 
 Everything was lost. 
 
 During the afternoon the Indians had extended their 
 lines until they encompassed the rear guard, and though 
 the Virginians who were with Halket had fought them 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 233 
 
 off while their ammunition lasted, the rear had been at 
 last overwhelmed like the rest. Sir Peter Halket, the 
 best of the English officers, a man of the very highest 
 character, had been shot and instantly killed. His son, 
 a young lieutenant of the same regiment, stooping over 
 him had met the same fate and had fallen dead upon his 
 father s breast. 
 
 The guns and baggage were abandoned. The mili 
 tary chest with twenty-five thousand pounds of specie in 
 it, was left behind. All of Braddock s papers fell into 
 the hands of the pursuers. As the men fled they threw 
 away their arms, equipments, and even divested them 
 selves of their clothing as they could. 
 
 The tumbrel was also abandoned and the dying gen 
 eral was carried across the river in a silk sash, which offi 
 cers going into action wore for that purpose. When the 
 river was crossed he was mounted on a horse and carried 
 a short distance farther when his pain became unbear 
 able, and they were forced to dismount him. Washing 
 ton, who was now the ranking officer unwounded, by 
 the direction of Braddock strove to rally the men to form 
 a rear guard. He succeeded in assembling about one 
 hundred fugitives under Lieutenant Colonel Burton, but 
 in a few moments they left him. At the second crossing 
 a like effort met with another failure. Yet how bravely 
 the dying general strove to do his duty and check the 
 rout and rally his men! Fortunately for the English 
 the pursuit had stopped at the first crossing of the river. 
 The Indians ranged over the field and with horrible 
 ferocity killed all those who were so severely wounded 
 as to be unable to get away. The French did what they 
 could to restrain the savages from their brutalities, but 
 they were too few in number to accomplish much. All 
 
234 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 but three of the unfortunate women were killed after 
 such a fate as can painfully be imagined, and yet their 
 experience was probably merciful contrasted with the 
 fate in store for the three remaining. 
 
 Nearly nine hundred officers and men were killed and 
 wounded, of whom the greater part were killed in battle 
 or murdered after it.* There was scarcely an Indian en 
 gaged who did not dangle from his belt a reeking, gory 
 scalp. The plunder and booty secured by the allies was 
 immense, as the English succeeded in taking literally 
 nothing across the river. Twelve unwounded English 
 men were captured by the Indians and reserved for a 
 fearful end. 
 
 There was an American prisoner at Fort Du Quesne 
 that day and he described the desperate anxiety with 
 which de Contrecoeur waited during the afternoon for 
 news from de Beaujeu whom the cowardly Canadians 
 declared they had left in dire straits when they came 
 running back after their desertion. It was late in the 
 evening before the war party returned carrying with them 
 the dead bodies of their heroic commander and three 
 other Frenchmen who had been killed and bringing less 
 than a score of wounded, which, with some sixty casual 
 ties among the Indians, represented the total loss sus 
 tained by the expedition. There was much joy in the 
 garrison when the news of the crushing victory which 
 they had obtained had been told. 
 
 The young American boy, the prisoner referred to, 
 stood on the ramparts and saw the twelve British sol 
 diers, who, utterly ignorant of the savage practices and 
 customs, had surrendered themselves as prisoners of war, 
 
 * The defeat of St. Clair in 1791 was a greater disaster, and was much 
 more disgraceful ; the casualties were larger, too, yet it is but little remem 
 bered. See my American Fights and Fighters. 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 235 
 
 burned at the stake after having been subjected to the 
 slowest and most agonizing of tortures. De Contre- 
 coeur and his officers looked at the horrid orgy from the 
 ramparts of Du Quesne while the white flag of France 
 floated over the scene of shame to the eternal disgrace 
 of its defenders. 
 
 But the French were not yet at ease. Within strik 
 ing distance of the fort the English still had a force great 
 enough to have effected its capture and de Contrecceur 
 waited in much anxiety for what might happen next. 
 He would have been much relieved could he have divined 
 the situation of his enemies. 
 
 Failing to get his men to make a stand Braddock was 
 placed on a litter and borne slowly along the way which 
 his army had so painfully followed in their advance in the 
 morning. The soldiers had to be heavily bribed by 
 Orme, one of the general s aides, and a friend of Wash 
 ington who has left us a vivid account of the campaign, 
 by the way to induce them to carry their commander. 
 Braddock, who seems to have striven to do his duty even 
 in the articles of death, that night despatched Washing 
 ton to Dunbar s camp at Rock Fort, some sixty miles 
 distant, to tell the story and give him orders to send men 
 and wagons to receive the wounded. 
 
 Washington rode at reckless speed to discharge his 
 errand. Fast as he went, however, the wagoners, col 
 onists all, who at the first onset had cut the traces and 
 galloped away, were ahead of him. They were the real 
 cowards of the day. They brought the news of the anni 
 hilation of the army the first one who came in actually 
 declared he was the only survivor! Washington found 
 Dunbar in a state of intense perturbation. Indeed, his 
 fear amounted to cowardice. However, he sent a troop 
 
236 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 of soldiers out with the necessary wagons for the 
 wounded. So panic-stricken had his men become that 
 it was difficult to induce them to go forward. Washing 
 ton led them back over the road. 
 
 On the 1 2th they met Braddock, who was slowly 
 dying. They made him as comfortable as they could 
 and finally brought him to Dunbar s camp at Little 
 Meadows. There he died. He had lain all day in a 
 stupor, saying nothing. Toward evening he revived a 
 little and they heard him murmur again and again, " Who 
 would have thought it, who would have thought it? " 
 and just as the sands of life fled away he whispered softly, 
 " We shall know better how to deal with them another 
 time." 
 
 Alas, there was no other time for the defeated soldier. 
 He had been given his opportunity and had lost it. He 
 had done his best and he had failed, but he had yielded 
 up his life in the failure. I think of him pityingly, kindly, 
 tenderly. 
 
 They buried him in the gray of the morning in the road 
 just a mile from Fort Necessity. There was neither 
 pomp nor ceremony in his funeral. A few wounded 
 officers and men followed him to his grave, where the 
 tall young Colonial colonel read the solemn service of 
 the Church of England, as they laid him away. I doubt 
 if there was a volley fired even. They drew the wagons 
 over his last resting place and marched the troops over 
 it to conceal it lest it should be opened and violated by 
 the Indians, and then marched on. 
 
 44 No useless coffin enclosed his breast, 
 
 Not in sheet or in shroud we wound him ; 
 But he lay like a warrior taking his rest, 
 With his martial cloak around him. 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 237 
 
 " Few and short were the prayers we said, 
 
 And we spoke not a word of sorrow ; 
 But we steadfastly gazed on the face that was dead, 
 And we bitterly thought of the morrow. 
 
 " Lightly they ll talk of the spirit that s gone, 
 
 And o er his cold ashes upbraid him ; 
 But little he ll reck, if they let him sleep on 
 In the grave where a Briton has laid him." 
 
 Dunbar showed himself a coward they called him 
 " Dunbar the tardy " thereafter, and the adjective was, if 
 anything, inadequate. Against the advice and entreaty 
 of many he blew up and destroyed his stores and sup 
 plies and fled incontinently to Philadelphia. Shrewd Dr. 
 Franklin was right. No subscription was called for to 
 celebrate the victory. It had been a fearful campaign. 
 Such a crushing defeat had probably never before been 
 inflicted upon the English arms. 
 
 Poor Braddock his memory rather was made the 
 scapegoat, yet the failure was not due so much to the 
 man as it was to the inadequacy of the tactics in which 
 he and his men had been trained and their utter useless- 
 ness in such an emergency; but he had opened the eyes 
 of the world by his failure. Yes, he had opened the eyes 
 of the colonies, too. The halo about the British regular 
 was gone forever. Man to man in the country in which 
 they lived, they knew themselves to be as good as, if not 
 better, than he. Washington, Gates, Hugh Mercer, and 
 stout old Daniel Morgan, a wagoner who had not run, 
 and who had fought until severely wounded, had learned 
 lessons that they never forgot. For some insubordina 
 tion Morgan had been punished unjustly he claimed 
 by five hundred lashes. For every blow laid upon him 
 the British one day paid a fearful price. The French and 
 
238 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 Indians builded better than they knew in their defeat of 
 the English. They gave to America a demonstration 
 of the possibility of success against the finest, best drilled, 
 best equipped soldiers of Europe. 
 
 After the defeat and retreat of the British ensued a 
 scene of horror in the west. Washington had not retired 
 with the rest, and with a wretchedly ineffective provincial 
 regiment of a thousand poorly provided men, he was left 
 at Fort Cumberland to protect the thousand miles of 
 helpless and otherwise undefended frontier from the in 
 cursions of savages who had quaffed blood upon the 
 banks of the Monongahela and sought to drink deep of 
 it with awful success before they were satiated. The 
 homes of the lonely settlers were raided and destroyed, 
 the men murdered, the women outraged and the chil 
 dren carried into captivity. 
 
 The consequences of the English disaster were thus 
 visited upon the wretched inhabitants of the country. 
 Washington did all that mortal man could do with the 
 means provided to protect the people and check the sav 
 age onslaught. His countrymen thoroughly appre 
 ciated not only his brilliant conduct in the last campaign 
 which might have been less disastrous had his advice 
 been followed, but they also realized the importance of 
 his service in protecting the frontier, although they did 
 but little to help him. His situation was indeed deplor 
 able. 
 
 Writes he to the governor: " I am too little ac 
 quainted with pathetic language to attempt a description 
 of these people s distresses. But what can I do? I see 
 their situation, I know their danger, and participate in 
 their sufferings, without having it in my power to give 
 them further relief than uncertain promises. . . . 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 239 
 
 The supplicating tears of the women, and moving peti 
 tions of the men, melt me into such deadly sorrow, that 
 I solemnly declare, if I know my own mind, I could offer 
 myself a willing sacrifice to the butchering enemy, pro 
 vided that would contribute to the people s ease." 
 
 Meanwhile, during all these happenings the flag of 
 France still waved over the ramparts of Fort Du Quesne, 
 and the Indians and French were yet masters of the val 
 ley of the Ohio. 
 
PART IV 
 THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE PALLET OF 
 THE OHIO 
 
 III 
 
 The Final Success 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR THE VALLEY 
 OF THE OHIO 
 
 III. THE FINAL SUCCESS 
 
 I. Grant s Defeat 
 
 FIVE years have passed since young George Wash 
 ington left Fort Le Bceuf with the defiance of St. 
 Pierre in his hand; years crowded with thrilling 
 experiences and hard campaigns; years filled with re 
 sponsibilities which had developed the bold, reckless, 
 adventurous young man into a hardy, seasoned soldier. 
 Once more at the head of a large body of men we find 
 him at Fort Cumberland. 
 
 It is late in the autumn of 1758. Since two years the 
 false peace between England and France has been abro 
 gated and they are engaged in a life and death struggle 
 for the domination of a continent. Amherst and Wolfe 
 have taken Louisbourg, Abercrombie has been disgrace 
 fully routed at Ticonderoga, Bradstreet, a hardy colonial 
 soldier from Massachusetts, by a bold dash has captured 
 Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario, and Fort Du Quesne 
 on the Ohio is at last cut off from its base of supplies. 
 The white flag still waves, however, over the ramparts 
 of the little fort, and the French as yet maintain their 
 mastery of the valley. 
 
 Some thirty miles north of Fort Cumberland, near the 
 little village of Raystown, in a rude fortification called 
 
 243 
 
244 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 Fort Bedford, which gave its name to the flourishing 
 city which has supplanted it, lies an English officer. He 
 is desperately ill, unable to walk at all, and must fain 
 travel in a litter, prosecuting his campaigning under 
 these disadvantageous circumstances and drawing every 
 breath in pain and anguish unspeakable. His name is 
 John Forbes. Mark it well! He was a hero if ever there 
 was one, yet he is practically forgotten by everyone ex 
 cept a few Philadelphians. There is no account of him 
 for instance in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, nor is he 
 mentioned in that monumental work the Dictionary of 
 National Biography. 
 
 Perhaps the oblivion which has been attached to his 
 memory is due to the fact that he did not participate 
 either in a great victory or a great defeat, and his quali 
 ties were only exhibited in a hard, desperate and success 
 ful campaign. They were such qualities, however, as 
 entitle him to a high and honorable place in the military 
 records of his country. And he seems to have been as 
 capable and admirable a man as he was a soldier. 
 
 The task which was set before him was one which had 
 baffled the power of England and America for five years. 
 In attempting to encompass it they had met a repulse 
 and a most disastrous defeat. It was not less difficult 
 when he essayed it than when Washington had tried it 
 or when Braddock had attempted it. The campaign was 
 to be carried on under exactly the same conditions and 
 with much the same material, and the same difficulties 
 were to be overcome; but this time the effort was crowned 
 with success. The success was due to the commander. 
 
 John Forbes was a Scottish gentleman of parts and 
 ability. He was born of a good family, at Petincrief, 
 Fifeshire, Scotland, in 1710. When a young man he 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 245 
 
 had studied medicine and had practised his profession 
 until he had been able to indulge his inclinations by pur 
 chasing a commission in the British army. He had seen 
 much hard service in the continental wars, notably at 
 Fontenoy under Lord Ligonier, had been made colonel 
 of the Scots-Grays in 1745, and afterward of the Seven 
 teenth Foot. He had been adjutant general and was 
 now promoted brigadier general and intrusted with the 
 duty of reducing Fort Du Quesne. To facilitate him in 
 accomplishing this task an ample force was allotted to 
 him. He had the Sixty-second Highlanders, twelve 
 hundred and sixty strong, one battalion of the Royal 
 Americans, mostly Pennsylvania Germans, numbering 
 three hundred oud sixty-three, and four thousand three 
 hundred and fifty provincial troops. The regulars were 
 thoroughly equipped and highly efficient, especially the 
 Royal Americans, a regiment recently organized in this 
 country, but the provincial troops were of varying qual 
 ity indeed. Certainly the flower of these last were some 
 seventeen hundred Virginians, commanded by Washing 
 ton. The others were mostly undisciplined, ill-equipped, 
 indifferent soldiers in fact, and poorly officered, especially 
 in the subordinate ranks. 
 
 Forbes was a man of liberal and enlightened views, 
 courteous in his bearing and tactful in his methods, but 
 determined terribly resolute! By his generous and 
 kindly manner he attached to himself those whom Brad- 
 dock and his officers had alienated by their contempt. 
 The army, with the exceptions noted, was well officered. 
 The general was himself a host. 
 
 The command of all the colonial troops had been given 
 to Washington, with such men as Armstrong, Byrd, and 
 Lewis as his subordinates. Certainly Washington s ex- 
 
246 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 periences in the preceding five years made him an in 
 valuable officer. Indeed it is not generally known that 
 Washington had been a close student of military science 
 and tactics; the lives and campaigns of the great masters 
 of the art of war were and they continued to be all his 
 life his favorite objects of research. This study and his 
 practical experiences fairly entitled him to admission into 
 the ranks of the professional soldier, in which category 
 he takes no mean place. It is a mistake to consider him 
 an untrained militia officer. He was a practised, drilled, 
 trained, disciplined veteran; a most accomplished officer, 
 indeed; one who could have commanded a regiment or 
 an army even, with credit to himself and success to his 
 cause anywhere. 
 
 Among Forbes other officers was our whilom friend, 
 Sir John St. Clair, just as obstinate, just as arrogant, just 
 as stupid, just as incompetent as he had been in Brad- 
 dock s expedition. He had his old place, too, and he 
 made himself thoroughly and heartily detested. A man 
 of a different stamp, however, was the second in com 
 mand of the army, the lieutenant colonel commanding 
 the first battalion of the Royal Americans. This last was 
 a capital regiment. Its several battalions did splendid 
 service on nearly every battlefield on the continent from 
 Quebec to Du Quesne. The name of this officer was 
 Henry Bouquet. 
 
 He was a Swiss soldier of fortune who had served the 
 Dutch, the Sardinians, and the English, and was a veteran 
 of the European wars. He was a man of much tact, 
 address and resource; well able to adapt himself to the 
 conditions of Indian warfare; after a little observation 
 and experience he actually devised effectual means for 
 beating the savages at their own game. 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 247 
 
 There had been hot discussion as to the best method 
 of approaching the object of their endeavor. Washing 
 ton was inclined toward Braddock s road, which, by this 
 time, for the major part of it at least, had become a thor 
 oughly practicable way on account of the travel which 
 made good use of it. Forbes, however, decided to cut 
 his way through Pennsylvania, much to the disgust and 
 disappointment of the Virginians.* As a matter of fact, 
 the making of a road would do much to open western 
 Pennsylvania to settlement. As Virginia wished to 
 monopolize the expected trade with the new country she 
 was interested in preventing the building of this road, 
 while Pennsylvania was correspondingly eager to bring 
 it about. 
 
 It is an interesting question, for instance, whether the 
 development of the Roman Empire was due to the 
 prowess of the Legions or to the industry of the road 
 builders. Certainly the conquests won by the sword 
 could not have been held but for the toilsome labor of 
 the axe, the pick, and the shovel. And that was to be 
 the case in this instance. 
 
 When the decision had been arrived at, Colonel Bou 
 quet had been sent forward with two thousand men to 
 make the road. He was now encamped at Loyalhannon, 
 some forty miles west of Raystown, and about thirty 
 miles from Fort Du Quesne. Forbes idea was to dot 
 his road with forts which would be capable of defend 
 ing themselves against any force liable to be brought 
 against them, which would act as storehouses and de 
 pots of equipment, supply resting places for his army 
 in its various stages of progress westward, and would 
 also afford rallying points by which to check retreat in 
 
 *See map on page 216 for a portion of Forbes route. 
 
248 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 case of defeat or disaster. He cautiously determined to 
 leave nothing to chance. 
 
 The new way was to be no mere trail cut through the 
 woods and over the mountains, but a fairly made road 
 upon which great labor was expended. Washington, 
 when the orders had reached him, with Colonel Byrd 
 and Major Lewis, and the Virginians, had marched from 
 Fort Cumberland to Raystown, and had thence pro 
 ceeded to the advance post at Loyalhannon. The 
 weather in Pennsylvania in the fall is usually mild and 
 agreeable, but an exception to the ordinary conditions 
 unfortunately prevailed, for the rain fell in torrents con 
 tinuously, flooding the road, washing away the embank 
 ments and almost destroying the labors of the builders. 
 Travel upon the new road, unless it was to be cut to 
 pieces, was indefinitely suspended for some time. While 
 they were waiting, Bouquet, at the earnest solicitation of 
 Major Grant, one of his subordinates, allowed him to take 
 a detachment comprising six hundred of the Highland 
 ers of the Sixty-second and make a reconnoissance in 
 force of Fort Du Quesne. It was important that knowl 
 edge of the situation should be procured for the general, 
 and Grant set forward with strict instructions to confine 
 his efforts to observation and not to bring on an engage 
 ment. With him went two companies of Washington s 
 regiment, commanded by Major Lewis and Captain Bul- 
 litt. Instead of the regulation outfit of the provincial 
 soldiers, these men were dressed in hunting shirts and 
 leggins, as were most of Washington s command, the 
 prototypes in uniform of the famous riile regiments which 
 Daniel Morgan led " from the right bank of the Po 
 tomac " in the Revolution. Grant s total force was 
 about seven hundred and fifty. 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 249 
 
 Lewis and Bullitt were experienced frontier fighters 
 and the party guided by them and by some friendly Ind 
 ians had no difficulty in reaching the ridge which over 
 looks Fort Du Quesne. The fort was now under the 
 command of de Ligneris, who had so ably seconded 
 Dumas at the battle on the Monongahela. It was night 
 when they reached the heights and of necessity if they 
 wanted to see anything they would have to wait until 
 morning. Strictly speaking there was nothing for them 
 to do but to reconnoitre if they kept within their orders. 
 
