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

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

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1 Journal de la Campagne de Rigaud de Vaudreuil en 1746 . . .1746.] RIGAUD'S WAR-PARTY. 237three posts lately built to guard the frontier. " Myfather, " said the Abenaki spokesman to Rigaud, " itwill be easy to take this fort, <strong>and</strong> make great havocon the l<strong>and</strong>s <strong>of</strong> the English. Deign to listen toyour children <strong>and</strong> follow our advice."^ One Cadenaret,an Abenaki chief, had been killed near FortMassachusetts <strong>in</strong> the last spr<strong>in</strong>g, <strong>and</strong> his tribesmenwere keen to revenge him. See<strong>in</strong>g his Indianspleased with the proposal to march for the Hoosac,Rigaud gladly accepted it;on which whoops, yelps,<strong>and</strong> war-songs filled the air. Hardly, however, wasthe party on its way when the Indians changed theirm<strong>in</strong>ds aga<strong>in</strong>, <strong>and</strong> wanted to attack Saratoga; butRigaud toldthem that they had made their choice<strong>and</strong> must abide by it, to which they assented, <strong>and</strong>gave him no farther trouble.On the twentieth <strong>of</strong> August they all embarked <strong>and</strong>paddled southward, passed the lonely promontorywhere Fort Ticonderoga was afterwards built, <strong>and</strong>held their course till the lake dw<strong>in</strong>dled to a merecanal creep<strong>in</strong>g through the weedy marsh then calledthe Drowned L<strong>and</strong>s. Here, n<strong>in</strong>e summers later,passed the flotilla <strong>of</strong>Baron Dieskau, bound to defeat<strong>and</strong> ru<strong>in</strong> by the shores <strong>of</strong> Lake George. Rigaudstopped at a place known as East Bay, at the mouth<strong>of</strong> a stream that jo<strong>in</strong>s Wood Creek, just north <strong>of</strong>present town <strong>of</strong> Whitehall.theHere he left the youngerpMsente a Monseigneur le Comte de Maurepas, M<strong>in</strong>istre et Secretaired'etat (written by Kigaud).

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