vicinity of Montreal and invited laborers from below to come up and gather the harvest. With these recruits, sixteen hundred strong, seven hundred regulars and as many Indians, the French prepared to make a stubborn resistance. A greater portion of this force was placed under command of Baron Dieskau, who proceeded to the head of Lake Champlain, whence he intended to make a swift march on Fort Edward, surprise and capture it. For four days, as secretly as possible, he trav ersed the woods, when it was found that his guides had lost their way, and that he was in the path to the head of Lake George and four miles from Fort Edward. Indian scouts had told his savage followers of the great guns at Fort Edward and that there were more in the camp on the borders of the lake. Afraid of the cannon, the savages refused to attack the fort, though they were willing to fall on the exposed camp at the head of the lake.

One beautiful evening, on the 7th of September, 1755, an Indian suddenly rushed into Johnson's camp on Lake George and called for the commander. Johnson was sitting idly in his tent, smoking his pipe as unconcernedly as if he had been in a land that never knew war.

"What news do you bring?" Johnson asked. "I saw the French army landing at the head of the lake," the Indian answered. Johnson made

some preparations for resisting the enemy and went to bed, leaving orders to be called if there should be any more discoveries. At midnight he was again aroused and told that another messenger had come.

"Send him to me," said Johnson.

When the messenger arrived, he asked him: "What news do you bring?"

"The French and Indians have landed and are making a rapid march to this fort." was the alarming answer.

Johnson yawned, rubbed his eyes and issued some orders to his men.

"Had we not better make some immediate preparations for defence?" asked one of his aids. "Yes; but they will hardly reach us before noon to-morrow," Johnson answered. "We will hold a

council at daylight."

At early dawn a council was held, at which the shrewd Mohawk chief, King Hendrick, attended. As it was not known exactly by which road the enemy was approaching, Johnson proposed sending a party in three detachments to meet the enemy by three different routes so that one of them would be sure to come up with them. To this plan, the shrewd Mohawk chief King Hendrick interposed

the following wise objections:

"If they are to fight, they are too few; if they

are to be killed, they are too many." Then, picking up three strong sticks, he said, "Put them together and you cannot break them; take them separately and you can break them easily."

This was only a reiteration of the old proverb that in union there is strength. The logic of the chief was so plain to the general, that he ordered twelve hundred men to be sent in one body to the relief of Fort Edward. Colonel Ephraim Williams, of Massachusetts, was the chosen commander of the expedition, and with him went Hendrick and two hundred warriors of the Six Nations.

Before they set out, the aged chief, whose snowy locks fell down his shoulders, mounted a gun-carriage and harangued his braves with his powerful voice in eloquent words, exhorting them to be strong and true to their allies. His language was not understood by the Englishmen present; yet his voice, the flash of his eye and his gestures were so strangely impressive, that they felt stirred to the very depths of their souls. When he finished, the detachment set out to the relief of the fort, and were marching in fancied security to a defile at Rocky Brook, about four miles from camp, when they were assailed in front and flank by musketry and arrows. The French and Indians, who had been misled toward Johnson's camp, apprised by scouts of the march of the English, had formed an am

"IF THEY ARE TO FIGHT, THEY ARE TOO FEW; IF TO BE KILLED, THEY ARE TOO MANY."

could not successfully resist conducted a retreat. Johnson, who had evinced a singular apathy, had made little preparation for the defence of his camp.

He did not dream that the expedition he had sent out would be attacked; but when he heard the firing he sent three hundred men to the relief of the first detachment. These met the flying provincials, and, joining in the retreat, they all rushed pell mell into camp, pursued by the French and Indians, who had cast many of their slain foes into a slimy pool, still known as "Bloody Pond."

The French commandant, Baron Dieskau, intended to follow the fugitives in their flight into camp and, while all was confusion and panic, to capture it; but his Indians had a wholesome fear of cannon; so they halted on the crest of a hill from which they could see the dreaded great guns. Not only the Indians, but the intimidated Canadians also halted.

Dieskau with his regulars pressed forward, and about noon the battle began in earnest. The French were without artillery, and their musket balls had no effect upon the breastworks. The Indians and Canadians took up sheltered positions on the flanks, and did little service. The New Englanders had only their fowling pieces and rifles. There was not a bayonet among them; but they were all good marksmen, and, during the conflict of more than four hours, they kept the enemy at bay.

Early in the conflict, Johnson was struck by a