anada. In this
case Niagara and all the western posts would have fallen without a blow.

Major Robert Rogers, sent in September to punish the Abenakis of St.
Francis, had addressed himself to the task with his usual vigor. These
Indians had been settled for about three quarters of a century on the
River St. Francis, a few miles above its junction with the St. Lawrence.
They were nominal Christians, and had been under the control of their
missionaries for three generations; but though zealous and sometimes
fanatical in their devotion to the forms of Romanism, they remained
thorough savages in dress, habits, and character. They were the scourge
of the New England borders, where they surprised and burned farmhouses
and small hamlets, killed men, women, and children without distinction,
carried others prisoners to their village, subjected them to the torture
of "running the gantlet," and compelled them to witness dances of
triumph around the scalps of parents, children, and friends.

Amherst's instructions to Rogers contained the following: "Remember the
barbarities that have been committed by the enemy's Indian scoundrels.
Take your revenge, but don't forget that, though those dastardly
villains have promiscuously murdered women and children of all ages, it
is my order that no women or children be killed or hurt."

Rogers and his men set out in whaleboats, and, eluding the French armed
vessels, then in full activity, came, on the tenth day, to Missisquoi
Bay, at the north end of Lake Champlain. Here he hid his boats, leaving
two friendly Indians to watch them from a distance, and inform him
should the enemy discover them. He then began his march for St. Francis,
when, on the evening of the second day, the two Indians overtook him
with the startling news that a party of about four hundred French had
found the boats, and that half of them were on his tracks in hot
pursuit. It was certain that the alarm would soon be given, and other
parties sent to cut him off. He took the bold resolution of outmarching
his pursuers, pushing straight for St. Francis, striking it before
succors could arrive, and then returning by Lake Memphremagog and the
Connecticut. Accordingly he despatched Lieutenant McMullen by a
circuitous route back to Crown Point, with a request to Amherst that
provisions should be sent up the Connecticut to meet him on the way
down. Then he set his course for the Indian town, and for nine days more
toiled through t