 Grant being informed by his Indian scouts that the 
 garrison was small which was a mistake and that there 
 were but a few Indians about which was another con 
 ceived the rash design of enticing the French and their 
 Indian allies into an ambuscade, which, if successful, 
 would enable him to demand, and probably to receive, 
 the surrender of the fort, which would be a thing greatly 
 to his credit and certain to bring him high reward. He 
 therefore detached Lewis to make a detour and get a 
 position from which he could attack the hoped-for sally 
 ing party of the garrison in the rear, and then proceeded 
 to make other arrangements for the expected onset. 
 
 Unfortunately in the thick darkness Lewis lost his way 
 and when morning dawned had not yet secured the de 
 sired position, much to Grant s disappointment. In fact 
 he was forced to bring his detachment back to the main 
 body. He had not succeeded in getting anywhere. A 
 little thing like that, however, did not amount to much 
 in the mind of the British soldier who was laying his cun 
 ning plans, and when Lewis rejoined him after aimlessly 
 marching about all night, he stationed him with Bullitt 
 and the Virginians on the ridge with the baggage of 
 the detachment to allow his men to get a little rest. 
 
250 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 He concluded that he could manage the affair with the 
 Highlanders the old story of the invincible British 
 regular again and he instructed Lewis to advance when 
 the battle was joined and attack the enemy in the flank. 
 Thus, at the beginning of the battle he deprived himself 
 of his most experienced Indian fighters. Then having 
 made such disposition of his canny Scots as he could, 
 he determined to commence operations. 
 
 It was a damp, foggy morning, the I4th of Septem 
 ber, 1758, and Grant had not yet been able to see 
 much of the fort and the adjacent country. For the 
 same reason the French appear to have been ignorant 
 of his proximity. It was necessary to inform them of 
 his presence in order to begin the game, so he actually 
 directed his drummers and buglers to play the reveille! 
 They played it and the French woke up. There were 
 some fifteen hundred in the fort besides hundreds of Ind 
 ians! They awoke with a promptness and completeness 
 that was fairly dazzling. With their Indian allies they 
 came swarming out of the fort in a hurry; so hasty were 
 their movements that many of them were but partially 
 dressed. They all had weapons, however, and they all 
 seemed to know just what to do. 
 
 The ambuscade was a miserable failure of course. 
 Neither Grant nor his Highlanders had the slightest 
 practical knowledge of such a thing. Taking advantage 
 of their thorough acquaintance with the topography and 
 their long experience in this sort of warfare, the French 
 and Indians soon surrounded the Highlanders and threw 
 them into utter confusion. The opening scenes of Brad- 
 dock s defeat were again enacted. This time, however, 
 the Highlanders had sense enough not to stand up and 
 be shot uselessly or possibly they lacked a bulldog like 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 251 
 
 Braddock to keep them up to their work. At any rate 
 they broke and fled. 
 
 Lewis advanced promptly enough at the designated 
 time, but the French had so manoeuvred as to throw 
 Grant s men entirely away from the path of Lewis ad 
 vance and the latter marched blindly into the open arms 
 firearms of the French and Indians. His men, al 
 though surprised, put up a sharp fight but were over 
 powered and he himself was captured. 
 
 Meanwhile the Highlanders in frantic terror fled 
 through the woods, the French and Indians in hot pur 
 suit after them. Grant protesting unavailingly was 
 swept along with them. As he was nearest the foe, 
 having most reluctantly retreated, he was surrounded 
 and his surrender demanded. " My heart is broke," he 
 cried, " I will not survive the day." Stung with rage 
 and mortification he refused to yield and proceeded to 
 put up a most desperate fight until he was overwhelmed 
 by numbers and captured. 
 
 Back on the ridge Bullitt and his Virginians had heard 
 the firing and had seen the evidence of the rout and they 
 made brave preparation to do their part to retrieve the 
 day and cover the disaster. The Highlanders came 
 streaming past them in panic terror and it was hard work 
 for the little handful of colonial troops to resist the temp 
 tation to join in the rout, but Bullitt kept them well in 
 hand and when the French and Indians appeared there 
 began one of the hottest little engagements ever fought 
 in Pennsylvania. The Virginians stood their ground 
 manfully and showed the result of Washington s train 
 ing. They were a great credit to him. The pursuit was 
 checked and the flying Highlanders were enabled to get 
 such a start that they were in no danger of being over- 
 
252 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 taken. After fifty of Bullitt s men had been killed and 
 wounded the French gave over the attack and pursuit 
 and returned to the fort, leaving Bullitt to march back 
 to Loyalhannon with the honors of war. 
 
 The young man was highly complimented for his gal 
 lantry and skill and was at once promoted by Forbes. 
 The loss of the foolish expedition was two hundred and 
 seventy-three killed and wounded and a few captured. 
 The remainder of the detachment straggled back to the 
 camp after arduous experiences. It was a costly and 
 needed lesson. The French, elated with their success, 
 despatched a heavy force to attack Bouquet s position at 
 Loyalhannon, but although they met with some success 
 with the outlying detachments, they were presently 
 beaten off after a smart engagement and forced to re 
 tire. 
 
 II. Forbes* Achievement and Death 
 
 A short time after this rout, the sick and suffering- 
 Forbes was brought up with the advance. The season 
 was late, the weather still unpropitious and the sentiment 
 of the army was in favor of postponing further at 
 tempt until the following year. A council of war was 
 had which unanimously reached this conclusion. That 
 Forbes should determine to disregard the advice of such 
 men as Washington and Bouquet and press on to com 
 plete the work is an evidence of his qualities. Not for 
 nothing did they call this obstinate Scot " Iron Head." 
 With unabated resolution he gave orders to continue the 
 advance. 
 
 On November i8th, leaving the main body, which had 
 at last reached Loyalhannon, at that place, they pressed 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 253 
 
 on with some twenty-five hundred of the best men 
 stripped to the lowest possible equipment and without 
 tents, even. They marched rapidly, covering fifty miles 
 in less than five days. They were much encouraged by 
 news which they received from some deserters and 
 friendly Indians that de Ligneris taking it for granted 
 on account of the lateness of the season and the disastrous 
 losses the British had sustained in the defeat of Grant s 
 detachment, that they would give over the attempt had 
 materially reduced his garrison by sending the greater 
 part of it to Canada. There was another reason, how 
 ever, for his action. He had not provisions enough to 
 keep them in the valley during the winter. Bradstreet s 
 destruction of the depot at Fort Frontenac had made it 
 impossible for him to receive the usual supplies from 
 Canada. 
 
 That was not the worst of it either. The cup of the 
 French was filled by another circumstance. The Indi 
 ans, who had been their stanch friends, supporters, and 
 allies, had at last been alienated from them and they could 
 neither get anything to eat from them nor could they 
 count upon their support in the campaign. The credit 
 for this important and vital move in detachment must 
 be divided between two men. Forbes had realized the 
 necessity, and at the same time fathomed the possibility 
 of this undertaking. 
 
 The Indians were a purchasable commodity, in the 
 market invariably at the command of the highest bidder. 
 The cutting of the French line of communication and 
 their failure to receive any supplies for bribery or barter, 
 with which to subsidize and retain their savage allies, 
 had already caused much discontent among the Indians. 
 The savages were not without a shrewd idea, too, that 
 
254 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 the end of the French power had almost arrived in the 
 valley. Forbes was setting about his work in a way 
 which predicated success, and the Indian, like most 
 people, was not averse to getting on the winning side. 
 However, these dreams of Forbes would probably have 
 come to naught had he not succeeded in finding an agent 
 to undertake the labor of explanation and persuasion. 
 
 This was the Rev. Christian Frederick Post, a Mo 
 ravian missionary endowed with a heroism, determina 
 tion, and wisdom that might well have become a Jesuit. 
 This courageous and devoted man ventured into the 
 Indian country. There he quaintly likened himself to 
 Daniel in the Lion s Den, and the simile, if anything, is 
 inadequate it is an insult to the lions. I think the great 
 hearted follower of Zinzendorf and his Master was actu 
 ated and inspired by the knowledge that if he could 
 detach the Indians from the French alliance there would 
 be peace on the desolate blood-swept frontier. 
 
 Post had not only to persuade the Indians, but he 
 actually had to do it in the very presence of the French 
 emissaries and officers, who did everything possible to 
 nullify his mission. Rewards were put upon his head by 
 them and savage bands set on his track to capture and 
 kill him, but God preserved him and he accomplished his 
 end a dauntless man indeed. The Indians generally 
 were won over to the Americans, and for the first time 
 since the beginning of the war western settlements were 
 freed, in great measure, from apprehension of massacre 
 and rapine. 
 
 There were councils galore, at which speeches were 
 made, pipes smoked, hatchets buried, peace belts ex 
 changed and agreements ratified. Amid them all the 
 heroic Moravian stands supreme. Honor to Christian 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 255 
 
 Frederick Post, Missionary and Man, as one of the de 
 fenders and protectors of the frontier. Yet, he, too, is 
 another forgotten hero. One cause of Forbes* slow 
 progress lay in the necessary delays to enable these vari 
 ous treaties and arrangements to be consummated. 
 
 But to return to the expedition. Urged on by the 
 indomitable persistence of the dying soldier the march 
 was resumed from Loyalhannon. On the 24th of No 
 vember they reached a point about twelve miles from 
 , the fort. As they encamped there, late in the evening, 
 they were greeted by the dull reverberations of distant 
 explosions. They wondered what could be the expla 
 nation, and many of them surmised the cause of it. 
 
 The next morning the march was taken up again. 
 The army moved in three parallel columns; that on the 
 right was commanded by Washington, that in the centre 
 by Forbes still borne, like Marshal Saxe on his litter, and 
 that on the left by Bouquet a splendid trio for brilliant 
 service.* Washington from his knowledge and experi 
 ence had been constantly thrown in advance during the 
 march and he now led the way. Presently toward even 
 ing they reached the ridge that overlooked the clearing 
 where Grant had been defeated. As they gazed out from 
 beneath the trees across the opening, they marked the 
 courses of the Allegheny and the Monongahela, they 
 could see where the two swept together to form the 
 mighty Ohio, but where they had hoped to catch a 
 glimpse of the bastions of the fort with the French flag 
 waving over them, they saw nothing but blackened, 
 
 * The Indians had noticed and derided a commander who had to be carried 
 on a litter, and to counteract their impression it was given out by the Eng 
 lish that the British chief had a temper so impetuous, irascible and com 
 bative, that it was not thought safe to trust him at large even among his own 
 people, but that the practice was to let him out on the eve of battle /" 
 
256 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 smoking ruins. The French, surprised by the rapid ap 
 proach and realizing that with their depleted garrison 
 they could make no effective defence, had blown up the 
 works and fled the night before. 
 
 Washington was among the first to enter the remains 
 of the fort. Colonel Armstrong of the Pennsylvania 
 Colonials hoisted the English flag over it and the French 
 were forever dispossessed from the valley of the Ohio. 
 It was a bloodless termination of much high endeavor 
 and expensive effort, yet it was well worth the cost and 
 it was most fit that the young man whose eye had marked 
 it as the situation for a fort when the place was yet a vir 
 gin wilderness, should be in charge of those who floated 
 the flag of England over the ruined walls at the last. 
 
 This was the end of their campaign. There yet re 
 mained to the victors two melancholy duties. As the 
 Highlanders marched into the remains of the enclosure 
 their hearts were filled with rage and fury, for upon 
 rows of stakes were set the scalped heads of many of 
 their comrades who had been killed in Grant s expedi 
 tion. Below them on their mutilated bodies hung the 
 plaids and kilts nailed up to express the derision of the 
 French and Indians for what they were pleased to call 
 " petticoat soldiers." They were unable to take any re 
 venge, however, as the French were gone, and they could 
 do nothing except to give the poor remains an honorable 
 burial in the lone clearing by the banks of the Ohio. 
 
 One of the officers in Forbes command was Brigade- 
 Major Halket, the son of that commander of the -Forty- 
 fourth regiment who had fallen upon the banks of the 
 Monongahela three years before. Led by some of the 
 Indians who had participated in the conflict, but who 
 were now their friends, a party of soldiery commanded 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 257 
 
 by Washington visited the fatal field. They found it 
 much as it had been left after the bloody defeat. The 
 trees about the place where the British made their fruit 
 less stand still showed the scars of bullets, many of which 
 were found embedded in the trunks. Broken carts and 
 weather-beaten, shattered equipments mingled with the 
 bleaching bones which had been picked clean by 
 wolves and vultures and had been whitened by the rains 
 and snows and storms of the intervening years. Near 
 where the baggage had been, the remains of two skele 
 tons were found, one apparently lying across the breast 
 of the other. Major Halket identified that of his father 
 by some peculiarities in his teeth, the other was that of his 
 brother who had fallen and died in that position, and the 
 chroniclers report that the bereaved soldier fainted at 
 the ghastly sight. 
 
 The bodies of the two officers were reverently interred 
 with military honors, and the men ranged over the field 
 and gathered up all the other bones and put them in a 
 common grave, paying them the last solemn rites of a 
 soldier. Once again the roar of guns rang through the 
 woods, but this time it was the requiem of those who had 
 died so pitiably so many years before. It is said that 
 Benjamin West, the great painter, was one of those who 
 participated in this solemn ceremony. Would that he 
 had made a picture of it! 
 
 Although it is not a matter of record that Washington 
 did so, I have often surmised that, as he had read the 
 prayers of his Church over the body of the general, so he 
 may have done the same thing over the bones of his sol 
 diery. What emotions must have arisen in the heart of 
 that young man as he thought of all that had happened 
 since he had first gazed upon that field, as he passed in 
 17 
 
258 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 review the incidents of that never-to-be-forgotten day of 
 defeat? 
 
 If there was sadness in the retrospect, there was joy in 
 the future. His soldiering was over. He had done his 
 full share of campaigning, his service had been arduous 
 and brilliant, and in the end successful. The French 
 were driven from the valley, there was little fear of their 
 return, the Indians had been pacified, the frontier was 
 safe, no enemy menaced the Old Dominion, he could re 
 sign the army with honor. His approaching marriage 
 rendered it desirable, as the successful campaign rendered 
 it possible, for him to leave the service. The cause of 
 the French was doomed, it was readily seen, and he was 
 not needed elsewhere in bringing about the final down 
 fall of their arms. So he retired from his command. 
 
 He had been elected a member of the Virginia Assem 
 bly and there is a pretty little story reported of a scene 
 which took place the following year when he first took 
 his seat. The thanks of the Assembly were unanimously 
 voted to him for his courage and conduct. The young 
 man, taken by surprise, rose to reply. He was only able 
 to enunciate a few stammering sentences when he 
 stopped in confusion, unable to proceed, staring at the 
 speaker, blushing painfully the while. 
 
 " Sit down, Mr. Washington," said the latter smiling, 
 " your modesty equals your valor, and that surpasses the 
 power of any language I possess." This flattering re 
 mark probably added greatly to his perturbation! He 
 had indeed deserved well of his country in his youth. 
 And in his character and career men afterward read the 
 prophecy of his future. What of the devoted Forbes? 
 
 After rebuilding the fort, or replacing it with a tem 
 porary structure which he called Fort Pitt, after the great 
 
Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio 259 
 
 war minister, and leaving Hugh Mercer with two com 
 panies of provincials to garrison it, he started back to 
 Philadelphia to die. Five hundred miles of the sever 
 est travelling intervened between him and his rest. He 
 had been sustained and buoyed up in his illness on the 
 advance, by the prospect of the attainment of the object 
 of his endeavor; but when his task was completed the 
 inspiration to struggle was lost. In a pitiable condition 
 from the deadly inflammation of the bowels from which 
 he suffered, and from a complication of consequent ail 
 ments, he was carried back through the mountains tow 
 ard Philadelphia. Every arrangement that was possible 
 was made for his comfort by his solicitous soldiers, al 
 though that is not saying much. 
 
 A detachment was kept constantly ahead of the army 
 with instructions to build a hut and kindle a warm fire in it 
 ready for the general wherever a halt was made. On one 
 occasion, through some misunderstanding, when even 
 ing terminated the day s march the unfortunate soldier 
 found neither hut nor fire. He was forced to lie with 
 out shelter in the wintry cold for two hours. He nearly 
 died then and there. Through the storm and cold of 
 the winter he was borne slowly if steadily on, growing 
 weaker with each passing day. It was a terrible journey, 
 but it was ended at last when he reached Philadelphia on 
 the 1 4th of January, 1759, amid the ringing of bells, the 
 firing of cannon and the joyful enthusiasm of the people. 
 He had completed his task and brought his army safely 
 back to its base of supplies; then, having finished his 
 course, he died on the nth of March, having drawn his 
 breath in pain and anguish for many days. Not many 
 who died in that Annus Mirabilis have a better title to 
 honor and remembrance than he. 
 
26o Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 " When the souls of men are tried 
 
 In old time or latest day, 
 They who for our land have died 
 
 Count them not of common clay. 
 God of battles in Thy keeping 
 Guard the weary soldier sleeping." 
 
 He is buried in the chancel of Christ Church, Phila 
 delphia the exact spot being undetermined where a 
 tablet to his memory has recently been erected by the 
 Society of Colonial Wars. From it I quote: 
 
 " By a steady pursuit of well-conducted measures, in 
 defiance of disease and numberless obstructions, he 
 brought to a happy issue a most extraordinary cam 
 paign, resulting in the evacuation of Fort Du Quesne, 
 and made a willing sacrifice of his own life to what he 
 loved more, the interest of King and Country." 
 
 An annual service within the walls of that ancient edi 
 fice recalls his services and awakens fresh local interest in 
 his character and his name. Aside from that I do not 
 think anybody particularly recalls him, yet the final ex 
 pulsion of the French from that valley which is now teem 
 ing with industry, the home of a great, prosperous, and 
 thrifty people, and the centre of world-wide activities, 
 is due to his indomitable persistence, his unwearying de 
 termination, his lofty devotion, his utter self-sacrifice, 
 which he carried out even to the giving up of his life. 
 
 No one who traverses that populous and prosperous 
 section of our country can be indifferent to the story of 
 the two men who are suitably conjoined by the posses 
 sion of common characteristics as well as by personal 
 associations. They wrested the valley of the Ohio from 
 the French and the Indian and gave it to civilization 
 and progress. These two are John Forbes and George 
 Washington. 
 
PART IV 
 THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 
 
 IV 
 
 The Fighting Around Ticonderoga 
 
THE FIGHTING AROUND TICON- 
 DEROGA 
 
 I. The Grand Expedition 
 
 WHILE James Wolfe is winning his spurs amid 
 the surf at Louisbourg Milesian mixture of 
 metaphor, that his great antagonist, to be, 
 is demonstrating his capacity in the forests about Ticon- 
 deroga. 
 
 The genius of Pitt had conceived a plan for striking 
 the French simultaneously at every vital point. John 
 Forbes we have seen toiling through the mountains of 
 Pennsylvania toward the valley of the Ohio. Boscawen 
 and Amherst are battering away at the stone walls of 
 Louisbourg, Abercrombie is expected to pierce the centre 
 by marching up the immemorial warpath of the nations 
 formed by the valleys of the Hudson and the Richelieu. 
 In other words, the centre and both flanks were to be at 
 tacked simultaneously in force. While the loss of Du 
 Quesne and of Louisbourg on either hand would be most 
 serious, the shattering of the centre would be fatal, there 
 fore, like a wise and prudent commander, Montcalm in 
 person took charge of the preparations to repel Aber 
 crombie. 
 
