agreed that the men about to be levied should be engaged till the 1st of December, 1776. This was a very inadequate remedy for the evil, which was severely felt in the course of the war; but some hopes of a reconciliation between Britain and the colonies were still entertained.

On the 10th of October, General Gage sailed for Britain, and the command of the British army devolved on General (afterward viscount) Howe, who issued a proclamation condemning to military execution such of the inhabitants of Boston as should be caught attempting to leave the town without a written permission. About that time the royal cruisers on the coasts of New England began a system of piratical and predatory warfare against the inhabitants, which considerably injured, but neither intimidated nor subdued them. Captain Wallace, of the Rose man of war, with two tenders, pursued a vessel which took refuge in the port of Stonington, in Connecticut; and on the morning of the 1st of September, he began to fire on the town, and continued his hostilities, with little intermission, throughout the day. He killed two men, damaged the houses, and carried off some vessels. At Rhode Island some firing took place between the minute-men and the ships, on occasion of carrying off some cattle. Captain Wallace afterward sailed to Bristol, and demanded 300 sheep, which not being complied with, he began a heavy cannonade on this unprotected place, and continued it till some persons went on board and purchased the peace of the town with forty sheep.

On the 18th of October Captain Mowat, with a few armed vessels, in a cowardly manner, burnt the town of Falmouth, in the northern part of Massachusetts Bay, and declared that his orders were to set on fire all the seaport towns between Boston and Halifax. The destruction of unprotected towns alarmed and exasperated, but did not intimidate the colonists.

Meanwhile the troops in Boston were reduced to a very uncomfortable condition: they could not procure provisions and other necessaries from the country, and their maritime supplies were much interrupted; for, on the 9th of October, the assembly of Massachusetts Bay resolved to fit out armed vessels for the defence of the American coast; and afterward appointed courts of admiralty, to condemn such captured vessels as should be proved to belong to persons hostile to the united American colonies. Privateers were soon at sea, and in a few days took an ordnance ship from Woolwich, and several store-ships, with valuable cargoes, which afforded a seasonable supply to the American camp, while the loss was severely felt by the British army in Boston. A military transport, having been becalmed off Cohassett, was gallantly captured by Isaiah Doane, at the head of twenty men; who boarded her at night, attacking in two whale boats with muffled oars. She was carried into Cohassett and her stores were found to be very useful to the American army. Congress also soon resolved to fit out and commission ships of war.

But although the British army in Boston was in very disagreeable circumstances, and success attended the naval operations of the Americans, yet the affairs of the provinces wore no flattering aspect. The term for which many of the men had enlisted was about to expire. Irritation of spirit had made them fly to arms; and, in the fervor of their zeal, they would at first have readily engaged to serve during the war: but the opportunity was lost, and congress severely felt the error in the course of the struggle. At the same time the colonial treasury was but ill-replenished, and the provincial paper-money soon became depreciated. In these circumstances congress, wishing by a bold movement to put an end to the war, or at least by the splendor of a successful operation to reanimate the zeal of the people, was desirous that an attack should be made on Boston; but a council of war deemed the measure inexpedient.

Congress early turned its attention toward Canada, and endeavored to gain the co-operation, or at least to secure the neutrality of the inhabitants, in its dispute with Britain. The congress of the preceding year, although professing allegiance to the British crown, had circulated an address to the Canadians, evidently intended to render them disaffected to the British administration, and to make them enter into the sentiments and measures of the other provinces. Although that address did not make on the minds of the Canadians all that impression which was intended and desired, yet it was not altogether without effect; for the great body of the people wished to remain neutral in the contest.

