llery would be a hazardous attempt,
and the task of reducing it was likely to be a long one. The French
force in these parts had lately received accessions. After the fall of
Niagara the danger seemed so great, both in the direction of Lake
Ontario and that of Lake Champlain, that Levis had been sent up from
Quebec with eight hundred men to command the whole department of
Montreal.[746] A body of troops and militia was encamped opposite that
town, ready to march towards either quarter, as need might be, while
the abundant crops of the neighboring parishes were harvested by armed
bands, ready at a word to drop the sickle for the gun.

[Footnote 745: _Bourlamaque a_ (_Bernetz?_), _22 Sept. 1759._]

[Footnote 746: _Montcalm a Bourlamaque, 9 Aout, 1759. Rigaud a
Bourlamaque, 14 Aout, 1759. Levis a Bourlamaque, 25 Aout, 1759._]

Thus the promised advance of Amherst into Canada would be not without
its difficulties, even when his navy, too tardily begun, should be ready
to act its part. But if he showed no haste in succoring Wolfe, he at
least made some attempts to communicate with him. Early in August he
wrote him a letter, which Ensign Hutchins, of the rangers, carried to
him in about a month by the long and circuitous route of the Kennebec,
and which, after telling the news of the campaign, ended thus: "You may
depend on my doing all I can for effectually reducing Canada. Now is the
time!"[747] Amherst soon after tried another expedient, and sent
Captains Kennedy and Hamilton with a flag of truce and a message of
peace to the Abenakis of St. Francis, who, he thought, won over by these
advances, might permit the two officers to pass unmolested to Quebec.
But the Abenakis seized them and carried them prisoners to Montreal; on
which Amherst sent Major Robert Rogers and a band of rangers to destroy
their town.[748]

[Footnote 747: _Amherst to Wolfe, 7 Aug. 1759._]

[Footnote 748: _Amherst to Pitt, 22 Oct. 1759._ Rogers, _Journals_,
144.]

It was the eleventh of October before the miniature navy of Captain
Loring--the floating battery, the brig, and the sloop that had been
begun three weeks too late--was ready for service. They sailed at once
to look for the enemy. The four French vessels made no resistance. One
of them succeeded in reaching Isle-aux-Noix; one was run aground; and
two were sunk by their crews, who escaped to the shore. Amherst,
meanwhile, leaving the provincials to work at the fort, embarked with
the reg