 That general was a respectable gentleman about fifty- 
 two years of age, devoid of the faintest spark of military 
 genius and as incapable a commander as ever " set a 
 
 263 
 
264 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 squadron in the field " " a heavy man," " infirm in body 
 and mind." Why Pitt ever allowed this mentally " im- 
 ponderous rag of circumstance " to command this most 
 important expedition, when, in every other instance, he 
 had ruthlessly insisted upon appointing men upon whom 
 he could depend, whose capacity, ability, and success, 
 proved the accuracy of his judgment, is a mystery. It 
 is stated, however, that out of deference to public opinion, 
 which he was not yet strong enough to disregard, or 
 rather which was not yet enlisted upon his side, and on 
 account of certain influential connections of Abercrom- 
 bie s, he was allowed to retain the command. Pitt 
 sought to obviate the danger of such a situation by as 
 sociating with him as his second, Brigadier General 
 George Augustus, Viscount Howe, an officer of the 
 highest merit and rare capacity, who was to have the 
 real charge of the operations. Although young in years, 
 thirty-four, his experience had been large and his suc 
 cesses brilliant. He possessed the family genius for war. 
 Of him Wolfe said he was " the noblest Englishman 
 that has appeared in my time and the best soldier in the 
 British army." High praise indeed and from such a 
 source. In addition to his qualities as a soldier his per 
 sonal characteristics were such as to endear him to every 
 man, English or Colonial, in his following. He was, in 
 fact, the very idol of the Provincial soldiery, and after 
 his death Massachusetts erected a memorial to him in 
 Westminster Abbey. Had he lived he might have made 
 as great a name for himself on land as his brother and 
 successor, Admiral Richard, Earl Howe, "Black Dick," 
 did upon the sea. Had he not been killed in an obscure 
 skirmish in the woods of America the American Revo 
 lution might never have been fought, or with him in 
 
The Fighting Around Ticonderoga 265 
 
 command of the King s troops might have come a differ 
 ent conclusion to the struggle. 
 
 The bullets that struck down Henry Bouquet, James 
 Wolfe, and George Howe did inestimable service, strange 
 as it may seem to say it, to the cause of human freedom. 
 They were great and heroic men, two of them at least 
 did valiant service before they died, and the other bade 
 fair to equal them. But they all died in early manhood. 
 Their fate recalls to mind a phrase of Lew Wallace s. 
 Speaking of Montezuma, after he had been spurned by 
 his own people and struck down by their arms, the author 
 of the " Fair God " describes his face as the face of a man 
 breaking because he stood in God s way. Were these 
 men laid low because standing they might have been in 
 the way of God s plan for the achievement of civil liberty 
 in a great continent? Who knows? 
 
 The force which Pitt had created for the advance up 
 the valley was in every way ample. Abercrombie was 
 in charge of six thousand British regulars and nine thou 
 sand Provincials. The Provincials were well organized 
 and equipped and were in effect regular soldiers. There 
 was a regiment of Rangers, too, under the command of 
 the daring and successful partisan and pioneer, Robert 
 Rogers, and a regiment of boatmen commanded by the 
 dashing Colonial Colonel Bradstreet. In tne British 
 contingent Charles Lee, who had been one of Braddock s 
 officers, and who was afterward the traitorous insubordi 
 nate second of Washington, held a commission. 
 
 Among the Colonial officers were two destined to na 
 tional tame, Major Israel Putnam and Captain John 
 Stark. Both of these men were honored with the friend 
 ship of Howe, who was quick to detect their sterling 
 worth. Among the British regulars the most noted 
 
266 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 body of men were the Forty-second Highlanders, famil 
 iarly known as the Black Watch, from their sombre tar 
 tans of black, dark blue and dark green ; they were under 
 the command of Major Duncan Campbell of Inverawe. 
 
 The army was accompanied by a formidable artillery 
 train and was well provided with every requisite neces 
 sary for successful marching or fighting. Great care 
 had been exercised in every particular, and no better 
 equipped body of men ever set forth upon a campaign. 
 Under Howe s direction the unwieldy British uniforms 
 had been discarded or altered to suit the men for such 
 marching as they were expected to undertake. The 
 long skirts of the coats had been cut off, the heavy cum 
 brous mitred hats had been thrown aside, leggins had 
 been provided, the bright barrels of the muskets had 
 been browned to give no sign of their presence in the 
 woods, and so on. 
 
 It was expected that they would brush aside every ob 
 stacle and terminate their advance at Montreal. No 
 body seemed to doubt that they would succeed in doing 
 so. Between them and their goal, however, lay a little 
 French army under the command of the military chief 
 of Canada, the Marquis de Montcalm, a soldier of the 
 first rank. Inconsiderable in numbers, it was high in 
 quality, and was composed of some of the best troops 
 of France. 
 
 On the peninsula of Ticonderoga, situated at the point 
 where the waters of the river connecting Lake George 
 and Lake Champlain flow into the latter, the French, in 
 1755, under the direction of the engineer Lotbiniere, 
 had erected a fort destined to be one of the most famous 
 spots in American history. 
 
 Long before the arquebuse of Champlain rang the 
 
The Fighting Around Ticonderoga 267 
 
 death knell of Indian supremacy there in 1609, the little 
 peninsula had been the scene of many a bloody battle. 
 Scarcely any place on the continent is so full of roman 
 tic reminiscence. The haughty Iroquois, the dashing 
 French, the stubborn English, the stolid German, the 
 hardy colonists, have all held the post in turn. Millions 
 of money have been spent in fortifying it, and its soil is 
 consecrated by the blood of hundreds of brave men. 
 Here the dauntless Jesuit rested on those wild journeys 
 where he bore the cross, told its story, and died upon it. 
 Here Ethan Allen had formulated his famous demand. 
 Here men first heard of Benedict Arnold. Here Bur- 
 goyne enjoyed his one solitary moment of victory in that 
 grand expedition of conquest which was to cut the 
 United States in two. 
 
 The waters that laved these shores had borne the keels 
 of the flotillas of Champlain, Frontenac, Montcalm, Aber- 
 crombie, and Amherst; upon the lake hard by, Arnold 
 fought his hapless but heroic battle; and a generation 
 later, MacDonough hammered the British fleet into de 
 feat by the mighty broadsides of the Saratoga. A mass 
 of crumbling ruins upon a low bluff marks the spot to 
 day and brings up before the thoughtful traveller the 
 memory of much that is tragic and terrible in American 
 history. Aye, tis hallowed ground ! 
 
 The old fort stood between the lake and the river on 
 a little plateau whose rocky sides dropped down toward 
 narrow stretches of marshy ground bordering the water 
 on either hand. The plateau extended in widening angle 
 and with gradually increasing elevation for some distance 
 inland until it reached a certain point, where it sloped 
 gradually in all directions to the valley reaching on either 
 side to the water level. The spot was not particularly 
 
268 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 well chosen for defence against a skilled enemy provided 
 with artillery, although English, French, and Americans, 
 in succession, with singular fatuity, clung to the location 
 as a suitable one for a fort. Across the river to the south 
 ward rose a difficult but not inaccessible mountain called 
 in that day Rattle Snake Mountain, and now known as 
 Mount Defiance. The distance from this mountain to 
 the plateau was inconsiderable, for a battery of cannon 
 placed upon the crest would have commanded it with 
 ease. In fact, Burgoyne forced the evacuation of Ticon- 
 deroga in 1777 by that very expedient.* 
 
 The surrounding country save where it was threaded 
 by a few Indian trails was an impenetrable wilderness, 
 rocky and mountainous in the extreme as well. The 
 river connecting the two lakes ran through a series of 
 wild and romantic rapids impracticable for boats. A 
 portage road, bearing a relation to the river like that 
 of a string to a bow, had been cut by the French from 
 the foot of Lake George to the river near to its entrance 
 upon Lake Champlain, a short distance beyond the in 
 land termination of the plateau. This road was about 
 two miles long. The French defensive works had been 
 erected at the Lake George end of it, and at the other 
 end a saw mill was placed. 
 
 On the 5th of July, 1758, the English army, which had 
 been slowly assembling at the head of Lake George, em 
 barked in boats and proceeded down the lake. There 
 were nine hundred bateaux and one hundred and thirty- 
 five whale-boats. The army advanced in three divisions, 
 the regulars in the centre, in their brilliant uniforms of 
 scarlet, Rogers and his Rangers, and Gage with the light 
 infantry we have seen him before also with Braddock 
 
 * See my book, American Fights and Fighters. Saratoga Campaign. 
 
The Fighting Around Ticonderoga 269 
 
 in the lead; the Colonials in their new blue uniforms were 
 in two divisions on either flank. 
 
 Lake George is one of the most romantic and beauti 
 ful sheets of water on this or any other continent. The 
 shores now rise in graceful undulations to some distant 
 tree-clad lofty mountain peak, or fade away in some blue 
 range of far-off hills; or again they spring in awe-inspiring 
 altitude in sheer and precipitous cliffs above the water s 
 edge. The sparkling surface of the lake is dotted with 
 lovely islands, the luxuriant trees of which overhang the 
 banks, making cool, inviting retreats, restful and refresh 
 ing to boatman and voyager. 
 
 Now, it is surrounded by the homes of the care-free, 
 the pleasure-loving, the wealthy. Then the tree-clad 
 hills were untenanted save by the scouting parties of dif 
 ferent armies, or bands of haughty and ferocious Iroquois 
 ranging the forest glades. The vast flotilla, the largest 
 armed force which had collected on the continent, moved 
 rapidly and in orderly precision down the lake. The 
 flags fluttered in the bows of the boats, bands sent the 
 echoes of martial music ringing across the water and 
 among the hills. And the picture was delightful, or 
 would have been, had there been any spectator to mark 
 their progress. 
 
 II. The End of Lord Howe 
 
 Montcalm was in a fearful state of uncertainty. He 
 had with him but three thousand men of whom four hun 
 dred were Colonial regulars and Canadian militia. No 
 reinforcement could by any possibility reach him at that 
 date except a little party of some five hundred men under 
 de Levis, a soldier scarcely less able than Montcalm him 
 self. 
 
270 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 The French general was too good a soldier not to 
 realize the possibilities of the situation. He knew that 
 successfully to maintain his position at Fort Ticonderoga 
 which, by the way, the French called Fort Carillon, 
 from what sweet chime of bells, I wonder? Some priestly 
 call, perhaps ! or was it from the music of the river rush 
 ing over the rocky rapids hard by? was a military im 
 possibility. 
 
 In the first place its fatal weakness lay in the fact that 
 it was commanded by Mount Defiance, so that if the 
 English planted guns there they would have the garri 
 son at their mercy. There were but eight days provi 
 sions in the fort for his men, too. Should Abercrombie 
 regularly besiege him, he would be starved out in a week. 
 If he remained where he was the English force was large 
 enough to allow one half of it to invest the fort while 
 the other half could march up to Five Mile Point, where 
 the lake narrowed to easy musket-shot range, and cut 
 his communications and prevent his retreat. Yet to re 
 treat without striking a blow, would be virtually giving 
 up the whole of Canada south of the St. Lawrence. It 
 would mean the abandonment of every French post south 
 and west of Montreal, including the lonely forts in the 
 valleys of the Ohio and the distant Mississippi. 
 
 He could not make up his mind to go. It was a terri 
 ble dilemma; either going or staying seemed to presage 
 destruction. It is evident from his movements that he 
 was in a state of great indecision. What he hoped to 
 accomplish with three thousand men against twenty-five 
 thousand, which was the number his scouts accredited 
 to Abercrombie, is not clear. Yet he stayed, perhaps 
 with the feeling that it were better to fight, even if de 
 feated, than give up everything without a struggle. 
 
The Fighting Around Ticonderoga 271 
 
 Some of his officers were for retreat, others suggested 
 that an intrenchment might be thrown up on the crest 
 of the plateau which extended from the river to the lake, 
 forming the base of the triangle of which Ticonderoga 
 was the apex, and that the English might be met there 
 with some chance of success. That would not materially 
 alter the situation, however; the works would still be 
 commanded from Mount Defiance, no intrenchments 
 they could make would be of any permanence, as they 
 could easily be destroyed by artillery. They could be 
 blocked, intercepted, and starved out as before. Still, 
 there could be no harm in trying it. In fact there was 
 nothing else to do, and if they intended to fight they would 
 need the breastwork. Montcalm certainly intended to 
 fight, so he sent the regiment Berri to begin the intrench 
 ment. Leaving a small garrison in the fort proper, with 
 the main body of his troops he took post at the saw mill 
 on the river, sending a strong party under de Bourla- 
 maque to cover the beginning of the portage. 
 
 On the 6th of July, he despatched Captains Lagny and 
 Trapezec with three hundred men to pass around on the 
 western side of the connecting river and feel for the Eng 
 lish. Abercrombie had stopped to rest his men at Sab 
 bath Day Point, twenty-five miles down the lake, and 
 twelve miles from the outlet, on the evening of the 5th, 
 resuming his advance about eleven at night so that the 
 next morning the army approached the foot of the lake. 
 The French post covering the portage thereupon de 
 stroyed the bridges crossing the river, abandoned and 
 set fire to their works, and retreated to Montcalm s camp. 
 On the morning of the 6th, the English army passing 
 down beyond the sheer face of Rogers rock on the left, 
 debarked on the western side of the river in some open 
 
272 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 ground bordering the shore. Arrangements for the 
 march were completed by noon. It was determined to 
 march around the river until they came in touch with 
 Ticonderoga, which they would formally invest, and then 
 bring up the artillery and force a surrender. 
 
 Rogers with his Rangers led the advance. Following 
 him came the army in four parallel columns, with Lord 
 Howe and Israel Putnam at the head of the right centre 
 column, which was slightly in advance of the other three. 
 The bateaux, boats, guns, supplies, etc., were left at the 
 landing place. There were no roads through the woods, 
 the Indian trail would scarcely suffice for a single file of 
 men; the bewildered guides soon lost their way, and the 
 four columns disappeared and became hopelessly lost in 
 the forest, which was thick, trackless, and choked with 
 undergrowth. The density of the wood even obscured 
 sounds, and half a mile away a watcher would have been 
 ignorant of the fact that some fifteen thousand men were 
 buried in the wilderness. Even Lagny, an experienced 
 woodsman, became confused after a time, and lost all 
 sense of his whereabouts, but wandered aimlessly in the 
 waste of trees until late in the afternoon the French sud 
 denly came in touch with the right centre column. 
 
 Howe and Putnam were still in the lead. Both par 
 ties were greatly surprised. The French, however, were 
 quicker to recover themselves than the English, and they 
 poured in a smart fire. Lord Howe fell dead at the first 
 discharge, with a bullet in his heart. For a few moments 
 the French drove back the startled and disorganized 
 English, who outnumbered them ten to one, but Rogers 
 heard the sound of firing and turned toward it. He hap 
 pened to be within convenient distance. His men 
 plunged through the wood and burst out upon the flank 
 
The Fighting Around Ticonderoga 273 
 
 of the Frenchmen. Of the three hundred, one hundred 
 and fifty were captured, one hundred were killed, and but 
 fifty got away. The English loss was inconsiderable in 
 number, but the killing of Lord Howe was an incompara 
 ble disaster. As Parkman says, " the death of one man 
 was the ruin of fifteen thousand." In spite of their success 
 in the encounter, the noise of the smart engagement, as 
 he heard the firing through the trees, filled Abercrombie 
 with apprehension that Montcalm was upon them with 
 his whole army. The advance was halted and he kept 
 the troops under arms all night. Early in the morning 
 he withdrew from the forest and led the army back to the 
 landing place. Under the circumstances it was the 
 proper thing to do, and possibly the only wise thing the 
 unfortunate commander ever conceived or attempted. 
 
 Tired, hot, and disgusted, worn out with a sleepless 
 night, saddened by the death of Howe, the army waited 
 the next move. His prisoners told Abercrombie that 
 the force of Montcalm amounted to six thousand men 
 and that a reinforcement of three thousand more was 
 expected immediately. He determined, therefore, to 
 move up the portage road which Bradstreet with his 
 Colonials had reconnoitred and found deserted, and to 
 attack Montcalm the next morning, the 8th. Brad- 
 street had done more than reconnoitre. He had rebuilt 
 the burned bridges and the road was entirely practicable 
 not only for soldiers, but for artillery as well. In his 
 hurry to get at the enemy, however, before that expected 
 reenforcement appeared, Abercrombie determined to 
 carry the French position by a coup de main. He pushed 
 his troops up the road therefore, on the afternoon of the 
 7th, and occupied the deserted French camp near the saw 
 mill in the evening. 
 18 
 
B Entrenchment 
 C Battlefield. 
 D Sawmill. 
 
 Sketch of Country Around Ticonderoga and Siege of Louisbourg. 
 
The Fighting Around Ticonderoga 275 
 
 III. On the Hill of Death 
 
 Montcalm had on the evening of the 6th at last come 
 to a decision. His previous experience had not given 
 him any great amount of respect for the English com 
 manders, and he resolved to hazard himself and his army 
 upon the chance that the English general would turn 
 out to be a fool! It was a dangerous risk, but in the end 
 was justified. Had it not been for the death of Lord 
 Howe he would have failed. When he did make up his 
 mind he acted with his usual energy. He decided to 
 await the English attack on the crest of the plateau. 
 
 He broke camp at the saw mill that night and returned 
 to the plateau where the regiment Berri had begun the 
 intrenchment. The lines were traced in zigzag shape, 
 much as the old-fashioned rail fence snake fence was 
 laid out. They ran completely around the crest in three 
 fourths of a circle, open in the rear toward the fort. On 
 the low ground on either flank of the breastwork, strong 
 parties were to be posted with such cover as they could 
 make, to prevent the flanks from being turned much 
 like the men at the rail fence at Bunker Hill. 
 
 The lines having been marked out, the regimental flags 
 were planted upon them early on the morning of the 7th, 
 and everybody in the army without respect to rank, axe 
 in hand, set to work. The French officers, stripped to 
 their shirts, labored with the rest. Such was the ardor 
 with which they toiled, that in one day they had com 
 pleted a breastwork of logs eight feet high, piled upon 
 each other in this zigzag fashion, so that every part of 
 it could be enfiladed. 
 
 For a musket-shot distance from the hill the trees on 
 
276 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 every side were cut down and left lying with their 
 branches pointing toward the direction of the British ad 
 vance. In front of the intrenchment where the ground 
 was clearer, a rough and ready but exceedingly danger 
 ous abattis of trees and branches with sharpened points 
 toward the enemy had been laid. Loop-holes in some 
 instances three rows had been cut in the logs, which 
 were topped with bags of sand and sods, and behind which 
 a small banquette had been erected. Mounted upon the 
 work were a few small pieces of artillery, mainly swivels. 
 The intrenchment was impregnable to musketry, but half 
 a battery of field guns could have knocked it to pieces 
 in an hour. 
 
 Our hearts go out even in this day to that gallant little 
 band of Frenchmen, cheerfully facing fearful odds, out 
 numbered actually five to one, and in their imaginations, 
 eight to one, lying behind a breastwork which, while it 
 was dreadfully dangerous to infantry, could have stood 
 the fire of artillery for no time. With but eight days 
 provisions in their haversacks, in imminent danger of 
 having their retreat cut off, their courage was superb. 
 Like every great soldier, Montcalm inspired the devotion 
 and won the courage of his troops. They looked to him, 
 trusted him, and confidently awaited the battle. In their 
 confidence he could not share, and it is probable that he 
 never passed a more anxious night in his life. 
 
 About noon on the 8th the French caught the first 
 glimpse of their foes. Solid masses of red appeared just 
 out of gun shot on the edge of the timber. Interspersed 
 among the British regiments and extending to the right 
 and left were the blue-uniformed Provincials, the hunting 
 shirts of the Rangers, and there in splendid force, the one 
 thousand tartans of the Black Watch. The French were 
 
The Fighting Around Ticonderoga 277 
 
 ready. They were drawn up in three lines behind the 
 breastworks. A generous breakfast had been served to 
 them, and every preparation long since made. Mont- 
 calm in his shirt sleeves, for the day was warm, had visited 
 every part of his intrenchment, cheering and inspiriting 
 his men as he well knew how, and charging them not to 
 fire until he gave the word. 
 