Congress mistook the reluctance of the Canadians to engage in active operations against them for a decided partiality to their cause, and resolved to antici pate the British, by striking a decisive blow in that quarter In this purpose they were encouraged by the easy success of the enterprise against the forts on the lakes, and by the small number of troops then in Canada. They appointed General Schuyler commander of the expedition, with General Montgomery under him. Early in September, those officers, with about 1,000 men, made a feeble attempt on Fort St. John, situated on the river Sorel, which flows from Lake Champlain and joins the St. Lawrence, but found it expedient to retire to Isle aux Noix, at the entrance of the lake, about twelve miles above the fort, and wait for reinforcements.

Meanwhile General Schuyler was taken ill, and returned to Albany, leaving the command in the hands of General Montgomery, with instructions to prosecute the enterprise, on receiving the expected reinforcements. The reinforcements arrived the attack on Fort St. John was renewed; and after a vigorous defence, it surrendered about the middle of November. In it the Americans. found a considerable number of brass and iron cannon, howitzers, and mortars a

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quantity of shot and small shells, about 800 stand of small-arms, and some naval stores; but the powder and provisions were nearly exhausted.

During the siege of Fort St. John, Fort Chamblée had been taken, which furnished General Montgomery with a plentiful supply of provisions, of which he stood greatly in need. General Carleton, who was on his way from Montreal to relieve the garrison, had been defeated; and Colonel Allen, who had made an attack on Montreal, was overcome and taken prisoner.

On the fall of Fort St. John, General Montgomery advanced against Montreal, which was in no condition to resist him. Governor Carleton, sensible of his inability to defend the town, quitted it, and next day General Montgomery entered the place. A body of provincials, under Colonel Eaton, took post at the mouth of the Sorel, and by means of an armed vessel and floating batteries, commanded the navigation of the St. Lawrence. The British force, which had retreated down the river from Montreal, consisting only of about 120 soldiers, with several officers, under General Prescott, and accompanied by Governor Carleton, in eleven vessels, seeing it impracticable to force the passage, surrendered by capitulation. The vessels contained a considerable quantity of provis ions, arms, and ammunition, which furnished a seasonable supply to the Americans. About midnight of the day before the capitulation, Governor Carleton escaped down the river in a boat with muffled oars, and safely reached Quebec.

It was now the 19th of November, and the severe weather which had set in was very unfavorable to military operations. General Montgomery, a young man of superior talents and high spirit, found himself in extremely unpleasant circumstances. He was at the head of a body of armed men, many of whom were not deficient in personal courage, but all of them were strangers to military subordination. The term of service for which numbers of them were engaged was near an end; and already weary of the hardships of war, they clamorously demanded a discharge. Nothing but devotion to his country could have made him continue in the irksome command. Hitherto his career had been successful, and he was ambitious of closing the campaign by some brilliant achievement which might at once elevate the spirits of the Americans and humble the pride of the British ministry. With these views, even at that rigorous season of the year, he hastened toward Quebec, although he found it necessary to weaken his little army, which had never exceeded 2,000 men, by discharging such of his followers as had become weary of the service.

About the middle of September a detachment of 1,100 men, under Colonel Arnold, was sent from the camp in the vicinity of Boston, with orders to proceed across the country against Quebec, by a route which had not been explored, and was little known. The party embarked at Newbury, steered for the Kennebec, and ascended that river. But their progress was impeded by rapids, by an almost impassable wilderness, by bad weather, and by want of provisions. They separated into several divisions. After encountering many difficulties, the last division, under Colonel Enos, was unable to proceed, and returned to the camp in the vicinity of Boston. But the other divisions, under Arnold, pressed forward amid incredible hardships and privations, and triumphed over obstacles nearly insuperable. For a month they toiled through a rough, barren, and uninhabited wilderness, without seeing a human habitation, or the face of an individual, except those of their own party, and with very scanty provisions. At length, on the 9th of November, Arnold, with his force much diminished, arrived at Point Levi opposite Quebec.

His appearance was not unexpected; for the lieutenant governor had beer. for some time apprized of his march. In the early part of his progress, Arnold had met an Indian, to whom, although a stranger, he had imprudently entrusted