enemy should make a dash upon him from their station at the
head of the St. Lawrence Rapids. Such an attack was probable; for if the
French could seize Oswego, the return of Prideaux from Niagara would be
cut off, and when his small stock of provisions had failed, he would be
reduced to extremity. Saint-Luc de la Corne left the head of the Rapids
early in July with a thousand French and Canadians and a body of
Indians, who soon made their appearance among the stumps and bushes that
surrounded the camp at Oswego. The priest Piquet was of the party; and
five deserters declared that he solemnly blessed them, and told them to
give the English no quarter.[734] Some valuable time was lost in
bestowing the benediction; yet Haldimand's men were taken by surprise.
Many of them were dispersed in the woods, cutting timber for the
intended fort; and it might have gone hard with them had not some of La
Corne's Canadians become alarmed and rushed back to their boats,
oversetting Father Piquet on the way.[735] These being rallied, the
whole party ensconced itself in a tract of felled trees so far from the
English that their fire did little harm. They continued it about two
hours, and resumed it the next morning; when, three cannon being brought
to bear on them, they took to their boats and disappeared, having lost
about thirty killed and wounded, including two officers and La Corne
himself, who was shot in the thigh. The English loss was slight.

[Footnote 733: _Instructions of Amherst to Prideaux, 17 May, 1759.
Prideaux to Haldimand, 30 June, 1759_.]

[Footnote 734: _Journal of Colonel Amherst_.]

[Footnote 735: Pouchot, II. 130. _Compare Memoires sur le Canada,
1749-1760_; _N.Y. Col. Docs._, VII. 395; and _Letter from Oswego_, in
_Boston Evening Post_, No. 1,248.]

Prideaux safely reached Niagara, and laid siege to it. It was a strong
fort, lately rebuilt in regular form by an excellent officer, Captain
Pouchot, of the battalion of Bearn, who commanded it. It stood where the
present fort stands, in the angle formed by the junction of the River
Niagara with Lake Ontario, and was held by about six hundred men, well
supplied with provisions and munitions of war.[736] Higher up the river,
a mile and a half above the cataract, there was another fort, called
Little Niagara, built of wood, and commanded by the half-breed officer,
Joncaire-Chabert, who with his brother, Joncaire-Clauzonne, and a
numerous clan of Indian relatives, had so