 On the slopes of Mount Defiance, toward which, 
 doubtless, many anxious glances must have been cast by 
 the French officers, expecting every moment to hear the 
 roar of guns from the crest sounding the death knell of 
 their hopes, a large body of Iroquois, some four hundred 
 in number, under Sir William Johnson, opened a scat 
 tering rifle fire which at that distance proved entirely 
 ineffective. During the rest of the day the savages con 
 tented themselves with watching the ghastly storm of 
 battle going on beneath their feet. 
 
 Abercrombie s plan consisted in making a direct attack 
 upon the works. His artillery lay at the landing place, 
 inactive and useless. A young subaltern of engineers, 
 named Clerk, a man of no experience whatsoever, who 
 had been but six months in the service, had examined 
 the French work from Mount Defiance and had reported 
 to Abercrombie that it could easily be carried. There 
 is no evidence that Abercrombie himself had ever seen 
 it. Other men of less military prestige but more experi 
 ence thought differently, and John Stark made strenuous 
 representations which were unheeded. Stark and Howe 
 had been great friends. Stark tells how he and Howe 
 lying upon the same blanket a few nights before, had 
 discussed the situation of Ticonderoga, with which Stark 
 was familiar. So confident was Abercrombie of captur 
 ing the French work out of hand, that he gave strict 
 
278 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 orders to his soldiers that they should not fire, but that 
 they should carry everything with the bayonet! 
 
 About one o clock the attack began. The British, 
 their drums beating, marched out from the shelter of the 
 trees cheering loudly and made for the fort in three col 
 umns. Immediately they found themselves entangled 
 in the fallen trees. Scrambling, climbing, and pushing 
 their way through the interlacing boughs, they got over 
 the awful obstacle at last, and with lines now utterly dis 
 organized made a rush forward over the stump-encum 
 bered ground toward the abattis and the intrenchment. 
 
 The white flags were fluttering gracefully in the gentle 
 breeze over the fort, but otherwise there was not a sign 
 of life until the British advance had almost reached the 
 abattis. At that instant, the enclosure gave forth a sheet 
 of flame followed by the crash of musketry and the roar 
 of cannon. The heads of the columns were literally 
 swept away by the sudden discharge repeated again and 
 again by the French, with cheers and cries of " Vive le 
 Roil Vive noire General I " The swearing, cursing, 
 startled, helpless Englishmen were driven back until they 
 struggled into the timber again, where, entangled in the 
 branches, many of them were killed by the steady stream 
 of bullets and grapeshot. 
 
 Disregarding the order about confining the attack to 
 the bayonet they at once opened a furious fire upon the 
 French, but it was only when some rash whitecoat ex 
 posed himself that they were able to do any damage. 
 The New England sharpshooters in the trees, however, 
 did some good service, and many of the French, in 
 cautiously leaving their shelter, were picked off. Again 
 the English and Provincials, with splendid courage 
 rallied, formed up, and with head down charged, bull-like, 
 
The Fighting Around Ticonderoga 279 
 
 at that death-dealing enclosure. Some of them actually 
 forced their way to the foot of the wall in spite of the 
 abattis, but there they stopped, they could do no more. 
 
 With dauntless courage they assaulted no less than six 
 times during the course of the afternoon. They tried it 
 on the right flank against de Levis, who with his five 
 hundred had arrived that morning; they tried it on the 
 left flank under de Bourlamaque, and in both cases were 
 beaten back. 
 
 After the first attempt word was sent back to Aber- 
 crombie, who remained at the saw mill, asking what they 
 should do, and his reply was a reiteration of his foolish 
 orders. They should charge forward and take it. That 
 was all. And with the blind obedience of faithful sol 
 diers the maddened regiments hurled themselves again 
 and again upon the French line. " It was magnificent, 
 but it was not war." The general did send some bateaux, 
 which had been transported from Lake George, down 
 the river in an attempt to get in the rear of the French 
 intrenchments, but when they reached the desired posi 
 tion they were within range of the guns of the fort, which 
 opened fire, and after three of them had been sunk the 
 rest retired. 
 
 IV. The Last Charge of the Black Watch 
 
 Meanwhile the services of the Black Watch were con 
 centrated for one final attempt upon the extreme right 
 of the fort. It was late in the afternoon when these mag 
 nificent soldiers in solid column burst from the trees and 
 made for the white flag. With a deathless heroism which 
 foreshadowed the conduct of that other Highland regi 
 ment, the Ninety-third, at a similar English defeat before 
 
280 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 New Orleans, in 1815, the men of the Forty-second ad 
 vanced, led by their dauntless major. 
 
 They struggle through the trees, they cross the clear 
 ing, they reach the abattis. The way of their advance 
 is lined, with fallen men, but with the greatest courage, 
 even the wounded, lying upon the ground forget them 
 selves and shriek out that the regiment must go on and 
 leave them lying where they fall. Desperate to the point 
 of recklessness they surmount the abattis, tear aside, cut 
 it down, get over it in some fashion. Major Campbell is 
 shot down here, but they press on nevertheless. They 
 reach the wall of trees, spring upon it. Their bonneted 
 heads peer down upon the enemy, some of them leap 
 over. They are in at last. The French at the point of 
 impact give way. 
 
 Truly, it was superb, but useless, unavailing. Another 
 Campbell with some twenty officers and men got into the 
 fort. The situation was critical. There was fighting all 
 along the line. At the same time another column of the 
 English made a final demonstration against other parts 
 of the intrenchments. Montcalm ran to the spot in per 
 son. The regiment Bern was held in reserve. De Levis 
 put himself at their head and they moved down upon the 
 Scotsmen. Those in the fort, disdaining to beg for quar 
 ter, fought desperately, back against the wall, until they 
 were bayoneted where they stood. Those upon the out 
 side were hurled back and the regiment at last doggedly 
 and sullenly retreated, followed by the cheers of the 
 Frenchmen, after having given such an exhibition of 
 magnificent courage as has not often been seen in the 
 history of war. Over half of them had fallen. 
 
 They carried with them the helpless body of their 
 dauntless major, who had been shot beneath the walls and 
 
The Fighting Around Ticonderoga 281 
 
 was severely wounded. It was the last effort of the Eng 
 lish. They could do no more in that method of attack. 
 
 The fighting was over. More than two thousand 
 Englishmen lay still and silent or writhing and groaning 
 from terrible wounds, on the slopes of that ghastly hill. 
 Men in red, men in blue, men in hunting shirt, men in 
 the dark tartan all were there mingled in common and 
 dreadful death. Horrible to relate, some of them had 
 been shot as they leaped at the abattis and their bodies 
 were hanging impaled on the stakes and some were yet 
 alive in that situation. On the French side, so furious 
 had been the British attacks, that in spite of the shelter 
 of the fortification, no less than four hundred had been 
 killed or wounded, including de Levis slightly, and de 
 Bourlamaque, severely. 
 
 This is what Montcalm said about his victory in a letter 
 to his wife. He exaggerated the force of, and the casual 
 ties sustained by, the English, but that is pardonable in 
 his excitement over the result of the battle. The truth 
 was enough: 
 
 " Without Indians, almost without Canadians or col 
 ony troops I had only four hundred alone with de 
 Levis and Bourlamaque and the troops of the line, thirty- 
 one hundred fighting men, I have beaten an army of 
 twenty-five thousand. They repassed the lake precipi 
 tously with a loss of at least five thousand. This glorious 
 day does infinite honor to the valor of our battalions. I 
 have no time to write more. I am well, my dearest, and 
 I embrace you." 
 
 And to a friend he wrote: " Ah, my dear Doriel, what 
 soldiers are ours! I never saw the like. Why were they 
 not at Louisbourg? " He forgot that James Wolfe and 
 not Abercrombie was there! 
 
282 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 The day after the battle he erected an immense cross 
 of timber upon the field which bore the following Latin 
 legend composed by himself he was a scholar as well as 
 a soldier, it would seem: 
 
 " Quid dux ? quid miles ? quid strata ingentia ligna ? 
 En signum ! en victor ! Deus hie, Deus ipse triumphal. " 
 
 Parkman translates the lines as follows: 
 
 " Soldiers and chief and rampart s strength are nought, 
 Behold the conquering Cross ! Tis God the triumph wrought." 
 
 And he adds Montcalm s own paraphrase: 
 
 " Chretien ! ce ne fut point Montcalm et la prudence, 
 
 Ces arbres renverse"s, ces heros, leurs exploits, 
 Qui des Anglais confus ont brise* 1 espe rance, 
 
 C est le bras de ton Dieu, vainqueur sur cette croix." 
 
 So there you have the triumph celebrated in three lan 
 guages. 
 
 The elation of the French at their tremendous victory 
 can scarcely be imagined. They were, however, in a 
 critical situation. Amherst had thirteen thousand men 
 yet available and all his artillery. He might bring it up 
 on the morrow and resume the battle, which would prob 
 ably have a different termination. They expected he 
 would do it. So did everyone else. Fortunately for the 
 French, however, he did nothing of the kind. Imagining 
 that, the six thousand he supposed to have manned the 
 intrenchments would be augmented by the three thou 
 sand which he had heard were coming, he broke camp the 
 next morning and fled down the lake with all speed, 
 abandoning valuable supplies and stores of all kinds in 
 his possession! 
 
The Fighting Around Ticonderoga 283 
 
 The attempt to pierce the centre had failed lamentably, 
 and in that failure the English had sustained prodigious 
 loss. Cape Breton had fallen, and so, too, would Fort 
 Du Quesne, but Montcalm and his veterans still held the 
 heart of the continent, and it needed the grim wager of 
 battle on the stern shore of St. Lawrence about Cape 
 Diamond and Quebec before it should be determined 
 who should master this half of the world. It was most 
 fitting that the final arbitrament should be tried out by 
 the two great captains in w r hose proud record of victories 
 shone the names of Louisbourg and Ticonderoga. 
 
 We scarcely know whether to marvel more at the au 
 dacity of Montcalm, the stubborn courage of his men, 
 the stupidity of Abercrombie, or the magnificent hardi 
 hood of the soldiers he led. The battle was a shameful 
 one, but the shame was with the general. The soldiers 
 on that day had shown themselves to be worthy of the 
 highest praise. 
 
 Nothing succeeds like success, of course, and the end 
 seems to have justified Montcalm s acceptance of the 
 desperate chance, but it is hard to conceive that any 
 other man in the world would have so stupidly played 
 into the hands of the French as the English commander 
 had. Even after he was beaten the first time, there was 
 no reason why he should not have resumed the campaign 
 upon one of the practicable plans of which Lord Howe 
 would have been prompt to avail himself. 
 
284 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 V. The Legend of Inverawe 
 
 Almost every man who has told the story of this for 
 gotten battle has mentioned a wild Scottish legend con 
 cerning the unfortunate commander of the Black Watch. 
 Major Campbell was taken to Fort Edward with the rest 
 of the army. His arm, which had been badly shattered, 
 was in such a condition that it was necessary to amputate 
 it at once and he died from the operation. 
 
 In the traditions of the Campbells there is a story that 
 years before, when this same Duncan Campbell was alone 
 in his castle at Inverawe one tempestuous night, a man 
 in the direst extremity, panting with fatigue, almost ex 
 hausted, having been pursued nearly to death, appealed 
 to him for hospitality and shelter, stating that he had 
 killed a man and the avengers of blood were close on 
 his track. 
 
 With romantic chivalry the Laird of Inverawe, as he 
 was called after his castle, promised him protection and 
 a safe hiding place, and at the earnest request of the 
 stranger took oath upon the hilt of his dirk to hold him 
 inviolate. He had scarcely concealed him when the pur 
 suers burst upon the scene and informed Inverawe that 
 they were seeking the murderer of his cousin Donald 
 Campbell! Bound by his oath and by his stern ideas of 
 hospitality, Inverawe declared that he knew nothing of 
 the man. That night, however, so the story goes, the 
 ghastly figure of his murdered kinsman appeared at his 
 bedside. From his blood-boltered lips fell in hollow 
 tones these words: 
 
 " Inverawe, Inverawe, blood has been shed! Shield not 
 the murderer! " 
 
 When day broke Campbell repaired to the place of 
 
The Fighting Around Ticonderoga 285 
 
 concealment which he had allotted the stranger and, tell 
 ing him of his dreadful night, ordered him to leave at 
 once, as he could afford him protection no longer. 
 
 " You have sworn to do so upon your dirk," said the 
 man, refusing to leave his shelter, and invoking the laws 
 of hospitality of the wild age and people. 
 
 Finally Inverawe, who was naturally greatly perturbed 
 by the deceit which had been practised upon him and the 
 message of his ghostly visitor, induced the murderer to 
 repair to a cave in a neighboring mountain, where he left 
 him, with a renewed promise that he would not betray 
 him. His rest that night was broken again by the dread 
 apparition and the same fearful words were rung in his 
 ear. He could stand it no longer. In the morning he 
 hastened to the cave, determined to warn him to go, or 
 he would give him up, but the stranger was already gone. 
 That night the spirit appeared once more, but with a 
 different message, sufficiently fearful but less terrible than 
 before: 
 
 " Farewell, Inverawe, farewell, until we meet at Tf- 
 CONDEROGA ! " 
 
 After that night it returned no more. At that time it 
 is probable that neither Campbell nor any other British 
 officer had ever heard of Ticonderoga, but the mys 
 terious aggregation of melodious syllables dwelt in his 
 mind and he often recurred to it. Long afterward he 
 joined the Black Watch, and in time became its major. 
 
 He had never forgotten the story, which he often told 
 to the other officers. His horror, therefore, can be imag 
 ined, when he learned that his regiment was destined to 
 attack Ticonderoga! A settled melancholy took posses 
 sion of him. Before the day of the battle his officers 
 entered into a little conspiracy and they met to assure 
 
286 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 him that the place they were about to attack was not 
 Ticonderoga, but Fort Carillon, and that Ticonderoga 
 lay further up the lake. They succeeded in reassuring 
 him somewhat, but on the morning of the battle, he made 
 them the startling statement that he had seen the appari 
 tion once again and it had uttered these fatal words: 
 
 " This is TICONDEROGA ! " * 
 
 " I shall die to-day/ he said to his officers, as he told 
 the tale. 
 
 When he led the heroic advance of the Black Watch 
 in the last effort to break the French line, therefore, he 
 did it with the blind fatalism of a man who is conscious 
 that he is marked for death and in that consciousness goes 
 forward without fear and without hesitation. And to 
 this splendid exhibition of reckless intrepidity on his part 
 may have been due the partial success of the terrific at 
 tack. 
 
 He sleeps near Fort Edward near the scene of the ful 
 filment of the prophecy. His son, Lieutenant Alex 
 ander Campbell, of the same regiment, participated in 
 the battle and was also severely wounded but survived. 
 He, too, has left on record marvellous tales of the warn 
 ings of death which appeared to the ladies of the Camp 
 bells at Inverawe, on the day when the Laird of the castle 
 fell before the gory abattis on that awful hill across the 
 sea. 
 
 " There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 
 Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." 
 
 * Indian name " Cheonderoga," which in the Iroquois tongue signifies 
 Sounding Water." 
 
PART IV 
 THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 
 
 V 
 Before Louisbourg Again 
 
BEFORE LOUISBOURG AGAIN 
 
 I. A Gibraltar Now 
 
 WHEN we left Louisbourg thirteen years ago, in 
 1745, the flag of England flaunted in triumph 
 over its half ruined walls while the hardy col 
 onists under stout William Pepperrell, their drums beat 
 ing gayly, marched through the battered gates. Yet on 
 this ist of June, 1758, the strong eastern wind sweeping 
 in unimpeded course across one thousand leagues of 
 Atlantic seas, whipped out from the end of the lofty staff 
 the lilied banner of France! All the labors, sacrifices, 
 hardships, gallantries and pleasant humors of the New 
 Englanders had come to naught; for, when the peace 
 of Aix-la-Chapelle terminated King George s War, by 
 subtle and persistent diplomacy the French managed to 
 have the fortress at Louisbourg returned to them. And 
 on the day mentioned it stood in the possession of its 
 original owners, more formidable and menacing to Eng 
 land and her colonies than ever. 
 
 The old works had been repaired and strengthened at 
 an expense of more than a million pounds sterling. It was 
 amply garrisoned by four thousand men, the greater part 
 of whom were French regular soldiery. Nearly two hun 
 dred and forty cannon and mortars were mounted upon 
 the walls and outworks. The Island battery where the 
 English had met such a disastrous repulse, had been 
 19 289 
 
290 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 strengthened and was now heavily armed. Within the 
 spacious harbor five splendid ships-of-the-line, a fifty-gun 
 ship, and six saucy frigates, mounting nearly six hundred 
 guns, swung at their anchors. Admiral Desgouttes and 
 
 Map of Louisbourg, 1758.* 
 
 his three thousand seamen constituted a formidable aux 
 iliary to the defence. The whole was under the charge 
 of the Chevalier de Drucour, a veteran and experienced 
 soldier of much skill and proven courage. He was not 
 to be caught napping as the unlucky Du Chambon had 
 been years before, and every practicable landing place 
 was lined with intrenchments and batteries. 
 
 At intervals during the stormy months of spring, out 
 of the mist, and fog, and rain, and the tempests that beat 
 almost incessantly upon the dangerous rock-bound shore, 
 
 * See also inset map on page 274. 
 
Before Louisbourg Again 291 
 
 a little squadron of English ships varying in size, but high 
 in quality, could be seen beating to and fro across the 
 entrance to the harbor where the huge rollers seethed 
 and foamed over the reefs, endeavoring to maintain a 
 blockade. They were not very successful in their efforts; 
 conditions were against them, and the force was too 
 small, so the French ran in and out at will, hence the 
 presence of the men-of-war in the harbor. Indeed even 
 after the arrival of the great English fleet, Le Bizarre, 64, 
 and La Comete, 30, as we shall see later on, succeeded in 
 getting away on the 8th of June, while the attempt at 
 landing was being made. Practical freedom of access 
 being thus assured the fortress was fully provided for a 
 siege, and de Drucour awaited with confidence the ex 
 pected attack. 
 
 It was not long in coming. When the French awoke 
 on the second day of June, they were astonished at the 
 sight which greeted their eyes in Gabarus Bay, south of 
 the town. No less than one hundred and fifty-seven 
 ships lay straining at their anchors. Twenty-three of 
 these were ships-of-the-line, eighteen were frigates, and 
 the rest were transports. From the masthead of the 
 Namur, 90, flew the flag of stout old Admiral Edward 
 Boscawen, the naval commander of the expedition; old 
 "Dreadnought," or " Wrynecked Dick," as he was in 
 differently called by the sailors, had Royal Stuart blood 
 in his veins, but in despite of that he was a gallant officer 
 and a splendid sailor. 
 
 On the transports were some twelve thousand troops; 
 there were Highlanders, Provincial Rangers, two bat 
 talions of Royal Americans, and a regiment of light 
 infantry, batteries of skilled artillerists to man a train of 
 one hundred and forty guns of various calibres, while 
 
292 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 grenadiers, engineers, and troops of the line made up 
 the rest. This land force was under the command of 
 Major General Jeffrey Amherst, who had for his briga 
 diers, Lawrence, Whitmore, and James Wolfe, his first 
 entry upon the pages of American history. 
 
 Hazardous indeed was the undertaking, desperate the 
 problem before the soldiers and sailors. The officers 
 searched with their glasses the desolate, storm-beaten 
 shore, or rowed along its granite face in boats, and could 
 find but three practicable places at which a landing could 
 be effected. Further reconnoissance discovered the fact 
 that each of these points was covered by strong fortifica 
 tions and apparently heavily garrisoned. Discouraging 
 indeed was the prospect. They had arrived off Cape 
 Breton Island via Halifax, after a long and tedious pas 
 sage across the ocean, and now within sight of their goal 
 the obstacles before them appeared well-nigh insuper 
 able. 
 
