ages to come."[731] Then he began three small
additional forts, as outworks to the first, sent two parties to explore
the sources of the Hudson; one party to explore Otter Creek; another to
explore South Bay, which was already well known; another to make a road
across what is now the State of Vermont, from Crown Point to
Charlestown, or "Number Four," on the Connecticut; and another to widen
and improve the old French road between Crown Point and Ticonderoga. His
industry was untiring; a great deal of useful work was done: but the
essential task of making a diversion to aid the army of Wolfe was
needlessly postponed.

[Footnote 728: _Amherst to Pitt, 5 Aug. 1759_.]

[Footnote 729: _Ibid., 19 June, 1759_.]

[Footnote 730: _Amherst to Gage, 1 Aug. 1759_.]

[Footnote 731: _General Orders, 13 Aug. 1759_.]

It is true that some delay was inevitable. The French had four armed
vessels on the lake, and this made it necessary to provide an equal or
superior force to protect the troops on their way to Isle-aux-Noix.
Captain Loring, the English naval commander, was therefore ordered to
build a brigantine; and, this being thought insufficient, he was
directed to add a kind of floating battery, moved by sweeps. Three weeks
later, in consequence of farther information concerning the force of the
French vessels, Amherst ordered an armed sloop to be put on the stocks;
and this involved a long delay. The saw-mill at Ticonderoga was to
furnish planks for the intended navy; but, being overtasked in sawing
timber for the new works at Crown Point, it was continually breaking
down. Hence much time was lost, and autumn was well advanced before
Loring could launch his vessels.[732]

[Footnote 732: _Amherst to Pitt, 22 Oct. 1759_. This letter, which is in
the form of a journal, covers twenty-one folio pages.]

Meanwhile news had come from Prideaux and the Niagara expedition. That
officer had been ordered to ascend the Mohawk with five thousand
regulars and provincials, leave a strong garrison at Fort Stanwix, on
the Great Carrying Place, establish posts at both ends of Lake Oneida,
descend the Onondaga to Oswego, leave nearly half his force there under
Colonel Haldimand, and proceed with the rest to attack Niagara.[733]
These orders he accomplished. Haldimand remained to reoccupy the spot
that Montcalm had made desolate three years before; and, while preparing
to build a fort, he barricaded his camp with pork and flour barrels,
lest the