erstood, inasmuch as it is sometimes difficult to point out
the precise degree of connection between prospective military lines and
the channels of commerce, or to show why these two have a fixed relation
to the physical features of the country. In the present instance,
moreover, this method furnishes ample data for the formation of our
decision, inasmuch as the campaigns between this country and Canada have
been neither few in number nor unimportant in their character and
results.

In tracing out the main features of the early wars upon our northern
frontier, it must be borne in mind that nearly the same portion of
country which is now possessed by the English, was then occupied by the
French, and that the English possessions in North America included the
present Middle and Northern States. At the period of the American
revolution the French and English had completely changed ground, the
armies of the former operating in the "States," while the English were
in possession of Canada.

The first expedition to be noticed against that portion of the country,
was conducted by Samuel Argall, who sailed from Virginia in 1613, with a
fleet of eleven vessels, attacked the French on the Penobscot, and
afterwards the St. Croix.

In 1654, Sedgwick, at the head of a small New England army, attacked the
French on the Penobscot, and overrun all Arcadia.

In 1666, during the contest between Charles II. and Louis XIV., it was
proposed to march the New England troops across the country by the
Kennebec or Penobscot, and attack Quebec; but the terrors and
difficulties of crossing "over rocky mountains and howling deserts" were
such as to deter them from undertaking the campaign.

In 1689, Count Frontenac, governor of Canada, made a descent into New
York to assist the French fleet in reducing that province. His line of
march was by the river Sorrel and Lake Champlain. An attack upon
Montreal by the Iroquois soon forced him to return; but in the following
January a party of French and Indians left Montreal in the depth of a
Canadian winter, and after wading for two and twenty days, with
provisions on their backs, through snows and swamps and across a wide
wilderness, reached the unguarded village of Schenectady. Here a
midnight war-whoop was raised, and the inhabitants either massacred or
driven half-clad through the snow to seek protection in the neighboring
towns.

In 1690, a congress of the colonies, called to provide means for the