 What would the admiral decide upon? The determi 
 nation of course, was left entirely to him. The troops 
 could not disembark without the aid of the sailors who 
 were entirely under his orders. It was an anxious time 
 indeed for Amherst and his young brigadiers and for 
 Boscawen as well. What should he do in this emer 
 gency? Should he hold a council of war and be gov 
 erned by its conclusion? Then good-by to any hope 
 of aggressive action. He was pressed to do this by num 
 bers of his captains and the decision would inevitably have 
 been to abandon the attempt and retire. 
 
 Councils of war had ruined the career of many officers 
 and the fate of Admiral John Byng, who had been shot 
 on the quarter-deck of his own flagship the previous year, 
 for not fighting it was alleged as valiantly and sue- 
 
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Before Louisbourg Again 293 
 
 cessfully as he might, and should have done, was still fresh 
 in the minds of everyone. An old Scottish sea officer 
 named Ferguson, the captain of the Prince of Orange, 60, 
 turned the scale. What little things, sometimes scarcely 
 noticed, more often unknown, determine great events! 
 The sturdy representations of the brave old seaman who 
 advised Boscawen to hold no council, and to land the 
 troops or to make a desperate endeavor to do so, at last 
 prevailed, and the admiral announced his determination to 
 do what he had come so far to do. 
 
 II. The Landing in the Surf 
 
 It was resolved after consultation between Amherst 
 and his generals, that three brigades of the army should 
 be embarked in three divisions under the command of 
 the three brigadier generals, that the divisions of Law 
 rence and Whitmore should make a feint at landing at 
 those two of the available points nearest the fortress, but 
 that the real landing should be made by the left division 
 under Wolfe, and the point where the attempt was to be 
 made was a little bay called by the French Le Coroman- 
 diere, by the English Fresh Water Cove. The beach 
 here was crescent shaped for about a quarter of a mile 
 with rocky cliffs at each end. 
 
 The place was as strongly fortified and as formidable 
 as the rest; and, as they afterward learned, was garri 
 soned by nearly a thousand men, under the command of 
 Lieutenant Colonel de St. Julien. But it was the most 
 practicable of access, apparently. The defensive works 
 were on a bluff about fifteen feet above the sea level and 
 were composed of trees and earth, protected by a rough 
 abattis of felled trees and mounting several small pieces of 
 
294 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 artillery planted to sweep the beach, and hidden by ever 
 greens stuck in the ground in front of them. 
 
 A further distraction to the enemy was afforded by 
 another feint of landing a regiment far to the northward 
 of the town near a place called Lorembec, beyond Light 
 house Point. Preparations having been speedily con 
 cluded they awaited a favorable moment for the attack. 
 Dense fogs and fierce gales prevailed, however, for a 
 week, during which the frigate Trent was lost, and it was 
 not until the 8th of June that the weather permitted them 
 to essay their task. During the night the men em 
 barked in the boats of the fleet, the frigates were sent in 
 shore, and anchored as close to the cliffs as they dared. 
 When day broke with every gun that bore they opened 
 a furious cannonade upon the French, while the larger 
 ships moved up opposite Louisbourg proper and with 
 their heavy guns engaged the fortress as they could. 
 
 Such a roar of artillery woke the solitudes as had never 
 been heard before in the western hemisphere. Under 
 the cover of this furious fire, to which the French made 
 spirited reply, the three divisions of boats dashed toward 
 the shore. As Wolfe s brigade drew near Fresh Water 
 Cove, they were for a time unmolested, but when they got 
 within close range the French suddenly opened fire upon 
 them. The sea was still rough and only the uncertain 
 motion of the boats, tossing about in the huge waves, 
 which disconcerted the aim of the gunners, prevented 
 them from being sunk. The flagstaff of Wolfe s boat 
 was cut down and several men were hit. As soon as the 
 flotilla of boats got into calmer water nearer the shore, 
 they would be cut to pieces. After scanning the position 
 Wolfe reluctantly decided to give over the attempt at that 
 time. The difficulty may be inferred from that decision. 
 
Before Louisbourg Again 295 
 
 He signalled the other boats of his flotilla therefore, to 
 retire. On account of the loss of his flagstaff Wolfe gave 
 the signal with his hand. 
 
 Three boat loads of light infantry on the extreme right 
 commanded by Lieutenants Hopkins and Brown and 
 Ensign Grant, either did not understand him or delib 
 erately disregarded his signal. These officers thought 
 they had found a practicable landing place under the 
 shelter of the cliffs which, so long as they remained on 
 the beach, would protect them from the fire of the enemy. 
 Taking not only their lives but their reputations in hand, 
 they dashed at it. If their observations were erroneous, 
 and their deductions false, they would be court-martialed 
 and shot. 
 
 They were all right, however. It was a difficult and 
 dangerous place to debark an army, but they succeeded 
 in getting ashore. They were followed by Major Scott, 
 who commanded the light infantry, and the Rangers. 
 His boat was stove but he sprang ashore and with ten 
 men at once clambered up the cliff. At the first volley 
 five were shot down, but the rest took cover and each 
 moment added to their number, as the men from the 
 other three boats followed Scott s example. Wolfe 
 marked their success, countermanded his orders and 
 headed his own boat for the same spot. In his eagerness 
 he leaped into the water as soon as the depth permitted 
 and, with a small cane in his hand, led his soldiers for 
 ward. The men as fast as they landed scrambled up the 
 cliffs and at once found themselves in hot action with the 
 French. 
 
 Boat after boat was wrecked on the beach as they 
 dashed at it and many of the soldiers were drowned and 
 the powder of the rest was rendered useless. The French 
 
296 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 opened fire upon the English as fast as they appeared, but 
 under the shelter of the trees Wolfe at last got them 
 formed up for a solid attack. With fixed bayonets they 
 made for the French. There was a fierce discharge at 
 them which did not stop them, and then followed a brief 
 melee in which something like one hundred and fifty of 
 the French were killed and wounded, when the rest were 
 driven from their intrenchments. 
 
 The divisions of Lawrence and Whitmore were now 
 making a landing where Wolfe had succeeded in gaining 
 a foothold. The boats of the fleet with the rest of the 
 army were also putting for the shore. The French col 
 onel reasoned that unless he made good his escape when 
 he had opportunity, the English would interpose be 
 tween him and Louisbourg and cut him off, so he fled up 
 the coast at full speed with his men, abandoning the sev 
 eral batteries which had been erected. 
 
 They were hotly pursued by Wolfe at the head of his 
 light infantry, a corps of men whom he had specially 
 trained after notions of his own, which were then thought 
 fantastic, but which are now accepted by military authori 
 ties of all nations. They were lightly equipped but for 
 midably armed, were taught to move in open order and 
 to take advantage of every possible cover in advance or 
 retreat. The heavy massed line of battle was not for 
 them. All useless articles of baggage, uniform, and 
 equipment were discarded. 
 
 Meantime during all that day the boats of the ships 
 continued landing the soldiers. Although more than 
 one hundred boats were smashed in the breakers and on 
 the rocks, the total loss of the English in killed and 
 wounded and drowned in this brilliant feat of arms was 
 scarcely more than one hundred. The pursuit of the 
 
Before Louisbourg Again 297 
 
 flying French continued until Wolfe came within range 
 of the guns of Louisbourg. Amherst now came on shore 
 and assumed direction of the operations. A siege was 
 regularly begun. 
 
 III. The Fortress Beleaguered 
 
 In front of the line of works extending across the 
 peninsula from the ocean to the bay and forming the base 
 of the triangle enclosing the town, lay a huge impassable 
 morass. Louisbourg was approachable, however, on firm 
 ground from either flank, by the seashore or inland. The 
 English steadily advanced their batteries nearer the town 
 with each succeeding day. The Grand battery which lay 
 opposite the mouth of the harbor had been burned and 
 abandoned by de Drucour as soon as the English landed. 
 The French ships were moved across the bay and 
 anchored under the protection of the walls. 
 
 Admiral Desgouttes had pleaded that he might be 
 allowed to leave the harbor and escape while he could, 
 but de Drucour desired the services of the ships and men 
 and had refused to permit him, which was a tactical 
 blunder. The ships were too few to fight Boscawen s 
 great fleet. They could not materially aid in the defence 
 of the city and they had to be protected from the British 
 attack, therefore their presence was a source of weakness, 
 although their crews were most useful in the siege. If 
 by any means the city were captured, the ships would be 
 lost too. All this was pointed out to de Drucour, but to no 
 avail. The ships therefore joined with the batteries of 
 the town in returning the fire of the English. One ves 
 sel especially, the frigate Arethuse, placed in the land 
 locked basin, or inner harbor, called Le Barachois, from 
 
298 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 her position was enabled to enfilade the English batteries. 
 She was in charge of Captain Vauquelin, a brave and 
 successful officer. The English at last succeeded in 
 planting a battery which commanded her and they 
 riddled her with shot, but she pluckily stuck to her sta 
 tion until near the end of the siege. Two of the frigates 
 which attempted to get away were captured, after hot en 
 gagements, by British frigates outside. 
 
 By Amherst s direction, on the I2th of June, Wolfe 
 took his light infantry the circuit of the harbor and 
 erected a powerful battery on Lighthouse Point, with 
 which he succeeded in silencing the Island battery. 
 There was nothing now that would prevent the British 
 from sailing into the harbor. Therefore, Desgouttes and 
 de Drucour determined to block it up. They sank the 
 fifty-gun ship, and the two remaining frigates in the 
 mouth of the harbor; and then, withdrawing the Arethuse 
 from her untenable position, they patched her up, waited 
 for a dark night and towed her through the obstructions 
 and sent her to France, which she safely reached bearing 
 an appeal for help too late. 
 
 Meanwhile the indefatigable English batteries were 
 regularly approaching nearer the walls of the town, the 
 men actually making solid ground with fascines and earth 
 in the marsh, upon which to mount their guns. On the 
 night of the 6th of July the French made a sally which 
 was repulsed with severe loss to them and but little to 
 the English. De Drucour made a second and more de 
 termined effort to dislodge the steadily approaching 
 enemy. On the night of the 9th of July he sent out one 
 thousand picked men who fell upon the light infantry like 
 a storm. The English were driven back from the first 
 line of intrenchments and the probability of a serious re- 
 
Before Louisbourg Again 299 
 
 pulse was imminent when Wolfe himself appeared on the 
 scene, reanimated his men, led a charge against the 
 French, and after some severe hand to hand fighting, 
 drove them back, disheartened and defeated. 
 
 Wolfe s men on the i6th of July succeeded in occupy 
 ing a hill called Gallows Hill, the place of execution, 
 within three hundred feet of the Dauphin s Bastion, erect 
 ing a battery thereon which did no little execution. 
 
 The fire of the English batteries, in which the ships 
 participated whenever the weather permitted, was simply 
 appalling. They rained shot and shell on the devoted 
 town. Every building of wood, including the barracks, 
 was consumed by fire, and the chief storehouses and other 
 buildings of stone were battered into hopeless ruins. 
 There were many fishermen and women and children 
 within the walls who were left houseless, and forced to 
 seek shelter of the casemates and bomb proofs. 
 
 Madame de Drucour, the wife of the governor, proved 
 herself a heroine indeed; daily appearing with her husband 
 on the ramparts and encouraging the soldiers by some 
 times firing the guns with her own fair hand. More and 
 more guns were landed from the ships, some of them 
 manned by sailors. Nearer and nearer the English ap 
 proached to the works and the pounding the walls got was 
 terrific. 
 
 The walls presently began to succumb to the tre 
 mendous battering they were receiving. Unfortunately, 
 as is often the case with national contracts, some of them 
 had not been completed and much of the work had been 
 badly done; in their need the French had eked out the 
 wanting masonry with fascines. Great gaps appeared 
 here and there, cannon after cannon was dismounted, the 
 citadel was laid in ruins, but still the besieged held out 
 heroically. 
 
300 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 IV. Destruction of the Fleet 
 
 On the night of the 2ist of July, however, they met 
 with a great catastrophe. A bomb shell fell upon the 
 deck of Le Celebre, 64, and set her on fire. In spite of 
 the efforts of her depleted crew most of her complement 
 being ashore in the batteries she burned furiously and 
 breaking from her moorings at last drifted down upon 
 UEntreprenante, 74, and then fell foul of Le Capricieux, 
 64. They both caught fire from the first one; the Eng 
 lish turned their guns upon them, and the three devoted 
 ships, a mass of flame, their guns firing in every direction, 
 finally drifted ashore and burned to the water s edge, or 
 blew up with tremendous explosions. 
 
 This left but two ships of the line out of the twelve 
 vessels which had originally found refuge in the harbor, 
 and their fate was soon determined. Boscawen arranged 
 to destroy them by a boat attack. Commanders Laforey 
 and Balfour were placed in charge of six hundred British 
 seamen in forty boats. There were no troops or marines 
 concerned in the enterprise. Two boats from each ship, 
 manned by their regular crews heavily armed with cut 
 lasses, pistols, pole-axes, and muskets and bayonets, with 
 a lieutenant aft and a midshipman forward, were detailed 
 to make this attack. It was a picked force and nobly 
 did it carry out the undertaking. 
 
 A little after midnight on the morning of the 26th of 
 July, the boats got under way. It was a dark, foggy night 
 well suited to their undertaking. With muffled oars and 
 in perfect silence, they stole past the watchers on the 
 Island battery and entered the harbor. As they had 
 started from the ships a signal from the Namur had been 
 given and the English had at once engaged the town. 
 
Before Louisbourg Again 301 
 
 Under the roar of the furious cannonade the boats suc 
 ceeded in getting into the basin absolutely unnoticed. 
 They rowed in as far as the Grand battery, so as to be able 
 to approach the ships from the landward side, from which 
 an attack would scarcely be expected. Separating in two 
 divisions, Captain Laforey, with three hundred men 
 dashed at Le Prudent, 74, which was nearest the shore. 
 Commander Balfour, with a like force, made for Le Bien- 
 faisant, 64. 
 
 The attack had been beautifully planned. The boats 
 of the two flotillas deliberately circled about the devoted 
 ships to reach their appointed stations. A sentry on each 
 finally gave the alarm, but the small French crews on 
 board had scarcely time to tumble out of their hammocks 
 and seize their arms, before the English were upon them. 
 They boarded over the bows, through the gangways, 
 upon the quarters, in fact from every side, with loud 
 cheers, and immediately fell to work. There was a brief, 
 fierce melee upon each ship, and the English were in 
 possession. 
 
 It was graying toward morning by this time and the 
 noise and confusion of the attack apprised the garrison 
 within the town, a short distance away, of what was tak 
 ing place. They sprang to the guns of the water bat 
 teries and opened a heavy fire upon the captured ships, 
 which cut them up severely. The English \vere too busy 
 to make any reply. The tide was at low ebb. Laforey 
 found that Le Prudent was aground. It was impossible 
 to lighten her to bring her off, so he set her on fire. He 
 and his men remained on the ship until she was burning 
 hopelessly, then, after releasing and disarming the French 
 prisoners, giving them their own boats and a schooner, 
 lying alongside, with which to get ashore, the English 
 
302 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 abandoned her. They got into their boats and rowed over 
 to Le Bienfaisant. By hard work Balfour s party had 
 got their ship afloat, and the two boat divisions delib 
 erately towed her out of range of the batteries under a 
 tremendous fire, and anchored her safely under the lee of 
 the Lighthouse battery that Wolfe had established to 
 the north of the harbor. 
 
 It was a splendid feat of arms and at daybreak the hearts 
 of the besieged weakened. Boscawen immediately pre 
 pared to enter the now defenceless harbor with six of his 
 ships. The garrison was worn out. The sick and wound 
 ed were exposed to a continuous fire. No part of the 
 works was safe from the guns of the enemy. Nearly two 
 thousand men were incapacitated by wounds or illness, 
 and upward of a thousand had been killed. The case 
 mates were filled with terrified women and children. The 
 English batteries had successfully breached the walls. 
 The guns opposite the English army, with the exception 
 of three or four, had been dismounted and put out of 
 action. The citadel was a hopeless ruin. De Drucour 
 had made a gallant defence. He could do no more. By 
 the advice of his officers he sent out a flag asking for 
 terms. 
 
 He thought at least that his splendid defence would 
 entitle him to march his garrison out with the honors of 
 war, and he made such a proposition. But Amherst was 
 no sentimental soldier, neither was Boscawen. Their 
 answer to the governor s proposition was a demand for 
 an instant and unconditional surrender, under threat of 
 an immediate assault in force. De Drucour and his of 
 ficers indignantly rejected these terms and declared them 
 selves willing to endure an assault rather than surrender 
 the town under such circumstances. 
 
Before Louisbourg Again 303 
 
 A messenger was sent carrying their rejection to Am- 
 herst, but as soon as the rejection became known to the 
 inhabitants of the town, numbering about four thousand, 
 they crowded around the governor and his staff with such 
 pleas and representations, such lamentations as to their 
 certain fate, and the fate of the women and children, that 
 they at last moved him to surrender unconditionally. 
 
 Another messenger was despatched posthaste to recall 
 the rejection, which fortunately for the French, had not 
 yet been delivered. Poor de Drucour signed the capitu 
 lation at midnight of the 27th, and on the morning Gen 
 eral Whitmore marched in and took possession. The 
 French soldiers threw down their arms before him with 
 tears of mortification and gestures of rage; the white ban 
 ner was again hauled down and for the second time the 
 Gibraltar of America passed under the English flag. It 
 stayed there as long as it had any existence. The French 
 power was forever driven from the Atlantic seaboard. 
 
 The English loss in killed and wounded had been a 
 little over five hundred. De Drucour surrendered about 
 fifty-six hundred soldiers, sailors and marines. 
 
 This was one of the most successful feats of arms in 
 the war. Its success was made possible by the hearty 
 cooperation between Boscawen and Amherst, and the 
 patient perseverance of the latter, but above all by the 
 dashing audacity, sound judgment, and brilliant military 
 genius of James Wolfe. 
 
 " He is mad," said one of the incapables about the per 
 son of the king, when he read of Wolfe s daring tactics, 
 his wonderful innovations. 
 
 " Mad is he? " growled the old king, with a vivid mem 
 ory of some of his cocked-hatted failures, " then I only 
 hope he ll bite some of my generals! " 
 
304 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 Among the officers in Wolfe s brigade who was fore 
 most in all the exploits and undertakings of the siege, 
 was a young ensign, who was promoted to a lieutenancy 
 by that general himself for conspicuous courage and gal 
 lantry. His name was Richard Montgomery, a man 
 whose career in the American Revolution was as brief as 
 his fame was great. He was destined to die years after 
 under the walls of Quebec, fighting against the very flag 
 to which, in this campaign, he had given such ungrudging 
 and brilliant devotion. 
 
PART IV 
 THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 
 
 VI 
 
 The Fall of Quebec 
 
THE FALL OF QUEBEC 
 
 " 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." * 
 
 I. The Stake, the Game, and the Players 
 
 ON the 29th of February, 1712, when Louis XIV, 
 old, broken, and defeated, was closing his long 
 reign, a little boy was born in the south of 
 France. Fifteen years later, on the 2nd of January, 
 1727, another lad saw the light in the England of George 
 the First. Born under different governmental systems 
 and springing from different racial stocks, standing for 
 different ideas, the lives of these two children were 
 destined to be strangely intermingled. They were to be 
 the chief factors in a great contest in which the stakes 
 were a future empire the like of which the world had not 
 seen. They w^re to play their great game upon a theatre 
 of unparalleled magnificence and before an audience 
 which comprised the world. There were circumstances 
 of great dramatic interest in the career of both, and in 
 the end each laid down his life in defence of his principles 
 on the same blood-stained field. The Frenchman was 
 
 * These words are from a contemporary song ; they prove, for one thing, 
 the antiquity of the supposedly modern phrase " Hot Stuff." 
 
