dour and hope, but he
had scarcely left congress when it crossed their minds that the young
Frenchman might, instead of inducing the Canadians to join the thirteen
United States, induce them to renew their connexion with their mother
country--France. These misgivings were natural, and the result was that
congress resolved to neglect this long-cherished scheme of conquest.
Accordingly, when Lafayette arrived at Albany, he did not find half of
the promised regular troops, and as for the militia, it had either not
received or attended to the summons. Even the troops he found there
wanted clothing and provisions, and while he had little or no specie,
the paper-dollars proved scarcely worth the carriage. Moreover, he had
no sledges to carry his troops across the ice, and when the month of
March arrived, the lakes began to thaw, and he received intelligence
that the English were well prepared to receive him. Lafayette now gave
up the enterprise, and after having made an attempt to engage some
Mohawk Indians in the service of congress, in which he met with but
little success, and having administered a new form of oath, devised by
congress, to the population of Albany, he was permitted to return to the
camp of Washington.

UNFORTUNATE ACTION UNDER LAFAYETTE.

During the winter and the commencement of the spring, while the great
body of the British troops were quartered in Philadelphia, several
excursions were made by detachments in different directions, chiefly for
the purpose of obtaining provisions and clothing. These excursions
were generally attended with success, and many American prisoners were
brought into Philadelphia. Washington, however, was still permitted
to rest securely in Valley Forge, where he omitted no opportunity of
bettering the condition of his forces. His exertions were great, and
he was now ably seconded by Baron Steuben, a Prussian officer, who had
served for many years on the staff of Frederick the Great, and who,
like Lafayette, had become an adventurer on this theatre of war. Steuben
taught the raw troops of the republic the system of field-exercise which
his Prussian majesty had introduced or improved; and when they next took
the field, therefore, they presented a far more soldier-like appearance
than they had presented in the previous campaigns. It was in the month
of May that they again took the field. In that month the British had
made an expedition by sea and land to destroy all the Americ