conderoga and take command of the
army; and Major General St. Clair was ordered to the same
place to serve under him.]

On his arrival, he found the army of the north not only too weak for
the objects entrusted to it, but badly supplied with arms, clothes,
and provisions. From a spy who had been seized near Onion River, he
obtained information that General Burgoyne was at Quebec, and was to
command the British forces in that department so soon as they should
march out of Canada. That while Ticonderoga should be attacked by the
main army, Sir John Johnson, with a strong body of British, Canadians,
and Indians, was to penetrate to the Mohawk by Oswego, and place
himself between fort Stanwix and fort Edward.

[Sidenote: Burgoyne appears before Ticonderoga.]

General Schuyler was sensible of the danger which threatened him, and
made every exertion to meet it. After completing his arrangements at
Ticonderoga for sustaining a siege, he had proceeded to Albany, for
the purpose of attending to his supplies, and of expediting the march
of reinforcements, when he received intelligence from General St.
Clair, who was entrusted with the defence of Ticonderoga, that
Burgoyne had appeared before that place.

In the course of the preceding winter, a plan for penetrating to the
Hudson, from Canada, by the way of the lakes, had been digested in the
cabinet of London. General Burgoyne, who assisted in forming it, was
entrusted with its execution, and was to lead a formidable army
against Ticonderoga as soon as the season would permit. At the same
time a smaller party under Colonel St. Leger, composed of Canadians,
newly raised Americans, and a few Europeans, aided by a powerful body
of Indians, was to march from Oswego, to enter the country by the way
of the Mohawk, and to join the grand army on the Hudson.

{January 22.}

Burgoyne reached Quebec as soon as it was practicable to sail up the
St. Lawrence, and appeared in full force on the river Bouquet, on the
western banks of lake Champlain, much earlier than the American
general had supposed to be possible. At this place he met the Indians
in a grand council, after which he gave them a war feast. Much of the
cruelty afterwards perpetrated by the savages has been attributed to
this unfortunate officer; but justice requires the admission that his
speech was calculated rather to diminish than increase their habitual
ferocity. He endeavoured to impress on them the distincti