 307 
 
308 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 the son of a great nobleman; the Englishman, a child of 
 the sturdy middle class. Both were soldiers. There 
 were brave days for soldiers then, and both of them saw 
 much hard fighting and arduous campaigning. Both 
 had risen rapidly, and both had been chosen for positions 
 of importance which they had neither sought nor desired, 
 but which both had accepted from the very highest sense 
 of duty and love of country. 
 
 As we have just seen, Montcalm had signally demon 
 strated his capacity by inflicting upon the English an 
 overwhelming defeat in the pine woods of Ticonderoga, 
 and Wolfe had shown his ability at the siege of Louis- 
 bourg. They were now to be matched in a struggle for 
 a point more vital than the fortress in the pine-clad hills 
 or that on the iron-bound coast of Cape Breton. The 
 rifle shots of the Virginians under George Washington 
 in the forest glades of western Pennsylvania, which struck 
 down young Jumonville, had kindled a conflagration of 
 war which had swept like a besom of destruction from 
 the St. Lawrence to the Ganges, and which had involved 
 every power in the world in a gigantic struggle Eng 
 land, Prussia, and the American Colonies contra mundum! 
 On the icy plains of Russia, neath the shadows cast by 
 the Himalayas, and in the forests primeval of the New 
 World the conflict raged. 
 
 On this continent two great ideas had stood at sword s 
 point with each other from the landing of the Pilgrims 
 and the voyage of Cartier. In a thin strip upon the 
 Atlantic seaboard from the Penobscot to St. Augustine, 
 the beginning of a government " of the people, by the 
 people, and for the people " had been established; and a 
 nation, frugal and industrious, hardy and bold, was in 
 the travail pains of existence. The several English colo- 
 
The Fall of Quebec 309 
 
 nies embraced a population of over a million souls. On 
 the back of the continent, with one hand on the great 
 river of the north, the other clutching the great river of 
 the south, lay the power of France, a country still the 
 most formidable in the great family of nations. A thin 
 chain of military posts dotted along the two rivers and 
 the great lakes represented the barrier by which the ad 
 vocates of the feudal system decaying in France, but 
 which it was hoped might be revived in America strove 
 to hold back the inundation of men already beginning to 
 break upon the mountain chains of what was then the 
 West. Though the province had been most assiduously 
 fostered by the crown, the number of inhabitants in New 
 France did not exceed, at the very highest estimate, 
 seventy thousand; but every male in the population was 
 liable for military service, and the seignors of the villages 
 and rude chateaux and the officers of the posts were men 
 of high stamp, bearing some of the noblest names of 
 France. In war they could bring to their assistance 
 hordes of ruthless savages, who, under the teaching of the 
 Jesuits, had added to their natural vindictiveness and 
 ferocity the machinery of the warfare of the time. There 
 were, in addition to the population, some five thousand 
 regular soldiers in the country, battalions of picked men 
 from some of the finest regiments of the incomparable 
 French infantry. Therefore, while the odds against the 
 French were heavy, their case was not desperate. 
 
 Various disjointed attempts had been made at differ 
 ent points during the Seven Years War, but after the re 
 duction of Louisbourg in 1758, Pitt determined to attack 
 New France at every available point at once, making use 
 of his great numerical superiority and command of the 
 sea for that purpose. Amherst was to move up Lake 
 
310 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 Champlain, Prideaux and Sir William Johnson were to 
 attack Fort Niagara, Stanwix was to sweep the posts 
 on Lake Erie, and Forbes, with Washington, was to 
 effect the reduction of Fort Du Quesne. The main expe 
 dition was directed against Quebec itself, and comprised 
 twenty-two ships of the line, with accompanying frigates 
 and transports, under the command of Vice Admiral 
 Saunders, convoying nine thousand men under James 
 Wolfe. The genius of Pitt had led him to select this 
 young man from hundreds of others his seniors in rank 
 an unprecedented proceeding, by the way and he had 
 given him the temporary rank of major general for the 
 American campaign. His force, consisting of English 
 and Provincial troops, all regulars, was one of the best 
 that had ever been assembled under the British flag. 
 Wolfe s brigadiers, Monckton, Townshend, and Murray, 
 were also young and capable soldiers. The army was 
 officered by young men. Pitt s idea was that an army 
 was to win battles and campaigns, and not to become a 
 plaything for incompetent officers who possessed noth 
 ing but rank. 
 
 On the 2ist of June, the expedition anchored off the 
 Isle of Orleans, a few miles below Quebec, in the noble 
 river St. Lawrence. Leaving the different garrisons 
 along the frontier to defend themselves as best they 
 might, Montcalm had concentrated his army at Quebec. 
 He -had under his command a force probably of fourteen 
 thousand men, of which not more than four thousand 
 were regulars. Of the balance, some were Canadian 
 militia, and the larger number partisans, Indians and un 
 disciplined peasants. 
 
 The city he had elected to defend commanded the 
 St. Lawrence, the great way of communication through 
 
The Fall of Quebec 311 
 
 the country. Its site was one of the most magnificent 
 on the continent, if not in the world. " Que Bee! " had 
 exclaimed the rough sailor of Dieppe in 1535, when 
 he first caught sight of the rock of Cape Diamond, 
 towering for over three hundred feet in the air, over 
 looking the deep land-locked basin which made the 
 magnificent harbor. Upon the crest of this tremendous 
 mass of granite which stands almost perpendicular to 
 the river had been erected a fortress. Toward the north 
 the rock sloped gently down until it was broken by a 
 rugged plateau half way to the water s edge, and upon it 
 stood a walled town containing the Cathedral, the Laval 
 University, the Ursuline Convent, and the Chateau St. 
 Louis, the residence of the governor. Still farther down 
 on the strand was the low r er town, bounded on the north 
 by the river St. Charles. 
 
 Along the banks of the St. Lawrence for seven miles 
 to the northward straggled the villages of Charlesbourg 
 and Beauport. The St. Charles emptied into the St. 
 Lawrence through a broad expanse of mud flats almost 
 impassable at low tide and guarded by heavy fortifica 
 tions at high water, together with a barrier and two 
 floating batteries. These fortifications were continued 
 for seven miles along the edge of the bluffs of Beau- 
 port, and terminated on the deep gorge of the rapid and 
 practically unfordable Montmorency River, which, just 
 before it reaches the St. Lawrence, leaps down the 
 cliffs in a sheer fall of two hundred and fifty feet, in a 
 glorious and beautiful cataract. Beyond the citadel on 
 the southern side of the city for eight miles there was a 
 continuation of the plateau. The tableland terminated 
 on the river coast in sheer and precipitous rocks over 
 grown here and there by stunted patches of trees and 
 
Map of the Siege of Quebec and Plan of the Battle on the Plains 
 of Abraham. 
 
The Fall of Quebec 313 
 
 shrubbery. On the south, at Cap-Rouge, it was pro 
 tected by another gorge and river, and on the other side 
 by rocky and impracticable slopes to the valley of the 
 Charles. One or two places where the cliffs could be 
 scaled were guarded, though their existence was un 
 known to the English. 
 
 Montcalm, after properly garrisoning the town, wisely 
 chose to await attack in the intrenchments at Beauport. 
 But the situation on the French side was not pleasant. 
 The governor of New France, Philippe de Rigaud, Mar 
 quis de Vaudreuil, a captain in the French navy, was a 
 jealous incompetent. No sort of harmony existed be 
 tween him and Lieutenant General Montcalm. The 
 general administration of affairs was under de Vaudreuil, 
 while Montcalm was supreme as to military matters, with 
 the limitations of power not well defined between them. 
 To further complicate matters, finance and trade were 
 controlled by Francois Bigot, one of the most consum 
 mate thieves and scoundrels who ever lived. The ad 
 ministration of internal affairs was thoroughly corrupt. 
 The king was robbed on the one hand, the people on the 
 other. While the people starved, and the army lived on 
 half rations, de Vaudreuil and Bigot and their satellites 
 rioted in luxury on the plunder of their country. 
 
 Montcalm, a stern and simple soldier, struggled vainly 
 against this state of affairs, but he was without power 
 except so far as military matters were concerned. Be 
 fore the expedition of Wolfe had arrived, realizing the 
 importance of the possession of Quebec, he had sent his 
 lieutenant, Bougainville, afterward the celebrated cir 
 cumnavigator, to France to beg aid. The king, busy 
 with his Pompadour and his Pare aux Ccrfs and other 
 similar matters of state, had sent him a promotion, a star, 
 
Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 some four hundred men, and some scanty supplies, with 
 instructions to hold on to the province at all hazards! 
 " A little is precious to those who have nothing," sadly 
 remarked Montcalm, when Bougainville exhibited the 
 results of his labors. He said that he would save the 
 colony or die in it. The words meant much from him. 
 The gallant little marquis was a domestic man, and was 
 ever sighing for the advent of that day when he might 
 return to France to his beloved country-seat at Candiac 
 and pass his days in peace in the society of his wife and 
 children. Bougainville had brought him word of the 
 death of one of his children, which had been reported just 
 before the ship sailed, and the poor man never found out 
 which child had been taken from him until he met her in 
 heaven. His letters to his wife and mother, read to-day, 
 after a century and a half of silence, still touch the heart 
 with their tenderness and love. 
 
 II. The Repulse on the Montmorency 
 
 The problem that met Wolfe was one of the most 
 gigantic with which the human mind had ever grappled, 
 and how to compass it he knew not. As a preliminary 
 to the enterprise, however, he captured the Isle of Orleans 
 and the heights of Levis, a bold promontory opposite the 
 city. On the latter, he erected batteries, which, by vig 
 orous bombardments soon reduced the lower town to 
 ruins, though neither from the batteries nor the ships was 
 he able to secure sufficient elevation to throw shells into 
 the upper town, much less the citadel. For offensive pur 
 poses his ships were more or less useless, for the water was 
 shallow on the Beauport shore and the batteries were so 
 placed that they could fire upon the ships with impunity. 
 
The Fall of Quebec 315 
 
 But they lent mobility to his force, which doubled its 
 effectiveness and signally illustrated the advantage of sea 
 command in warfare. 
 
 Wolfe s first attempt was to land his men on the north 
 bank of the Montmorency River and then try to find some 
 way through the dense virgin forests to cross the river 
 and turn Montcalm s left. The condition of the country 
 made this impossible. There was but one doubtful ford, 
 which was guarded. One of Wolfe s advance parties was 
 badly handled by the French and Indians. The open 
 season in the latitude of Quebec lasts but a few months 
 and the whole army, working during the whole time, 
 could not have opened a road for the advance. The plan 
 was necessarily abandoned. 
 
 The cliff over which the Montmorency River rushes to 
 meet the St. Lawrence is several hundred feet back from 
 the low water mark, and when the tide, which ebbs and 
 flows in the river as in the ocean, was out, it was possi 
 ble to ford the smaller stream; so Wolfe next decided to 
 make an attack upon some detached fortifications which 
 apparently constituted the extreme flank of Montcalm s 
 line, commanded by de Levis. He trusted that, if he 
 could gain them, he might turn the flank of the line, make 
 the intrenchments untenable, and force Montcalm to 
 fight. Therefore, with the cooperation of the navy, 
 which was always cheerfully given, he determined upon 
 this desperate plan. 
 
 On the morning of July 3ist, the line-of-battle ship 
 Centurion, 64, with two armed transports, moved 
 down opposite to the destined spot. The transports 
 went so far in shore that they grounded on the flats, but 
 all opened a furious bombardment on the redoubts. 
 When the tide was completely out, Wolfe, leading in 
 
316 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 person the Grenadiers, the Royal Americans, and the 
 Highlanders, which had been embarked in boats, made 
 for the land. At the same time, Monckton s brigade 
 started down from the intrenched camp upon the heights 
 of Montmorency to support the attack from the river. 
 
 The Royal Americans and the Grenadiers first reached 
 the shore. Without waiting to be formed and with no 
 attempt at order, disregarding entirely the commands of 
 their officers and without the support of Monckton s col 
 umn, they rushed impetuously pellmell toward the re 
 doubts, the French retreating before them as they came 
 on. Swarming over the redoubts they attempted to 
 ascend the hill, which, they discovered too late, bristled 
 with fortifications commanding every slope. They were 
 met by a deadly fire and in a few moments were driven 
 tumultuously down the hill where they took shelter be 
 hind the useless redoubts. Over four hundred had been 
 killed and wounded in a few moments. A violent rain 
 storm now came up, and after it was over, Wolfe, who had 
 kept the Highlanders well in hand, seeing the futility of 
 further attack, ordered his men to their boats. Acts of 
 great gallantry were performed by many of the men in 
 bringing in the wounded, whom the Indians were already 
 creeping down the hills to scalp. Monckton s brigade 
 did not get in action at all. 
 
 Wolfe severely censured the reckless and disorderly 
 conduct of the Grenadiers and Americans; but while the 
 censure was deserved, it is difficult to see how any dif 
 ferent result could have been expected. The transports 
 were burned. The French exulted greatly over the re 
 pulse. 
 
The Fall of Quebec 317 
 
 III. On the Plains of Abraham 
 
 About this time the English general, whose physique 
 was of the frailest, was seized by a low fever and pros 
 trated by a wasting disease, and his life was despaired of. 
 To the great joy of the army, however, he recovered, in 
 part at least, and resumed command. As the season was 
 drawing on and they had made no progress, in his des 
 peration, he suggested to his brigadiers several plans of 
 attack upon Beauport, Charlesbourg, and the lower town, 
 which they wisely rejected as impossible. There re 
 mained but one other thing to be tried. If by any means 
 he could get a foothold upon the plateau above Quebec, 
 he could force Montcalm to come out in the open and 
 fight, and in that event, he had no doubt of the issue. A 
 Scotsman, Captain Stobo, who had been taken as a hos 
 tage from Washington s command at Fort Necessity and 
 had been detained for many years at Quebec, had effected 
 his escape that spring, and joined Wolfe s army. He in 
 formed the commander that there was one practicable 
 path up the cliffs, in a little cove called Anse de Foulon, 
 and he offered to conduct a party to that point. It was 
 their last chance, and Wolfe determined to embrace it. 
 
 The army and fleet had not been idle; at different in 
 tervals during the summer many ships had succeeded in 
 running the batteries of Quebec, and had anchored in 
 the river above the town. Various expeditions had been 
 undertaken, some to ravage the country on every side, 
 and others to menace Cap-Rouge and vicinity, to stop 
 the provisions from coming down the river from Mon 
 treal. Several attempts to destroy the fleet by French 
 fire-ships had been thwarted by the vigilance of the offi 
 cers and the daring of the men. Montcalm had detached 
 
318 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 some two thousand men under the command of Bougain 
 ville, who was stationed at Cap-Rouge. Saunders had 
 warned Wolfe that whatever he did he was to do quickly, 
 for the near approach of the Canadian winter rendered it 
 imperative for him to take his ships out of the harbor if 
 they were not to be frozen up until the next spring. The 
 French had about concluded that all danger for the year 
 had passed, but Montcalm had not relaxed his vigilance 
 in the slightest degree. The Canadian peasants, watch 
 ing the burning of their farmhouses and the devastation 
 of their country from the shores of Quebec, were desert 
 ing in great numbers. Provisions were short, and sup 
 plies were shorter. Still Montcalm held on, hoping that 
 the cold weather would relieve him from the presence of 
 his persistent enemy; he counted without his host. 
 
 On the 3rd of September, the camp at Montmorency 
 was abandoned, and troops to the number of thirty-six 
 hundred were embarked on the ships of Holmes squad 
 ron above the town. Wolfe, in a small boat, carefully 
 examined the shore, and verified the existence of Stobo s 
 path. By the white tents at the top of the hill he saw 
 that it was guarded, but he thought there was a possibil 
 ity that the guard might be negligent and that he could 
 surprise it. On the 4th, he fell desperately ill again. 
 Only his indomitable energy kept him alive. He said to 
 the surgeon that he knew his end was near, but he begged 
 him to patch him up for a few days to enable him to com 
 plete the undertaking. On the 7th, he was so far re 
 covered as to order a feint at Cap-Rouge. The ships ran 
 into the cove of the river, and smartly engaged the bat 
 teries and Bougainville s troops. The next two days it 
 rained, to the great discomfort of every one, and for three 
 days thereafter the ships moved up and down the river 
 
The Fall of Quebec 319 
 
 with the tide, making feints at landing at different points 
 and completely wearing out the Frenchmen on shore. 
 
 On the evening of the i2th, they anchored off Cap- 
 Rouge again. It was the night selected for the under 
 taking. Wolfe had depleted the garrisons at Orleans 
 and Point Levis to the danger limit, and twelve hundred 
 men marched up the opposite shore, and lay on their 
 arms until the morning. The total force of the expe 
 dition, therefore, was about forty-eight hundred men. 
 Wolfe had lost over one thousand in killed and wounded 
 in the different attacks and in raids, and there were many 
 sick and disabled in the hospitals. A fortunate circum 
 stance prepared the way for the attack. It had been 
 learned from a deserter that arrangements had been made 
 to float several boatloads of provisions from Cap-Rouge 
 down to Quebec under cover of the darkness. The plan 
 was abandoned, but the sentries on the river were not 
 notified of the change. In the cabin of the Suther 
 land the young commander sat waiting for the ebb. 
 With him was a young naval officer named John Jervis, 
 who had been a schoolfellow and boy friend in England. 
 He lived to become one of the greatest of English ad 
 mirals, and he related afterward that Wolfe, after charg 
 ing him with messages to his mother, took from his neck 
 a miniature of a beautiful young woman, Miss Lowther, 
 to whom he was betrothed, and whose picture he had 
 habitually worn; that he gave it to his friend with in 
 structions as to its disposition after the action, which he 
 felt assured he would not survive. I like to dwell upon 
 him as he sits there, a dying man, in the flickering lamp 
 light in the rude cabin of the ship, on the eve of his des 
 perate hazard, thinking of home and mother and sweet 
 heart and friends. 
 
320 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 About two in the morning, the night being very dark 
 and rainy, the boats were cast off, and silently drifted 
 down the river with the young ebb, the ships following a 
 little later. In the first boat was Wolfe himself with his 
 staff. An officer of the Highlanders, who spoke French 
 like a native, was stationed forward. In this boat and 
 the next were twenty-four men from the light infantry 
 who had been chosen from numberless volunteers as a for 
 lorn hope to lead the assault. They were under the com 
 mand of Lieutenant Colonel William Howe, who later 
 crossed swords with Washington from Long Island to 
 the Brandywine. Not a light was shown in any boat, 
 and in perfect silence they swiftly floated down the river. 
 The stillness of the night, the desperate nature of their 
 attack, the mysterious loneliness of the towering shores, 
 must have filled their hearts with awe. In Wolfe s boat, 
 he himself broke the silence by reciting some of the 
 verses of Gray s famous Elegy. Those who were with 
 him love to recall that he said afterward that he would 
 rather have written that poem than capture Quebec. 
 As they passed one of the jutting curves of the Palisades, 
 a sharp voice from the shore broke the silence with the 
 challenge " Qui vive! " " France," was the instant re 
 ply made by the Highlander. " A quel regiment? " 
 " De la Reine" said the officer with great presence of 
 mind, naming a regiment which was known to be at Cap- 
 Rouge. That was all. The hearts of the officers and 
 men in the boats must have stood still. If they were 
 discovered they were lost; but the sentry, apparently sat 
 isfied, said nothing more, and they drifted on. They 
 were hailed again, and the same Highlander answered 
 that they were provision boats and that silence must be 
 kept or they would be betrayed to the English. The 
 
The Fall of Quebec 321 
 
 current bore them swiftly around a great headland and 
 into a little cove to the landing place; so swiftly in fact, 
 that the boats brought to the shore somewhat below the 
 destined spot. It was after four in the morning now. 
 
