A half-century of conflict. France and England in North America. Part ...

210 WAR AND POLITICS. [1745-1747.This was the farthest outpost of the colony, and theonly defence of Albany in the direction of Canada.It was occupied by a sergeant, a corporal, andten soldiers, who testified before a court of inquirythat it was in such condition that in rainyweather neither they nor their ammunition couldbe kept dry. As neither the Assembly nor the merchantsof Albany would make it tenable, the garrisonwas withdrawn before winter by order of thegovernor. 1Scarcely was this done when five hundred Frenchand Indians, under the partisan Marin, surprised thesettlement in the night of the twenty-eighth ofNovember, burned fort, houses, mills, and stables,killed thirty persons, and carried off about a hundredprisoners. 2 Albany was left uncovered, and theAssembly voted X150 in provincial currency torebuild the ruined fort. A feeble palisade work wasaccordingly set up, but it was neglected like its predecessor.Colonel Peter Schuyler was stationed therewith his regiment in 1747, but was forced to abandonhis post for want of supplies. Clinton then directedColonel Roberts, commanding at Albany, to examine1 Examinations at a Court of Inquiry at Albany, 11 December, 1745,in N. Y. Col. Docs., vi. 374.2 The best account of this affair is in the journal of a Frenchofficer in Schuyler, Colonial Neio York, ii. 115. The dates, beingin new style, differ by eleven days from those of the Englishaccounts. The Dutch hamlet of Saratoga, surprised by Marin,was near the mouth of the Fish Kill, on the west side of the Hudson.There was also a small fort on the east side, a little below themoutli of the Batten Kill.