ough.' I went forward with this
experienced mariner, who pointed out the channel to me as we passed;
showing me by the ripple and color of the water where there was any
danger, and distinguishing the places where there were ledges of rocks
(to me invisible) from banks of sand, mud, or gravel. He gave his orders
with great unconcern, joked with the sounding-boats which lay off on
each side with different colored flags for our guidance; and when any of
them called to him and pointed to the deepest water, he answered: 'Ay,
ay, my dear, chalk it down, a damned dangerous navigation, eh! If you
don't make a sputter about it you'll get no credit in England.' After we
had cleared this remarkable place, where the channel forms a complete
zigzag, the master called to his mate to give the helm to somebody else,
saying, 'Damn me if there are not a thousand places in the Thames fifty
times more hazardous than this; I am ashamed that Englishmen should make
such a rout about it.' The Frenchman asked me if the captain had not
been there before. I assured him in the negative; upon which he viewed
him with great attention, lifting at the same time his hands and eyes to
heaven with astonishment and fervency."[712]

[Footnote 712: Others, as well as the pilot, were astonished. "The enemy
passed sixty ships of war where we hardly dared risk a vessel of a
hundred tons." "Notwithstanding all our precautions, the English,
without any accident, by night, as well as by day, passed through it
[_the Traverse_] their ships of seventy and eighty guns, and even many
of them together." _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 22 Oct. 1759_.]

Vaudreuil was blamed for not planting cannon at a certain plateau on the
side of the mountain of Cape Tourmente, where the gunners would have
been inaccessible, and whence they could have battered every passing
ship with a plunging fire. As it was, the whole fleet sailed safely
through. On the twenty-sixth they were all anchored off the south shore
of the Island of Orleans, a few miles from Quebec; and, writes Knox,
"here we are entertained with a most agreeable prospect of a delightful
country on every side; windmills, watermills, churches, chapels, and
compact farmhouses, all built with stone, and covered, some with wood,
and others with straw. The lands appear to be everywhere well
cultivated; and with the help of my glass I can discern that they are
sowed with flax, wheat, barley, peas, etc., and the grounds are enclosed
wit