 Led by the Scotsman, they soon reached the foot of 
 the path. On the top of the hill the lights of the small 
 encampment could be seen. Montcalm had ordered the 
 place carefully guarded. A picket of a hundred men was 
 stationed there under the command of Captain de Ver- 
 gor. This captain had been tried for cowardice and 
 gross neglect of duty, of both of which he was undoubt 
 edly guilty, while in command of the fortress of Beause- 
 jour. Bigot and de Vaudreuil had, however, interfered 
 to procure his acquittal. In disobedience of his orders, 
 he had now allowed the larger portion of his party, who 
 were Canadian militia, to leave their posts and go home 
 to harvest their crops. He himself was fast asleep, and 
 a negligent watch was kept. A part of the battalion 
 Guyenne, which had been ordered to camp near the spot, 
 by some mistake had never left the Charles River. There 
 were batteries scattered here and there along the shore 
 at Samos and Sillery. Apparently all were asleep and 
 unsuspecting. 
 
 As the men disembarked, Wolfe and his officers ad 
 vanced to the narrow path trailing up the face of the cliff. 
 They found it had been barricaded. Howe and his men, 
 however, thought they could get up the side of the cliff, 
 which is here somewhat less precipitous and is thickly 
 wooded, by clinging to the projecting trees. " You may 
 try it," said Wolfe, " though I do not think you will suc 
 ceed." In silence he and his companions watched the 
 forlorn hope scale the Palisades, while boat after boat 
 discharged its load and went back to the ships for more. 
 
 21 
 
322 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 There was a crashing here and there among the trees and 
 bushes as they disappeared, then silence. Presently the 
 eager listeners heard the sound of a rifle shot, and then 
 more and more, a perfect fusillade, then a British cheer! 
 Concealment was at an end. The men at a nod from 
 Wolfe sprang at the barricades on the path and soon tore 
 them to pieces, and then, in a long sinuous, red line, they 
 toiled up the cliff toward the top, Wolfe among the first. 
 De Vergor, the coward, had attempted to fly, and had 
 been wounded and captured. The fall of New France 
 rests absolutely upon his shoulders. With his picket he 
 could have kept down Wolfe s whole army. As fast as 
 the regiments climbed the hill they were deployed. The 
 day was just breaking. Meanwhile, the boats had been 
 sent back for the party on the other shore, and it was 
 being rapidly ferried over. The sailors of the squadron 
 dragged up two small pieces of artillery. The batteries 
 at Samos and Sillery were attacked at once, and carried 
 by surprise. 
 
 At the other end of the long line, Montcalm, supremely 
 confident, was held in his intrenchments by Admiral 
 Saunders. Boats filled with soldiers and marines moved 
 to and fro in front of the Beauport shore, and the ships 
 of the fleet dropped down and opened a furious cannonade 
 upon the line, as if to cover an attack. Montcalm was 
 up all night, watchful and ready. He was astonished, 
 therefore, when a courier galloped breathlessly up to him, 
 threw himself from his horse, and shouted that the Eng 
 lish had established themselves on the Plains of Abraham. 
 " They have got to the weak side of us at last, and we 
 must crush them with our numbers," was the reply. 
 There was galloping in hot haste in every direction. 
 With quick intelligence he realized now that he had to 
 
The Fall of Quebec 323 
 
 fight a battle, whether he would or no, and that the fate of 
 Quebec hung trembling in the balance. He took horse 
 at once, and stopping a moment to speak with de Vau- 
 dreuil, he rode in haste toward the town, with fixed look, 
 saying nothing. 
 
 In the gray of the morning the soldiers of Beauport 
 and Charlesbourg took up the line of march, trampling 
 over the bridge, passing through the streets of the 
 startled town. Some of the famous battalions of France 
 Beam, La Sarre, Guyenne, Languedoc, and Royal 
 Rousillon were under Montcalm s command, backed 
 by large numbers of militia, coureurs de bois in leather 
 hunting-suits, and painted, plumed Indians. He hoped 
 to drive Wolfe into the sea. Sending expresses to de 
 Vaudreuil to bring up the militia and de Ramesay to send 
 him artillery from the battery of twenty-four field pieces 
 in Quebec, he rode in person to the scene of the conflict. 
 
 About six in the morning, the English, who had break 
 fasted, were drawn up in the battle formation of that day 
 in three ranks. As the line was not long enough to 
 stretch from one side of the plateau to the other, the left 
 flank under Townshend was refused. One regiment 
 had been thrown backward to hold in check Bougain 
 ville. Another was held in reserve, leaving about thirty- 
 five hundred men on the fighting line. The field was 
 an open one, partly cultivated, with clumps of trees and 
 thickets on either side. Already the underbrush was 
 filling with savages and partisans, and the bullets were 
 beginning to fall in the English line, the men lying down 
 and skirmishing heavily. The sky was overcast, and the 
 rain fell in fitful showers. 
 
 Wolfe commanded in person. He walked up and 
 down exhorting and encouraging his men while he 
 
324 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 waited for Montcalm. Not an heroic-looking man, with 
 his long, pointed nose, receding forehead and chin, red 
 hair, with a head set upon sloping shoulders; a slender, 
 emaciated figure over six feet in height; but there was a 
 flash in his eye and a look in his bearing which proclaimed 
 a soldier, and all the men of his army loved him. His 
 illness was gone, and he seemed full of vigor and energy. 
 As he passed down the lines they greeted him with 
 cheers. 
 
 Presently, over the crest of a little hill which shut off 
 the view of Quebec, appeared the white coats of the 
 enemy. Very pretty they looked against the green grass 
 that rainy morning. There was much manoeuvring to 
 and fro, readjusting of lines, deploying of battalions. 
 There were men on horseback there too. The great 
 Frenchman had his moment of parade. He too had rid 
 den up and down his line, sword in hand, calling upon 
 the chivalry of France for a last effort to sweep the hated 
 English into the sea, and with equal spirit they had re 
 sponded. The three field pieces which de Ramesay had 
 grudgingly sent forward began to play on the two naval 
 guns of the English. Throwing a mass of militia, Cana 
 dian woodsmen and Indians on the left flank, to turn it 
 if possible, and opening a heavy fire from the trees and 
 bushes on both sides, at ten o clock, the French army, 
 numbering about four thousand five hundred, began to 
 move with Montcalm leading in person. 
 
 The generalship of Montcalm in making this attack 
 has been questioned. There was no question as to the 
 necessity of fighting. His position was untenable, his 
 communications broken, his supplies stopped, unless he 
 could drive the English from the position; but the neces 
 sity for fighting at that moment was not apparent. 
 
PQ 
 
Death of Wolfe. 
 
The Fall of Quebec 325 
 
 There were at Cap-Rouge two thousand good troops 
 under Bougainville, an officer of great merit; back of 
 him, at Beauport, were perhaps five thousand more, 
 rather indifferent, but still counting for something, if de 
 Vaudreuil could be induced to bring them up. A delay 
 and a more imperative order probably would have brought 
 him more guns than those de Ramesay had sent him. By 
 waiting he might have strengthened his army, and with 
 Bougainville s assistance taken the English between two 
 fires. We can only suppose that he underrated the 
 strength of the thin red line across the green sward under 
 the great red flag, and that he imagined from his pre 
 vious experiences with the English, which had been 
 fortunate, that he could easily beat them. He did not 
 realize that they were led by a hero of heroes, that they 
 were among the finest soldiery in the world, that they had 
 their back against a precipice, and that they must con 
 quer or be exterminated. So in a fatal hour, he ordered 
 the advance. 
 
 The regiments came on in some little confusion, but 
 still presented a brave show. They were pouring trueir 
 fire into the stolid, silent English ranks; the skirmishers 
 had withdrawn on the main body, the men were ready. 
 Wolfe had given strict orders that the fire of his army 
 should be held. The bullets of the French opened gaps 
 here and there; men fell and lay groaning, or still, on the 
 sod. In obedience to his quick orders, the ranks were 
 continually closed, and the grim front presented itself 
 unbroken. The leader was everywhere cheering and 
 animating his veterans. The French were nearer now, 
 the bullets were coming harder. They were but sixty 
 yards away fifty forty twenty the English soldiers 
 could see the whites of the eyes of the French. A sharp 
 
326 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 word of command rang out, the gun-barrels came down; 
 with a crash like the discharge of a battery of cannon, the 
 front rank fired a volley. A moment after, the second 
 rank delivered its fire, and as soon as the smoke cleared 
 away, the third rank poured in a deadly discharge. 
 
 The head of the French army literally had been blown 
 to pieces. The advance was halted. The ground was 
 covered with writhing figures, the white coats, blood 
 stained, showing plainly upon the green grass. The line 
 was reeling to and fro like a drunken man. There were 
 not so many horsemen now. Montcalm, Senezergues, 
 and the other officers made frantic efforts to reform the 
 lines. The French regulars responded gallantly, rally 
 ing and returning the fire, but nothing could stand be 
 fore the deadly regularity of the English discharges. 
 Volley after volley rang out over the plain. The par 
 tisans in the bushes still kept up a fire. Townshend led 
 his men forward and cleared the left flank, and then 
 turned on the centre, where the French still fought on. 
 Monckton was badly wounded. The battle was not yet 
 over. " Forward ! Forward ! " cried Wolfe, his soul 
 aflame, and he leaped to the front of the Louisbourg 
 Grenadiers on the right. With wild cheers the army 
 advanced, first on the double-quick and then in a wild 
 run. Frazier s Highlanders, throwing aside their mus 
 kets and waving their terrible claymores, led them all. 
 Menaced on three sides, there was fight in the French 
 yet. The shattered battalions met the advance with all 
 the heroism and gallantry of their noblest traditions. 
 
 A bullet struck Wolfe in the left wrist. He caught 
 his handkerchief about it, and pressed on; another hit 
 him in the body, still he kept his place at the head of the 
 Grenadiers. Presently a third struck him, in the ab- 
 
The Fall of Quebec 327 
 
 domen, inflicting a dreadful wound. " Don t let me 
 fall! " he cried to those nearest him, " lest I discourage 
 the men." One or two sprang to his side, caught him 
 in their arms, and laid him down on the grass. The 
 Grenadiers who had seen it all gritted their teeth, and 
 pressed on with red revenge in their hearts. There was 
 a hand to hand melee. The French regulars died gal 
 lantly, the Canadian volunteers fied, the Indians had 
 gone long since; but nothing could stop the British 
 bayonet, the Highland steel. The French broke and 
 ran; the real fighting had lasted but a quarter of an hour! 
 
 IV. The Death of the Great Captains 
 
 Back on the grass the life blood of Wolfe was ebbing 
 away. " It is all over with me," he said to one of the 
 bystanders; and a moment after as he heard one of them 
 cry " They run! They run! " " Who run? " he asked, 
 opening his eyes. 
 
 " The enemy, sir. They give way everywhere." 
 
 " Go, one of you to Colonel Burton," he returned, still 
 intent upon his duty in the very articles of death, with 
 the clear instinct of a soldier still undimmed; "tell him 
 to march Webb s regiment down to Charles River to cut 
 off their retreat from the bridge! " 
 
 It was his last order. He turned on his side exclaim 
 ing, " Now, God be praised, I will die in peace," and 
 when they looked at him again he was dead. 
 
 Montcalm, still on horseback, commanding, implor 
 ing, entreating, was swept back by the flying crowd tow 
 ard the town. Just before he reached the St. Louis gate 
 a bullet passed through his body. He would have fallen 
 had not two soldiers supported him on either side. In- 
 
328 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 side the gate the townspeople were listening with bated 
 breath to the roar of the battle outside the walls. As he 
 entered, they saw his white shirt covered with blood. 
 
 " Oy mon Dieu ! mon Dien ! le Marquis est tut!" 
 (Alas, alas, the marquis is killed), cried a woman. 
 
 " Ce nest rien, ce nest rien ; ne vous affligez pas pour 
 moi, mes bonnes amies" (It is nothing, it is nothing 1 
 Have no anxiety for me, my good friends), he replied. 
 
 Those of the army who could do so found shelter in 
 the city. The greater number poured down the Cote 
 St. Genevieve toward Charlesbourg bridge to regain 
 their intrenchments. A little body of Canadians threw 
 themselves into a thicket, and opened a hot fire upon 
 the advancing English to protect the retreat, and by 
 their courage redeemed their reputation. They were 
 dislodged by the Highlanders after a furious fight. The 
 delay enabled the fugitives to cross the bridge in safety. 
 In the French camp all was confusion. The English 
 army was recalled from pursuit, and at once threw up 
 intrenchments. When Bougainville appeared it was 
 too late for his small detachment to do anything. 
 
 The casualties on both sides had been frightful. 
 The English had lost some seven hundred killed 
 and wounded, including Wolfe killed and Monckton 
 wounded. The French had lost upward of fifteen hun 
 dred, among them Montcalm and Senezergues, both 
 mortally wounded. There was much that the French 
 could have done; but the spirit went out of the army 
 when Montcalm was stricken down, and they fled pre 
 cipitately to Jacques-Cartier, thirty miles away, abandon 
 ing Quebec to its fate. 
 
 The great Frenchman lay dying within its walls. 
 When the surgeon told him that his wound was mortal, 
 
The Fall of Quebec 329 
 
 " I am glad of it," he replied; and when he was told, in 
 answer to his question, that he had scarcely twelve hours 
 to live, he remarked, " So much the better; I am happy 
 that I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." 
 He spoke in complimentary terms of Wolfe and of his own 
 successor, de Levis. When de Ramesay, the commandant 
 of the garrison, came to get orders from him, he refused 
 to give any, remarking, " I have much business that 
 must be attended to of greater moment than your ruined 
 garrison and this wretched country." A different end 
 ing from that of the great English soldier! Yet he still 
 thought of his men. One of his last acts was to send the 
 following note to Townshend, who had succeeded to the 
 command: 
 
 " Monsieur, the humanity of the English sets my mind at peace 
 concerning the fate of the French prisoners and the Canadians. Feel 
 toward them as they have caused me to feel. Do not let them per 
 ceive that they have changed masters. Be their protector as I have 
 been their father. " 
 
 The Bishop of Quebec, himself in a dying condition, 
 administered the last sacraments, and at four o clock in 
 the morning, on the I4th of September, Montcalm 
 quietly entered into his rest. The wife and the children 
 would wait long for him; he would never return to his 
 beloved Candiac. No one could be found to make a 
 coffin, and an old servant of the Ursuline Convent, pro 
 curing a few boards, nailed them together to form a 
 rough box. In it they laid the body of the dead cap 
 tain, and in the evening of the same day they buried him. 
 There was no escort, no funeral pageantry; the officers 
 of the garrison and some of the people, mostly women 
 and children, joined the silent procession along the de- 
 
330 Colonial Fights and Fighters 
 
 serted streets. A shell bursting under the floor of the 
 Ursuline Convent had made a deep cavity, which had 
 been shaped into a rude grave. There they laid him 
 away, and as the clods fell upon his coffin, they sounded 
 the death knell of New France. On the i8th of the 
 month, de Ramesay surrendered the town to the Eng 
 lish. 
 
 A month later, a great fleet approached the chalk 
 cliffs of England. On the quarter-deck of the line-of- 
 battle ship Prince William lay a coffin. It contained 
 all that was left of Wolfe. A few days before the battle 
 on the Plains of Abraham, Wolfe had sent a frank and 
 despondent letter to Pitt, in which he told of his failures 
 and the slender prospect of success. It had been made 
 public, and the English people were not prepared for the 
 news of the splendid achievement which arrived at the 
 same time as the dead body of the commander. 
 
 Oh, what a homecoming was there! Such mani 
 festations of joy have not often been seen in England, 
 as when the story of his great victory, the tale of his 
 great success, had been spread abroad. Bonfires blazed 
 on every hill, and the people fairly went mad with en 
 thusiasm; but no sound reached the dull ear of the dead 
 soldier on the great ship, in peace after so much suffer 
 ing, so much struggling, so much heroism, such high 
 endeavor. 
 
 There was quiet in one little hamlet where a bereaved 
 mother thought that not all the Empire of the West, 
 which had been won at the point of his sword, could 
 compensate for the loss of her son; and in another home, 
 another woman bowed her head over a miniature placed 
 in her hand by a gallant sailor who told her the story 
 
The Fall of Quebec 331 
 
 of that last interview in the cabin of the ship on the eve 
 of the decisive battle. 
 
 " O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, 
 The ship h OS weather* d every rack, the prise we sought is won, 
 The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, 
 While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; 
 Bttf O heart! heart! heart! 
 
 O the bleeding drops of red, 
 Where on the deck my Captain lies, 
 Fallen celd and dead" 
 
 [THE END.] 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX 
 
 ABENAKIS INDIANS, 137 
 
 f\ Abercrombie, Gen., de- 
 
 / \ feat at Ticonderoga, 
 -^ -** 243, 263-283 
 Aix-la-Chapelle, the peace of, 185 
 Alabamans, 18 
 Amherst, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey, 243, 
 
 263, 282, 292-293, 297-303, 309 
 Anasco, D , 14, 28, 29-30 
 Anastasia Island, 47 
 Annapolis, 169 
 Anson, 211 
 Antarctic France, attempt to 
 
 found state called, 34 
 Appalache, 14, 39 
 Appalachians, 16, 37 
 Arethuse (French frigate), 297- 
 
 298 
 
 Armstrong, Col., 245, 256 
 Arnold, Benedict, 267 
 Aviles, Admiral Pedro Menen- 
 
 dez de, 39 
 Ayllon, Vasquez de, 9 
 
 B 
 
 gALBOA, Explorer, 81 
 
 Balfour, Commander, 300- 
 302 
 
 Barba, Don Antonio, 156-158 
 
 Barbacoa, 79 
 
 Bath, 102, 105 
 
 Beaujeu, Chevalier de, 223; suc 
 ceeded by M. Dumas, 226 ; 234 
 
 Bellemont, Lord, Royal Gover 
 nor of New York, 141 
 
 Bienville, M., 24 
 
 Bigot, Francois, 313 
 
 Blackbeard, 97; his journal, 100; 
 he intimidates Gov. Johnson of 
 South Carolina, 102; he forms 
 partnership in piracy with Gov. 
 Eden of North Carolina, 102; 
 109, no 
 
 Blackbeard s Island, 106 
 
 Black Watch, 266, 276; last 
 charge of the, 279-281 ; 284 
 
 Bloody Marsh, Battle of, 154-159 
 
 Bobadilla, Isabella de, wife of de 
 Soto, 5-8, 14, 27, 30 
 
 Bonnet, Maj. Stede, 106-117; he 
 turns pirate, 107; pirating with 
 Blackbeard, 109; sea fight with 
 Col. Rhett, 111-114; captured 
 and tried for piracy, 114-117; 
 recaptured and hanged, 117 
 
 Boscawen, Admiral Edward, 
 263, 291, 293, 297, 303 
 
 Bougainville, Lieut., 313-314, 
 318, 323, 328 
 
 Bouquet, Col. Henry, 246-252, 
 255, 265 
 
 Bourlamaque, de, 279, 281 
 
 Braddock, Maj. Gen. Edward, 
 personality and career, 205- 
 210; at Fort Du Quesne, 211; 
 his campaign in the Ohio val 
 ley, 211-239; repulse on the 
 Monongahela, 221-237; his 
 death, 232-236 
 
 Bradley, buccaneer, captures 
 Fort St. Lawrence, 74-78 
 
 Bradstreet, Col., 243, 265, 273 
 
 " Brethren of the Coast," 62, 97 
 
 Bridgetown, Island of Barbados, 
 107 
 
 335 
 
336 
 
 Index 
 
 Brooks, Commander, 181 
 Brown, Lieut., 295 
 Bullitt, frontier fighter, 249-252 
 Burgoyne, Gen., 267-268 
 Burton, Lieut. Col., 230, 233, 327 
 Byng, Admiral John, 292 
 Byrd, Col., 245, 248 
 
 CALLIERES, GOV., 132, 135 
 
 Calvinists, French, 34 
 Campbell, Maj. Duncan, of In- 
 
 verawe, 266, 280, 284-286 
 Canso, 169, 173 
 Cap-Rouge, 317-319 
 Caroline, Fort, erection of, 36; 
 
 38, 41, 46; renamed San 
 
 Mateo, 51 
 
 Caxamarco, slaughter at, 5 
 Cazenove, Lieut., 52-53 
 Centurion (British ship-of-the 
 
 line), 2ii, 315 
 Chagres River, 74, 78, 87, 92 
 Chambly, battle near, 137 
 Chambon, Du, succeeds Du 
 
 Quesnel at Louisbourg, 175; 
 
 175-183; 290 
 
 Champlain Lake, 131, 266, 268 
 Chapigny, Intendant, 141 
 Charles V, Emperor, 3 
 Chateauguay, 124 
 Chickesaws, 22 
 " Child of the Sun," de Soto, 25, 
 
 26-27 
 
 Cofachiqui, country of, 14 
 Coligny, Jasper, Huguenot lead 
 er, 34 
 
 Conquistadors, the best of the, 3 
 Contfecceur, de, successor of St. 
 
 Pierre, 195, 222-223, 234, 235 
 Cortez, Fernando, 9, 21, 29 
 Costa Rica, 62 
 Couillon, Port, 72 
 Cruz, 80 
 Cumberland, Fort, 212, 214, 238, 
 
 243 
 
 Cumberland Island, 153 
 Cuzco, storming of, 5 
 
 TEARING (English merchant 
 man), 138 
 
 Davidson, John, 190 
 
 Davis, Captain Sylvanus, 129 
 
 Denonville, Governor de, 123, 
 127 
 
 Desgouttes, Admiral, 290, 297, 
 298 
 
 De Soto, Hernando, early life, 3- 
 4; expedition into Nicaragua 
 4; in Peru, 4-5 ; Florida explo 
 ration, 6; his method of con 
 quest, 10; his character, II ; 
 encounter with Vitachuco, II- 
 14; adventure and misadvent 
 ure with the princess of the 
 land of Cofachiqui, 14-16; 
 massacre at Mauvila, 16-20; 
 conspiracy against him, 21 ; 
 war with the Chickesaws, 21- 
 22; discovers the Mississippi 
 River, 23; winter quarters at 
 Utiangue, 25; the Natchez In 
 dians hostile, 25-26; reaches 
 the Red River, 25-26; his 
 death, 26-27; the end of his 
 exploring expedition, 30 
 
 Discoveries in the New World, 
 
 1-55 
 
 Drake, Sir Francis, 81 
 
 Drummond, alias Blackbeard, 08 
 
 Drucour, Chevalier de, com 
 mander at Louisbourg, 290-303 
 
 Duchesneau, Intendant, 126 
 
 Dumas, M., de Beaujeu s suc 
 cessor in command, 226-227 
 
 Dunbar, Col. Thomas, 214, 218- 
 219, 235-237 
 
 Dunwoodie, Lieut-Gov. Robert, 
 189-190, 194 
 
 E 
 
 TTDEN, GOV., of North Caro- 1 
 lina, his partnership with 
 the pirates, 102-106 
 Edward, Fort, 283 
 El Cerro de los Bucaneros, 81 
 
Index 
 
 337 
 
 Elthan (British war-ship), 174 
 Estrees, Admiral d , 72 
 Execution Dock, 117 
 
 FERGUSON, CAPTAIN, 293 
 
 Five Nations, the, 121-124 
 
 Flying Stag (pirate ship), 68, 73, 
 74,78 
 
 Forbes, Brig. Gen. John, 244- 
 260, 263 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 213, 222, 237 
 
 Frazier, Lieut., 194 
 
 Frederica, 149-152; fighting at, 
 154-161 
 
 French and Indian War, 187-331 
 
 Fresh Water Cove, 293-294 
 
 Frontenac, Fort, 140 
 
 Frontenac, Louis de Buade, 
 Comte de Palluau et de, some 
 exploits of, 121-142; character, 
 124, 125, 130, 141-142; appoint 
 ed governor of Canada, 126, 
 127; Schenectady razed, 128- 
 129; other massacres, 129-130; 
 conquers the Iroquois, 139- 
 140; his death, 141 
 
 Fry, Joshua, Col., 194, 198 
 
 GAGE, LIEUT. COL., 186, 
 
 214, 220, 222, 224-227, 268 
 
 Gallegos, Balthazar de, 17, 27 
 
 Gates, Gen., 237 
 
 George, Lake, 266, 268 
 
 Gibraltar, Town of, 69 
 
 Gist, Christopher, 190, 192, 193, 
 218 
 
 Gordon, Engineer, 224, 225 
 
 Gourgues, Dominique de, The 
 Revenge of, 33-55 ; sketch of 
 his life, 50; avenging expedi 
 tion, 50-54; rewarded with dis 
 favor and poverty, 54; late 
 recognition of his patriotic ser 
 vice, 54 ; his death, 54 
 
 Grant, Ensign, 295 
 
 Grant, Maj., unsuccessful attack 
 on Fort Du Quesne, 248-252 
 
 22 
 
 Great Meadows, 195, 198 
 Gridley, Richard, 182 
 Guachoya, 25 
 
 Guzman, de, Governor of Pana 
 ma, 67 
 
 H 
 
 UALF-KING, THE, 191, 196 
 Halket, Sir Peter, Colonel, 
 214, 226, 229, 232-233, 256-257 
 
 Hall, Capt, in 
 
 Hampshire (English man-of- 
 war), 138 
 
 Hands, Israel, 100 
 
 Hawkins, Sir John, 38 
 
 Hispaniola, 67, 72 
 
 Hopkins, Lieut., 295 
 
 Howe, Brig. Gen. George Au 
 gustus, Viscount, 264-273 
 
 Howe, Lieut Col. William, 320 
 
 Hudson s Bay (English mer 
 chantman), 138 
 
 Huguenot Colonies, .the, 33-42 
 
 Hurons, 128 
 
 JBERVILLE D , a leader of 
 French colonial warriors, 24, 
 128, 137; sea battle in Hud 
 son s Bay, 137-139 
 Inverawe, Legend of, 284-286 
 Iroquois Indians, 122, 128, 137; 
 conquered by Frontenac, 139- 
 140; 190-191, 267, 277 
 
 JACOB S CREEK, 218 
 
 J Jervis, John, 319 
 
 Jesus (English trading vessel), 
 
 38 
 
 Johnson, Sir William, 277 
 Joliet, Jesuit explorer, 24 
 "Jolly Roger," Under the, 97- 
 
 117; description of the, 98 
 Joncaire, Capt. Chabert, 191 
 Jumonville, Coulon de, fate of, 
 
 193, 196, 199, 201, 308 
 
338 
 
 Index 
 
 K 
 
 T EPPEL, COMMODORE, 
 
 1V> 212 
 
 Kersaint, Comte de, 174 
 King George s War, 145, 289 
 
 LA BARRE, GOV., 127 
 
 La Chine, massacre at, 121- 
 124, 127 
 
 Laforey, Commander, 300, 301 
 
 Lagny, Capt, 271, 272 
 
 Langlade, Charles de, 223 
 
 La Salle, Robert Cavalier, Sieur 
 de, 24, 121, 126 
 
 Laudonniere, Rene de, naviga 
 tor, 36; builds Fort Caroline, 
 36; seized by pirates, 37; the 
 massacre at Fort Caroline, 43- 
 45 
 
 Launceston (English war ship), 
 174 
 
 Laval, Bishop, 126 
 
 La Vigne, officer of the guard, 
 
 44 
 
 Lawrence, Brig. Gen., 292-293, 
 296 
 
 Le Bienfaisant (French armed 
 ship), 301-302 
 
 Le Bizarre (French blockade- 
 runner), 291 
 
 Le Bceuf, Fort, 191, 243 
 
 Le Capricieux (French armed 
 ship), 300 
 
 Le Celebre (French armed ship), 
 300 
 
 Le Comete (French blockade- 
 runner), 291 
 
 Lee, Charles, 265 
 
 L Entreprenante (French armed 
 ship), 300 
 
 Leisler, Gov., of New York, 129 
 
 Le Moyne, sons of, 128 
 
 Le Prudent (French armed ship), 
 301 
 
 Levis, de, 269, 279, 280, 281 ; suc 
 ceeds Montcalm, 329 
 
 Lewis, Major, 245, 248-252 
 
 Ligneris, de, French commander, 
 
 227, 249-256 
 
 Line in the sand, the, 46-49 
 Little Meadows, 214 
 L Olonnois, buccaneer, 61 
 Long-house, Children of the, 121, 
 
 129, 140 
 
 Lotbiniere, Engineer, 266 
 Louisbourg, siege of, 163-183; 
 
 returned to the French, 289; 
 
 siege, 297-304; destruction of 
 
 fleet, 300-302; capitulation, 303 
 Loyal, Fort, 129 
 Loyalhannon, military post, 248, 
 
 252 
 Lyme (English ship-of-war), 103 
 
 M 
 
 ]Vf ACKAY, LIEUT., 156, 157, 
 1V 198 
 
 Maisonfort, Marquis de la, com 
 mander of the French ship-of- 
 the-line Vigilant, 183 
 
 Maldonado, Commander, 14 
 
 Mansvelt, buccaneer, 61-62 
 
 Mantet, Commander de, 128 
 
 Manuel, Don, 160 
 
 Maracaibo, sacked by Morgan, 
 67-72 
 
 Maracaibo, Lake, 69 
 
 Marquette, Jesuit explorer, 24 
 
 Martin, Captain, HI 
 
 Massachusetts (American frig 
 ate), 171 
 
 Matanzas Inlet, 46 
 
 Mauvila, captured by de Soto, 
 14-20, 25 
 
 Maynard, Capt. Robert, Stamps 
 out Blackbeard, 97-106 
 
 Memphis, 23 
 
 Mendoza, a priest, 46-47 
 
 Menendez de Aviles, Pedro, 
 Spanish admiral, massacre of 
 French at Fort Caroline, 39- 
 45 ; family and character, 41- 
 42; massacre of Huguenots, 
 46-49 
 
 Mercer, Hugh, 259 
 
 Mermaid (British war ship), 174 
 
Index 
 
 339 
 
 Meserve, Lieut. Col., 178 
 Mississippi discovered, 23 ; 
 
 names, 126 
 Mobile, 16 
 Monkton, Brig. Gen., 310, 316, 
 
 328 
 Monongahela River, Braddock s 
 
 defeat, 221-239 
 Montcalm, Marquis de, victory 
 
 at Ticonderoga, 263-283; fall 
 
 of Quebec, 307-331 
 Monteano, Don Manuel de, re 
 
 taliatory campaign, 148-161 
 Montgomery, Richard, 304 
 Montmorency River, 311; Mont- 
 
 calm s repulse on, 314-316 
 Montreal, 130; British attack, 
 
 131 
 
 Morgan, Daniel, 237, 248 
 
 Morgan, Sir Henry, and His 
 Buccaneers, 59-94; Morgan s 
 characteristics, 60 ; sacks 
 Puerto Principe, 62 ; plunders 
 Puerto Bello, 59-61 ; raid on 
 Maracaibo, 67-72 ; captures 
 Fort St. Lawrence, 72-78; ter 
 rible march to the Pacific, 78- 
 82; destruction of Panama 
 City, 82-91 ; Morgan knighted, 
 93; in prison, 93 
 
 Moscoso, Luis de, 7, 17; de 
 Soto s successor, 27, 28 
 
 Murray, Brigadier, 310 
 
 (British flag ship), 
 291, 300 
 Narvaez, Pamphilio de, 9, 23 
 Natchez Indians, 25, 29 
 Necessity, Fort, 198-199 
 Nimwegen, the peace of, 127 
 Nolan, Philip, 24 
 
 o 
 
 OGLETHORPE, JAMES ED- 
 ^ WARD, defence of St. 
 
 Simeon s Island, 145-162; 
 
 battle of Bloody Marsh, 158- 
 
 159; personality and career, 
 
 145, 146 
 Ohio Valley, in the French and 
 
 Indian War, 189-260 
 Olotoraca, Indian Chieftain, 51- 
 
 54 
 
 Onondagas, 140 
 Orme, Aide-de-Camp, 214, 235 
 Ortiz, Juan, 8, 17, 25 
 Oxford (pirate ship), 67, 68 
 
 PACIFIC, Morgan s march to 
 the, 78-81 
 
 Panama City, 63, 74, 78; razing 
 of, 82-91 
 
 Pearl (British ship-of-war), 103 
 
 Pelican (French frigate), 138 
 
 Pemaquid, 137 
 
 Pepperrell, William, 163; the 
 man, 171-172; besieges Louis 
 ville, 163-184, 289 
 
 Philip II, King of Spain, 35 
 
 Phips, Sir William, defeat at 
 Quebec, 130-136 
 
 Pineda, 23 
 
 Piracy and Buccaneering, 57-117 
 
 Pitt, Sir William, 263-265, 309- 
 310 
 
 Pitt, Fort, 258 
 
 Plains of Abraham, 322 
 
 Pomeroy, Seth, 177, 178 
 
 Pontiac, Indian leader, 223, 227 
 
 Port Royal, first actual settle 
 ment in North America, 35 
 
 Portuguese, Bartholomew, buc 
 caneer, 61 
 
 Prince of Orange (British war 
 ship), 293 
 
 Puerto Bello, plundered, 59-67 
 
 Putnam, Maj. Israel, 265, 272 
 
 QUEBEC, the fall of, 307-331. 
 Queen Anne s Revenge (pi 
 rate ship), 101-106, 109, no; 
 renamed the Royal James, 1 10 
 
340 
 
 Index 
 
 Buesne, Gov. Du, of Canada, 189 
 uesne, Fort Du, built, 195; 
 fighting at, 217-239; the 
 French expelled, 245-256 ; 
 evacuation, 260 
 
 Quesnel, Gov. Du, of Louis- 
 bourg, 169, 175 
 
 R 
 
 PENOMMEE (French frig- 
 
 ** ate), 173-174 
 
 Rhett, Col. Vice-Admiral Will 
 iam, 106; sea fight with the 
 pirate Bonnet, 111-114 
 
 Ribaut, Jean Francois, 35, 36, 39 ; 
 massacre at Fort Caroline, 40- 
 45; killed, 47-49 
 
 Richelieu River, 137 
 
 Rogers, Robert, 265, 268, 272 
 
 Roland, Fort, 123 
 
 Rous, Capt. John, 171, 173, 184 
 
 Rouville, Commander de, 129 
 
 Royal James (pirate ship), 110- 
 114 
 
 Ryswyck, treaty of, 140 
 
 CT. AUGUSTINE, founded, 
 
 40; 42, 48 
 
 St. Catherine, island, 74 
 St. Clair, Sir John, Lieut. Col., 
 
 213, 220, 222, 224, 226, 227, 246 
 
 St. Johns River, 35, 36, 42 
 St. Julien, Lieut. Col. de, 293 
 St. Lawrence, Fort, stormed by 
 
 pirates, 72-78 
 St. Lawrence River, 121 
 St. Pierre, Legardeur de, 191, 
 
 195 
 
 St. Remy, Fort, 123 
 St. Simon s Island, 145-162 
 Salmon Falls, massacre at, 129 
 San Mateo (old Fort Caroline), 
 
 51 ; massacre at, 51-53 
 San Pelayo (Spanish flag ship), 
 
 39-40 
 
 Satouriona, Indian leader, 5 1 
 Saunders, Vice-Admiral, 310, 
 
 Scarborough (British war ship), 
 
 101 
 Schenectady, the burning of, 124- 
 
 129 
 
 Schuyler, Capt. John, 131-132 
 Schuyler, Peter, 137 
 Scott, Major, 295 
 Sea Nymph (Colonial armed 
 
 ship) 111-114 
 Senezergues, French officer, 326, 
 
 328 
 
 Seven Years War, 309 
 Shirley, Gov. William, campaign 
 
 against Louisbourg, 169-184; 
 
 with Braddock at Fort Du 
 
 Quesne, 211 
 
 Shirley Galley, 171, 174, 183-184 
 Spangenberg, Moravian leader, 
 
 147 
 Spotswood, Gov. Alexander, of 
 
 Virginia, punishes pirates, 103- 
 
 106 
 
 Stark, Capt. John, 265, 277 
 Stewart, Alexander, 153, 161 
 Stewart, Captain, 224, 232 
 Stobo, Captain, 317 
 Subercase, Field Commander, 
 
 122-123 
 Success (American merchant 
 
 ship), 152, 154 
 Sullivan s Island, 117 
 Superbe (British war ship), 174 
 Sutherland, Lieut, 156 
 
 HPALON, INTENDANT, 126 
 
 x Tampa, Bay of, 8 
 
 Teach, 98 
 
 Thatch, 98 
 
 Thomas, Capt, alias Major Bon 
 net, no 
 
 Tiburon, Cape, 73 
 
 Ticonderoga, The Fighting 
 Around, 263-286 
 
 Tobar, Nuno de, 7, 19, 21, 27, 29 
 
 Topsail Inlet, 109 
 
 Townshend, Brig. Gen., 310, 
 323 ; succeeds Wolfe, 329 
 
 Trapezec, Capt., 271 
 
Index 
 
 Trent, Capt., 194 
 
 Trent (British frigate), 294 
 
 Triana, castle, 64 
 
 Trott, Chief Justice, 114-117 
 
 Tufts, William, 176 
 
 Turenne, Gen., 125 
 
 Tuscaloosa, 16-20 
 
 Tyng, Capt. Edward, 171, 173 
 
 U 
 UTIANGUE, province, 25 
 
 VACA, CABEZA DE, 5-6, 10 
 Valladolid, the court of, 3 
 Valrenne, French leader, 137 
 Van Braam, Capt. Jacob, 190- 
 
 192, 201 
 
 Vasconcelos, Portuguese com 
 mander, 7, 21 
 Vauban, Fort-builder, 165 
 Vaudreuil, Chevalier, 123 
 Vaudreuil, Marquis de, 313, 321 
 Vaughan, William, 169, 176, 177, 
 
 181 
 
 Vauquelin, Captain, 298 
 Venango, 189, 191 
 Vergor, Capt. de, 321-322 
 Vernon, Admiral, 160 
 Vigilant (French ship-of-the- 
 
 line), 182-183 
 
 Villegagnon, Durand de, founds 
 the first Protestant settlement 
 in the New World, 34 
 
 Villegagnon, island, 34 
 Villiers, Coulon de, 199-201 
 Vitachuco, Indian chief, 11-14, 
 
 20 
 Vivier, Gen. Du, 169 
 
 WALCOTT, Maj. Gen. Ro 
 
 ger, 172 
 
 Walley, John, 132, 135-136 
 War of the Austrian Succession, 
 
 145 
 
 Ward, Ensign, 194 
 
 Warren, Admiral, 173-175, 179, 
 184, 185 
 
 Wars, early colonial, 119-186 
 
 Washington, George, mission to 
 Venango, 190-193; fight near 
 Great Meadows, 196-197; bat 
 tles at Fort Necessity, 198-202; 
 " assassination " of de Jumon- 
 ville, 201 ; French driven out 
 of the Ohio Valley, 243-260 
 
 Webb, Commander, 327 
 
 Wesley, Charles, 147 
 
 Wesley, John, 147 
 
 West, Benjamin, the painter, 257 
 
 Whitefield, 147 
 
 Whitmore, Brig. Gen., 292-293, 
 296, 303 
 
 Wills Creek, 194, 195, 198, 202 
 
 Winthrop, Commander, 131 
 
 Wolfe, James, 55, 210, 263, 265, 
 293-304; captures Quebec, 310- 
 331 
 
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